Chasing the Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Landscapes in Skate Video

This article explores the centrality of China's cities to skate video; the most popular form for capturing, circulating, and consuming skateboarding. China's urban growth produces endless spots to skate; a spot is assemblage of objects and surfaces that offer the opportunity to perform skateboarding maneuvers (tricks). Skate video is the substance of skate culture, the once quintessentially Californian pastime turned global subculture and industry. After skateboarding left the skatepark for the streets in the 1990s, and once video became easier to circulate digitally through streaming platforms in the mid-2000s, the search for spots to perform and capture unsanctioned street skateboarding spread to China's urban landscapes, beginning with Shenzhen. China's cities are sites of global desire among skateboarders for the perfect surfaces and obstacles created in the built environment and the speed at which they are produced. Using skate video as an archive I make four arguments. First, China's cities imputed with a mythical character; endless spots produced with miraculous speed. Second, skate videos re-map China's cities through the skater's gaze, a form of urban knowledge both unique and widely shared. Third, the search for spots indexes urban development in China, privileging the recent and shunning the past. Fourth, skateboarding in China's cities create spaces for inter-cultural encounter between skateboarders and authority, the public and other skateboarders. The article concludes by discussing the utility of skate video as an alternative visual archive of urban China for foreign audiences and increasingly for skate communities in China itself.

Automated summary

This article explores the central role of China's cities in skateboarding videos, which have become the most popular form of capturing, circulating, and consuming skateboarding. China's urban growth has resulted in a plethora of skate spots, defined as assemblages of objects and surfaces that allow for skateboarding maneuvers. Skateboarding videos serve as a visual archive of skate culture, which has transformed from a quintessential Californian pastime to a global subculture and industry. By examining skate videos, the author argues that China's cities are imbued with a mythical character due to the abundant and rapidly produced skate spots. These videos also offer a unique and widely shared urban knowledge, reshaping the perception of China's cities. The search for spots in China's urban landscapes reflects urban development priorities, privileging the recent and disregarding the past. Moreover, skateboarding in China's cities creates spaces for inter-cultural encounters between skateboarders, authorities, the public, and other skateboarders. The article concludes by discussing the significance of skate videos as alternative visual archives of urban China for foreign audiences and local skate communities.