ABSTRACT
It is always impossible to pin down a single moment of rupture: when the old urban space ends and a new one begins. In the Beijing of the 1990s, already a globalized metropolis, one can still experience all stages of recent history and economic development through its spatial configurations. There is, however, a memorable moment in recent history that can be seen as a turning point. In 1978, the statues of Mao Zedong, the central urban symbol of the socialist period as well as the Cultural Revolution, started to be pulled down all over Beijing (and in cities throughout China). This act, a spectacle in itself, marked the end of an age and the beginning of a new one. It was also a symbolic killing, for it simultaneously abolished a central symbol of the country and eliminated a fundamental emblem of Beijing. Among other political, economic and social consequences, this demolition also marked a fundamental rupture in the topography and conception of Beijing. For the next two decades, the topographical metamorphosis was so profound that Beijing, in contrast to its urban features in the socialist period, is beyond recognition. Once perceived mainly as a political center, Beijing has become a (post)modern metropolis. This process of urban rupture both bespeaks and necessitates an urgent need for a re-representation, a drastic rewriting and re-symbolization of the city in general and Beijing in particular.
