The Social Production of Industrial Heritage Spaces in the Background of Cultural Governance: A Comparative Study Based on Cases from Taipei and Hong Kong

Abstract

This article borrows Heri Lefebvre’s space production theory to discuss the cultural governance of East Asian cities and how culture is used as a means of spatial organization in a structured way. Text analysis, field investigation, and comparative analysis are used as the main research methods to explore the specific social production process of Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Hong Kong’s The Mills. The social production processes of these cultural spaces took place in the same period, having some similarities, and they mostly involved transformation from old factories and old buildings in urban areas. However, the cultural governance strategies in Taipei and Hong Kong are different. On the one hand, the Taipei government’s continuous cultural policy has spawned diverse cultural spaces rooted in factory renovations and unified under the authorities’ imagination of “Creative Taiwan”. A benign model of cultural heritage protection has been formed in terms of community participation, industrial development, and ecological conservation in Taipei. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s cultural governance pays more attention to landmark cultural projects from the perspective of tourism development. Mainly driven by private capital, The Mills completed the transformation from a factory to a cultural space. The Mills’ transformation process is also the epitome of the decline of Hong Kong’s textile industry. In addition, different cultural governance strategies and cultural policies in Taipei and Hong Kong affect the dominant forces in the social production process of cultural spaces. The main driving force of cultural spaces in Taipei is the local government, while the production of cultural spaces in Hong Kong involves more stakeholders, such as private developers, non-profit organizations, etc., and presents the characteristics of a multi-path and multi-participant historic building activation process. Moreover, at the regional level, the abandonment and reuse of industrial buildings in Hong Kong and Taipei are rooted in the migration of local traditional manufacturing to mainland China with cheaper labor and the upgrading and transformation of local industries. This comparative study complements the global picture of cultural space production and also provides references for other areas.

1. Introduction

Culture can be used as a means of urban space organization to project a city’s image and reorganize its imagination [1,2,3,4]. Moreover, culture plays an indispensable role in urban governance in the 21st century. The concept of governance originated in Michel Foucault’s governmentality [5,6], which has three main dimensions. The first dimension is the institutional and procedural analysis of politics, economy, and society. The second dimension is a form of power practice. The third dimension is from the perspective of the national or local governments. To be more specific, governance, emphasized by political science and urban research [7], covers the process of redistribution of the interests of various social stakeholders and citizens in the process of urban governance. Through the extended use of the concept of governance, it is possible to grasp the processes of discourse, knowledge, technology, and power operation in a more detailed manner [8]. Cultural governance, in this study, mainly focuses on the third aspect of the discussion on governmentality, that is, cultural governance promoted by governments and the relationship with citizens, communities, and different kinds of social stakeholders. In other words, cultural governance is the mediation of social disputes through culture in the political, economic, and social domains [9], reflecting the structural dynamics and operational mechanisms of cultural policies. In the process of urban space governance, the rise from the focus on culture to cultural governance emphasizes the cultural dimension of space and social governance. Culture is used as a framework for urban regeneration [10,11] to make the process of urban renewal and urban planning [12] more humane and cultural, enhancing the value of land and regenerating urban space.

Urban regeneration originated from the decline of inner cities in the United States and Europe in the second half of the last century [13,14]. As America’s middle and upper classes moved to the suburbs, the poorer classes gathered in the inner city, and the inner cities’ infrastructure was in disrepair for a long time, which led to the decline of the inner cities. In Europe, industrial cities represented by Manchester, Cardiff, Bochum, etc. are also declining due to the process of deindustrialization [15,16]. In addition, the decline of cities is also manifested in the deterioration of the urban ecological environment, that is, the intensification of air pollution [17,18], the pollution of urban rivers, and so on. The deterioration of the inner cities’ ecology has also become one of the important reasons for the decline [19,20]. In this context, cultural-led urban regeneration has gradually become a new model of urban renewal [21]. It can enhance city images, improve air pollution [22], optimize the urban ecological environment [23], and promote urban cultural tourism, which becomes an important strategy for urban regeneration. Developed economies that have undergone deindustrialization have focused on urban cultural policies, and various cultural projects have also become a common phenomenon in urban regeneration under the promotion of various cultural policies. This trend is also becoming popular in East Asia, and cultural-led regeneration and the development of cultural industries have become important strategies for urban regeneration in East Asian cities [24].

Additionally, in East Asia, cultural industries are being used to increase the demand for high-density commercial, residential, and office land development [25]. Culture is used to give a framework for real estate development projects. What is more, the development of cultural industries has become one of the core development goals in East Asia, and cultural governance has also become an important requirement of local enterprise governments [26]. In particular, Taipei and Hong Kong (Figure 1) are important cultural poles [27,28,29,30] in East Asia, and the combing and interpretation of the cultural space production context and cultural governance policies are helpful to understand the particularity of East Asian cultural space. In Taipei, a series of abandoned factories have been transformed and regenerated into diverse cultural spaces such as the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Huashan 1914, and Taipei Brewery. In Hong Kong, The Mills, Tai Kwun, and M+ Visual Culture Museum also attract a lot of tourists. The production of cultural space in East Asia has the characteristics of simultaneity and similarity. In other words, these cultural spaces were built not long ago. They have been intensively produced over the past twenty years, having the characteristics of simultaneity in time. In addition, most of these cultural spaces are based on the transformation of old factories or old buildings, having similarities in the production of space. These cultural spaces have already become an important part of urban renewal in East Asia.

