May 19

May 19 The Phenomenology of a Railway Expedition in China: The Gate, the Station, the Journey and the Arrival

Abstract:

Hosting two-thirds of the global high-speed train network, and growing at an unprecedented rate, China has become an interesting place for studying this infrastructure. In this paper, we will begin by introducing some particularities related to the high-speed travel experience, in order to provide a general understanding of how it affects people’s perceptions of time and space. We will explain some peculiarities that have defined the Chinese case as unique. The incredibly fast development of the network and the incapacity of the human mind and the urban dynamic to assume it have created distortions in the perception of space and time, reflected in monumental buildings and desolated public spaces. This individual soulless feeling is contradictory to the Chinese aspiration of recovering the common sentiment of modernity that was lost due to specific political conditions. When in 1976, after the Cultural Revolution, China recovered a sense of normality and togetherness, modernity was globally gone. Two years later, China commenced the development of its high-speed rail (HSR) network and the beginning of the reform era, as part of its statements of modernity.