Keywords

1 Introduction and Basic Concepts

Since the reform and opening up, the speed of urbanization in China continues to accelerate. With the expansion of cities and large-scale land acquisition in rural areas, more and more farmers begin to live in various resettlement communities. Although the resettlement community provides living quarters for these farmers, the new environment still brings many problems to their life. When landless peasants enter the city, their original living habits and behavior will not continue. The change of living space will lead to the change or even break of their social communication circle. The scope of social communication will become fragmented because the original village residents are scattered into the new urban area (Wei, 2017). These memories from the countryside make them lack the sense of identity and hard to belong to the urban community.

In this context, exploring how to inject rural memory into the renewal and transformation of resettlement communities reflects the humanistic care for the relocated people. How to promote neighborhood relations, enhance the humanistic value of communities, and enhance the sense of community identity and belonging is also the key to the sustainable development of such communities. From the perspective of rural memory, this paper takes the renovation of Chun Xin Yuan in Shanghai as an example, analyzes the material and spiritual demands of landless farmers, explores the practical strategies of community renovation from the aspects of community space, life, management, and culture, so as to make them truly integrate into urban society.

1.1 Rural Memory

Collective memory is a concept in the field of social psychology, which is different from personal memory (Morris, 2002). According to Jan Asman, “collective memory is something that people share, inherit and construct together in a group in modern society” (Yang, 2015). Rural memory is regarded as a specific regional memory of collective memory, which records the development and change of the whole village in the process of historical process. It is not only the common memory of villagers but also the link connecting the spiritual world and emotional world of villagers. There are various forms of expression of rural memory, including material ones, such as houses, temples, pictures, etc., and non-material ones, such as ballads, operas, crafts, technologies, etc. These elements all bear a certain rural memory. After generations of accumulation and inheritance, they form a kind of beautiful collective memory.

1.2 Resettlement Community

 <The Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China> (revised in 2004) stipulates that in case of land acquisition, compensation shall be given according to the original use of the land. In the process of urbanization, a large amount of land is needed for urban construction, the government collects farmers’ fields, pays land compensation fees, and plans and builds communities for them. Such communities are resettlement communities (Zhang, 2019a). The resettlement community can be divided into rural resettlement community and urban resettlement community. This paper studies urban resettlement community, that is, the product of land acquisition caused by urban construction activities in the process of urbanization, with landless farmers as the main living body (Liu, 2017).

1.3 Community Renewal

In recent years, urban development has changed from incremental planning and construction to urban renewal and transformation, and the traditional urban renewal mode has also concentrated on small-scale incremental renewal. Community renewal is a small-scale way of mending and rejuvenating, which can bring vitality to the community. Community renewal mainly renews and reuses the public space, building facade and landscape, improves the community function, promotes the culture and the sustainable development of the community (Li, 2018). In <The Urban and Rural Planning Act of 1947> , Britain proposed public participation in urban planning. After the evolution of the times and the development of economic and social diversity, public participation gradually plays an important role in urban renewal. As the community involves many stakeholders, if it wants to get a good development, the public participation can not be separated (Lin, 2018).

2 Background

2.1 Research Summary

Most of the researches on new citizen groups abroad focus on the field of migration, and management of the resettlement community. From the existing research, mainly from the development policy, laws and regulations, spatial distribution, needs assessment, and so on. The United States is a multi-ethnic country composed of immigrants and their descendants. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the middle class sent immigrants to the community service center (or “resettlement center”) which promoted the resettlement movement in the United States. It provided a series of help and services for immigrants, and promoted the social reform of American cities (Yang 2006); Singapore is also an immigration country which is distributed in different regions. Singapore government effectively integrates immigrants in space mainly through public housing policy (Sim et al., 2003); German refugee problem is an obvious long-term, complexity, and international problem. German government has issued different immigration policies and response measures at different stages, and finally accepts refugees in a completely open manner. Efforts have been made to rebuild and expand the old barracks, abandoned factories and other infrastructure to accommodate more refugees, providing high-level resettlement compensation for them (Wang, 2019).

