Last month, I visited Guangzhou, China, for a forum on global city development organised by Guangzhou University (10th & 11th November 2018). I had never visited Guangzhou before and it was a good opportunity to visit one of the largest and most historically important city in China outside of Beijing and Shanghai. On a personal level, it was also particularly meaningful as my great-great-grandparents came from Guangdong province and migrated to Nanyang (南洋 or ‘the south seas’, an old colloquial name for Malaysia and Singapore) many decades ago.
The first day of event was the ‘2018 International Forum on Cantonology and Global City Development’ (2018广州学与全球城市发展国际论坛会议), with the second day being ‘The Second Session of the Forum on New Development of Guangzhou: International Experience of City Innovation and Development’ (第二届广州新发展论坛：城市创新发展的国际经验会议议程). I was very honoured to be invited to speak on Singapore’s global city development, amongst other distinguished speakers such as Professors Allen Scott, Peter Taylor, Lu Dadao, Tatsuo Hatta, Simon Zhao, Xu Wei, David Meyer, Matthew Burke, Thomas Sigler and others.
The forum on both days were attended by local academics, policy makers and urban planners, with diverse presentations on different aspects of global city development ranging from urban land use, place-marketing and migration, to historical analysis, architectural forms and development of the Maritime Silk Road under Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI).
The first evening ended with a Zhujiang river cruise for invited guests, a beautiful way to see the city on a cool evening.
The second day of the forum took place at Guangzhou University, during which invited speakers like myself shared ideas and suggestions from the experience of different global cities (e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong, London, New York, Los Angeles, Melbourne) for Guangzhou’s future development.
My thanks to Simon Zhao (International Centre for China Development Studies, University of Hong Kong) for the invitation, and Guangzhou University for organising the forum and hosting. It was a good experience interacting with Chinese scholars and policy makers, and good discussions with the other invited speakers. I hope to visit Guangzhou again, perhaps at a more leisurely pace next time!
Karen P.Y. Lai 