Director: Xu Shuhan
Link:https://youtu.be/b1VQC2NPXS8
Theme and purposes of the research
In this research, I mainly focus on the shopping mall called Mambat Plaza in my hometown—Su Zhou. There are mainly two reasons why l chose this mall as my research subject.
Firstly, I always think the mall plays a very important role in the city because of its complex functions. For example, the shopping mall provides space for people to have a meal and enables people to buy some necessary goods. Therefore, the complex functions of the shopping mall will also reflect the hybrid characteristics of the city. Similar to the shopping mall, different places and people are connected through the city.
Moreover, I also realized that the shopping mall changes significantly after the breakout of covid-19. The government implements many strict rules to restrict the number of people in the malls and try to reduce the risk of the spread of the virus in public places. One day, when l just passed the mall, l found that the square in front of the mall is amended into a nuclei test center and many people were waiting there. From this phenomenon, I want to further explore whether new forms of waiting are created, and old forms of writing are changed because of the virus. And because of the coexistence of different forms of waiting, I will also describe the mall as a hybrid place.
Therefore, my research hypothesis is that “The multifunction of the mall enables hybrid forms of waiting.”
Method of conducting the research
Firstly, I search online for some information about the main purposes and design of Mambat Plaza. The designer originally wanted to propose a strong one-step experiential shopping center, targeting multiple user groups. Therefore, the shopping mall is clearly divided into many districts for entertaining, shopping, and dining. The escalators and clear indicators allow the customers to arrive at their destinations and buy what they want quickly. Therefore, Mambat always attracts different groups of people with different purposes to come here.
However, I believe the business of malls is influenced significantly by government policies. Therefore, I want to use video to document the situation in the mall and try to find out who is still waiting in the mall and why they are waiting in it.
Meanwhile, to further investigate the effects of the covid-19, I interviewed some shop sellers in the shopping mall and want to find out whether they need to wait for customers for a longer time.
Filming technique
The malls always have complex structures. And it is this structure that connects different floors and districts together. To clearly show the space and environment, I decided to use one-shot to document the outside and inside of the mall. Therefore, the audience can have more sense of the space in the mall with the camera.
Results of the research
During the filming, I found that the old forms of waiting changed a lot, and new forms of waiting are created because of Covid-19.
Firstly, some forms of writing disappear. In the past, the common form of waiting is that the customers always queue for seats in the restaurants. However, we cannot eat in restaurants now, so this form of waiting disappears.
Moreover, there are also some changes in the waiting. For example, the waiters no longer need to wait for actual customers. Now, they usually wait for takeaway orders on online platforms. Through the interview with the shop sellers, they also said that they need to wait for a long time even though they give low discounts.
Lastly, I also discovered that new kinds of waiting emerge. For example, there is superior waiting at the entries to check the travel code. Many delivery men are waiting outside the restaurants for their customers’ food.
Reflection
The escalators in the shopping mall connect all the floors together, facilitating people with different purposes to come to the mall. Therefore, the structure enables different groups of people to come here and stay in the mall, contributing to the hybrid characteristics of the mall. From the documentation of the mall, l also realized that the city also contains different groups of people and actions. Just from the shopping mall, I can see so many changes brought by the virus. I believe many actions and behaviors are also changed in the city.
Although the virus brings many negative effects to the mall and the city. People are still working hard and looking forward to taking off their masks one day. People with different purposes stay in the mall and city, but they all hope that our lives can get back to normal life before covid.
Script
Mambat is the biggest shopping mall in the city center. The multifunction of this mall enables many different forms of waiting， so l want to describe it as a hybrid place.In this small garden, people are always waiting for their friends or taking a rest. This escalator directly connects the garden with the dining area of the mall. At the entry, all the customers need to scan the code, and the supervisor is waiting for checking. After entering the dining area, it is found that all the chairs and tables in the small restaurants are stacked up, and entries are blocked by the tables because customers cannot eat in restaurants because of the government policies. Therefore, chairs and tables haven’t been used for a very long time. They may also wait for being used again. As usual, the server of the snake bar is waiting for new customers. When l pass through, most restaurants are empty, Only the waiters sit on the chairs and wait for new takeaway orders. For this restaurant, the takeaway food is always placed on these tables. And delivery men always wait here to pick up their customers’ food. After exploring the dining area, I went to the garment district with the escalators. And all the customers are standing and waiting on the escalators to get to their destinations. Because of covid, there are quite a few customers in this district, so most shops want to use low discounts to attract customers. Usually, shop sellers always need to wait for customers for a very long time. When l walked around, shop sellers are very enthusiastic and invite the customers to have a look in their shops. From the top of the mall, I can have an overview of the whole shopping mall. These escalators connect each floor with different functions together and enable people with different purposes to wait and travel across the whole mall. Although different people wait in the mall for different purposes, all of them hope that one day they can take their masks off and more customers can come here like the time before the covid.
