Counter-Mapping the Lived Experiences of Ageing Residents in Historic Beijing: An Acupoint-Meridian Approach through Film

Counter-Mapping the Lived Experiences of Ageing Residents in Historic Beijing: An Acupoint-Meridian Approach through Film | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Counter-Mapping the Lived Experiences of Ageing Residents in Historic Beijing: An Acupoint-Meridian Approach through Film Yiqiao Sun, Guoqiang Shen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7173112/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper proposes a counter-mapping approach to visualising and analysing the everyday lived experiences of ageing residents in Beijing’s historic Hutong neighbourhoods through film. Adapting the metaphor of urban acupuncture, it introduces an acupoint–meridian framework that identifies emotionally and socially significant micro-sites (“acupoints”) in the neighbourhood and the repetitive, habitual routes and routines (“meridians”) that connect them. Through scene-by-scene analysis of two Chinese films— Mr. Six (2015) and The Old Barber (2006), the study reveals how ordinary places such as shaded benches, alley corners, and food stalls, as well as temporal rhythms of daily activities such as eating, working and resting, sustain continuity and belonging in later life. Together, these findings articulate a spatio-temporal diagnostic tool for urban design, demonstrating how this cinematic counter-mapping method can surface overlooked geographies of marginalised groups, and thus support more participatory and inclusive practices to historic neighbourhood renewal. counter-mapping cinematic cartography urban acupuncture ageing urban populations Beijing’s historic neighbourhoods Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 1. Introduction As cities undergo rapid redevelopment, particularly in historic neighbourhoods, the lived experiences of ageing residents are often overlooked in urban renewal design processes. Beijing’s historic Hutong districts are a particularly revealing case: these centuries-old vernacular dewellings, composed of courtyards and narrow lanes, have witnessed large-scale urban transformation that altered the demographic and spatial fabric of everyday life (Guo and Klein, 2005 ; Yang, 2016 ; Yu, 2017 ). Once characterised by dense, intergenerational communities and collective living memories (Wang, 2011 ), these Hutong neighbourhoods have experienced an accelerating exodus of younger residents to high-rise developments, leaving behind an ageing population whose daily routines now unfold within shrinking social circles and marginalised environments (Goldman, 2003 ). For many elderly residents, Beijing Hutongs are not merely physical dwellings but repositories of personal memory, identity, and long-term social embeddedness (Emery, Wu and Raghavan, 2015 ; Sun, 2025 ). Yet, despite such affective ties, urban regeneration projects often prioritise infrastructure upgrades, real estate speculation, and heritage branding over the nuanced, everyday spatial practices of ageing populations (Zhu and Ye, 2024 ). The result is a form of “quiet displacement” in which older adults, although not always forcibly relocated, experience symbolic and functional exclusion from emerging urban orders. This disjuncture between redevelopment urban designs and residents’ lived realities demands closer analytical attention—particularly in terms of how ageing individuals adapt to and resist the changing spatial and social contours of the historic city. This paper addresses this gap by turning to counter-mapping, a critical cartographic practice that foregrounds marginalised spatial knowledge and everyday lived realities often excluded from conventional design tools. The study seeks to find a means of counter-mapping to visualise and analyse the spatial and temporal dimensions of ageing residents’ urban experience in historic districts like the Hutong neighbourhoods, where spatial attachments are embedded in affective attachments and habitual routines rather than in easily quantifiable data. Inspired by the metaphor of urban acupuncture (Lerner, 2014), it proposes an acupoint-meridian mapping framework , wherein “acupoints” mark small-scale, anonymous places in the historic neighbourhood—shaded benches, alley corners, local stalls—that hold emotional and social significance for ageing residents, while “meridians” denote the slow, yet rhythmic daily routines that narratively connect these sites. By drawing on these dual metaphors, this counter-mapping framework identifies and elucidates the lived nodes and paths (Lefebvre, 1991 ) that are often obscured within the complex fabric of the urban environment, and thus foregrounds the often-overlooked micro-sites and habitual movements that shape the daily lives of ageing residents. To identify the acupoints and meridians in Beijing’s historic neighbourhoods, rather than employing traditional spatial tools or statistical models, the research uses film as a counter-mapping device , capable of capturing the embodied and narrative dimensions of ageing life in the city. Film offers a unique capacity to capture and convey atmosphere, temporal layering and sensory engagement (Penz, Reid and Thomas, 2017 )—especially critical when studying older populations whose relationships to intimate environments are often revealed through fixed routine and repetitive actions. Through framing, pacing, and narrative sequencing, cinema enables observation of how mundane settings acquire emotional depth through repetition and interaction. This makes film especially suited to the acupoint–meridian framework: it can illuminate how seemingly ordinary places (acupoints) take on heightened significance through repeated gestures, and how habitual routes (meridians) emerge across sequences of scenes. In contexts where older residents may struggle to articulate these attachments in participatory mapping, cinema provides a powerful alternative means of visualising the tacit, embodied dimensions of everyday life. This article thus treats film as a form of embodied cartography (Bruno, 2002 ), capable of tracing lived acupoints and meridians in ways inaccessible to conventional spatial analysis. Through cinematic analysis of two Beijing films— Mr. Six (2015) and The Old Barber (2006)—this study maps how elderly residents in historic Hutong neighbourhoods negotiate spatial familiarity, emotional attachment, and bodily routine within alleyways, courtyards, and rooms that are increasingly threatened by constant erasure and change. By using film as both medium and method of counter-mapping, the study seeks to complement existing urban design approaches with a perspective attentive to the temporal and embodied dimensions of ageing people’s inhabitant environment. The acupoint–meridian framework developed here highlights how modest, everyday sites and habitual routes and routines operate as anchors of continuity for older residents, particularly in historic urban areas like Beijing’s Hutongs that are facing redevelopment pressures. While the framework does not claim to replace established tools such as participatory mapping or GIS analysis, it provides urban designers with a diagnostic lens for recognising and supporting ordinary but socially vital spaces that might difficult to capture through other means. Overall, the study contributes to enriching age-sensitive and context-specific urban design strategies, while acknowledging that film remains a complementary mapping method for understanding lived urban experience and the micro-geographies. 2. Literature review 2.1 Ageing in urban regeneration projects Urban regeneration projects in historic neighbourhoods often leads to the displacement or marginalisation of ageing populations (de Oliveira et al., 2019 ). How to ensure spatial justice and equitable design for old-age residents in evolving urban and social environments has become central to discussions (Zhang et al., 2015 ; Chen et al., 2023 ; Prabowo and Temeljotov-Salaj, 2023 ; Ren and Chai, 2025 ; Zhang, Yan and Mao, 2025 ). While concept of “ageing in place” highlights the significance of neighbourhood familiarity, accessibility, and social inclusion for elderly people’s wellbeing (Costa-Font, Elvira and Mascarilla-Miró, 2009 ; Finlay et al., 2022 ), researches document how the elderly faces increasingly fragmented urban environments in Beijing’s historic neighbourhoods, marked by declining accessibility and shrinking social networks due to processes of displacement and gentrification (Zhang, 2012 ; Wang et al., 2020 ; Wang and Gao, 2021 ). On the one hand, the large scale demolishment has forced their family members and familiar contacts to relocate to new high-rise or suburban areas (Goldman, 2003 ); on the other hand, the left Hutong communities are transformed under state-led agendas of heritage preservation or aesthetic “beautification”, which frequently disregard the lived experiences of long-term residents (Wu, 2016 ). These interventions, driven by top-down planning and symbolic narratives, risk severing elderly residents’ psychological attachment to place and destabilising their everyday routines (Gao and Cheng, 2020 ). Beyond China, urban ageing has been linked to broader processes of urban transformation and spatial inequality. Scholars have demonstrated how old-age people are especially vulnerable to socio-spatial exclusion under speculative development, particularly in gentrifying heritage areas (García and Rúa, 2018 ; Prabowo and Temeljotov-Salaj, 2023 ). Yet despite growing recognition of urging design practices for “age-friendly” (Buffel and Phillipson, 2016 ; Wang et al., 2020 ), many planning and analytical frameworks remain ill-equipped to capture the lived, embodied, and affectively rich experiences of older residents. This gap points to the need for alternative tools and perspectives that can visualise and foreground the intimate geographies of ageing in transforming urban environments. 