The Public Park

Public parks and the differences between western and asian cultures

In the summer, there is something very intimate about living in a city. I feel closer to strangers because both their lives, and my own seem more exposed. We wear less clothes, our music, conversations and cooking smells drift out opened windows, we increasingly seek entertainment out on the streets. And we go to the park.

I live in a medium sized Chinese city at the moment and the public park here has become my new favorite place. The city still has its old city walls and right around the outside of these is a park, maybe 20 metres deep, bounded on one side by the city wall and on the other side by the city moat. It isn't much to write home about, the cobblestones on the path are uneven and most of the parts that should be grassy lawn are actually hard packed dirt. But there are a few trees, and some big rocks and tables and chairs and as long as these are present people will come. To me this park says everything about what a park should be.

The park in Xi'an offers next to nothing and yet it is almost packed every night. Part of it is certainly due to the fact that Chinese people have next to no personal greenspace around their home to enjoy, and the fact the this city is generally safer than most American cities. People here are comfortable sitting on a bench in the dark with little more to entertain them than a slight breeze rippling through the trees.

I know I will miss my nightly walks through the park here when I go home and so I ask myself if we could recreate what this park has in America. Why are so many American parks given over to crime, or being changed into public extensions of our high tech personal lives. There is this feeling in the US that a plain grassy square with benches won't cut it in today's sophisticated world. I believe that Americans could enjoy simple parks but there are a few things that would have to change.

1. We would have to take back our nighttime public spaces en masse. I didn't really understand the Take Back the Night movement until now. But this would have to apply to urban parks. We would need to stop being afraid of those dark, quiet corners and instead be willing to go out there together and enjoy ourselves in our parks. There's no place for drunken fights, drug dealings and rape when there is a full park of people watching.

2. We would have to get more comfortable with doing things in full view of other people. Part of what makes the Xi'an park so interesting is that people do what they like without thinking about who is watching. They don't care who is watching them waltz alone, without music. They don't care who is watching them participate in a open air jazzercise class. A good park is about the freedom to be yourself in a public space.

3. We would need to recognize the value of simple pleasures. Too often our go-go high tech lifestyles extend to entertainment. Our entertainment has become increasingly flashy and vigorous. We should remember what it is to just sit in a park with a friend and talk, or walk slowly simply enjoying each others' company. If we slow down enough we begin to see the importance of renewing human and natural connections. Sometimes doing IM next to your house plant just doesn't cut it.

It seems to me that having better public parks in the US is not a design issue but an issue of shifting mentalities. Certainly there are some American parks that work well, but they tend to be large masterpieces, like Central Park, which seem too overwhelming to replicate. Still, we can have more vibrant parks if we change the way we think about ourselves in public spaces. Are Americans too afraid to be vulnerable to the public eye, too afraid of each other? In China, people have generally accepted that with their population, privacy is not really an option. And so life goes on out in the open. In America we may not have to share our space, but how would our lives be different if we chose to?