Introduction

Spacesofidentity.net is dedicated to exploring processes of identity construction in Central/Eastern Europe and beyond. Our goal has always been to invite comparative analyses and not be confined, methodologically or thematically, by geographical or geopolitical boundaries. This special issue – on the occasion of what is perhaps the most influential global event to emerge from Central European modernity (the Olympics) –, takes a look at global cities in that “beyond,” in China, the other East that has succeeded, possibly even replaced, the East/West dichotomies of an imaginary focused on Europe.

The way identities are made, and re-made, in cities in China that aspire to global status and are thus undergoing fundamental processes of transformation at the local level, echoes the transformations that Central and Eastern European cities have been undergoing since the Wende. Both of these eastern urban developments can seem inaccessible, incomprehensible and alien to those who understand themselves to be in “the West,” be it because of the sheer speed of transformation or the political struggles that promote or resist urbanization. Dialogues with the local, views from inside/outside, and the role of the visual are crucial methodological and theoretical issues that face humanities scholars when called upon to describe, make sense of, and communicate the complexities of cultural processes in these cities. The three photo-essays in this issue tackle three very different cities – Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong – currently not only at the center of attention because of a sports event but also because they are sometimes seen as pointing towards a possible future of urbanity. All three present personal reflections, imaginaries and views of identity formation processes not easily captured by the dry language of statistics of urban growth, energy consumption, and solid particle pollution.

Michael Saffle and Hon-Lun Yang provide a counter-hegemonic reading of the back-streets and not-so-popular districts of Beijing and thus give us an insight into aspects of the everyday life that goes on despite the games. Pan Lu reflects on the role of the local in Shanghai and explores the power and fascination of history, nostalgia, and the local working sometimes in tandem with, and sometimes against the forces of global consumption. And Susan Ingram and Markus Reisenleitner use Hong Kong cultural critic Ackbar Abbas as a guide to the complexities of Hong Kong’s culture of disappearance, looking (again) at spaces that fascinate and overwhelm by their elusiveness that has the power to stay.