Henri Lefebvre was the main proponent of the space production theory; he deeply criticized the traditional view of space as a container and put forward the core view that space is a social product [31]. He argued that space is not only a product of society but also reflects and reacts to society. Moreover, Lefebvre thought that space production and reproduction are the processes of space being used, transformed, and reused. His point of view tends to re-understand space from a structural perspective, linking economic–political–social elements. Most importantly, space production theory is good at expounding the operation and production mode of space, and exploring its political, economic, and social influences. Therefore, analyzing the social context in which space is produced has become one of the key points of space production theory, to reflect the social characteristics of space, and explore the dominant social forces in the process of space reproduction. Therefore, this paper reanalyzes cultural governance from the perspective of the social context of space production to clarify how culture is used as an important means of spatial reorganization in East Asia. The study uses Lefebvre’s space production theory as a theoretical basis to reanalyze Taipei and Hong Kong and put forward the following research questions: what is the social context of the reproduction of representative industrial heritage in Taipei and Hong Kong in East Asia, what is the specific transformation process of the built environment, and what kind of social forces dominate the process of space production?

2. Methodology

Taipei and Hong Kong are among the most important cultural poles in East Asia [27,28,29,30]. This study focuses on these two representative cities to understand how culture influences the reproduction process of industrial heritage. In addition, this study chooses Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (SCCP) in Taipei and The Mills in Hong Kong as the most representative projects for comparative research, focusing on the social context in the process of space reproduction of industrial heritage. SCCP is located in the Xinyi District in eastern Taipei, and The Mills is located in the Tsuen Wan industrial area in northwest Hong Kong (Figure 2). As the first cultural park established by the Taipei city government, SCCP is defined as the most important original base in Taipei, which is forward-looking and representative. SCCP also provided experience for the subsequent development of Taiwan’s cultural parks. The Mills is an important and representative industrial heritage transformation project in Hong Kong, and it is also one of the most important landmark conservation projects. Therefore, this paper chooses SCCP and The Mills, two representative industrial heritage transformation cases, for comparative analysis.

Additionally, this study chooses the cases from Taipei and Hong Kong for comparative analysis, which is different from the previous single case analyses. The analysis of a single case tends to overlook the regional characteristics of industrial heritage transformation and the heterogeneity presented based on regional characteristics. Moreover, it is discussed in the introduction that the cultural spaces of Taipei and Hong Kong have simultaneity in time and similarity in space construction, that is, these cultural spaces are rebuilt from old factories or old buildings. However, the different social contexts and cultural policies of Hong Kong and Taipei lead to different reproduction processes. Therefore, this article uses space production theory, which is good at analyzing the social context in a structured way, to explore the social context and dominant forces of the reproduction of the two representative industrial heritage projects in East Asia.

2.1. Research Methods

In this study, the research methods of text analysis, field investigation, and comparative analysis are mainly used. First, texts are not only an important basic material for the study of the social context but also an important link for the implementation of power and capital. By sorting out various texts, we can track the specific social context of the reproduction of industrial heritage in East Asia, and how culture is used as an important tool for organizing the process of spatial reproduction. Second, this study focuses on the space reproduction process of industrial heritage. Through the field investigation of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei’s Xinyi District and The Mills in Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan, it is possible to grasp the very important transformation of the built environment and to clarify the protection and reuse process of industrial heritage. Moreover, architectural photography and field notes were used to record architectural space and location information, sort out spatial functions, and focus on the renewal of old spaces and architectural components. In addition, three-dimensional models of these two cases were built, based on architectural photography and field notes as supporting materials for case discussion. Third, by comparing the representative cases of industrial heritage in Taipei and Hong Kong, we can understand the reproduction process of industrial heritage and the different updating strategies and methods adopted. Moreover, comparative analysis can reveal the heterogeneity of cultural policies in Taipei and Hong Kong in their respective development contexts (Figure 3).

2.2. Research Framework

Figure 3. Research framework. (Source: drawn by the author).

Figure 3. Research framework. (Source: drawn by the author).

3. Literature Review: Transition from Industrial City to Cultural City

3.1. Cultural Governance and Global City Competition

Cultural governance is a composite concept, including re-discovering cultural functions [32], innovating cultural organization methods, and manifesting individual cultural initiatives. The primary initiator of cultural governance is still the state or local government [33]. In other words, cultural governance is a field of political and economic regulation and disputes [34]. Culture has invariably been the object of power governance [35] After the millennium, urban cultural governance has gradually become a means of urban competition, which in turn affects economic imperatives, national identity, and global city status [36]. In addition, competition among global cities in the background of cultural governance [37] has become increasingly fierce. These cities are using culture as competitive capital to gain an upper hand in the competition among global cities. In East Asia, the local governments of Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, and other main cities formulate their own cultural governance and cultural industry development plans and create diversified cultural spaces to actively participate in the global cultural competition. This is because the pursuit of the status of a global city depends on the production of culture and art, as a part of global competition [38].