Domestic research is mainly in the field of management and sociology, to explore the governance model of resettlement community and social integration of landless farmers. Yang Ying put forward the countermeasures to improve the community governance of landless farmers from three dimensions: the organizational system, the main cultivation and the foundation (Yang, 2012); Lu Ying gave countermeasures and feasible suggestions to the community public space governance based on the problems (Lu, 2017); Qian Quan clarified the “state city” in the social governance through the research on the practical experience of resettlement community, and the triple structure of “field society” reveals the multiple aspects of the modernization transformation of national grass-roots governance (Shan, 2019); Wei Lingqun used the professional methods of social work to deeply analyze the problems encountered by landless farmers, and put forward practical paths to solve the problem of urban integration of them in combination with his own experience (Wei, 2017); Chen Rui analyzed the problems existing in community governance, proposing to build a quasi-autonomous model under the multi-participation pattern, and explored countermeasures from the aspects of community social capital, community development vitality, improvement of community governance, and broad participation of residents, so as to further improve community governance (Zhang, 2019b).

Secondly, in terms of the culture of the resettlement community, researchers mainly discussed the cultural differences between urban and rural areas and the causes of cultural conflicts and solutions. Cheng Yu started with two kinds of culture in urban and rural areas, analyzeing the differences and conflicts between urban and rural cultures, and puts forward countermeasures for cultural integration from the aspects of life style, psychology, and values (Cheng, 2012); Shan Jing took the resettlement community in Chongqing University City as an example, studying the cultural conflicts in the resettlement community (Shan, 2019); Jiang Yan proposed that the resettlement community must gradually return to community construction, cultivate and improve the citizenization of landless farmers, and promote the conversion of landless farmers to citizens (Jiang, 2012); Li He summarized the cultural adaptation of landless farmers and analyzed the main reasons for the cultural adaptation of them from the perspective of Cultural Anthropology (Li, 2014).

2.2 The Disappearance of Rural Memory

The rapid development of Chinese urbanization has led to the growing gap between urban and rural areas, forming a dual economic structure. Comparative labor productivity, binary comparative coefficient, and binary contrast coefficient are the important indicators to measure the strength of urban–rural dual economic structure.

The binary comparative coefficient is the ratio of agricultural comparative labor productivity to non-agricultural comparative labor productivity (Li, 2011). Suppose the binary comparative coefficient is R1, the binary contrast coefficient is R2, the proportion of agricultural added value is G1, the proportion of non-agricultural added value is G2, the proportion of agricultural employment is E1, and the proportion of non-agricultural employment is E2.According to formula: \(\mathrm{R}1=\frac{\mathrm{G}1/\mathrm{E}1}{\mathrm{G}2/\mathrm{E}2}\);

$$R2=\frac{/\mathrm{G}1-\mathrm{E}1/+/\mathrm{G}2-\mathrm{E}2/}{2}$$

and use the data in <Chinese Statistical Yearbook (1978–2017)> . The closer the binary comparative coefficient is to 0, on the contrary, the closer the binary contrast coefficient is to 1, the stronger the binary economic structure is. The binary comparative coefficient of developing countries is generally 0.31–0.45, and that of developed countries is generally 0.52–0.86 (Li, 2011). However, Chinese urban–rural dual comparative coefficient fluctuates in the range of 0.14–0.26, indicating that Chinese urban–rural gap is large (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

The strengthen of dual economic structure of urban–rural in China

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In China, there are economic and cultural gap between urban and rural. Urban culture pays attention to real life, higher openness, and effective management, while rural culture has the characteristics of simplicity, local, closed, and conservative (Cheng, 2012). When landless farmers enter the city, it means that their culture has changed. Under the strong collision of the inherent rural culture and the emerging urban culture, their living habits and behavior will face great changes. The new culture regulates their behavior, and also begins to change their original ideas, to match and adapt to urban life, and finally to adapt to urban culture. Cultural adaptation is a process in which different cultures change their original nature and patterns through long-term contact, connection, and adjustment. It is a new comprehensive process. In the process of cultural adaptation, in the conflict between rural culture and urban culture, the rural memory of landless farmers is constantly disappeared.

