Cultural Identity in Urban Beijing - Cycle of Change - Life and Development in Beijing

Abstract: With Chinas recent and quick uprising coming as a surprise for many of 'us' in the so-called western world, the changes and effects of the recent developments must have also been a big surprise for many of those most effected by the change – the Chinese people. Then, at the turn of the century, China's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing has brought further changes; the winning has finally propelled Beijing's speed of change to previously unknown proportions. Today, the government pushes to finish many projects in time for 2008 and institutionalises the Olympic Games as an excuse for the need to further changes. The structure of the whole city ap- pears to being changed in only a few years. Beijing, originally a city with countless one storey buildings and only a few high-rise buildings is being changed into a city with skyscrapers. Changes that are enforced at this speed, I thought, must have a strong effect on the people's mind.Such fast changes have surely effected me, in a sense that I was simultaneously shocked and as- tounded whenever I came back to Beijing. For this project however, I was interested to find out what the locals think and how they describe these changes. I was interested to learn about the effects of such fast changes on Beijing‘s society and decided to focus on the social effects caused by Beijing‘s change of style in today‘s city planning and how people refer to them. My key- and research-question of this project work, was thus to investigate the following:How are the people affected by the city's development and how do they refer to the fast changes? Can the locals still identify with their own city and do they still feel at home?In writing (this thesis) and in a documentary film ( http://www.cycleofchange.tv )