3.2. Cultural-Led Production of Urban Space

The renewal of industrial heritage, which is an urban space development strategy transforming single physical and functional spaces to comprehensive socio-economic spaces, has become an important aspect of urban renewal [39,40]. In developed economies, with the decline and relocation of traditional manufacturing [41], a large number of factories and industrial areas remain in the centers of cities [42], presenting a declining urban landscape [43]. After the turn of the new millennium, the combination of urban industrial space with cultural industry and cultural creative industry, supplemented by emerging functions such as art exhibition halls and commercial blocks, has transformed traditional industrial blocks and spaces into new sources of urban vitality. Newly generated commercial value becomes the object pursued by capital, producing more urban spaces. In addition, culture-led space production [44] is more integrated into the top-level design of countries and cities, combining national and local policies to seek a balance in the diversity of urban space [45]. Moreover, it has been combined with creative technology and talents in pursuit of the construction of creative cities [46].

3.3. Transfer of Development Rights and the Protection of Cultural Heritage

The underlying legal concept of the transfer of development rights (TDR) is the notion that all land has a bundle of property rights [47] and development rights are usually linked to the maximum amount of floor area permissible on a zoning lot [48]. TDR allows for the transfer of unused development rights from one zoning lot to another in limited circumstances [49], usually to promote the preservation of historic buildings [50], open spaces [51], or unique cultural resources [52]. In 1968, the New York City government first introduced TDR in the Historic Building Protection Act [53], allowing the unused development rights on the land where cultural heritage is located to be transferred to adjacent zoning lots. In this way, the development rights of the land where cultural heritage is located can be used on the transferred land, so as to avoid the demolition of cultural heritage due to the inability of enjoying full development rights [54]. Adjacent zoning lots can be used with higher intensity following the acceptance of the development rights. Therefore, TDR is a also legal means to compensate for the loss of the land owner [55], which can guarantee the rights and interests of the land owner where cultural heritage is located. In addition, TDR has been gradually applied to many fields such as open space reservation [56] and the conservation of ecologically sensitive areas [57].

3.4. Protection and Activation of Industrial Buildings

The protection of industrial space originated from British industrial archaeology in the 1950s. Ironbridge Gorge, the first bridge built with iron, is an important symbol of the Industrial Revolution that originated in England. It has had a significant impact on the protection and development of industrial heritage and become a precedent for industrial heritage protection research [58]. With the establishment of The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) [59] in 1978, the protection of industrial heritage began to be valued worldwide. The subsequent Nizhny Tagil Charter [59] of 2003 further improved the protection system of industrial heritage. Through the activation and utilization of industrial buildings, the original functions are adjusted, upgraded, and reused to adapt to the new urban environment [60]. In addition, relying on the spatial basis of industrial heritage, creative industrial parks and some other functions are relocated to adjust the urban industrial structure, which has become one of the important strategies for urban renewal [61]. Moreover, the activation and utilization of industrial heritage are mainly connected with exhibition buildings, landscape parks, industrial heritage tourism [62], cultural and creative industries, and regional comprehensive development [63], to seek the continuation of industrial historical and cultural values [64] and industrial heritage sustainable development [65].

4. The Social Production of East Asia’s Industrial Heritages: Case Studies

In the global context of cultural governance, the abandoned urban industrial space in East Asia has gradually entered the stage of cultural-led regeneration. This study selects Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei’s Xinyi District and The Mills in Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan for comparative research. On the one hand, the level of economic and social development of these two places is at the forefront of East Asia [66], and they are forward-looking in the protection and reuse of industrial heritage [67], which can also provide experience and points of reference for other regions in East Asia. On the other hand, the social production of these cultural spaces also took place in the same period and they share some similarities. Most of them are based on the transformation of old urban factories or areas, becoming important parts of local urban regeneration.

Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei is located south of Civic Avenue, adjacent to Taipei Dome in the South, the largest indoor baseball stadium in Taipei (Figure 4). As an international cultural settlement, it is an important creative base in Taipei. The Mills in Hong Kong is a landmark conservation project planned by the Nan Fung Group and an important creative cultivation base in Hong Kong. The Mills is located on the west side of Tsuen Wan Fire Station. Because it is located in the Tsuen Wan industrial area, it is surrounded by many industrial buildings such as the Wah Lik Industrial Centre, etc. (Figure 5). Selecting these two representative cases helps to compare and analyze the structural forces behind the space production processes of industrial heritage. Moreover, a comparative study can complement the global picture of industrial space production.

4.1. Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei: Cultural Policy Reshaping Industrial Space under the Banner of “Creative Taiwan”

4.1.1. The Historical Background of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park

In the 1970s and 1980s, Taiwan’s traditional manufacturing industry boosted Taiwan’s economic take-off and promoted Taiwan’s economic success [68]. At that time, Taiwan’s footwear industry, bicycle industry, electric fan manufacturing industry, umbrella industry, and many other industries [69] were among the best in the world. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Taiwan government led Taiwan’s industrial transformation process and canceled many preferential measures for traditional manufacturing industries. Economic development has gradually shifted from traditional manufacturing to the high-tech industry and biochemical technology in pursuit of higher added value.

