Mapping Mapping China: Urbanisation - 8 Creative Industry: Creative Clusters

Populous cities like Shanghai are preferred by the creative class, firstly because the rich human and financial resources create a larger network, secondly because dynamic cities constantly offer vacant spaces for their businesses.

In transforming cities like Shanghai, factories in the inner city are being emptied out, after which they are gradually filled with creative businesses. M50 in the centre of Shanghai was such a case with a bottom-up mechanism.

It is located at 50 Moganshan Road, thus the name M50. Before 2000 the buildings there had housed the Chunming Slub Mill, a state-owned factory. After the factory closed in 2000, the buildings were leased to a couple of artists, who later started an artists’ community that transformed the factory complex into a series of galleries and studios. M50 soon became the leading art attraction in the city, even before the clusters in Tianzifang came into being.

In Chengdu, the same type of cluster is found in the suburbs. Blue Roof was built by the famous Chengdu-based artist Zhou Chunya and his community. These artists transformed the abandoned blue-roofed factory buildings into workshops and galleries. The impact of Blue Roof today is tremendous. So is its business turnover. Some of the country’s most expensive art works have been created under these blue roofs. The artists even built their own residences next to the galleries, reclaiming ownership of the formerly abandoned industrial properties.