Print Email Facebook Twitter Fire in the port city Title Fire in the port city: the impact of different population groups on the destruction and revival of Canton city in the nineteenth century Author Gu, Xueping (South China University of Technology) Hein, C.M. (TU Delft History, Form & Aesthetics) Date 2023 Abstract Canton (present-day Guangzhou) has long flourished as a port city. As the city expanded in the nineteenth century, the risks of conflagrations increased; streets became more crowded, buildings were more often made of wood, and there was more use of open fires. The reconstruction of Canton after conflagrations provides an excellent way to observe the resilience of urban space, understood here as the result of interactions among different stakeholders. This paper explores how authorities, local communities, foreigners, and Hong merchants addressed fires and rebuilt through laws, regulations, technologies and cooperation, and how responses to fire destruction shaped urban space. Divers stakeholders affected the reconstruction of buildings and streets. The government made laws to widen streets, communities built watchtowers, and foreigners made new plans for Thirteen Factories, a neigbhorhood along the Pearl River. At the same time, conflicts between communities and foreigners obstructed plans for urban transformation and maintained the stability of urban structures. The communities kept the traditional local community organizations the ‘Kaifong’ (local organization in street) who opposed the widening streets and fought against proposed fire zones around Thirteen Factories, thus pitching local interests against those of the foreigners in a complex social, political, and cultural context. Subject Cantonconflagrationdisaster and rebuildingport cityurban transformation To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2530ed04-2bda-48a6-aa86-42db957dc264 DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2023.2187869 ISSN 0266-5433 Source Planning Perspectives: an international journal of history, planning and the environment, 38 (3), 695-708 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2023 Xueping Gu, C.M. Hein Files PDF Fire_in_the_port_city_the ... entury.pdf 4.49 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:2530ed04-2bda-48a6-aa86-42db957dc264/datastream/OBJ/view