2.2 Urban acupuncture as urban regeneration strategy In response to this gap, urban acupuncture is a design and planning approach that targets strategic micro-sites to catalyse broader urban transformation. Originally proposed by Spanish architect Manuel de Sola-Morales (De Solà-Morales, 2008 ), the concept draws from the logic of acupuncture medicine—activating precise points to restore systemic balance—and has since been developed further by Brazilian architect Jaime Lerner and Finnish architect Marco Casagrande (Hoogduyn, 2014 ). Across a rich body of related discourse, urban acupuncture has gradually evolved into a people-centric, sustainable planning tactic for urban regeneration. It commonly sheds light on informal, small-scale initiatives that enliven unnoted urban places and encourages planners and decision-makers to address urban issues through low-cost interventions, often framed as a process of bio-urban healing (Naghibi, Faizi and Ekhlassi, 2020 ; Nassar, 2021 ; Pascaris, 2021 ; Salman and Hussein, 2021 ). However, most urban acupuncture strategries remain primarily focused on physical form and spatial activation, with less attention paid to the lived experiences of socially marginalised groups. For example, in the case of Taipei, Casagrande ( 2012 ) identifies unofficial community gardens and urban farms as key “acupoints” that activate idle spaces through residents’ self-organised activities (Casagrande, 2012 ). Similarly, Hoogduyn’s Amsterdam case study highlights cafés, churches, and schools as catalytic sites for community revitalisation, but does not specifically consider the distinct spatial and social needs of ageing populations (Hoogduyn, 2014 ). This presents an important gap: while urban acupuncture is celebrated as a bottom-up and participatory approach, its implementation frequently universalises community needs, overlooking the differentiated vulnerabilities and practices of older adults. Hence, addressing this issue requires a diagnostic mapping device that can reveal where and how ageing residents already anchor their daily lives, before any design interventions are introduced. 2.3 Film as counter-mapping device Regarding the need for a more resident-centred diagnostic approach, counter-mapping has emerged as a key practice for reclaiming experiential and marginalised spatial knowledge. Counter-mapping challenges the dominance of technocratic, top-down spatial models by foregrounding the narrative and everyday dimensions of place-making (Peluso, 1995 ; Dalton and Mason-Deese, 2012 ). While traditional cartography has been re-evaluated for its role in spatial abstraction and control (Harley, 1992 ; Crampton, 2011 ), counter-mapping reorients attention to the spatial knowledge embedded in lived routines and sensory experience (Perkins, 2008 ). In urban design, counter-mapping has been embraced as a method to document, contest, and reimagine urban spaces through practices that resist dominant narratives (Harris and Hazen, 2005 ; Goodchild, 2007 ). Participatory mapping projects, often involving community members, have been used to surface local knowledge and articulate alternative spatial imaginaries that challenge exclusionary planning practices (Elwood, 2006 ; McCall and Dunn, 2012 ). However, much of this work has focused on spatial analysis through participatory GIS, cognitive cartography, and digital data visualization, leaving the temporal and atmospheric aspects of urban life, particularly for older residents, insufficiently explored. Film offers a way to address this methodological gap. Scholars have argued that cinematic representation captures the affective and narrative qualities of space (AlSayyad, 2006 ), offering a more embodied form of cartography (Bruno, 1993 , 2002 ). By visualizing gestures and atmosphere, film enables a mapping of urban life that transcends static, abstract models (Penz, 2022 ). It has been proved that cinema has great potential to represent complex urban spatialities and temporalities (Clarke, 2002 ; Stierli, 2013 ), to reveal the lived realities of place (Lukinbeal and Zimmermann, 2006 ), and to convey the layered interplay of physical and social geographies (Harper and Rayner, 2010 ). Nevertheless, (fiction) film, as a form of artistic representation, never truly mirrors urban reality (Koeck, 2013 ). In films, a pre-existing reality is always imbued with the filmmaker’s intentions and aesthetic strategies. Equipped with the capability of creating “creative geography” (Penz, 2008 ), film is, in Bazin’s words, “a preservation of life by a representation of life” (Bazin and Gray, 1960 ). This means that cinematic depictions selectively frame and assemble spatial fragments, sometimes even blending different sites into a single narrative setting. Yet these very characteristics also highlight why film is valuable as a counter-mapping device. By assembling fragments, staging atmospheres, and emphasising gestures and routines, cinema does not merely document urban life but can provide some sort of revelation concerning everyday life (Lefebvre, 2014 ), and then translates affective and temporal textures into forms that can be analysed. It provides a complementary diagnostic tool alongside ethnographic and participatory methods, one particularly suited to uncovering tacit attachments and everyday practices that are otherwise difficult to capture. While cinematic analysis has been employed in urban theory for decades (Penz and Lu, 2011 ; Pratt and San Juan, 2014 ), its potential for revealing the lived realities of marginalized groups—such as ageing residents in historic urban centres—remains underdeveloped. By integrating counter-mapping with cinematic analysis, this study builds on existing scholarship in critical cartography and cinematic urbanism while proposing a novel method for visualizing the lived city—one that prioritizes the atmospheric and experiential dimensions of individual’s daily inhabited environment. 3. Methodology This study adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach that integrates cinematic analysis with the conceptual framework of acupoint-meridian mapping , reimagined for the purpose of counter-mapping the everyday lived experiences of ageing people in contexts of urban transformation. 3.1 Conceptual framing The conceptual basis for this research’s methodology is structured around the acupoint–meridian framework, inspired by the logic of traditional acupuncture but adapted as a diagnostic tool for urban design. It reconceptualises the city as a similarly dynamic organism composed of both a hard skeleton (infrastructure and built form) and a soft skin (sensory and affective experience) (Fig. 1). Within this reframing, “acupoints” are conceived as small-scale, often anonymous places in one’s inhabited neighbourhood where meaningful daily interactions unfold. Complementing this, “meridians” are novelly introduced as patterned, time-based narrative paths that connect these acupoints, forming a rhythmic and embodied cartography of daily life. Unlike the original acupuncture method in urban design, which identifies critical micro-sites for targeted interventions, this approach does not prescribe interventions but reveals how such lived nodes already function as anchors of daily lived paths. In doing so, it offers designers a diagnostic perspective : a way to see which ordinary places support the daily continuity and local attachment, and why these places may be more critical for ageing residents. Crucially, this acupoint-meridian framework enables the mapping of experiential space from the perspective of elderly residents, whose spatial practices and voices are frequently overlooked in processes of urban redevelopment. By making visible their embodied routines and spatial attachments, the method engages with broader debates in critical cartography and age-friendly urban design, highlighting dimensions of urban life that are often overlooked in conventional planning and spatial representation. Film is particularly well-suited to operationalising this framework. Its narrative and visual qualities are capable of identifying small yet narratively significant places in historic neighbourhoods that may be central to ageing residents’ daily experiences but are absent from conventional mapping outputs. Through cinematic analysis, the study traces acupoints and meridians by observing where characters repeatedly dwell, pause, or interact, and how these micro-sites are connected by recurring paths or routines. 3.2 Data and case selection To operationalise the acupoint–meridian framework, this study focuses on two contemporary Chinese films set in Beijing’s representative historic neighbourhood (ShiChaHai, 什刹海): Mr. Six (2015, Guan Hu) and The Old Barber (2006, Hasi Chaolu). First, both foreground ageing protagonists whose lives unfold in close relationship to Hutong spaces. Mr. Six follows an elderly former street figure navigating the tensions between old neighbourhood codes and encroaching urban modernity, while The Old Barber depicts an ageing barber’s daily routines within the intimate networks of a Hutong community. Second, both films situate these personal narratives within the broader context of Hutong transformation. Their storylines highlight precisely the kinds of quiet displacement and marginalisation faced by older residents, providing rich material for tracing acupoints and meridians that reveal how ageing residents adapt to and resist urban change. Third, the two films complement each other in terms of narrative style and spatial scope. Mr. Six , with its dramatic storyline and broader coverage of urban settings, offers a spatially expansive lens for identifying diverse acupoints. By contrast, The Old Barber , employs a semi-documentary style that spans ten discontinuous days, largely confined to interior and courtyard settings, thereby foregrounding the repetitive, habitual meridians that structure the protagonist’s daily life. Together, these films provide contrasting but complementary perspectives: one mapping the distributed micro-sites of ageing life across the Hutong fabric, and the other highlighting the temporal rhythms and embodied routines that anchor everyday continuity. This combination strengthens the diagnostic potential of the acupoint–meridian framework by showing how cinematic counter-mapping can capture both spatial nodes and temporal rhythms that are critical for age-sensitive urban design. 