Industrial heritage and regeneration: Hanyang Iron Works, Wuhan, China

Han, Jing (2024). Industrial heritage and regeneration: Hanyang Iron Works, Wuhan, China. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Industrial heritage and subsequent values placed upon it has been a way of dealing with de-industrialisation in many parts of the world. Now, as China has begun to move away from traditional heavy industry and primary production, it too has been embracing industrial heritage as a means of preservation, commemoration, and economic development with regard to the legacies of its industrial past. The number of designated industrial heritage sites in China continues to grow as does the need to re-purpose and regenerate the previous industrialised landscape and communities.

Relatively little research has been undertaken with regard to the processes and variety of stakeholders involved with the regeneration of heavy industrial sites in China. This thesis recognises that such processes take place over a long period of time and during that time there are changes amongst the differing interest groups involved in both the production and consumption of any re-development. I focus on the case of the Hanyang Iron Works in Wuhan China. The Iron Works were founded in the 1890s and at their height were one of the largest such works in China, and particularly important in the modernisation of the country. When the works finally closed a huge expanse of land was in need of being transformed.

Based upon document collection, on-site observations and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the re-development of the site and its subsequent use and daily consumption, this thesis examines the transformation of the Hanyang Iron Works. It highlights the particular role that the private commercial sector has played in the process and the relatively minor role that has been given to developing the site as an industrial heritage. In part, this is due to the weak voice of industrial heritage proponents matched by the increasing dominance of powerful commercial interests, but I argue that contextual aspects of the location, size and complexity of the site, together with the wider frameworks of economic need and local / regional governance have also been significant. Moreover, beneath this there has been a weak grasp with regard to the value of the site’s industrial heritage value, compounded by the ways by which the memory of the site is rapidly being lost amongst the younger generations now using the transformed site. While there are still remains of the former Iron works as heritage markers, without interpretation and reminders, these too are easily overlooked by those who now consume the site making it difficult to imagine the industrial past of the site.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):