What are the most creative cities in East Asia?

Submitted by Jess Scully on Monday, 11 January 20104 Comments

We want your nom­in­a­tions for the most cre­at­ive cit­ies in East Asia. Does Tokyo take first place or does Seoul have it all? Is Bangkok the one to watch or does Ubud have the goods?

Ochanumitzu in Tokyo, home to the city's music stores and a thriving creative scene | Photo by Jess Scully

Ocha­nu­mitzu in Tokyo, home to the city’s music stores and a thriv­ing cre­at­ive scene | Photo by Jess Scully

Tell us what inspires you in your city, and which city you think we can learn from, and help us list the best our region has to offer.

We’re ask­ing our read­ers from around the world to answer three questions:

1. Where do you live?

2. What makes your city creative?

3. Which city, in your opin­ion, is the most cre­at­ive city in East Asia?

You can reply in a tweet (use the hashtag #cre­at­iveasia to help us find you) or com­ment in this art­icle. Be as brief or as detailed as you like.

Sculptures at the Tao Hong Tai Ceramics Factory in Ratchaburi, outside Bangkok | Photo by Jess Scully

Sculp­tures at the Tao Hong Tai Ceram­ics Fact­ory in Ratch­aburi, out­side Bangkok | Photo by Jess Scully

You could tell us which cre­at­ive indus­tries your city is home to — from film to fash­ion, craft and tex­tiles to gam­ing and IT, or many more — or about the cul­tural iden­tity of your city, as expressed through music, arts, design or performance.

Per­haps the strength of your city is in dis­tinct­ive urban forms, from lively streets to pub­lic spaces or land­marks that bring people together.

Or maybe your city’s strength is in policy, infra­struc­ture or even an atti­tude that encour­ages cre­at­ive think­ing.

Share your thoughts to build a list of the unique qual­it­ies our cit­ies have to offer. We’ll also be ask­ing some of the big names in the cre­at­ive fields, from our region and bey­ond, to share their thoughts on the cre­at­ive power-houses of East Asia, so check back to see what the best in the busi­ness think about your city.

4 Comments »

  • Jonas said:

    1. Where do you live?
    Hong Kong
    2. What makes your city cre­at­ive?
    Most cre­at­ive expres­sions cur­rently can be found born from con­straints applied by the olig­archy. Found in the every­day, every­where by the every­man, against what should be easy and encour­aging, to achieve what should already be the norm — social equal­ity, social mobil­ity, a sense of belong­ing and a sense of excite­ment.
    3. Which city, in your opin­ion, is the most cre­at­ive city in East Asia?
    Tokyo. Cre­at­ive as expressed by the (many many) indi­vidu­als, against a back­drop of unfazed tra­di­tions, but some­how employ­ing the very same traits ingrained in these cul­tures — hon­esty, atten­tion to details, love of the craft, and most import­antly of all — favor­ing devel­op­ment (qual­ity) over growth (quantity).

    11 January 2010 at 05:24
  • David Elliott said:

    1. Bangkok
    2. The ten­sion between order and chaos
    3. Tokyo: it embraces, and is entirely com­fort­able with, the ultra new and deeply tra­di­tional. Per­haps a cliche, but a young woman in full kimono regalia, walk­ing down the street play­ing 3G games on her phone, is indeed quite a com­mon sight.

    14 January 2010 at 07:40
  • Jess Scully (author) said:

    It seems CNNgo have already made their decision in this art­icle: http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/none/worlds-greatest-city-50-reasons-why-tokyo-no-1–903662

    While some of the 50 reas­ons are a little on the silly side, they also include a highly soph­ist­ic­ated rail net­work, a strong youth cul­ture expressed through cre­ativ­ity in fash­ion, pub­lish­ing (par­tic­u­larly manga) and design, and a vibrant and diverse night life, all of which are ele­ments of a cre­at­ive city.

    27 January 2010 at 04:18
  • Amber Parkin said:

    1. Where do you live?
    Auck­land, New Zealand.

    2. What makes your city cre­at­ive?
    The people/the dis­tance. Tak­ing inspir­a­tion from isol­a­tion. The unique influ­ence my city enjoys from Maori and Pacific island cultures.

    3. Which city, in your opin­ion, is the most cre­at­ive city in East Asia?
    Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia. Often described as a mini European city (Degraves Street espe­cially!), I love Mel­bourne for its arts and social scenes. It seems to have the mix just right — a pop­u­la­tion big enough to sus­tain a vibrant art ‘under­ground’, a love of food and drink, and pub­lic policies that seem to make it easier for fest­ivals to get off the ground, street art to hap­pen and for fab­ulous bars to pop up in unex­pec­ted spaces. Actu­ally, half of the bars seem like per­form­ance art/installations in their own right! Also, the city centre is eas­ily walk­able and the trams make get­ting every­where else a piece of cake. Ah, I love Melbourne!

    7 February 2010 at 04:28

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