SHAPING DISTINCTIVENESS IN CULTURE-LED URBAN REGENERATION: PUBLIC- PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN THE PROJECT OF RED TOWN, SHANGHAI*

Culture permeates even the most imposing industrial building. Driven by global city making, cities see culture as a key to bolster a new economy and to deal with decayed urban sites. However, regional practices of the creative strategy differ, as actors are not “dancing puppets ” but actively seeking vested interests. The Red Town project in Shanghai is one typical project that represents the shift from sporadic artistic action to organized construction and management of spaces for the creative industry. This paper attempts to probe into the development process of Red Town and to uncover the links to power relationships of a variety of actors in the urban regime. The pursuit of distinctiveness through selectively authentic conservation and branding of artists ’ offbeat taste, in return, offers benefits to the several key players involved, such as developer and government agents. However, when the link between artists and archaic industrial buildings is legitimized and consumed, the resulting space becomes commercialized and, to an extent, discriminatory. In this case