Design
Explaining a City in a Single Word or Phrase
In The Spirit of Cities, author Daniel A. Bell tries to capture a city's essence, in brief
BEIJING -- Describe a city in a phrase.
That's the task that Daniel A. Bell takes on in his new book, The Spirit of Cities: Why the Identity of a City Matters in a Global Age. Bell, Canadian-born but a longtime China resident, and his co-author Avner de-Shalit try to define nine cities by their "prevailing ethos." At first glance, the list seems screamingly obvious (Paris is the city of romance? Jerusalem religion? Who knew?). But it gets a little more interesting when Bell dives into Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore, all places he’s lived.