Past Event “M+/Design Trust Research Fellowship Public Talk: Shanzhai Culture and Southeast Asia’s Smart Cities”

10. 4. 2024

M+ / Design Trust Research Fellowship Public Talk: Shanzhai Culture and Southeast Asia’s Smart Cities was held on March 9th 2024 from Jason Lau and the team of Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Mark Wasiuta at M+ Museum. The fellows presented their research findings followed by dialogues with local and regional researchers as a conclusion of their fellowship.

 

The team of Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Mark Wasiuta examined computational and data-driven development in Southeast Asia. Through global investment, the attention of international consultancy firms, and the formation of the ASEAN Smart City Network, Southeast Asia has become a testing ground for smart city pilot projects. Following this current pattern of investment, the team critically assessed how cities in Southeast Asia are increasingly subject to a new technological paradigm that has reshaped urban environments, spatial politics, and architectural imaginaries, where smart urban technologies are both adapting to and automating strikingly different city and state structures, and express complex city, regional, and international development agendas.

esearch documentation from Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Mark Wasiuta, courtesy of the fellows.

This presentation was followed by a dialogue with respondents Sunnie Lau (Head of Sustainability Research and Industry Collaboration, MIT HK Innovation Node) and Adam Jasper (Assistant Professor, CUHK School of Architecture), moderated by Shirley Surya (Curator of Design and Architecture, M+). The dialogue further contextualized their research with recent development of smart city initiative in Hong Kong including cases of Kowloon East development.

Presentation from Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Mark Wasiuta.
Dialogue among Farzin Lotfi-Jam, Mark Wasiuta, Sunnie Lau, Adam Jasper and Shirley Surya.

Jason Lau traced the discursive and technological trajectories of shanzhai, historically a term used within classical Chinese literature to describe mountain strongholds inhabited by bandits but now more widely used as a distinct approach to making, manufacturing, and copying in contemporary China. Lau explored how shanzhai evolved into a method for leveraging limitations into a strategic advantage, challenging the traditional boundaries dividing mainstream and alternative, and nurturing self-identity and nationhood.

Research documentation from Jason Lau, courtesy of the fellow.

Lau's presentation was followed by a dialogue with Lu Miao (Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University), moderated by Sunny Cheung (Curator of Design and Architecture at M+). The engaging dialogue further expanded the discussion to development in Africa and its complex relationship to manufacturing industry of China.

Presentation from Jason Lau.
Dialogue among Jason Lau, Lu Miao and Sunny Cheung.