Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

Urban inhabitants have long had an emotional attachment to the cities they live in. This expresses itself through daily life, culture, and heritage. This talk highlights some of the ways in which urban populations in China have reflected on their emotional attachment to the city. Examples include huaigu poetry mourning the loss of Luoyang, guidebooks that waxed lyrical on the sites of Ming Dynasty Nanjing, and emotional appeals to create socialist production cities in Maoist China.

Within this broader context of emotional attachment to place, one of the issues that inspires the most vigorous responses is heritage. Study of the protection, use, and development of heritage assets often focuses on their economic value and the local and broader politics around specific sites. However, to the people who are most attached to heritage, it is the emotional connection that is the most important. This talk explores examples from Hong Kong, such as the Star Ferry. It sets these in a global context by thinking about how emotional attachment to heritage is guiding urban policy and planning. As rapid urbanization sweeps all before it in skyscrapers of steel and glass, I ask whether prioritising an emotional approach to heritage has the potential to create cities that are more accessible, equitable, and sustainable.