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AbstractThis article explores the relationship between institutional environments and individual artists' artistic creativity to provide an understanding of the 'creative city', using urban sculpture planning in Shanghai as a case study. I argue that political censorship alone will not stifle artist's creativity: when authoritarian power interacts with elite social networks and permits a certain form of market economy, artistic creativity becomes concentrated on the technical aspects of artistic representation and can be channeled towards utilitarian projects in service of the community and the creative economy. A less open or tolerant institutional setting results in a type of 'structured creativity'—this refers to novel ideas and artistic expressions that emerge in the process of seeking valuable alternative outlets when facing political constraints. 'Structured creativity' characterizes the 'creative city' in countries such as China. The implication is that such 'structured creativity' contributes to the economy in terms of traditional statistical indicators, but is problematic in other ways. Richard Florida's 'creative city' thesis simplified the relationship between social conditions, creativity and economy; similarly, the complexity of this relationship has been overlooked in the critical literature about this topic.

This article uses an "urban landscapes" perspective to examine the urban sculpture scene and its production system in Shanghai. It reviews both the national urban sculpture discourse and urban sculpture planning practices since 1949, and then focuses on Shanghai specifically. It examines three major stakeholders in urban sculpture development and their interactions. The main argument is that Shanghai's urban sculpture scene has evolved due to the proliferation of aesthetic and symbolic sculptures as opposed to traditional monuments; however, urban entrepreneurialism and globalization have been shaped by the continuity of the Chinese ideological framework, which has transformed urban sculptures from explicit into veiled political didacticism under the guise of caring for the people. (China Q/GIGA)

This article evaluates the impact of 'creative industry clusters' on urban entrepreneurialism in Shanghai. It aims to introduce the concept of 'creative industry clusters' into the discussion of the 'entrepreneurial city' in China by testing two main arguments regarding the role of creative industry clusters, and to develop the concept of entrepreneurial city in China. The major argument is that, although these clusters are playing an important role in upgrading the city's entrepreneurial features particularly in attracting business, they have made a limited contribution to fostering talent or boosting creative industry entrepreneurship. Three features of the entrepreneurial city of Shanghai are: the government's stance of attracting capital and professionals; the continuation of urban commodification in character; and, the innovativeness of diversified forms of urban commodities within current urban policies. Such new forms of commodities, however, do not serve as new strategies designed specifically for creative industries.

AbstractRepublican Shanghai was a renowned art capital. This article is based on a large-scale digital mapping project of the residential locations of 1,349 Shanghai artists. We analysed the transformative spatial distribution patterns of artists in relation to the city's social and urban conditions, and developed an artists' habitation approach to elucidating the issues of Republican-period Shanghai urban and art history from the perspective of Chinese cosmopolitanism. We mapped areas of high artist concentration and identified a higher percentage of artists residing in the concessions (compared with the Shanghai general population) and the incremental convergence of art clusters in the concessions. We argue that the concessions provided a favourable environment for cultural diversity and the ungovernable, elite spirit of the literati tradition. The mainstream Shanghai art practices, known as haipai, were modern, as they were rooted in the urban modernity of the concessions and embodied Chinese cosmopolitanism.