« A Park of One’s Own » : Parks, a Territory for the Elderly in Contemporary Urban China
Over the past twenty years, the parks of urban China have been intensively appropriated by the elderly as leisure spaces. Using data from ethnographic research undertaken in Beijing’s Ditan Park, this article analyzes the way the Chinese elderly invest in this territory and the meaning they assign to it. After a brief history of the uses and demographics of Chinese urban parks since their creation at the beginning of the twentieth century, this article analyzes the factors which can explain the recent utilization of these spaces by a new public of retirees, as well as the significance attached to it, in the context of urban transformation and intergenerational tensions.