-Shuhan, Xu 3035603643
Bibliography:
Austin R (1997) Not just for the fun of it: governmental restraints on black leisure, social inequality, and the privatization of public space. S Cal L Rev 71:667
Beiró, M.G., Bravo, L., Caro, D. et al. Shopping mall attraction and social mixing at a city scale. EPJ Data Sci. 7, 28 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-018-0157-5
Benoy. (2015). Mambat plaza. JOSé CARLOS QUELHAS l architect. Retrieved from https://www.josequelhas.com/mambat-plaza
Cohen L (1996) From town center to shopping center: the reconfiguration of community marketplaces in postwar America. Am Hist Rev 101(4):1050–1081
Dávila A (2016) El mall: the spatial and class politics of shopping malls in Latin America. 1st edn. University of California Press, California
Goss J (1993) The “magic of the mall”: an analysis of form, function, and meaning in the contemporary retail built environment. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 83(1):18–47
Inside Retail Asia (2020). Giant Mall for Capitamalls’ Suzhou Center. Inside Retail. Retrieved from https://insideretail.asia/2015/02/24/giant-mall-capitamalls-suzhou-center/
Lofland LH (2017) The public realm: exploring the city’s quintessential social territory. Routledge, London
Sennett R (1992) The uses of disorder: personal identity and city life. WW Norton & Company, New York
Stillerman J, Salcedo R (2012) Transposing the urban to the mall: routes, relationships, and resistance in two Santiago, Chile, shopping centers. J Contemp Ethnogr 41(3):309–336
Wakefield KL, Baker J (1998) Excitement at the mall: determinants and effects on shopping response. J Retail 74(4):515–539
Interesting one-take shots！It’s like a space tour that clearly demonstrated the structure of the mall and how hybrid it is. Some details were noticed and the lens were slowed down to emphasize the change in the mall’s hybrid. Through the records of the mall, we can also infer what has changed in the city. The malls are so complex, also acts as a microcity where people interact with each other.
Creative comparison between the different forms of waiting! The changes of the waiting purpose clearly show how the COVID-19 and the policy are changing the shopping area.
The shopping mall is a common and important part of a city centre, which demonstrates its hybrid feature by having various stores from restaurants, clothes, education instructions to entertainment.
Great organization for the one-shot documentary for composing a long shot of all kinds of shops and behaviors into a limited time! The hybrid of mall users’ behaviors are shown with a hybrid of paces of the clip. Waiting usually takes quite a considerable amount of time of all people in a shopping mall, whether you are shop keepers, deliveries, or customers. I can clearly sense the intention of showing the hybrid forms through the display of “post” pandemic changes to the mixture of people’s waiting habits.
I really like your video! I think that you did a good job on filming those one-take shots. I also appreciate the way that you showed the audience around the mall, and this really allows the audience to have a better understanding of the space in the mall. The COVID-19 pandemic indeed has had a great impact on the city, but I do not know that the pandemic even changes the forms of waitings in the shopping mall, so your research is very interesting and inspiring.
A great one-shot film! You take us on a first-hand look at the environment of the mall at the moment of the epidemic. This environment reflects the government’s response to the epidemic as well. For instance, many shops were all deserted and even the tables and chairs in the restaurants had been put away. Also, your commentary makes the whole film more clear and understandable, and I appreciate your very careful observation of the changes in the mall.
You seem to be interested in two aspects – (1) the design of the mall as hybrid and (2) how the mall was experienced during covid. Perhaps you could have focused on either aspect or made the connection between the two stronger. The use of the one-take shot is interesting but can be quite shaky at certain points, and does not really help one understand the overall layout of the mall. You have a rather substantial list of references but you can make use of in-text citations so that it is clearer how they informed your analysis.