During the same period, the governments of the coastal areas of mainland China opened up to large-scale Taiwanese businessmen to set up factories and proposed many preferential policies, such as convenient use of land, water & electricity cost reductions [70]. Compared with Taiwan, there were cheaper sources of labor in mainland China. Traditional manufacturing has been gradually transferred to mainland China through Taiwanese businessmen setting up factories outside the island, while the phenomenon of industrial hollowing-out of traditional industries has appeared in Taiwan. In addition, as the market in mainland China matured, Taiwanese businessmen’s investment in mainland China has gradually shifted from labor-intensive processing and export industries to technological-cooperation-type investment in an attempt to capture the vast Chinese market [71]. This in turn further exacerbated the outward transfer and hollowing out of Taiwan’s traditional manufacturing industry, leaving many abandoned industrial areas in cities. Against this historical background, many industrial areas in Taiwan’s cities are seeking transformation. With the support of local cultural policies, these traditional industrial areas have gradually transformed into cultural parks. Songshan Cultural and Creative Park was the first cultural park established by the Taipei city government.

Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (SCCP), transformed from the original Songshan tobacco factory [72], has become one of the most important cultural and creative spaces after the transformation. In 1995, the Cultural Construction Committee of Taiwan proposed the concept of “Cultural Industrialization”1 and began to revitalize industries and rebuild communities with the development of local culture from the perspective of community construction. Culture has become a keyword in urban policies since then. “The Cultural and Creative Industries Development Plan”2, launched in 2002, first clarified the concept of cultural and creative industries in Taiwan, covering 16 directions, including architecture, design, cultural tourism, performing arts, etc. In 2010, the Taiwan government launched the well-known “Creative Taiwan: Cultural and Creative Industries Development Plan” [73], providing a good legal environment for the development of local cultural and creative industries. Subsequently, the Ministry of Culture was established in 2012 to lead the development of local cultural industries and continue to promote a series of top-down cultural industry development policies. Since then, various cultural and creative parks have sprung up all over Taiwan, resulting in the abundance of cultural parks in many cities in Taiwan, including Taipei, Taichung, Hualien, Chiayi, Kaohsiung, and Tainan (Figure 6). The reason why SCCP was chosen as the object of this case study is that it is the first cultural park in Taipei established by the Taipei government. In addition, it also played an important role in the process of Taipei applying for the honor of World Design Capital. Activities such as the “Taiwan Design Exhibition” and “Taipei Design City Exhibition” were held in SCCP, and Taipei City was selected as the World Design Capital in 20163. As a forward-looking cultural park, SCCP has led the development of cultural parks across Taiwan.

4.1.2. The Social Production of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park

Songshan Cultural and Creative Park opened in 2011, covering an overall area of 77,909 m². The park is mainly composed of the original Songshan old factory area and the newly built Taipei New Horizon Building (TNHB). In the Songshan factory area, the original 2–3 story factory buildings were preserved and updated. The newly built TNHB in the northeast corner of the park is 14 stories high, with a construction area of 59,991 m², covering exhibitions, cultural and creative functions, offices, shopping malls, hotels, etc., providing more functional and spatial support for SCCP.

The Taiwan Cultural Assets Preservation Act stipulates that tangible cultural assets are mainly divided into nine types: monuments, historical buildings, memorial buildings, settlement buildings, archaeological sites, historical sites, cultural landscapes, antiquities, and natural landscapes4. The Songshan tobacco factory was designated as a municipal monument by the Taipei government in 2001. According to the Taiwan Cultural Assets Preservation Act, the historical buildings in SCCP need to be classified and managed. A series of protection and activation measures were taken after the Taipei government designated the Songshan tobacco factory as a historical monument site. The buildings and landscapes in Songshan were divided into three protection levels: municipal monuments, historical buildings, and characteristic environments. The subsequent protection and activation of the plant area were carried out [74] according to the different protection levels.

The functions of most buildings were replaced, and the internal space of the buildings was also updated. Specifically, the function of the boiler rooms, offices, and nursery rooms, as municipal monuments, has not changed. Because of the large-span space characteristics, the tobacco factories and warehouses were transformed into multi-functional exhibition spaces and creative spaces. The multi-functional exhibitions still play the original performance roles, and the baroque garden and lotus pond have also been restored and updated (Figure 7,

Table 1. Categorized protection and activation of cultural landscapes in the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (Source: organized and drawn by the author).

Cultural Landscape Category	Original Function	Function after Activation
Municipal monuments	Tobacco factories	Taiwan design museum, creative lab, and creative theater
	No. 1 to No. 5 warehouses	Multifunctional exhibition space
	Boiler rooms	The original appearance has been preserved, and the function has not been updated
	Offices	The original appearance has been preserved, and the function has not been updated
Historical buildings	Check room	Small performance space
	Mechanical repair room	Cultural and creative business
	Nursery room	The original appearance has been preserved, and the function has not been updated
Characteristic environments	Baroque garden	Landscape restoration
	Lotus pond	Landscape restoration
	Multifunctional exhibition hall	Multifunctional exhibition space

).

In addition, the facilities inside the factory have also been modernized. Modern lighting, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and water supply and drainage systems have been installed. Moreover, various modern signs with a strong sense of design have also been incorporated into the park to reflect the cultural and creative atmosphere of Songshan.