3 Renewal Practice of Chun Xin Yuan in Shanghai

3.1 Overview of Chun Xin Yuan

Chun Xin Yuan is located in Minhang District, Shanghai. It was the outcome of the expansion of Shanghai central city in 2000. The original Ji Xin village was expropriated and the resettlement community is constructed nearby. Chun Xin Yuan is divided into two phases, with a total of 680 households, of which 540 are farmers’ relocated households, with a total number of about 2000 residents. There is an public activity room for the elders and a community club, as well as a fitness venue and central green space. With the urbanization of the surrounding areas, various types of commercial residential projects have been built around, and a series of public service facilities such as supermarkets, kindergartens, primary schools, public transportation, and subway stations are gathered within the 15-min walking range. The location of Chun Xin Yuan is becoming more and more superior.

3.2 The Path of Renewal and Transformation of Chun Xin Yuan

3.2.1 Residents’ Needs

In order to understand the needs of community residents, we interviewed 106 residents of different age, about 5% of all residents. Among them, 62% are aged 60–80, 23% are aged 40–60, 10% are aged 20–40, and 5% are under 20. After the interview, we mainly got the following feedback from the residents.

Firstly, in terms of residential space, people of different ages put forward different needs. Among them, most of the elderly still retain their original rural living habits. They like to sit at the entrance of the corridor during the day, enjoy the cool in summer and the sun in winter. At the same time, they can choose vegetables, read books, chat, and so on. Therefore, the elderly hope to set up more spaces in the residential area that can allow people to sit down and rest. These spaces can also block the wind and rain as a place for the elderly to communicate. Middle-aged people are more concerned about parking, greening, and outdoor drying space. Among them, due to the low proportion of parking spaces, the parking contradiction is very prominent, and the phenomenon of parking occupying sidewalks, green belts, and public spaces is very common. The problem of drying in public space has also been mentioned more. Many residents in Chun Xin Yuan maintain the habit of drying clothes in rural areas in outdoor venues so that on good days, the trees, shrubs, and fitness equipment in the residential area are covered with quilts. For young people, the biggest problem is the lack of activity space and facilities, and the lack of cultural exhibition space.

Secondly, it is the problem of community integration. Since most of the residents in the resettlement community are villagers from the same village, they are familiar with each other. With the passage of time, a lot of new residents have moved into the community, which makes the community form a different circle of communication. In some matters related to the interests of residents, the voices of different circles are not same, which leads to the disharmony of the community.

Third, the confusion of community management. Like most urban communities, Chun Xin Yuan is jointly managed by the Residents’ Committee and the House Owners’ committee, but there is also a Villagers’ Committee in such resettlement community. This will lead to the problem of multi-management. The functions of the three parties are not clear enough, and the authority and scope of management are also crossed, which also leads to the prevarication and wrangle of some things.

Fourth, the demand for community facilities. Because the buildings in the community are multi-story, there is no elevator installed at the beginning. At present, the majority of the residents are the elderly, they need elevators and also need open space to do some fitting.

3.2.2 The Way to Implant Rural Memory

The common rural memory makes the villagers more closely connected and enhances the cohesion and identity of the villagers (Zhang, 2017). From the survey, most of the demands has an obvious rural mark, residents of Chun Xin Yuan have a common rural memory. Therefore, in the renovation of the community, we should not only solve the problems raised by the residents but also implant rural memory in these solutions. Rural memory exists in the behavior and life of villagers. At the same time, this kind of rural memory does not exist alone, but penetrates into all aspects of community renewal and transformation.

In terms of space improvement, firstly, the fragmented space in the community will be integrated and transformed into fitness and rehabilitation square, vestibule and backyard, drying flat, own vegetable garden, rest oxygen bar, etc. And then a series of paths will be integrated and connected to form a leisure Ring Road within the community. Secondly, optimize the parking system, control, and guide the parking of bicycles. And improve the road space environment, enhance residents' sense of security. Finally, the utilization rate of public space should be considered for the elders.

