Spatial Poetics Under Authoritarianism: Graffiti and the Contestation of Urban Redevelopment in Contemporary China

This article investigates the expression of resistance to urban redevelopment in the authoritarian context of contemporary China. Where conventional channels of public expression are closed, the very space of urban transformation becomes an important medium of contestation. Through the practice of “spatial poetics”, residents manipulate the taken‐for‐granted meanings attached to urban space, challenging the spatial codes that authorise redevelopment. Working across four spatial dimensions—territory, place, scale, and network—these poetic manipulations allow residents to de‐naturalise existing power structures, escape their effects, and re‐code space with alternative meanings. The article illustrates the practice of spatial poetics through an analysis of Ciqikou, a historic district of Chongqing undergoing redevelopment. Residents expressed their resistance to redevelopment by writing slogans on buildings slated for demolition. By emphasising relationships of scale, network, and place, residents’ graffiti challenged the territorial basis of the Chinese party‐state’s redevelopment project and revalorised the neighbourhood as worthy of preservation. 本文探讨中国威权主义体制下的反对城市重建的发表。在常规公共言论发表渠道关闭的情况下, 城市转型的实体空间变成了进行相关论争的关键频道。通过空间诗学的实践, 当地居民操纵有关城市空间理所当然的含义, 从而挑战授权重建工程的空间准则。透过覆盖领土、位置、规模以及网络的四种空间维度, 这些具有诗意的操纵法给予当地居民将现存权利机制去自然化, 逃脱其影响, 同时赋予城市空间新的含义的能力。本文将以正在进行重建工作的重庆市磁器口的古镇作为分析案例, 说明空间诗学的实践过程。当地居民通过在预定拆除的建筑物上写下口号的方式表示对于重建工作的反抗。透过强调规模、网络和位置的关系, 居民的标语既挑战了当地政府重建工程的地域基础, 也将古镇重新定义为值得保留的文化遗产。