3.3 Analytic methods Data were collected through repeated viewings of Mr. Six and The Old Barber , combined with detailed scene-by-scene analysis, which concentrated on visual and narrative elements that convey spatial experience. Framing, camera movement, light, and sound were examined to capture the atmosphere of settings and the affective charge of ordinary places. Filmic techniques—including pacing, mise-en-scène, and editing—were also analysed, as these shape how spaces are sequenced and experienced by characters. Through this process, significant locations where elderly characters repeatedly pause or interact were coded as “acupoints”, while recurrent trajectories and routines connecting these sites were coded as “meridians”. Coding was informed by spatial and temporal criteria. Spatial acupoints were considered significant not only when explicitly highlighted in dialogue or narrative action, but also when revealed through subtle repetitions, such as the daily pause of a character under a shaded tree. Temporal meridians were identified by tracking characters’ movements across the neighbourhood—whether walking, cycling, or engaging in routine errands—thereby revealing the embodied rhythms of ageing life in Hutongs. Findings were subsequently translated into mapping strategies tailored to each film. For Mr. Six , spatial acupoints were mapped using a psychogeographical approach (Wood, 2010 ) combined with filmic suture theory (Butte, 2017 ) to reveal how fragmented spaces are narratively stitched into coherent personal geographies. For The Old Barber , adapted time-geographic diagrams (Hägerstrand, 1977 ) and rhythmanalytical tools (Lefebvre, 2013) were used to visualise recurring spatial categories and their temporal sequence. By integrating visual analysis with theoretical framing, this methodology provides a counter-mapping approach that foregrounds the micro-geographies and fragile routines that hold meaning in the lives of those often marginalised by planning discourse. 4. Findings 4.1 Spatial Acupoint-Meridians of Hutong neighbourhood in “Mr. Six” 4.1.1 Identifying Mr. Six’s lived trajectories and significant locations A close reading of Mr. Six reveals a set of modest but recurring locations in the ShiChaHai neighbourhood that function as spatial acupoints within the protagonist’s everyday life. These sites are not distinguished by architectural form or official heritage value, but acquire significance through repeated appearances and the protagonist’s embodied interactions with them. Taken together, they outline the contours of his lived trajectories and indicate how ordinary places—alley corners, street stalls, or small gathering spots—serve as anchors of routine and social connection in the midst of neighbourhood change. The film’s narrative and cinematography play a central role in making these acupoints visible. The camera follows Mr. Six not only through movement but through pause, hesitation, and return, revealing a deeply personal geography of lived space. Key locations emerge (Fig. 2), such as his modest courtyard home (Point B), the nearby convenience store (Point A), the alleyway where he pauses to talk with neighbours (Point H), and the lakeside bar where he meets friends (Point F). Each of these places gains significance through repeated appearances and accumulated social interaction. The frozen Houhai Lake (Point E) serves as a particularly charged acupoint—where Mr. Six reflects, confides in friends, and ultimately collapses. Long takes, ambient sound, and minimal dialogue transform this public site into a space of personal contemplation and vulnerability. The mobile breakfast booth near Yinding Bridge (Point C) further illustrates how informal, mundane sites can become significant acupoints. Its repeated appearance across scenes—framed with slow pans and intimate dialogue—marks it as a social node where Mr. Six shares camaraderie with ageing peers. These scenes convey the atmospheric thickness of daily life, reinforcing the importance of such spaces for elderly residents who have remained in neighbourhoods increasingly stripped of younger locals and familiar contacts. However, not all acupoints in Mr.Six can be directly located on the physical map of ShiChaHai. Many buildings in the area have been demolished or redeveloped, prompting the filmmakers to construct artificial neighbourhood sets that simulate a lived historic environment. These “creative geographies” (Alifragkis and Penz, 2006 , p. 228) include imaginary locations like the “Jing Wei Xiao Chao(京味小炒)” restaurant, where Mr. Six reconciles with his son. While such spaces may not correspond to actual sites, their cinematic construction underscores which types of everyday settings carry narrative and emotional weight. In this sense, the film produces a hybrid geography—interweaving real and imagined locations—that models the lived ShiChaHai from the perspective of its inhabitants’ personal experiences and memories. 4.1.2 Cinematic suture mappings of ShiChaHai neighbourhood The cinematic environment depicted in Mr. Six cannot be mapped through conventional cartographic methods, since orientation, distance, and morphology are often reconfigured for narrative purposes. Nevertheless, film itself functions as a form of cartography: as Bruno suggests, its “haptic way of site-seeing turns pictures into an architecture”, enabling spectators to construct mental maps of lived space (Bruno, 2002 , p. 18). In line with the protagonist’s movement, the film produces an experience-based geography in which real and imagined places are stitched together into a coherent urban world. Drawing on suture film theory (Butte, 2017 , p. 20), a cinematic suture map where physical spaces detached from their original urban context are narratively restructured in line with a character’s daily behaviour pattern may be a novel model approach to visually model and illustrate the lived geography of ageing residents. In the case of Mr Six , the real ShiChaHai environment is deconstructed into “a whole of small bits of space”(Perec, 1997 )(the Yinding bridge, the Houhai park, the Gulou tower, the main streets, etc.), mingled with the imaginary/artificial ones (the Shaking bar, the “Jing Wei Xiao Chao” restaurant, and the protagonist’s home). Movement lines within the narrative stitch these fragments together, forming a cinematic suture map of ShiChaHai area. Consider, for example, a typical morning route (Fig. 3a). The protagonist begins in his courtyard home (Point A, imaginary), exits through the back gate, and walks to Houhai Lake (Point B, real), where he greets neighbours. He continues across Yinding Bridge (Point C) and stops at the breakfast booth (Point D), then later skates alone on the frozen lake (Point E) and visits a bar owned by a friend (Point F, imaginary). Though spatially disjointed, these scenes are narratively continuous, allowing the spectator to reconstruct a mental map of the protagonist’s urban world. When overlaid on the city’s “hard skeleton”, this creates a lived cartography of acupoints and meridians (Fig. 3b). Landmarks such as the Gulou Tower provide spatial orientation, but it is the repetition of gestures and interactions that delineate the acupoints. This mapping method highlights the infrastructural invisibility of spaces that are vital to those ageing in place—spaces often erased by large-scale redevelopment or ignored in planning documents. 4.1.3 Cinematic acupoints vs physical nodes The identification of acupoints in Mr. Six can be further contextualised by comparing them with conventional urban mapping approaches, which also emphasise nodal points but in a largely geometric or physical sense. Lynch’s influential theory of the “image of the city” identifies nodes as strategic spots for orientation, typically at junctions of paths or in central squares (Fig. 4a) (Lynch, 1960 ). These nodes form part of a legible mental map, offering abstract symbols of how users perceive urban space. Space Syntax theory, developed by Hillier and Hanson and elaborated by others, similarly highlights nodes, but through axial maps derived from the topological geometry of street networks (Fig. 4b) (Jiang and Claramunt, 2002 ; Bafna, 2003 ). By mathematically modelling connectivity, the method predicts movement flows and route preferences, emphasising junctions as “topological nodes” of social and spatial interaction. While both frameworks acknowledge human behaviour and perception, their nodes remain tied to the physical configuration of the city, rather than to the lived and affective significance stressed in the urban acupuncture metaphor. Applied to the ShiChaHai neighbourhood, these physical models identify a number of important sites. An axial map generated using DepthmapX highlights three highly integrated main streets as the most likely to attract pedestrian flows, with their junctions marked as the primary nodes of connectivity (Fig. 5a). A Lynchian mental map, drawn according to the five elements, similarly draws attention to bridges, metro stations, and main road intersections as key nodes within the public image of ShiChaHai (Fig. 5b). Both approaches converge on certain points, most notably the Yinding Bridge, which emerges as a central orientation node across models. Interestingly, the cinematic mapping also identifies Yinding Bridge (Point C) as a significant acupoint, a place where Mr. Six greets friends and encounters daily incidents. The overlap across mappings suggests that physical accessibility and social routine reinforce each other at certain sites. Other overlaps are evident: Point I, a street junction at the edge of the neighbourhood where Mr. Six finally meets his son, appears on all three maps. Such coincidences illustrate how infrastructural integration can coincide with lived significance, for example when breakfast stalls or other informal activities cluster around transportation nodes. At the same time, the cinematic approach highlights acupoints with no equivalent in conventional models. Anonymous street corners where neighbours pause to talk (Point H), the frozen Houhai Lake where Mr. Six skates and confides in a friend (Point E), and the local restaurant where he reconciles with his son (Point G) all function as lived nodes, but are invisible in Lynchian or Space Syntax representations. Their significance lies not in geometry or flow but in repetition and narrative emphasis. For example, the Houhai skating rink recurs across three separate scenes, marking Point E as both a routine setting and a site of emotional intensity. These comparisons highlight how cinematic mapping expands the concept of the “node.” By juxtaposing these perspectives, the findings suggest that cinematic counter-mapping provides a complementary tool for urban analysis. It demonstrates that everyday practices often cluster around, but sometimes diverge from, the mathematically or visually significant nodes of the built environment. In doing so, it adds a humanised dimension to conventional models, revealing how ordinary spaces—such as a skating rink or a breakfast booth—become crucial anchors in the lived routines of ageing residents. 