A Study of power transfer in Blue House through Structuralism and Poststructuralism

Foreword

Blue House is a 4-storey balcony-type tenement block located at Wan Chai, Hong Kong and is now classified as a Grade I historic building. Three of the buildings, No. 72, No. 72A and No. 74, are painted blue, therefore it is called "Blue House". Blue House is the first conservation project in Hong Kong that allows residents to stay at the original site under a new development plan. It is also the first example of government-led to community-led conservation project.

Figure 1. A view of Blue House (Source: Getty)

1. Introduction

The Blue House has a unique old-fashioned tenement terrace that preserves the upper house and lower shop's early twentieth-century form. As a result, it represents the traditional lifestyle of old Wan Chai. However, in 2006, the Urban Renewal Authority intended to reclaim all the residences and turn them into a new tourist attraction. This led to conflicts between different stakeholders. This project uses Cultural Geography theories to compare the value conflicts among different stakeholders and examines the changes in traces of the Blue House.

2. A Cultural Geographical Perspective on Blue House

Our investigation is structured around the following question: Are The Conservation Projects at Blue House Sustainable?

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

According to Foucault’s analysis of power, power is not completely controlled and holded by an institution or an individual. Neither particular social class nor group can oppress another by using power. Instead, it is circulated in different institutions and individuals without a fixed location. Power is operated as a network, power is used by organizations, on the other hand, power itself dominates in various conditions (Behrent, 2013). Not only do people implement the power, but they are also arranged under power. Power is everywhere and comes from everywhere (Moghadam, Rafieian, 2019). There may be struggles among different stakeholders in the community in political and economic aspects, while strategies are used by stakeholders to transfer the power from one institution to another, which is named as technologies. As a result, power is circulated as a network.

3. Empirical Analysis

3.1 Conflicting values of different stakeholders

To begin with, from the perspective of the government, they are mainly focusing on pushing local economics and emphasizing market value. Therefore, the government released the “Blue House Develop Project” in order to achieve capitalism and consumerism. Developing new tourist spots is one of their goals through the project, which has tea and medicine as the theme. This could effectively appeal to more tourists to come visit the Blue House and consume in various stores, so as to increase the economic revenue and boost tourism. However, Urban Renewal Authority intended to repossess all dwellings in 2006, which is forcing the residents to leave. 30 households planned to be selected for off-site resettlement and compensation, then the government would start the repairs and alterations on Blue House. In this case, we can see that the government is the power giver and forcing residents to follow their policy or ways, while residents are controlled by power. Thus, this provoked objections and major repercussions from residents since the government's values are different from them.

To link up the point above, from the perspective of Blue House residents, they are generally focusing on a sense of local community and community identity. Based on geography, the objects of human interaction are mostly those who live nearby. They might have similar living styles and habits, thus building a strong bond with neighbors and a deep community network which makes them feel that they belong to the community. Yet, a sense of identity and belonging needs to cultivate for a long time. Hence, if Blue House residents are forcibly evicted, they might not be willing to adapt to the new environment and lifestyle due to the long-term residence in this community.

Moreover, from the perspective of nearby residents, they are largely focusing on maintaining community networks and intangible culture, like human warmth and neighborhood. Unique local culture and connections are of utter importance for them as well, as they have built deep connections and relationships with neighbors. Therefore, if neighbors are forced to move out, they would have fewer opportunities to communicate with each other and the relationship would become estranged. In the long term, it would break up the relationship between them and make it hard to continuously maintain a community network. These are the reasons why residents don’t want to leave and have opposite values with the government.

Last but not least, from the perspective of conservation groups, they are targeting a strike balance between government and residents since they need to concern both side’s values.

For example, the government mainly considers the development of conservation and the achievement of economic benefits, while residents focus on preserving collective memories and think that they should have the right to choose to stay or leave. In the meantime, conservation groups want to achieve conservation benefits, such as preserving the value of buildings and local culture, so the culture could pass down from generation to generation. They also emphasize buildings, history and real life together in order to constitute the same elements of the overall value of conservation. Thereby, it could establish intangible and invaluable social capital so as to promote the sustainable development of the community.

3.2  Different technologies used by different stakeholders

Firstly, to aid in the conservation of the Blue House, NGOs including St. James Settlement and the Culture and Leisure Service Committee formed the "Conservation of The Blue House Movement." The organization discussed how to preserve its original outlook, structure, and culture maximally with the original resident, the other people living in Stone Nullah Lane, the owner of the shops, and some professionals like architects. In this case, the NGOs used governmental technologies to organize the group and provided professional ideas to the residents. In 2007, the NGOs took over the whole movement, becoming the backbone of the entire campaign. In the same year, they proposed a solution called “Preserving the house and the resident together” to the Development Bureau of Hong Kong. The NGOs became a facilitator in the conservation movement, they provided related professional knowledge to the residents and communicated with the government.

Secondly, the residents fought for their own homeland through protests and communication with the government. Carrie Lam, the secretary for Development visited The Blue House and communicated with the resident face to face in 2007. Without the help of NGOs and professionals, they directly addressed the authorities and explained what they really desired regarding The Blue House's conservation program. They used a resident's power to fight for their own social justice.

Thirdly, the government releases the power to the residents. The government accepted the solution proposed by the resident in 2008 and started a new program called “Revitalizing Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme.”

Finally, the power of leading the project shifted to the residents from the government. The character of the resident turned into a holder from a protester,  about 80% of residents stayed there. We combined Structuralism and Post-Structuralism because the change of political power was illustrated in the above case , and it also shows that power is structured.

4.Conclusion

Government conservation efforts have preserved both material and non-material traces. Thus, the overall protection of cultural heritage has been realized.

In terms of material traces, the government restored and continued the architectural features. One feature that preserves the appearance of old tenement houses is the large balcony.For the non-material traces, the community network and neighborhood relationships have been sustained as eight households have chosen to stay.

The Blue House has found a balance between commercialization and localization with the revitalization program. For example, it has housed a dessert store and a vegetarian restaurant, providing more employment opportunities for the community. In addition, visitors are drawn in by frequent seminars and narrated tours.

In terms of localization, the Blue House Storytelling Museum systematically records the stories of community life and presents them to the public in a diversified and creative way, allowing visitors to have a deeper understanding of Blue House and regional culture.

It is clear that the collision of the perspectives of various cultural groups has converted the Blue Residence from a residential house into a vehicle for increased social advantages and activities.

The outcomes show that Blue House has accomplished sustainable development on both an economic and social scale.

At the economic level, in addition to the aforementioned social enterprises, the rents received from Blue House's "Good Neighbour Program" are one of the guarantees of the financial stability of the operation. Therefore, Blue House can be self-financing and use social capital to effectively relieve the huge financial pressure of building maintenance, operation and renovation.

At the social level, the Blue House's "Good Neighbour Program" has successfully preserved the atmosphere of the former tenement houses and continued the spirit of diversity and tolerance of the neighborhood. Moreover, the bottom-up conservation activities have created residents a greater sense of cultural identity. In turn, the project has been able to maintain and strengthen community networks. Maintaining and strengthening community networks and promoting community care and integration.

However, environmental sustainability has not been achieved. Although the government has upgraded the hardware facilities, such as by installing elevators, which has improved the environmental conditions of the previous e. However, no corresponding measures have been taken in terms of greening. If further improvements can be made, it is  believed that the revitalization of Blue House will be more successful.

In conclusion, Blue House has changed the logic and model of the previous revitalization projects, which only followed modern capitalism and consumerism, and has balanced commercialization and localization at the same time. It is a good example of successful revitalization in terms of sustainable development at both economic and social levels.

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