By YE LIU, 2/19/2016. The cities should not be understood in an isolated way. All countries in world try to create one or more cities to represent the former, acting as influential nodes in global community. In this way, cities can be shaped by state policies and embody the political purposes. In addition, some metropolises are overflowing from the initial planning of the government, operating according to a global network transcending the boundary of nation-state. They make new issues and rules that don’t apply to the rest parts of the countries, which sometimes create a tension between the city and the state. But don’t forget, many cities with long histories have been growing from the root on their own. The legends, topographies, layouts and life styles could be historically embedded in a local context. Bearing these features, a city can function as a portal through which we discern a larger picture.
In addition, We are part of the world we research and by no means can we get abstracted from it. As an ethnographer (especially one with interdisciplinary perspective), I see people’s practice in, through and for space as the fundamental way for “being-in-the-world”. The City, as the center for nearly all kinds of human activities, is the main spatial mode that over half of human beings place themselves in. Instead of tearing down the “urban” into separate categories such as economics, politics, culture or social structures, and analysis them in a static way, I prefer to grasp a city as an integrated and dynamic actor. That is, the urban context is not only a passive stage but also an active stake for itself. A city is not something “out there” but a forming process shaped by people’s practice consistently.