To better realize the transformation from a tobacco factory to a cultural park, the decision to divide part of the site was taken to accommodate the newly introduced cultural and creative industries. A new building was to be constructed to accommodate many new cultural functions, and thus the Taipei New Horizon Building (TNHB) came into being [75]. This building was planned and designed jointly by Japanese architectural firms Toyo Ito and Taiwan Daju. Toyo Ito architects were responsible for the planning of the whole park and the conceptual design of TNHB, and Taiwan Daju was responsible for the detailed construction design and supervision. Focusing on the issue of the implantation of a new building and the integration of the original factory area, the architects first adopted a curved building plan on the side facing the factory, aiming for a seamless integration with the original old factory area. Moreover, the design method of receding balconies was selected in the facade design to alleviate the oppressive feeling of the 14-story building. Third, vertical greening was adopted to further weaken the sense of volume of the building and enhance the connection with the park landscape (Figure 8). Exhibition spaces, cultural and creative offices, shopping malls, and hotels are distributed in TNHB, giving Songshan tobacco factory more functions and spatial support.

4.2. The Mills in Hong Kong: The Decline of the Textile Industry and the Transformation of the Enterprise

4.2.1. The Epitome of Hong Kong’s Textile Industry: The Prosperity and Decline of Nan Fung Yarn Mill

Hong Kong’s textile industry developed rapidly in the second half of the last century [76] and became emblematic of Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry, which flourished until the mid-1980s. By the peak in 1967, the number of local factories in Hong Kong had reached 11,000, employing 430,000 workers [77]. The Mills was transformed from the industrial space of the Nan Fung Yarn Mill, established in 1954, which was one of the symbols of Hong Kong’s textile industry at that time. It entered a stage of rapid expansion with the rise of Hong Kong’s textile industry. Nan Fung Textile’s No. 4 and No. 5 factories were completed in 1960 and 1962 respectively, and the No. 6 factory was completed in 19705. The completion of three new factories in just ten years is a testament to Hong Kong’s booming textile industry decades ago.

However, the Hong Kong textile industry, which had been developing continuously for several decades, gradually declined in the 1990s. With the increase in land costs and labor costs and the further deepening of China’s reform and opening-up policy6, the textile industry gradually moved to South China [78], which had a supply of cheap labor. Hong Kong’s economy gradually transformed toward a focus on finance, tourism, trade, and the service industries. The Nan Fung Group, which was mainly engaged in the textile industry, also gradually turned to the higher-profit real estate industry. In 2008, Nan Fung Spinning Mill became a warehouse after Nan Fung Textile ceased operations. In 2014, when the Nan Fung Group celebrated its 60th anniversary, the group announced the revitalization and transformation of Nan Fung Yarn Mills, transforming the No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 factories into a cultural space called The Mills.

4.2.2. The Space Production of the Mills: Commercial Modernization of Factory Space

After Nan Fung Group announced the revitalization of Nan Fung Yarn Mill, ARUP (Arup Group Limited)7,a design company from the United Kingdom, was commissioned to design the factory. The investment in the project amounted to HKD 700 million. The specific project involves the renovation of three original factory buildings with a total construction area of 24,500 m². The Mills covers multiple functions, such as commercial space, CHAT Museum, Hong Kong Design Centre, The Mills Fabrica, etc. The green roofs have also become important public spaces with recreational functions (Figure 9). The originally separated Nanfeng 4, 5, and 6 factories were connected by glass bridges (Figure 10, left) to form a unified building complex. The exterior and interior design of the building continues the original factory style, and a large number of the old factory building components have been preserved and restored. On this basis, glass curtain walls and glass ceilings (Figure 10, middle) were added to the interior facade. Moreover, the roof (Figure 10, right) is designed to be a public space, which also highlights the modernity of the building as a new cultural space.

In terms of the restoration and preservation of the original building components, the old walls and iron-framed windows have been preserved (Figure 11, left). As for the structural form, the original structure of beams, slabs, and columns remains unchanged, supplemented by a new steel structure to enhance the load-bearing capacity of the building. In terms of interior layout, the bright red “Taiping buckets” (Figure 11, middle), once used for fire-fighting, have become decorative elements in The Mills. In addition, the No. 5 factory iron gate and the No. 4 factory staircase have been retained and the solid wooden doors were transformed into benches (Figure 11, right), highlighting the nostalgic characteristics of the cultural space.

The outdoor space on the roof is also fully utilized. The original roofs of the No. 4 and No. 6 factories were functionally transformed into important public spaces. In these public spaces, some greening and seats are arranged, incorporating the rest and greening functions. In the process of modernization and reconstruction of the Nanfeng Factory, three separate factories were connected by glass corridors, and the tour route was re-planned. The building conveys the nostalgic atmosphere of cultural space by preserving the old architectural components. The utility of the building was also increased by establishing the atrium and rebuilding the roof space, completing the reproduction process from an industrial space to a cultural space.

