In the morning I met Tong Xin and Ellen Lai of Urban China in their offices near Tongji University. Ellen showed me the galleys of the section on light in the city (including her work with Friends of the Earth on light pollution in Hong Kong) in the upcoming edition. She told me they did an interview with the head of the Shanghai city urban beautification centre, and from that she learnt that they took a strong interest in shaping the look of the city, especially in regard to landmark sites. So, for example, they have worked to ensure that the neon lights along Nanjing Road match the historical look of the long vertical shop signs that used to hang there a long time ago. Interestingly, the residents along Huaihai Road were not so keen on lots of screens and neon on their apartment buildings at first, when the city suggested that was a way of livening the place up and giving it a global city feel. But then when the property values went up in the buildings with screens, everyone wanted them.

Ellen was interested to know that we were going to interview the men in the Yangpu Urban Beautification office in the afternoon. She wanted to know more about regulation of quantities of PSA ads on screens, hours of turning on and off, and so on. I got the impression they are interested in what we’re doing, but that we need to send them stuff (including lots of photos!) to see if we can get them really excited.

In the afternoon, Wu Dan and I got to meet the Head (所长) and Vice-Head (副所长) of the Shanghai Yangpu District Municipal Administration of Urban Beautification (上海市杨浦区绿化和市容管理局景管理所) — Wang Guo-liang (王国梁) and Wang Bao-Hai (王宝海), respectively. Wang Guo-liang was the younger of the two and did almost all the talking. However, he had a heavy Shanghai accent, and I found it a bit difficult to follow him. However, after reading Wu Dan’s notes and discussing it a bit more with her, I think we were able to gather the following rather useful information.

First, the Administration’s work covers three areas: sanitation, developing the look of the city, and dealing with street stalls and other such activities. Outdoor advertising comes under the second category, and so that is how they get involved with regulating screens. As the discussion developed, it became clear that this “outdoor” (户外) stipulation was important, because it means they are not concerned with screens inside the doorways to buildings, windows, the entrances to residential compounds and so on, even though they are visible from the street.

Anyone wanting to put up a screen (or other form of outdoor advertising) needs to apply to three regulatory bodies: 广告内容归市工商管理局 (Industry and Commerce Administration) to get the content approved; 还有土地规划局 (Land Planning Department) to check it fits in with the city plan and isn’t too close to traffic lights etc; and them. They are concerned about the size and shape of the screen (to see that it is suitable for the look of the city), the safety aspects such as making sure it is properly anchored for typhoons and has a lightning conductor, and that it will not have a negative impact on its environment.

There are three kinds of areas: commercial areas, where more or less anything goes; totally residential areas where (in theory) outdoor advertising is forbidden; and areas of controlled usage, such as densely populated areas which are also semi-commercial. In regard to the latter, as an example of something they’d have a problem with he gave an over-sized billboard set at angles completely different to those of the building it was on top of to get maximum exposure to traffic. People have to apply once a year to get their outdoor sign approved (and checked for safety by one of 4 companies in Shanghai who do that work). In theory this also applies to small LEDs hanging over the entrances to shops, although he realizes lots of people have put those up without applying for permission. Application is free. However, for big LEDs, like the ones at Wujiaochang, they might get an approval that is for 3 or 4 years, rather than only 1 year. However, the maximum period without renewing is 6 years.

Residents are increasingly conscious of the idea of light pollution. So, they usually ask people to turn the brightness of the light down by 50% after 9 p.m. They recognize that if you run a 24 hour shop, which is a convenience for people, you also need to have a sign so that they can find it. But if it’s at half-strength during the night, then that’s much the same as street lighting, and it would be unreasonable for people to complain. However, they do get complaints from residents, and a lot of their work is about mediation between residents and commercial interests. When they do this work they are not thinking about enforcing a particular law or regulation, but rather about working according to the principle of “not having a negative effect on the residents’ lives.” In a commercial area (such as Wujiaochang), it’s up to the screen owners when they turn it on and off. Like everyone else we’ve spoken to so far, he suggested that it wouldn’t make sense to have screens on all night, as it would be a waste of expensive electricity at a time when there are few people in the neighbourhood.

So far they have not come across screens with sound. If they did, they’d receive complaints if it was too loud and intervene accordingly. He also said that if they noticed screens were in a state of disrepair, they’d tell the owners to fix them. (However, going by the Orient Shopping Centre, it seems quite an advanced state of disrepair is allowed….)

In Shanghai, regulation requires that at least 10% of screen time/space should be given over to PSAs. However, in an area like Yangpu, they have a different problem, which is not enough commercial interest in the advertising spaces that they already have. So, PSAs fill the gap. If his Administration wants a PSA put up, they will pay for it. Whoever wants it put up pays for it.

We asked about “cultural squares” (wenhua guangchang), but this was clearly a term he was unfamiliar with, indicating it is not part of the regulatory discourse. The terms he produced were “city sub-centre” (chengshi fuzhongxin) and “commercial centre of the northeast city” (dongbei chengshi shangye zhongxin).

On the way out after the taping was finished, he told me that basically the market decides and that their main job is to mediate between commercial interests and the residents.