4.2 Temporal Meridian-acupoints of ageing Hutong life in “The Old Barber” 4.2.1 Identifying the old barber’s rhythmic routines and places Urban space is experienced not only spatially but also temporally. For older residents in particular, spatial meaning often emerges less from novelty than from repetition and routine. Daily life follows long-standing rhythms shaped by biological regulation, habit, and social ties, even as the surrounding environment shifts. Identifying these rhythmic routines offers critical insight into how ageing bodies’ engage with “place” and maintain continuity amid urban change. Drawing from Georges Perec’s insight that to live is to pass from one kind space to another (Perec, 1997 , p. 6), the protagonist’s environment in The Old Barber can be categorised into a constellation of places : the bed, the room, the courtyard, the alley, and adjacent urban sites such as restaurants or clients’ homes. These repeated transitions bind together moments and places through the steady thread of everyday activity. In The Old Barber , the protagonist’s days unfold with remarkable temporal regularity. Rising at 6 a.m., he prepares his tools, visits clients, eats lunch at 12 noon, plays mah-jong, and retires to bed by 9 p.m. The repetition of these gestures across spaces forms a cyclical patterned routine that links different types of places in a stabilising sequence every 24 hours (Fig. 6): the courtyard where he unlocks his tricycle, the client’s room where he offers not only haircuts but companionship, the dining table where he eats alone—each becomes an emotionally charged site, revisited in time. Across the film’s ten discontinuous days, a fixed structure of movement and rest emerges, closely resembling ethnographic accounts of ageing in historic Chinese neighbourhoods, where routine movement preserves autonomy and social contact (Gao and Cheng, 2020 ; Wang et al., 2020 ). This routine can be summarised as follows: Time Activity Space 06:00 Gets up Bed 06:10 Freshens up, inserts dentures, brushes hair Room 07:00 Checks the daily agenda Room 08:30 Unlocks tricycle, exits home Courtyard 08:35 Rides through neighbourhood Hutong 09:00 Arrives at customer ’ s home Customer ’ s courtyard 09:10 Prepares tools Customer ’ s room 09:20 Cuts hair Customer ’ s room 09:40 Gives massage Customer ’ s room 11:30 Takes food from local restaurant Urban space (restaurant) 12:00 Has lunch Room 13:00 Visits another client Customer ’ s room 14:00 Returns home Courtyard 14:30 Plays mah-jong with friends, watches TV Room 16:00 Chats with son Room 21:00 Removes dentures, turns off light, goes to sleep Bed In a context where urban change often disrupts elder residents’ mental maps and social ties, repetition becomes a tactic of place-making. By tracking these repeated movements, we can visualize his day as a temporal meridian —a recurring sequence of spatial acupoints connected through lived time. Figure 7a presents this as an “electrocardiogram-like” diagram: the x-axis charts film time (~ 100 minutes), while the y-axis lists five spatial categories. Vertical bars mark duration, while connecting lines trace transitions. A complementary pie chart (Fig. 7b) shows the proportion of time in each space, and highlights the density of dwelling and the tempo of transitions. Together, these diagrams demonstrate the temporal architecture of daily life, which reveals not only the where, but the when and how often of spatial occupation. 4.2.2 Cinematic time-space mappings of ShiChaHai neighbourhood Traditional urban analysis frequently abstracts movement into functional diagrams or GIS-based trajectories, but such tools often overlook the affective and embodied dimensions of ageing life. To address this, the acupoint–meridian method integrates time-geography with cinematic analysis. Developed by Torsten Hägerstrand, time-geography introduces time as a vertical dimension layered onto a two-dimensional spatial map, producing a three-dimensional model of movement (Hägerstrand, 1977 , p. 62). This system, further elaborated by Lenntorp, enables dynamic modeling of individual movement, capturing how people traverse different places in time(Lenntorp, 1978 , p. 163). While valuable, this approach risks reducing daily life to a geometric trace—what Tom Mels critiques as “unsensual and disembodied” (Mels, 2004 , p. 16). The acupoint-meridian mapping method brought up in this study addresses this gap by integrating rhythmic repetition, affective experience, and spatial specificity. Within this framework, time-space coordinates are not simply plotted as neutral activities. Rather, each site of action—whether brushing one’s hair or serving a meal—constitutes a spatial acupoint . The links between them, the meridians , are not just trajectories of movement, but rhythmic paths composed of repetition, variation, and emotional charge. Figure 8a presents a temporal meridian-acupoints diagram, adapted from time-geography and infused with rhythmanalytical insight. Here, we construct a vertical axis of time layered onto horizontal spatial acupoints—bed, room, courtyard, alley, and broader neighbourhood. Vertical tubes indicate activities in specific locations, with their height corresponding to duration. Connecting lines trace the protagonist’s daily path, forming a rhythmic sequence that links lived nodes into a temporal meridian. Figure 8b refines this into a color-coded rhythmic structure of the protagonist’s day, revealing moments of prolonged dwelling, transitional pauses, and habitual flows. These visualized meridians reveal more than routine—they illustrate the temporal architecture of Hutong life: the syncopated dance between mobility and stillness, solitude and sociability. Crucially, these mappings make visible the temporal texture of Hutong life. They reveal how repetition creates place, how tempo alters with ageing, and how seemingly ordinary actions—unlocking a tricycle, removing dentures, eating alone—embed emotional resonance into space. these meridians are not merely reflective of one man’s routine. By capturing the rhythmic meridian-acupoints through film, the method provides urban designers with a diagnostic tool for recognising how older residents inhabit time as much as space. 5. Discussion 5.1 An acupuncture diagnostic lens on everyday geographies The findings of this study demonstrate that the acupoint-meridian framework, operationalised through cinematic analysis, offers a novel counter-mapping approach that makes visible the lived experiences of ageing residents in Beijing’s historic neighbourhoods. This framework does not merely visualise spatial and temporal practices; it highlights how ordinary, often-overlooked places function as anchors of continuity in later life. Using two Hutong films as case studies, the analysis draws attention to the micro-sites and recurrent movement patterns that constitute older adults’ urban geographies, revealing the narrative and affective dimensions of their lived environments—qualities that are frequently absent in conventional design models. In doing so, it extends the repertoire of tools available to urban designers by providing a diagnostic lens attuned to the everyday geographies of ageing. The acupoints and meridians identified in Mr. Six and The Old Barber reveal important similarities. In both cases, older residents’ geographies are structured less by exceptional landmarks than by ordinary settings embedded in daily routine. Whether it is Mr. Six gathering with friends at a breakfast stall or the barber playing cards each evening in his room, these small-scale, recurrent practices demonstrate how compressed and localised spatialities sustain identity and belonging in later life. Such findings underscore for designers the importance of recognising how seemingly mundane places support age-friendly environments. At the same time, the two films highlight complementary emphases. Mr. Six foregrounds a spatial diagnostic perspective, where acupoints—alley corners, bridges, lakeside stones—are stitched together through cinematic suture into a hybrid neighbourhood map that reveals which ordinary places anchor social life. The Old Barber , by contrast, foregrounds a temporal diagnostic perspective, where the cyclical repetition of eating, working, and resting binds together bed, room, courtyard, and alley into a rhythmanalytical framework that reveals the duration and frequency of occupation. Taken together, the two films articulate a spatio-temporal diagnostic framework for understanding ageing in historic neighbourhoods, where ordinary spaces and repetitive rhythms co-produce a sense of belonging. For urban designers, this synthesis points to the need for tools that capture not only where older residents dwell but also when and how often , recognising that continuity depends as much on temporal rhythm as on spatial form. In practice, such a diagnostic framework expands the vocabulary of urban design, and encourages interventions that are not only spatially sensitive but temporally attuned to the rhythms of ageing life. 5.2 A cinematic approach to counter-mapping marginalised life This study demonstrates how cinematic analysis can serve as a rich medium for counter-mapping marginalised life, particularly in revealing the lived geographies of ageing residents who are often overlooked in urban redevelopment. In the Hutongs of Beijing, where redevelopment has often rendered long-time inhabitants invisible, film re-centres their presence. The protagonists in Mr. Six and The Old Barber navigate urban spaces that are no longer structured for them. Their movements—skating on Houhai Lake, revisiting familiar stalls, offering haircuts to neighbours—make visible an alternative urban logic grounded in familiarity and care. By employing film as a mapping tool, this study expands the conceptual possibilities of counter-mapping. Unlike conventional maps that rely on abstraction and spatial quantification, cinematic mapping captures embodied, narrative, and relational experiences. In ageing contexts, these qualities are crucial. Where participatory GIS or sketch mapping may emphasise spatial logic, film offers a richer depiction of how spaces are lived . This is particularly evident in the counter-mapping constructed through Mr. Six and The Old Barber . In The Old Barber , for example, the protagonist’s repetitive circuits—rising at dawn, working for his clients, eating at a local restaurant, returning home—constitute an alternative temporal order to the fast-paced, productivity-driven rhythms of modern urban life. This temporal-spatial pattern makes the intertwining urban life in the historic neighbourhoods explicit by marking the significant lived anchors of the elderly. In Mr. Six , cinematic suturing of real and fictional locations visualises a neighbourhood not as a functional layout, but as an emotionally charged environment where personal social ties and personal identity sustain amidst urban change. 