Generally speaking, in terms of the specific material space production process, both SCCP and The Mills have carried out modern reconstruction of industrial buildings, and some architectural components were retained and repaired to create a nostalgic impression and cultural atmosphere. By comparison, the scale of Taipei’s SCCP is larger than that of The Mills. In addition to the transformation of the Songshan tobacco factory, a new high-rise building, TNHB, has been built inside the Songshan base, which can accommodate more cultural and creative functions, hotels, meetings, and other related functions to form a complex cultural space. Moreover, the integration and spatial relationship between the new and the old buildings are considered comprehensively in the design of SCCP. The Mills in Hong Kong is not large in scale, and the glass corridors are used to connect the three original factories to form a whole building complex. The glass curtain walls used in the interior and exterior of the building highlight the public character and modernity of the building after renovation, and the atrium and the roof space are fully utilized to create a series of public spaces. In short, the specific space production processes of the two cultural spaces are determined by their different political and economic environments, showing different characteristics. Through this analysis, the very important transformation of the built environment is grasped, and the protection and reuse process of industrial heritage is clarified.

5. Discussion

In this section, we will first discuss the cultural policies of Taiwan and Hong Kong in general, and then separately discuss the two representative cases of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taiwan and The Mills in Hong Kong. Specifically, space production theory offers a good structural analysis. Parsing the social context of space production in the two representative cases from a Lefebvre-inspired structural perspective makes it possible to analyze the political and economic factors behind space production, which is also one of the main focuses of space production theory.

5.1. Cultural Heritage Conservation Policies in Taipei and Hong Kong

Taipei and Hong Kong are important cultural poles in East Asia [27,28,29,30], and their cultural heritage conservation policies are forward-looking, with referential significance for the protection of cultural heritage in other regions.

In Taiwan, the protection of historical heritage has undergone a spatially progressive development, from the preservation of a single historic building to the preservation of the planar block of Lukang Old Street in 1986 [79], and the designation of the Dadaocheng Historic Block as a “special area” in 2002 [80]. It presents the expansion and progressive development characteristics of single-point historic site preservation—block preservation—special area preservation. The Cultural Assets Preservation Law, enacted in 1982 and revised several times, is the main law for historical preservation in Taiwan [81]. The decree has also undergone several adjustments in the concept of protection, changing from earlier reconstruction to encouraging the protection of historical and cultural heritage in the form of renovation or maintenance. The renewal of historical areas also breaks away from the renovation of single-point buildings in the past, shifts to the environmental maintenance of the entire block, and also pays attention to the preservation of the overall historical style. In addition, the 15th General Assembly of The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) was held in Taipei in 2012, and proposed the strategy and method of the Taipei Declaration on Asian Industrial Heritage, focusing on the protection and maintenance of Asian industrial heritage. In addition, it has also been mentioned that the industrial development in Asia is different from that in the West, and the development of local production methods and facilities has become a part of local history.

To be more specific, in Taiwan, a benign model of cultural heritage protection has been established in terms of community participation, industrial development, and ecological conservation. First, community participation has become an important way for residents to participate in the process of cultural heritage protection, reflecting the sharing of community responsibilities and achievements by community residents. Second, industrial development is emphasized in the process of heritage protection. While stressing the protection of cultural heritage, local cultural policies also focus on the introduction of cultural and creative industries, with revitalization and reuse, to support the preservation of cultural heritage with creative industries and cultural tourism. Third, the importance of the relationship between ecological conservation and heritage protection has been recognized, and ecological conservation is regarded as a symbiotic condition for heritage protection.

In Hong Kong, the protection of historic buildings began in the last century. In the 1970s, the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, the important historical building protection law, was promulgated. The declared monuments were divided into first-, second-, and third-class historic buildings [82]. After the new millennium, the Hong Kong government established the office of the Commissioner for Heritage in 2008, which is under the Development Bureau, implementing the policy on heritage conservation and keeping it under constant review, promoting a series of new initiatives on heritage conservation.

In 2008, the Hong Kong Development Bureau launched the “Revitalization of Historic Buildings Partnership Program”, which includes various methods such as conservation, revitalization, integration into commercial development, and establishment of heritage trails. These measures no longer stick to the dogmatic concept of cultural heritage protection, trying to revitalize and utilize historic buildings through cooperation with non-governmental organizations. While protecting the historic buildings, these measures also maximize the use value of the historic buildings for the local communities. In addition, the revitalization modes of historical buildings in Hong Kong are diversified, including government-led, developer-led, government-developer cooperation, government-non-profit organization cooperation and other modes [83]. The multi-path revitalization of historic buildings has become an important feature of the conservation of historic buildings in Hong Kong. The revitalization of historic buildings based on reality and operability has become an important direction for Hong Kong society in continuously exploring the protection of historical heritage.

In short, the cultural policies of Taiwan and Hong Kong are rooted in their respective development backgrounds, showing heterogeneous characteristics. Cultural policy has become an important foothold for culture to reorganize urban spaces. The following sections will focus on the connection between the spatial production process and local cultural policies of SCCP and The Mills, respectively.

5.2. The Social Production of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park: Community Participation and Industrial Development

Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, transformed from the Songshan tobacco factory, is located in the core area of the Xinyi District of Taipei. In the 1994 edition of Taipei City’s Proposed (Revised) Main Plan for the Specific District of Songshan [84], the Songshan tobacco factory was among the buildings planned to be demolished. However, due to the opposition of cultural heritage protection groups, the demolition was not put into practice. In 2000, the Taipei Dome Construction Project [85] was proposed, and Taipei Dome was located in the Songshan area. The proposals for the protection or demolition of the Songshan tobacco factory have caused a series of social discussions.

