Occidental discourses, materialities, spaces and assemblages: ersatz suburbs, replica towns and colonial histories and heritage in contemporary China

Abstract Since the 1990s, a body of literature has emerged on the idea of Occidentalism in China. Many studies have explored the role of the Chinese state in the construction of a negative narrative of the Occident to legitimise state rule. Drawing upon the ideas of Xiaomei Chen, in this article, we argue that while an official discourse of the Occident exists in contemporary China, ‘counter discourses’ of the Occident are also largely prevalent. However, where Xiaomei Chen examines the role of counter-discourses within contemporary China (through cultural media, television, fiction and theatre), in this article (and drawing upon assemblage theory and neo-Marxian ideas), we argue that discourses of the Occident have also been tied up with economic assemblages of production and consumption. Employing discursive, visual and internet analysis, we investigate two forms of Occidental assemblage that have emerged in the post-Maoist era: 1) a real estate/developer-based assemblage and 2) a conservation-heritage-based assemblage. We argue that ‘producers’ within both constellations create consumerist discourses and imaginaries of the Occident that serve a variety of elitist and nonelitist needs. In relation to both assemblages, we suggest that producers construct narratives of romance, beauty and nostalgia and, in some instances, discourses of ‘other worldliness’. Furthermore, we suggest that in addition to generating discourses, these producers reinforce these narratives through material entities (architecture, statues, display boards, symbols) and space (landscapes, suburbs, replica towns and heritage). Moreover, in interrogating these two assemblages, we also suggest that discourses, narratives and imaginaries within these constellations are reconfigured through forms of experiential consumption. Thus, our analysis of several faux Occidental real estate/developer landscapes (constructed by Assemblage 1) and several colonial heritage sites (constructed by Assemblage 2), leads us to argue that visitors and tourists to these spaces use these landscapes to construct discourses of romance, beauty, nostalgia and, in some instances, imaginaries of ‘escape’. As we suggest, rather than sites of elitism alone, these two Occidental assemblages serve as spaces by which Chinese consumers can escape the pressures and mundanity of everyday Chinese life.