5.3 An age-inclusive implication to urban design The acupoint-meridian approach offers important implications for age-friendly urban design. It underscores that ageing is not only a demographic or policy issue, but also a spatial and design one—shaped by the quality of everyday environments and the continuity of embodied routines. As urban regeneration advances, older residents’ needs—quiet benches, consistent paths, familiar faces——are often sidelined in favour of aestheticisation or commercial viability. The findings suggest that design practices must move beyond visual coherence or infrastructure upgrades to embrace the micro-habits and emotional geographies that support late-life dwelling. Elements such as modest sitting spaces, familiar paths, or long-term social networks emerge as key components of urban health and inclusion. These micro-infrastructures are not peripheral but central to a city’s capacity to care. It also suggests that preserving spatial familiarity and acknowledging everyday rhythms is essential to sustaining ageing communities, particularly in contexts like Beijing’s Hutongs where displacement and aestheticisation often undermine continuity. Cinematic counter-mapping enables designers and planners to see these overlooked realities, fostering a more inclusive cartographic imagination. In doing so, it equips urban design with the conceptual and visual tools to see, value, and sustain the lived experiences of older people. 5.4 Limitations and Challenges While the cinematic acupoint–meridian approach proposed in this study contributes a novel diagnostic perspective, several limitations and challenges should be recognised when considering its application in urban design. First , film, shaped by directors’ aesthetic intentions, inevitably involves processes of staging and editing, and may create “creative geographies” that blend real and imagined locations (Penz, 2008 ). As such, cinematic depictions cannot be taken as straightforward mirrors of reality (Koeck, 2013 ). Instead, they offer partial, affectively charged perspectives that illuminate certain aspects of lived experience. Second , the representational power of film raises questions of transferability. The acupoints and meridians traced in Mr. Six and The Old Barber are grounded in the specific socio-spatial fabric of Beijing’s Hutong neighbourhoods, where the issue of ageing, displacement, and heritage transformation intersect in distinctive ways. Applying the framework in other contexts requires caution: not all urban environments possess the same density of memory-laden micro-sites, nor do all cultural settings value repetition and routine in the same way. This raises the challenge of how far insights derived from cinematic counter-mapping are generalisable beyond this particular case. Third , there are methodological challenges for integration into professional design practice. Urban designers are accustomed to working with measurable data, GIS analyses, and participatory mapping outputs. Cinematic counter-mapping, by contrast, produces qualitative, affective insights that may be less immediately actionable. The challenge, therefore, lies in translating film-based findings into design vocabularies that can inform planning processes. Without careful interpretation, there is a risk of either romanticising cinematic atmospheres or overlooking the practical constraints of urban development. Finally , ethical and epistemological considerations arise in using film as a proxy for lived experience. While cinema can vividly capture routines and atmospheres, it cannot replace direct engagement with residents themselves. Participatory approaches remain crucial for validating and grounding insights in lived realities. In this sense, cinematic counter-mapping should be seen not as a stand-alone solution but as a complementary diagnostic tool, one that enriches existing practices of participatory design and critical cartography. 6. Conclusion This study has examined the lived experiences of ageing residents in Beijing’s Hutong neighbourhoods through an acupoint–meridian framework operationalised by cinematic counter-mapping. Using Mr. Six (2015) and The Old Barber (2006), it identified how spatial acupoints—such as benches, bridges, and courtyards—and temporal meridians—such as daily routines of eating, working, and resting—together sustain continuity and belonging in later life. The two films highlight complementary perspectives: Mr. Six reveals a spatial map where ordinary places anchor social life, while The Old Barber demonstrates a temporal map where repetitive rhythms of routine provide stability. Taken together, these findings illustrate how ageing in historic neighbourhoods is maintained through spatio-temporal practices that are often invisible in conventional planning tools. The key contribution of this study to urban design lies in proposing a spatio-temporal diagnostic tool that highlights both overlooked micro-places and the often-invisible rhythms of daily life. By capturing and visualising these ordinary anchors through the lens of cinema, and analysing them within a reframed acupoint–meridian framework, the study demonstrates how design practice can better recognise and sustain the lived geographies that underpin ageing in place. Unlike conventional models such as GIS or Space Syntax, which privilege measurable connectivity, or participatory mapping, which relies on co-produced accounts, cinematic counter-mapping offers an alternative proxy for lived experience that foregrounds affect, atmosphere, and repetition. This reframing expands the vocabulary of urban design, encouraging practitioners to see modest infrastructures—food stalls, shaded paths, courtyards, small meeting nodes—not as peripheral amenities but as critical sites of age-inclusive continuity. At the same time, the study acknowledges the interpretive nature of cinematic analysis. Films do not mirror urban reality directly; they mediate it through narrative construction and creative geography. Yet this selectivity is also what makes them valuable: cinema translates the facets that otherwise hard to be captured and analysed––everyday gestures, routines, bodily rhythms, and affective attachments––into forms that can be visualised and debated. As such, cinematic counter-mapping should not be seen as a substitute for participatory or ethnographic engagement, but as a complementary tool that enriches design research. Future work might extend this approach by testing the acupoint–meridian framework across other urban contexts or marginalised groups. For urban design, the broader implication is clear: sustaining age-friendly environments requires attention not only to physical accessibility but also to the temporal and affective infrastructures that underpin belonging. By situating older residents’ everyday practices at the centre of design imagination, this study contributes to more inclusive and resilient strategies for historic neighbourhoods facing rapid urban change. Declarations Funding Declaration The author received no financial support. Declaration of Interest The author declares no conflict of interest. Author Contribution Yiqiao Sun led the research design, theoretical development, case study analysis, and manuscript writing. She conceptualized the acupoint-meridian mapping framework and conducted the cinematic analysis of case studies.Guoqiang Shen provided overall supervision, critical revisions, and theoretical guidance throughout the project. He contributed to refining the methodological framing and ensuring the academic rigor of the final manuscript. Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my PhD supervisor at Cambridge University, Professor François Penz, for his invaluable guidance, insightful feedback, and continuous support throughout the development of this research. His mentorship greatly shaped the conceptual foundations of this work. References Alifragkis, S. and Penz, F. (2006) ‘Spatial dialectics: montage and spatially organised narrative in stories without human leads’, Digital Creativity , 17(4), pp. 221–233. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14626260601074136 . AlSayyad, N. (2006) Cinematic urbanism: a history of the modern from reel to real / Nezar AlSayyad . New York ; London: Routledge. Bafna, S. (2003) ‘Space Syntax: A Brief Introduction to Its Logic and Analytical Techniques’, Environment and Behavior , 35(1), pp. 17–29. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916502238863 . Bazin, A. and Gray, H. (1960) ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’, Film Quarterly , 13(4), pp. 4–9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/1210183 . Bruno, G. (1993) Streetwalking on a Ruined Map: Cultural Theory and the City Films of Elvira Notari . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Bruno, G. (2002) Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film . La Vergne: Verso. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cam/detail.action?docID=5431033 (Accessed: 19 February 2022). Buffel, T. and Phillipson, C. (2016) ‘Can global cities be “age-friendly cities”? Urban development and ageing populations’, Cities , 55, pp. 94–100. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.03.016 . Butte, G. (2017) Suture and narrative: deep intersubjectivity in fiction and film . Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Press., ©2017. Casagrande, M. (2012) Biourban Acupuncture . Chen, M. et al. (2023) ‘The impact of the residential environment on Chinese older people’s aging-in-place intentions: A mediation and moderation analysis’, Habitat International , 140, p. 102908. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2023.102908 . Clarke, M. (2002) ‘The Space-Time Image: the Case of Bergson, Deleuze, and Memento’, The Journal of Speculative Philosophy , 16(3), pp. 167–181. Costa-Font, J., Elvira, D. and Mascarilla-Miró, O. (2009) ‘`Ageing in Place’? Exploring Elderly People’s Housing Preferences in Spain’, Urban Studies , 46(2), pp. 295–316. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098008099356 . Crampton, J.W. (2011) Mapping: A Critical Introduction to Cartography and GIS . John Wiley & Sons. Dalton, C. and Mason-Deese, L. (2012) ‘Counter (Mapping) Actions: Mapping as Militant Research’, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies , 11(3), pp. 439–466. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v11i3.941 . De Solà-Morales, M. (2008) A matter of things . Rotterdam: NAi Publishers. Elwood, S. (2006) ‘Negotiating Knowledge Production: The Everyday Inclusions, Exclusions, and Contradictions of Participatory GIS Research∗’, The Professional Geographer [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/ 10.1111/j.1467-9272.2006.00526.x (Accessed: 27 May 2025). Emery, C.R., Wu, S. and Raghavan, R. (2015) ‘The Hutong effect: informal social control and community psychology in Beijing’, Injury Prevention , 21(2), pp. 121–125. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041117 . Finlay, J. et al. (2022) ‘“My neighbourhood is fuzzy, not hard and fast”: Individual and contextual associations with perceived residential neighbourhood boundaries among ageing Americans’, Urban Studies , 60(1), pp. 85–108. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221089582 . Gao, S. and Cheng, Y. (2020) ‘Older People’s Perception of Changes in Their Living Environment after Relocation: A Case Study in Beijing, China’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 17(6), p. 2021. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062021 . García, I. and Rúa, M.M. (2018) ‘“Our interests matter”: Puerto Rican older adults in the age of gentrification’, Urban Studies , 55(14), pp. 3168–3184. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017736251 . Goldman, J. (2003) From Hutong to Hi-Rise: Explaining the Transformation of Old Beijing, 1990–2002 . Master Thesis. MIT. Goodchild, M.F. (2007) ‘Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography’, GeoJournal , 69(4), pp. 211–221. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-007-9111-y . Guo, H. and Klein, B. (2005) ‘Bargaining in the Shadow of the Community: Neighborly Dispute Resolution in Beijing Hutongs’, Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution , 20(3), pp. 825–910. Hägerstrand, T. (1977) ‘The impact of social organization and environment upon the time-use of individuals and households’, in Social Issues in Regional Policy and Planning . Reprint 2011. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807530.59 . Harley, J.B. (1992) ‘Deconstructing the map’, Passages [Preprint]. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4761530.0003.008 . Harper, G. and Rayner, J. (2010) Cinema and Landscape: Film, Nation and Cultural Geography . Intellect Books. Harris, L.M. and Hazen, H.D. (2005) ‘Power of Maps: (Counter) Mapping for Conservation’, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies , 4(1), pp. 99–130. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v4i1.730 . Hoogduyn, R. (2014) ‘Urban Acupuncture “Revitalizing urban areas by small scale interventions”’, in. Available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Urban-Acupuncture-%22Revitalizing-urban-areas-by-Hoogduyn/df206172aad 244ea05a3939de4608dd4e241ce21 (Accessed: 7 March 2024). Jiang, B. and Claramunt, C. (2002) ‘Integration of Space Syntax into GIS: New Perspectives for Urban Morphology’, Transactions in GIS , 6, pp. 295–309. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9671.00112 . Koeck, R. (2013) Cine-scapes: cinematic spaces in architecture and cities . New York: Routledge. Lefebvre, H. (1991) The production of space . Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell, Basil Blackwell. Lefebvre, H. (2013) Rhythmanalysis: space, time and everyday life . Translated by S. Elden and G. Moore. London: Bloomsbury (Bloomsbury revelations). Lefebvre, H. (2014) Critique of Everyday Life: The One-Volume Edition . London ; New York: Verso Books, p. 912. Lenntorp, B. (1978) ‘A Time-Geographic Simulation Model of Individual Activity Programmes’, in T. Carlstein, D. Parkes, and N.J. Thrift (eds) Human Activity and Time Geography . London: E. Arnold, pp. 162–180. Lerner, J. (2014) Urban acupuncture . Translated by M. Margolis, A. Daher, and P. Muello. London: Island Press, 2014, ©2014. Lukinbeal, C. and Zimmermann, S. (2006) ‘Film Geography: A New Subfield (Filmgeographie: ein neues Teilgebiet)’, Erdkunde , 60(4), pp. 315–325. Lynch, K. (1960) The image of the city . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960 (Publication of the Joint Center for Urban Studies). McCall, M.K. and Dunn, C.E. (2012) ‘Geo-information tools for participatory spatial planning: Fulfilling the criteria for “good” governance?’, Geoforum , 43(1), pp. 81–94. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.07.007 . Mels, T. (2004) ‘Lineages of a geography of rhythms’, in Reanimating places: a geography of rhythms . London: Routledge, pp. 3–43. Naghibi, M., Faizi, M. and Ekhlassi, A. (2020) ‘The role of user preferences in urban acupuncture: Reimagining leftover spaces in Tehran, Iran’, Urbani Izziv , 31(2), pp. 114–126. Nassar, U. (2021) ‘Urban Acupuncture in Large Cities: Filtering Framework to Select Sensitive Urban Spots in Riyadh for Effective Urban Renewal’, Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs (JCUA) , 5, pp. 1–18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2021.v5n1-1 . de Oliveira, S.M.L. et al. (2019) ‘Cities and Population Aging: A Literature Review’, in S. Bagnara et al. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) . Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1395–1404. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_141 . Pascaris, J.P. (2021) Healing Neighbourhoods through Urban Acupuncture . thesis. Ryerson University. Available at: https://doi.org/10.32920/ryerson.14651664.v1 . Peluso, N.L. (1995) ‘Whose Woods Are These? Counter-Mapping Forest Territories in Kalimantan, Indonesia’, Antipode , 27(4), pp. 383–406. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.1995.tb00286.x . Penz, F. (2008) ‘From Topographical Coherence to Creative Geography: Rohmer’s The Aviator’s Wife and Rivette’s Pont du Nord’, in Cities in Transition: The Moving Image and the Modern Metropolis . London: Wallflower Press, pp. 123–140. Penz, F. (2022) ‘Cinema as Urban Modelling: Understanding urban phenomena through fiction films’, in E. Stein, G. Halegoua, and B. Kredell (eds) The Routledge Companion to Media and the City . Routledge, pp. 15–28. Penz, F. and Lu, A. (eds) (2011) Urban Cinematics: understanding urban phenomena through the moving image . Cambridge: Intellect. Penz, F., Reid, A. and Thomas, M. (2017) ‘Cinematic Urban Archaeology: The Battersea Case’, in Cinematic Urban Geographies , pp. 191–221. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46084-4_11 . Perec, G. (1997) Species of spaces and other pieces / Georges Perec ; edited with an introduction and translated by John Sturrock. London: Penguin (Penguin twentieth-century classics). Perkins, C. (2008) ‘Cultures of map use’, The Cartographic Journal , 45(2), pp. 150–158. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1179/174327708X305076 . Prabowo, B.N. and Temeljotov-Salaj, A. (2023) ‘The older adults in the smart urban heritage area: A mini-scoping review of inclusivity in the World Heritage sites’, IFAC-PapersOnLine , 56(2), pp. 9570–9575. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2023.10.259 . Pratt, G. and San Juan, R.M. (2014) Film and urban space: critical possibilities . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014, ©2014. Ren, M. and Chai, N. (2025) ‘Resilience Renewal Design Strategy for Aging Communities in Traditional Historical and Cultural Districts: Reflections on the Practice of the Sizhou’an Community in China’, Buildings , 15(6), p. 965. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15060965 . Salman, K.A.H. and Hussein, S.H. (2021) ‘Urban acupuncture as an approach for reviving’, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science , 779(1), p. 012031. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/779/1/012031 . Stierli, M. (2013) Las Vegas in the Rearview Mirror: The City in Theory, Photography, and Film . Getty Publications. Sun, Y. (2025) ‘Making urban memory visible: the on-screen transformation of Beijing’s hutong districts during modernization (1940s–2010s)’, Urban History , 52(2), pp. 264–282. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926824000014 . Wang, F. et al. (2020) ‘Isolated or integrated? Evaluation of ageing-friendly communities in Old Beijing City based on accessibility, social inclusion and equity’, Indoor and Built Environment , 29(3), pp. 465–479. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1420326X19896834 . Wang, J. (2011) Beijing Record: A Physical and Political History of Planning Modern Beijing . Singapore ; London: World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd. Wang, Y. and Gao, C. (2021) ‘Research on the Design of Aging Leisure Landscape in Community’, Journal of Physics: Conference Series , 1838(1), p. 012045. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1838/1/012045 . Wood, D. (2010) ‘Lynch Debord: About Two Psychogeographies’, Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization , 45(3), pp. 185–199. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3138/carto.45.3.185 . Wu, F. (2016) ‘State Dominance in Urban Redevelopment: Beyond Gentrification in Urban China’, Urban Affairs Review , 52(5), pp. 631–658. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087415612930 . Yang, Q. (2016) ‘Transformation of Living Space in Hutongs through the Process of Urban Development’, Cambridge Journal of China Studies , 11(1), p. 68. Yu, S. (2017) ‘Courtyard in conflict: the transformation of Beijing’s Siheyuan during revolution and gentrification’, The Journal of Architecture , 22(8), pp. 1337–1365. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2017.1394349 . Zhang, J. et al. (2015) ‘Living environment and life satisfaction of aged population in Beijing Municipality’, Progress in Geography , 34(12), pp. 1628–1636. Zhang, W. (2012) Investigation of outdoor residential environment of the elderly in Beijing Hutong area . Master Thesis. Univeristy of Tianjin. Available at: https://kns.cnki.net/kcms/detail/detail.aspx?dbcode=CMFD& dbname=CMFD2012&filename=1012022403.nh&v=xU3VzHnUJfEHONTFaHCd3KkYVENTlD9y4FOp9lY%25mmd2BylTLbNSzyB%25mmd2FHwA4Me8FjkBg5 (Accessed: 11 August 2021). Zhang, Z., Yan, Z. and Mao, Y. (2025) ‘Effect of the establishment of age-friendly communities on the life satisfaction levels of the elderly in Beijing’, Journal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology) , 65(1), pp. 12–21. Available at: https://doi.org/10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2024.22.051 . Zhu, Y. and Ye, C. (2024) ‘Urban renewal without gentrification: toward dual goals of neighborhood revitalization and community preservation?’, Urban Geography [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/ 10.1080/02723638.2022.2159651 (Accessed: 20 June 2025). Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 19 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 18 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 23 Jan, 2026 Reviews received at journal 07 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Nov, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 31 Oct, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 13 Oct, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 28 Sep, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 25 Sep, 2025 First submitted to journal 25 Sep, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7173112","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":533957574,"identity":"fc2a1ee6-bc91-4769-8a2d-8ee868f4178c","order_by":0,"name":"Yiqiao Sun","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yiqiao","middleName":"","lastName":"Sun","suffix":""},{"id":533957575,"identity":"3f643f10-d86d-45ca-9cad-56228dd0df9d","order_by":1,"name":"Guoqiang Shen","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA40lEQVRIie2RMQrCQBBFRxaSZiTtSBCvsLIQAx7CK2wIaBPEMoXogpA2rffwAhsEqxVbe8FasBTEmMLOGDvBfTDwB+bxiwGwWH4SLCcl5gHIMrGmigndjvpKaWWpx3W1NVB6o31xmjnki4M+E6TDSLl7Xav0j9NYrJFEoPWYwEwihVNZr6wx8JEoDgo1pla2jRQhr1dyM7ghp+VmBaVyb6D0IAkYSmLceSqqgcIpET5qYmQgDuVuIjJMPrTkpn9t3xfMy010vMyH3dw1H1r0K6KsnunU3j9b1Cu6+u2VxWKx/DcPmVE9TpHPMKkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guoqiang","middleName":"","lastName":"Shen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-21 04:23:22","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7173112/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7173112/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":94596107,"identity":"eb02397a-eb08-451c-9752-c13dfd2e4f50","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:38:50","extension":"jpg","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":809246,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure1.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/499e9d0622f4b49e5aca8d0a.jpg"},{"id":94596547,"identity":"3e54a6ce-840a-4ae8-a758-a72ecbbdeb4d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:42:21","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":114697,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"CounterMappingtheLivedCitythroughFilm.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/836845194bdd88f5eb12b218.docx"},{"id":94583046,"identity":"1bce4ea1-bfcd-4132-a7e9-9805c7c19a5f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:13:41","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1155769,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/812e754a38e40e6d69276e37.png"},{"id":94583685,"identity":"2d53e910-24b7-4731-942a-ec3e36d5c5bd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:23","extension":"jpg","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":5165300,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure3.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/bcc48acb75de90af1a958328.jpg"},{"id":94583665,"identity":"0e3d2700-22eb-42f0-83f4-f705beca39b9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:21","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1765827,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/8a5a8844a6e844644523006c.png"},{"id":94596092,"identity":"b322c008-7b4a-4729-8dbd-378544b4fade","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:38:47","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1047080,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/04c11cd4266bb3aefd0e347c.png"},{"id":94583474,"identity":"1b726025-b46d-4c0c-86ee-60273a826885","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:05","extension":"jpg","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":525723,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure6.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/e016359244e55e806ec44125.jpg"},{"id":94584121,"identity":"e9636999-fa6e-4aca-8b8f-72ab43723ea6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:51","extension":"jpg","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":243757,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure7.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/0d2bdf81445cbe4803db7ad3.jpg"},{"id":94583768,"identity":"f19f0763-91e7-4b56-8f61-ac10b2b4e7ed","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:30","extension":"jpg","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":536170,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure8.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/c19cd932c126b19e0bca4a87.jpg"},{"id":94583235,"identity":"4c95aa61-1bc7-479e-b6a4-f48ee7c3e5ae","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:13:55","extension":"json","order_by":9,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":4303,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"fafe06cc20d54b8e97143cc638485090.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/561fb5bb5e92bdc0f3feb3ac.json"},{"id":94583478,"identity":"90a2e3c7-d668-4695-b65b-5ab4b39e5687","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:05","extension":"xml","order_by":10,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":134719,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"fafe06cc20d54b8e97143cc6384850901enriched.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/d49067877451f0e8d5e6cf1c.xml"},{"id":94583803,"identity":"07eb3779-4493-4d97-b0fa-48b9c35d9042","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:34","extension":"jpg","order_by":11,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":809246,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure1.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/00fc43a649292b373c219584.jpg"},{"id":94582919,"identity":"081455fc-6e1b-407c-95b2-a5480d793ac0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:13:35","extension":"png","order_by":12,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1155769,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/5af3f2e773f8306337f12a5d.png"},{"id":94584213,"identity":"63054c4c-cb7e-4d84-9eef-21fe5e3ef8f0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:15:01","extension":"jpg","order_by":13,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":5165300,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure3.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/9baa8167999f8afbc056d88e.jpg"},{"id":94584105,"identity":"4ebcb5fe-35c8-4524-9286-f96da2f3532a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:48","extension":"png","order_by":14,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1765827,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/c01195ffb1dc7a02bf815919.png"},{"id":94583609,"identity":"cb5980d8-a121-4976-aca0-7a65fbc2bf2b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:15","extension":"png","order_by":15,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1047080,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/46572b4c586c5cc148c37862.png"},{"id":94583793,"identity":"8825cec0-8db7-452b-8559-43c89b6e3175","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:32","extension":"jpg","order_by":16,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":525723,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure6.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/aa66494e459b46cb8dd96552.jpg"},{"id":94583771,"identity":"67b9da91-4c16-4e5d-b304-c874898378a9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:31","extension":"jpg","order_by":17,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":243757,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure7.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/a668c060ebb4d776d2a38f1e.jpg"},{"id":94584211,"identity":"7c3fbc34-bc05-4d0c-8f1a-24a46e25df63","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:15:01","extension":"jpg","order_by":18,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":536170,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Figure8.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/64b78d51c4989f203f8755be.jpg"},{"id":94583607,"identity":"2aa61510-1baf-4b54-aeb2-7249866ffd94","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:14","extension":"png","order_by":19,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":310475,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/ca378c0c0369fad07d7b799f.png"},{"id":94583242,"identity":"53fcfcb1-b4e6-42a2-bf6c-0f5691b274d8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:13:56","extension":"png","order_by":20,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":274931,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/67482a4d28adc60c9cebb631.png"},{"id":94583712,"identity":"3d27b070-b3b5-4960-a0c9-8bb4a81322a2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:25","extension":"png","order_by":21,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":1555671,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/54cda33e41c1b940fe02d45a.png"},{"id":94583836,"identity":"6252d640-d34a-463c-a934-1ab2a57a86f9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:38","extension":"png","order_by":22,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":263593,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/1630542bc0bb9a3718cb9bc7.png"},{"id":94583794,"identity":"43312038-889b-40f7-a9d1-1b040bfb8b0d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:33","extension":"png","order_by":23,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":154226,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/4c4dfbb74cf7637b2f6a9e2e.png"},{"id":94583674,"identity":"8d5b5a66-e67c-40d5-92fb-7abdfbc78781","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:22","extension":"png","order_by":24,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":132189,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure6.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/621468c8f507b81e3e2c145a.png"},{"id":94584110,"identity":"abf820a5-8431-49fb-b601-cdb0e3bb911d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:49","extension":"png","order_by":25,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":117625,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure7.