Specifically, The Taipei government has carried out a series of social consultations and discussions on the National Historic Site Preservation and Maintenance Plan of the Taiwan Provincial Tobacco and Alcohol Marketing Bureau. In these discussions of heterogeneity, local communities and some architects advocated the protection and reactivation of the Songshan factory. However, people in the sports industries believed that the construction of the Taipei Dome was more important compared with the protection of the Songshan factory. In addition, some scholars believed that the problems of aviation height control and the main structure migration of Taipei Dome should be solved first. After many rounds of discussions, most of the local communities tended to favor protecting and reusing the Songshan tobacco factory, which shows strong community involvement.

After listening to the opinions of local communities, Taipei’s government respected the public opinion and decided to protect and revitalize the Songshan tobacco factory. Therefore, the factory was designated as the 99th Municipal Historic Site of Taipei. The offices, tobacco factories, boiler rooms, and warehouses No. 1 to No. 5 were designated as the main monuments; the lotus pond, transportation tracks, and warehouses built in the 1940s are also included in the preservation area. Since then, the Songshan tobacco factory has escaped the fate of being demolished and moved on to the path of protection and activation. The public discussion on whether the Songshan factory should be demolished or protected has become a social issue that concerns the interests of different parties. Finally, Taipei Dome was built on a nearby site, and the government protected and revitalized the Songshan tobacco factory, showing respect for the public opinion of the local community. Community participation has become an important node in the social reproduction process of the Songshan Tobacco Factory.

In addition, after the transformation of the Songshan Tobacco Factory into a cultural space, many cultural and creative industries were introduced. The operators of the park have also established platforms such as Creator Factory, Creative Showcase, and Creative Academy, gradually turning SCCP into an important original base8 in Taipei. Moreover, the park operators have launched book fairs, artist solo exhibitions, free markets9, and other content-rich exhibitions, performances, and activities, and actively developed sightseeing and tourism, which further feeds the development of cultural and creative industries in this park. In the space production process of SCCP, we can see the impact of community participation and industrial development emphasized by Taiwan’s cultural policy. This also makes community participation and the development of cultural and creative industries an important feature in the social reproduction process of SCCP.

5.3. Revitalization of the Mills: Social Production from Traditional Spinning Mills to Cultural and Commercial Spaces

Around 1949, some Shanghai capitalists in the textile industry were worried about the instability of Mainland China and moved to Hong Kong [86]. In addition, the arrival of a large number of young laborers provided the initial capital for the development of Hong Kong’s textile industry. After decades of rapid development, Hong Kong’s textile and garment industry reached its peak by the mid-1980s, becoming one of the world’s top garment exporters.

The manufacturers were also trying to transition into the fashion industry, seeking diversified development. In this trend, many Hong Kong female workers attended evening dress design schools after getting off work and tried to imitate designs and sew their clothes [87]. However, with the further advancement of the Reform and Opening-up Policy in Mainland China and the rising production costs in Hong Kong, the textile industry began to move to South China in the 1990s, where workers’ wages were lower. The abundant local labor force in South China guaranteed the profits of the textile industry. The textile industry in Hong Kong began to decline, and a large number of textile workers were unemployed. In short, the textile workers experienced a brutal process of industry-wide deskilling [87]. Because of the changes in local politics and the global production environment, textile industry workers in Hong Kong have experienced industrial transformation pains. They were abandoned by the new industries and had to turn to low-income low-skilled jobs such as cleaning and dishwashing. Thus, behind the shrinking textile industry is the unemployment or forced career change of thousands of local textile workers. Numerous textile factories have either become private property or abandoned. The suspension of work at the Nan Fung Yarn Mill is the epitome of the decline of the entire Hong Kong textile industry.

The abandoned factory buildings were then revalued by capital, seeking to renew and rebuild the space to pursue new profit opportunities. The Mills had been idle for a long time before the transformation. Nan Fung Group, the owner of the factory building, has successfully transformed into a real estate company under the conditions of a shrinking textile industry. Nan Fung Group is mainly engaged in land bidding, real estate development, and commercial investment. The Mills, completed in 2018, is the landmark cultural project of the Nan Fung Group. Through the commercial reconstruction of traditional industrial buildings, The Mills has been transformed into a well-known cultural consumption space with nostalgic feelings and a cultural atmosphere in Hong Kong. One of the biggest features of The Mills is that it actively combines the activation of industrial buildings with commercial development, maximizing the use value of industrial buildings to the local community. Unlike SCCP, dominated by the government, The Mills is privately owned, and the revitalization of the buildings is mainly based on the participation of private developers. The capital-led space production process pays equal attention to the reproduction of cultural space and commercial development. The Nanfeng Group dominates the production process of the material space, which reflects Hong Kong’s multi-path, multi-participant historic building activation process. Private capital has become an important player in the reproduction process of The Mills.

To sum up, culture as a means of reorganizing urban space primarily works through cultural policies. This section first summarizes the cultural policies of Taipei and Hong Kong and then discusses the space production processes of SCCP and The Mills and their connection with cultural policies. Through the discussion of these two representative cases, we can discern the influence of cultural policies on the production of cultural space, and also describe the reproduction process of cultural heritage in East Asia.

