The Real Fake by Maria Francesca Piazzoni

Author:Maria Francesca Piazzoni [Piazzoni, Maria Francesca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, Urban
ISBN: 9780823280896
Google: MI2UDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Published: 2018-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

THE USERS AND USES OF THAMES TOWN

One of the most interesting finding that came from my observation and questionnaires is that although various groups coexist in the village, they do not necessarily overlap in space. In fact, each user group is concentrated in a specific part of town (Figure 26). The engaged couples stay in the thematic downtown core. The tourists visit this core but also extend their visit to the green spaces of the island. The residents do not like to mix with the other groups and for this reason tend to remain inside the gated areas. Finally, the guards and construction workers gather at the edges of the residential communities using the porters’ lodge—the detached one-room structure built at the entrance of each gated area—as a space of encounter and exchange. While all of the users like the Western appearance of the built environment, the groups interpret and use the Englishness of the village in different ways.

Engaged couples. Most of the future brides and grooms are in their early twenties, have college degrees, and live in the Shanghai metropolitan area—although only half of the respondents were born there. The majority of the couples met in person. Others met online; fewer than half met because a relative arranged the marriage. Most couples visit Thames Town for the first time on the day of their photo shoot and stay there from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. They heard about the “English” location from their friends or the internet and chose the wedding salon by looking at sample portfolios on the web. All respondents said that Thames Town strongly resembled England, although almost none had ever visited that country.

Their idea of England, some respondents explained, was inspired by TV shows and movies such as Downton Abbey and Harry Potter. The engaged couple usually comes to Thames Town a few months before the actual ceremony. Their photos will be shown to family and friends on the day of the wedding and in some cases distributed as souvenirs. Professional photographers direct the poses of the brides and grooms, and hairdressers and makeup artists change their look according to the style of the picture—the shoots commonly feature between two and six styles, including traditional Chinese, “Modern Western,” and “Revolutionary China” (Figure 27). The photo shoot costs between 20 and 50 percent of the total wedding budget and prices vary greatly. In 2013, a first-tier salon like the Milan charged from 2,600 up to 78,000 yuan (300 to 12,000 USD). The photographers match each of the styles the couples choose with a different backdrop: The trees and canals go well with the Chinese themes, the church with the classic Western style, and the Victorian and Tudor streets are perfect for the “Romantic European” pictures. The photographers compete fiercely. Their credibility as photographers of English-style weddings increases if the photographer has previously photographed actual Western models or, even better, if they have worked in Europe.

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