In the aspect of community life, the design should increase the function of matching the needs of all kinds of people and forms a diversified and complex functional layout structure. In order to solve the problem that it is difficult for residents to buy vegetables, a fixed-point market can be set up in the open space between Chun Xin Yuan and Lian Hua New Village. Residents can be employed to clean up and manage the market environment. Considering that the residents like to chat at the corridor, on the premise of not affecting the traffic, use the space in front of the house to set up seats and sunshade umbrella for the residents to rest, show the original living habits, and reshape and continue the rural culture.

In terms of management, it needs to clarify the position of different committees, ensure the transparency and accessibility of management, and improve residents' participation in community affairs.

In terms of facilities, the community should popularize community culture and education, hold some cultural activities, convey the civilized rules of urbanization, garbage classification, environmental protection, civic morality, etc. The cultural activities organized by the resettlement community can not only enhance the public communication of the new community residents, promote the construction of the residents’ social relationship network, but also help to continue the collective memory (Jiang, 2012). To hold traditional rural cultural activities helps to create landscape sketches with residents’ rural memory, to enhance residents’ sense of community belonging.

4 The Practical Strategy of the Resettlement Community Renewal from the Perspective of Rural Memory

Landless farmers miss rural life, which does not mean that they want to return to their previous life. The renewal and transformation of the resettlement community should be different from the general community, not limited to the planning of space and landscape, but from the space level, life level, management level, and cultural level, integrate into the rural memory, and reshape the identity and sense of belonging to the community. From the practice of the renewal of Chun Xin Yuan, we can sort out the renewal strategies that can be adopted by the resettlement community in these aspects.

4.1 Community Space

The space concept of ancient Chinese is a kind of psychological view, which is a high level concept about the universe, nature, society, and life (Bai, 2009). Space is closely related to nature, society, and people. Community space is not only the place of community production and life but also community culture, spirit, and environment.

The first is how to increase public space. On the one hand, we should respect the living habits of landless farmers, such as stacking farm tools and sundries, like to gather and chat in the corridor. At the same time, according to the behavior activities and transformation needs of the elderly, children and other different groups, the fragmented space should be fully integrated to provide residents with public space to meet various functions. At the same time, landscape sculpture, landscape sketch, and landscape wall are put in to sketch the rural impression and continue the rural memory.

Secondly, the improvement of traffic space. For parking problems, we can try to adopt time-sharing parking management; or after consultation with the urban traffic management department, we can designate night parking spaces on both sides of the peripheral roads for the residents; third, we can build three-dimensional parking facilities in the community to increase the supply of parking spaces. At the same time, we will open up a centralized parking area for mopeds and bicycles, and assign the management staff.

The third aspect of space improvement is the greening landscape. The community tree species should be the local tree species that are easy to survive, especially some fruit trees, such as orange tree, fig, persimmon tree, to continue the memory of the village. In the community, there are also some spaces for residents to rest and exchange, such as the small open space in front of the house and behind the house, the small pavilion beside the fitness facilities, etc., which can let residents sit and chat, read, and rest, and reproduce typical rural life scenes.

4.2 Community Life

In <Communication and Space>, Jan Gail divides activities into three types: necessity activities, selective activities, and social activities. He pointed out that “social activities are passive that depend on the participation of people (Jan, 2002)”. For community residents, social activities are inevitable and the most extensive in life. To build a vibrant community, residents must have more activities and rich experience.

In the <Humanized City>, Jan Gail put forward that “attractive activities largely determine whether urban space has vitality and vitality (Jan, 2010)”. This requires the community to give people more possibilities for communication, create a platform, and enhance the vitality of the community. The community can hold all kinds of collective activities regularly, such as traditional festival activities, handmade activities, cultural lectures, etc., so that the residents can understand each other and get closer in the activities.

In the countryside, the settlement style residence makes the communication between villagers very convenient, and the neighborhood relationship naturally formed. Now, the residential form of the building has hindered the communication of residents (Jan, 2002). This requires building a proper size and well-designed public space in the community to enhance and maintain neighborhood relations. For example, the rest area at the entrance of the corridor and the community vegetable field.

