Re-approaching the origins of waterfront public space on Shanghai’s historic Bund: Social negotiation and urban construction, 1840s–1870s

Shanghai’s historic Bund is one of the earliest examples of urban public space developed for recreational purposes in modern China. Drawing on the Riparian Rights, 1845–1930: General Collection from the Shanghai Municipal Archive, alongside other unpublished sources, this study reveals that the Bund’s promenade and lawns were not part of the original plan for the British settlement. Instead, these public features emerged in 1879, following three decades of protracted negotiation. This urban process involved four key stakeholders: The Bund lot holders, the Shanghai Municipal Council, the Shanghai Daotai, and the British consuls. While Bund lot holders repeatedly sought to privatize the waterfront, the other three parties collectively resisted, with the British consuls playing a decisive yet historically overlooked role. Theoretically, this study challenges dominant paradigms, such as the “impact and response” model and the “colonizer–colonized confrontation” framework, which often frame Western powers and indigenous populations in binary opposition. In contrast, it highlights the complexity of pluralistic negotiations within colonial urban contexts. Practically, the study emphasizes the value of such negotiation processes in shaping sustainable public spaces.