6. Conclusions

In the context of global city competition, culture is regarded as one of the most important strategies for economic development in East Asia. Moreover, culture has become a means of spatial organization and an important direction of urban governance. Different kinds of industrial buildings are being transformed into cultural spaces, and diversified cultural spaces are being produced. This regeneration framework of urban industrial areas, derived from Western countries, also emerges in East Asia, but it presents a localized aspect.

Both Taiwan and Hong Kong have experienced rapid growth in manufacturing. Due to the upgrading and transformation of economic structures, the manufacturing industry has gradually moved to Mainland China, leaving a large number of industrial plants in cities. These industrial plants were gradually abandoned and became lost spaces in cities. Cultural industries, compared with pollution-related industries, have inherent advantages in development, which can promote the development of culture-related industries, boost cultural consumption, and revitalize the local economy. In addition, cultural industries can cultivate local cultural advantages and consolidate cultural identity, from the protection and activation of industrial historic buildings to the development of cultural and creative industries, and even creative cities and creative classes.

Specifically, Taipei and Hong Kong’s governments have different strategies for the development of cultural industries. Taipei’s government attaches great importance to the development of cultural industries. In addition, cultural policies continuously implemented by the Taiwan government have spawned diverse cultural spaces in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Hualien, and other places to form systematic cultural spaces and build a cultural industry vision of “Creative Taiwan”. Taiwan’s government regards the cultural industry as an important direction for local economic development to gain an upper hand in regional competition. In comparison, Hong Kong’s economy mainly relies on finance, tourism, trade, and the service industries. The cultural industry is only a subsidiary of the pillar tourism industry. To develop the tourism industry, the Hong Kong government promotes the production of landmark cultural spaces and uses these as a tool to promote the development of the local tourism industry. The cultural spaces in Taipei are diversified through the promotion of continuous cultural policies, and the production of cultural space is unified under the slogan of “Creative Taiwan”. The cultural governance of Hong Kong is more inclined to landmark cultural projects, which reflects the tourism development orientation. In addition, private capital is actively involved in the production of landmark cultural buildings. The Mills was transformed into a cultural space under the impetus of the private Nan Fung Group. Therefore, the main driving force of cultural spaces in Taipei is local government, while the production of cultural spaces in Hong Kong involves more private capital. The different cultural governance strategies of Taipei and Hong Kong lead to the different spatialization of cultural policies. In Taipei, a benign model of cultural heritage protection has been established in terms of community participation, industrial development, and ecological conservation. In Hong Kong, the production of cultural spaces involves more stakeholders, such as private developers, non-profit organizations, etc., reflecting a multi-path and multi-participant historic building activation process.

In addition, the development of the cultural industry drives the commodity logic in the cultural consumption process. Different kinds of local and imported cultures in the cultural spaces become objects of consumption. Shopping malls with a single format are gradually unable to meet the growing cultural consumption needs of the upper-middle class. SCCP and The Mills, where cultural specialty stores and boutiques gather, have become important cultural consumption spaces. Moreover, it is worth noting that cultural consumption shows the phenomenon of refinement and gentrification, which has a strong spatial exclusivity and caters to the consumer aesthetics and tastes of the urban upper-middle class. The urban upper-middle class pays more attention to the experience and specialization of the consumption process, which in turn stimulates the production of more cultural consumption spaces. In the process of urban regeneration, these cultural spaces often become the focus of the development of exquisite urban art spaces and elegant urban landscapes. On the one hand, the vigorous development of refined cultural spaces can bring about the continuous growth of the cultural economy. On the other hand, it also gradually widens the income gap and intensifies the polarization and division of urban spaces, which cannot be ignored.

In summary, industrial development and the development of local production methods and facilities have become a part of local history in East Asia. Moreover, at the regional level, the abandonment and reuse of industrial buildings in Hong Kong and Taiwan are rooted in the migration of local traditional manufacturing to Mainland China with cheaper labor and the upgrading and transformation of local industries. Both Taipei and Hong Kong are going through the reproduction process of different industrial spaces. With the changes in the structure of local economies comes a series of problems such as the decline of urban industrial space and the fragmentation of local industrial communities. In the wave of culture-led urban regeneration, culture seems to be the only way to solve the problems, but the conflicts between culture and local communities have never stopped. Behind the transformation of The Mills is the unemployment of thousands of textile workers. As for SCCP, after many rounds of intense discussions, the local government finally chose to respect the local community and revitalize the Songshan tobacco factory. Under the structure of urban cultural governance, more refined urban regeneration that respects local communities should be implemented to seek a balanced and diverse organic urban space. The comparison and discussion of cultural space production in Taipei and Hong Kong originate from the simultaneity and similarity of the production of these cultural spaces. In other words, the reproduction of the two cultural spaces took place in the same period, and both of them are based on the activation and transformation of old industrial or residential buildings. Moreover, this comparative study can complement the global picture of cultural space production, and provide an East Asian approach and reference for other regions.

In the future, the scope of research can be expanded to other major cities in East Asia to build a comprehensive picture of Eastern cultural governance and urban renewal strategies. In addition, the gentrification brought about by the production of cultural spaces make these the focus of cities’ exquisite art spaces and elegant urban landscapes. Moreover, they aggravate the polarization and division of urban spaces, accompanied by conflicts between culture and local communities, which can be further studied.