As a typical car-dependent city, Los Angeles (LA) is extensively used as an example in research to illustrate car influences on city form. Focusing on the features of LA's geologic conditions and civil circumstance...As a typical car-dependent city, Los Angeles (LA) is extensively used as an example in research to illustrate car influences on city form. Focusing on the features of LA's geologic conditions and civil circumstances, we argued that the relationship between LA's low-density pattern and car dependence is more involved than previously deemed simple causality. The low density should be primarily credited to the spacious requirement of the mining industry, frequent earthquakes and multiethnic population of the city. Off reserves in LA fueled its economic boom and fast urbanization that coincided with the start of mass production of cheap cars, and cars became medium-priced consumables for average families. Politicians preference for short constrnction-period projects enabled fast establishment of LA's highway infrastructure. The popularity of car use in return faciliatated further development of the low-density pattern of the city. The low-density urban form and car dependence created environmental and social problems for LA. Looking at P. R. China's motorization and urban development, we found that the trajectory of Beijing's motorization between 197g and 2003 coincides with that of the U.S. in the 1910s and 1920s. Lessons from LA's urban and transportation development should be suggestive to China's urban and transportation planning.展开更多
In a time of the global market economy, if one wants to live harmoniously together with nature or living environment, he should not think with a theoretical mode of dualist contradiction but that of harmony and coexis...In a time of the global market economy, if one wants to live harmoniously together with nature or living environment, he should not think with a theoretical mode of dualist contradiction but that of harmony and coexistence such as "wholeness of man and nature". To illustrate this point, this paper thinks The Woman Warrior and Ballad of Eternal Sorrow are two significant texts: Ballad of Eternal Sorrow tells an ordinary, self-respecting, and life-respecting story of WANG Qi-yao and the girls like her as well as the city Shanghai. They blend into one harmonious whole: The city is like the girls and the girls match the city. Likewise, The Woman Warrior highlights the significance of naturc on the girl narrator's epiphany and healthy growth. The narrator comes to understand that paradoxes are the basic existent condition of human beings and so what she needs to do is to be magnanimous and balanceable in accepting these paradoxes.展开更多
基金Funded by Key Project of the Natural Science Foundation of China under the grant No. 40635026.
文摘As a typical car-dependent city, Los Angeles (LA) is extensively used as an example in research to illustrate car influences on city form. Focusing on the features of LA's geologic conditions and civil circumstances, we argued that the relationship between LA's low-density pattern and car dependence is more involved than previously deemed simple causality. The low density should be primarily credited to the spacious requirement of the mining industry, frequent earthquakes and multiethnic population of the city. Off reserves in LA fueled its economic boom and fast urbanization that coincided with the start of mass production of cheap cars, and cars became medium-priced consumables for average families. Politicians preference for short constrnction-period projects enabled fast establishment of LA's highway infrastructure. The popularity of car use in return faciliatated further development of the low-density pattern of the city. The low-density urban form and car dependence created environmental and social problems for LA. Looking at P. R. China's motorization and urban development, we found that the trajectory of Beijing's motorization between 197g and 2003 coincides with that of the U.S. in the 1910s and 1920s. Lessons from LA's urban and transportation development should be suggestive to China's urban and transportation planning.
文摘In a time of the global market economy, if one wants to live harmoniously together with nature or living environment, he should not think with a theoretical mode of dualist contradiction but that of harmony and coexistence such as "wholeness of man and nature". To illustrate this point, this paper thinks The Woman Warrior and Ballad of Eternal Sorrow are two significant texts: Ballad of Eternal Sorrow tells an ordinary, self-respecting, and life-respecting story of WANG Qi-yao and the girls like her as well as the city Shanghai. They blend into one harmonious whole: The city is like the girls and the girls match the city. Likewise, The Woman Warrior highlights the significance of naturc on the girl narrator's epiphany and healthy growth. The narrator comes to understand that paradoxes are the basic existent condition of human beings and so what she needs to do is to be magnanimous and balanceable in accepting these paradoxes.