7 A World Garden City in the New Millennium Chengdu at the Crossroads of Verbal Representation and Global Vision Kenny K.K. Ng Abstract In Chengdu, a long-enduring imperial city in China’s Sichuan province, historical preservation has inevitably become a strategic economic project for fostering the city’s cultural capital and boosting both local and global tourism. What is the place of local memories in global urbanism? How does a city like Chengdu that is deeply indebted to the past preserve its own cultural heritage and transform itself into a ‘World Garden City’ in the eyes of its administrators? This essay examines the interplay of urban space and topographical representation by looking into the historical novels of Li Jieren (1890-1962): monumental f iction focused on turn-of-the-century Chengdu societies. Field experiences bear out the profoundly af fective influence of Li’s historical texts and their literary sensibility in generat- ing a bond between people and place—that is, an entrenched af fective power of ‘topophilia’ that has been missing in the present development of global cities. This chapter examines both urban space and topographical representation through this critical lens. Keywords: Chengdu, Li Jieren, topophilia, local memory, global city Though still part of a developing country, the city of Chengdu already has the attributes of many of the major cities of the West including its modern infrastructure, impressive skyline, economic dynamism, education system and human amenities, and with a population of 14 million, it is already one of the biggest cities in the world. But it also adds something more—a spirit and Bekkering, H., A. Esposito & C. Goldblum (eds.), Ideas of the City in Asian Settings. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462985612/ch07 Amsterdam University Press