Reconsidering the morphological understanding of traditional Chinese cities: a study of the early spatial modernization of Suzhou, 1880–1949

Based on the mapping of nine historical maps of the ancient capital of Suzhou from 1880 to 1949, this paper examines the early spatial modernization of Suzhou in the late-Qing and Republican eras. The mapping is interpreted as four periods to provide a coherent narrative for the spatial transformation of Suzhou, following a discussion of its historico-geographical features and morphological influences that define the course of the city’s modernity by extracting three key components: the modern road network, public building utilizations of significant modernity, and the growth and fringe of built-up areas. To do so the paper draws upon current debates on the feasibility of urban morphological study of Chinese cities in early-modern times, particularly the idea that applications of typical urban morphological approaches are more limited than those of comparable studies in Europe, to provide a new approach to observe the morphological features and spatial cognition of Chinese traditional cities.