ubcsala [china] 2007

A ubiquitous leisure space is the shopping mall. In most malls one can find anything and do almost anything: buy clothes, cars, housewares; eat at restaurants or food stalls; pay the telephone bill; buy groceries; get a haircut; chat with friends while window shopping; sit and watch people go by…Many malls also open before peak hours for seniors’ walking clubs and exercise groups.

The genesis of the mall was written about by Walter Benjamin in “The Arcades”. The industrial revolution brought about new technologies, such as electricity and the steam engine. As a result, new jobs and new wealth were created. The middle and upper middle classes had more leisure time and more money to spend on wants (as opposed to needs). Benjamin pointed out that the architectural changes in early 20th century Paris were a consequence of the nascent capitalism occurring at the time. This change included the creation of the arcades, spaces where neighborhood passageways were covered by a glass roof and braced by marble panels to create a unified indoor-outdoor mall for shops. These passageways were “lined with the most elegant shops, so that such an arcade is a city, even a world in miniature” (Baudelaire 36-37).

The malls of contemporary Beijing echo the arcade model of the past. Shops are contained within a larger superstructure and there are passageways in between shops. Yet the scale, and the sophistication of Beijing malls, in terms of architectural design and material palette, is quite a departure. Passageways are massive (some of them the width of 5 people side by side with arms stretched out wide), atriums are the size of basketball courts, hundreds of stores exist on multiple floors, elevators are equipped with LCD screens running advertisements, loudspeakers play relaxing music, door frames and banisters are brightly colored and made of interesting materials (such as plastic and polished metal) to draw the eye. The mall is an experience for the senses. Bejing malls are definitely more than just places to shop. At the China World Trade Center Mall there is a skating park and an English language school.