Then the facilities for the elderly, children, and other specific groups is in need. In particular, the elderly resettlement community, elevator, barrier-free passage, elderly fitness facilities, elderly activity room, daycare room and other facilities, can increase the community care for the elderly. Similarly, special consideration should be given to children's playground, day nursery, and other facilities.

4.3 Community Management

The residents in resettlement community are complex and has various backgrounds. Community management needs public participation, innovative mechanism, and joint construction of sustainable community.

First of all, it needs to clarify the responsibilities and obligations of management subjects. For example, there are usually village committee and neighborhood committee in the resettlement community, so rights and responsibilities of these two subjects needs to be clarified. The village committee is about to continue the functions under the original rural system, such as the issuance of resettlement subsidies, medical reimbursement, etc.; the neighborhood committee should regularly carry out collective activities, strengthen the contact and interaction between residents. The neighborhood committee also could reshape the “acquaintance society”, build the trust foundation, and strengthen the residents’ recognition, trust and support (Song et al., 2013).

4.4 Community Culture

The original human value system of rural areas for the relocation of farmers has collapsed, while the formation of urban community order under the modern pattern is not a one-day success (Zhao, 2019). For example, airing quilts on the square fitness equipment, planting vegetables on the community green space, accumulating sundries in the corridor, etc. These are the living habits left by the rural culture, which have certain conflicts with the modern urban culture. We can not blindly pursue urban culture and use it to regulate and restrict the behavior of landless farmers, but we should keep good rural culture and integrate rural culture with urban culture.

First of all, we should form a new cultural identity on the basis of continuing the rural memory. Community organizations build cultural lecture halls and places for cultural activities, provide exhibition places for rural traditional culture, and enhance residents’ sense of identity and belonging to the community. Only when human development is realized, can the sustainable prosperity of culture and the continuous progress of community be realized (Huang & Zhou, 2018).

Then, it is to explore the rural culture that can be inherited. To explore the talented people in the original countryside, such as craftsmen, craftsmen, old cadres, etc., and organize them to carry out professional training for community residents so that the traditional non-material arts and crafts can continue. At the same time, make these community talents become the business card of the community, and enhance the residents’ community pride.

5 Conclusion

With the acceleration of China's urbanization process, a large number of villages are disappearing, and more and more farmers live in resettlement settlements. Resettlement settlement is a special community, which not only covers the basic elements of modern urban community but also has the characteristics of some rural communities. This paper analyzes the causes and characteristics of resettlement settlements, discusses their existing difficulties, and puts forward the strategy of introducing rural memory into the renewal and transformation of resettlement settlements. Specifically, taking Shanghai Chun Xin Yuan as the research object, through the investigation of the residential area and the interview with residents, this paper summarizes the problems faced by Chun Xin Yuan at present, and puts forward the specific strategies for the renewal and transformation of Chun Xin Yuan residential area and urbanization transformation according to the needs of residents.

In terms of space, it is proposed to improve the space environment from the aspects of public space, traffic space, and landscape greening, create a human and attractive residential area, and enhance the residents’ sense of community identity and belonging. In terms of facilities, respect residents’ willingness to continue rural production and lifestyle, increase places for neighborhood communication, set up residential vegetable gardens, care for the elderly, children and other special groups, and provide humanized design. In terms of management, on the basis of clarifying the responsibilities and obligations of different management subjects, advocate the establishment of various community autonomous organizations, take residents as the main body, innovate the mode of co construction, CO governance and sharing, and realize the modernization of community governance. In terms of culture, we should continue and inherit rural traditional culture, respect, and introduce the guiding role of rural talents and talents in the community, cultivate and resettle the community's own characteristic culture, alleviate the conflict between urban culture and rural culture, and build a new humanistic value system.

The purpose of the research on the renewal, transformation and transformation strategies of resettlement settlements is to promote community construction, especially to enable farmers who have lost their land to integrate into urban society faster and better. At the same time, it is also of great value to retain and inherit some rural traditional culture, production, and lifestyle in this process. It can enrich the cultural gene of urban society and communicate the past and future.