Leisure practices have implications for belonging. In Metro Manila, a rapidly urbanizing metropolis, leisure is becoming increasingly associated with the most ubiquitous hyper-conditioned environments: privately owned shopping malls. By decontextualizing the built environment from its natural and cultural settings, these malls present a challenge to establishing a sense of belonging within a metropolis. Yet, despite its ubiquity, the mall has not fully displaced outdoor spaces, especially public green spaces, as sites of leisure. What do leisure practices in these two seemingly contrasting environments reveal about belonging in a metropolis? Some answers to these questions are to be found in a socio-material reading of leisure spaces, which reveal how belonging is not only created by actors and social institutions but also by spaces, objects, technologies, infrastructure and the microclimate. On the basis of a qualitative study, our findings demonstrate why public green spaces are more conducive than hyper-conditioned environments for fostering a sense of belonging together and to the metropolis.
The Sustainable Development Goals have included cultural heritage in the development agenda. However, natural hazards threaten the existence of several historic districts, like Intramuros in Manila, Philippines. Pre‐disaster recovery planning has gained ground as a promising approach to improve disaster preparedness and recovery, although it has yet to be widely utilised for cultural heritage preservation. The authors organised a pre‐disaster recovery planning workshop, which helped observe the existing system of disaster management for cultural heritage in Intramuros. Heritage Values and Vulnerability Assessments, which were presented to heritage experts, disaster managers, and the local community at the workshop, were conducted. As disaster risk management for cultural heritage is largely unexplored, the workshop generated much interest among stakeholders, as this was the first time that contact had been facilitated among them. It successfully demonstrated the benefits of pre‐disaster recovery planning to provide inclusive and better recovery outcomes for historic districts.
The funerary architecture of the vast 19th-century Chinese Cemetery in Manila differs markedly from other Chinese cemeteries in Southeast Asia.This paper describes the development of this architecture and its many styles rooted in Western and Chinese artistic tradition, their symbolic meanings and significance. It also illustrates how much the Chinese Cemetery today is a reflection of contemporary urban development of the metropolis surrounding it, presenting new challenges and opportunities, and how the cemetery has adapted to these developments. Sweeping social transformations in 19th-century Philippine society and economy, and the introduction of new modern funeral practices rooted in 19th-century Europe fostered the development of new forms of mourning and commemoration at the turn of the 20th century. This found expression in the gradual emergence of small and grand mausoleums for the new middle and upper class of Mestizo and Chinese businessmen and women, professionals, politicians, and ilustrados. This elaborate funerary architecture and its symbolic ornamentation and statuary turned the Manila Chinese Cemetery over the course of 130 years into a rich repository of the nation’s built heritage. Moreover, the parallel existence and gradual blending of Spanish-Catholic and Chinese Taoist and Buddhist religious and cultural influences sometimes led to surprising and creative artistic and architectural solutions which espouse the identity of the Tsinoy, the Filipino-Chinese community.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.