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/0113ac0bbd500342d7dd6ca2.png"},{"id":94584163,"identity":"6019fddc-ebde-45aa-8efa-26fc6db765d1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:56","extension":"png","order_by":26,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":187419,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"OnlineFigure8.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/618eef9dbad84ccfae06e008.png"},{"id":94583809,"identity":"c850e26a-9a4f-407e-9609-e49ae447526f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:35","extension":"xml","order_by":27,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":131683,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"fafe06cc20d54b8e97143cc6384850901structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/0209b81fec73ccc763a6b2ae.xml"},{"id":94583241,"identity":"665d36a6-d690-42ac-9df5-77056b897618","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:13:56","extension":"html","order_by":28,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":143978,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/8958208d18f6aa43bbb8765c.html"},{"id":94583671,"identity":"afa2ae1f-e7d6-498a-a424-0eff82635d7e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:21","extension":"jpg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":809246,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure1.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/db112d2bdd96a5a803b5702d.jpg"},{"id":94583708,"identity":"769b45ff-b57e-4d16-b856-ba4fcf4eeeed","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:24","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1155769,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/26f30a0214407cc7c39b1fa6.png"},{"id":94583476,"identity":"68f1b54c-43be-4ae4-bcf9-2b25d57a5879","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:05","extension":"jpg","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":5165300,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure3.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/fa24be5b1c5e06acd1a2941a.jpg"},{"id":94583050,"identity":"6fcc9dca-9477-4c3f-9661-3897b58d98b0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:13:42","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1765827,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/c349abe84ab7be9f252e8ea4.png"},{"id":94583787,"identity":"405d75ad-d752-4b1f-8bd4-a5cfe4e42d5f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:32","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1047080,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/ec42a3392153c7effbf526cc.png"},{"id":94583709,"identity":"4ccc3394-6f8c-4c6e-8886-e598f760997e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:24","extension":"jpg","order_by":6,"title":"Figure 6","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":525723,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure6.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/577347d285190b48157550bd.jpg"},{"id":94583147,"identity":"d3534f63-ab73-4a7d-89ad-14d88a0ef08c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:13:46","extension":"jpg","order_by":7,"title":"Figure 7","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":243757,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure7.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/13ebef97d2af062dbeae35a0.jpg"},{"id":94583612,"identity":"b606a41b-e94b-422e-86c7-8c2ef0095363","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:14:15","extension":"jpg","order_by":8,"title":"Figure 8","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":536170,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLegend not included with this version.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure8.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/31d6b25e83ce576d42450ca5.jpg"},{"id":94598513,"identity":"24334300-5fa6-4f4f-a1d6-641325dcbe20","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-28 18:54:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":12686152,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7173112/v1/61d5f6bf-2729-4ec8-9a61-9a6aa3e48fa7.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Counter-Mapping the Lived Experiences of Ageing Residents in Historic Beijing: An Acupoint-Meridian Approach through Film","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eAs cities undergo rapid redevelopment, particularly in historic neighbourhoods, the lived experiences of ageing residents are often overlooked in urban renewal design processes. Beijing\u0026rsquo;s historic Hutong districts are a particularly revealing case: these centuries-old vernacular dewellings, composed of courtyards and narrow lanes, have witnessed large-scale urban transformation that altered the demographic and spatial fabric of everyday life (Guo and Klein, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e; Yang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Yu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR63\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Once characterised by dense, intergenerational communities and collective living memories (Wang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR58\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e), these Hutong neighbourhoods have experienced an accelerating exodus of younger residents to high-rise developments, leaving behind an ageing population whose daily routines now unfold within shrinking social circles and marginalised environments (Goldman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2003\u003c/span\u003e). For many elderly residents, Beijing Hutongs are not merely physical dwellings but repositories of personal memory, identity, and long-term social embeddedness (Emery, Wu and Raghavan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Sun, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR56\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e). Yet, despite such affective ties, urban regeneration projects often prioritise infrastructure upgrades, real estate speculation, and heritage branding over the nuanced, everyday spatial practices of ageing populations (Zhu and Ye, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR67\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). The result is a form of \u0026ldquo;quiet displacement\u0026rdquo; in which older adults, although not always forcibly relocated, experience symbolic and functional exclusion from emerging urban orders. This disjuncture between \u003cb\u003eredevelopment urban designs and residents\u0026rsquo; lived realities\u003c/b\u003e demands closer analytical attention\u0026mdash;particularly in terms of how ageing individuals adapt to and resist the changing spatial and social contours of the historic city.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis paper addresses this gap by turning to counter-mapping, a critical cartographic practice that foregrounds marginalised spatial knowledge and everyday lived realities often excluded from conventional design tools. The study seeks to find a means of counter-mapping to visualise and analyse the spatial and temporal dimensions of ageing residents\u0026rsquo; urban experience in historic districts like the Hutong neighbourhoods, where spatial attachments are embedded in affective attachments and habitual routines rather than in easily quantifiable data. Inspired by the metaphor of urban acupuncture (Lerner, 2014), it proposes an \u003cb\u003eacupoint-meridian mapping framework\u003c/b\u003e, wherein \u0026ldquo;acupoints\u0026rdquo; mark small-scale, anonymous places in the historic neighbourhood\u0026mdash;shaded benches, alley corners, local stalls\u0026mdash;that hold emotional and social significance for ageing residents, while \u0026ldquo;meridians\u0026rdquo; denote the slow, yet rhythmic daily routines that narratively connect these sites. By drawing on these dual metaphors, this counter-mapping framework identifies and elucidates the \u003cem\u003elived\u003c/em\u003e nodes and paths (Lefebvre, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1991\u003c/span\u003e) that are often obscured within the complex fabric of the urban environment, and thus foregrounds the often-overlooked micro-sites and habitual movements that shape the daily lives of ageing residents.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo identify the acupoints and meridians in Beijing\u0026rsquo;s historic neighbourhoods, rather than employing traditional spatial tools or statistical models, the research uses \u003cb\u003efilm as a counter-mapping device\u003c/b\u003e, capable of capturing the embodied and narrative dimensions of ageing life in the city. Film offers a unique capacity to capture and convey atmosphere, temporal layering and sensory engagement (Penz, Reid and Thomas, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e)\u0026mdash;especially critical when studying older populations whose relationships to intimate environments are often revealed through fixed routine and repetitive actions. Through framing, pacing, and narrative sequencing, cinema enables observation of how mundane settings acquire emotional depth through repetition and interaction. This makes film especially suited to the acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework: it can illuminate how seemingly ordinary places (acupoints) take on heightened significance through repeated gestures, and how habitual routes (meridians) emerge across sequences of scenes. In contexts where older residents may struggle to articulate these attachments in participatory mapping, cinema provides a powerful alternative means of visualising the tacit, embodied dimensions of everyday life. This article thus treats film as a form of \u003cem\u003eembodied cartography\u003c/em\u003e (Bruno, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e), capable of tracing \u003cem\u003elived\u003c/em\u003e acupoints and meridians in ways inaccessible to conventional spatial analysis. Through cinematic analysis of two Beijing films\u0026mdash;\u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e (2015) and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e (2006)\u0026mdash;this study maps how elderly residents in historic Hutong neighbourhoods negotiate spatial familiarity, emotional attachment, and bodily routine within alleyways, courtyards, and rooms that are increasingly threatened by constant erasure and change.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy using film as both medium and method of counter-mapping, the study seeks to complement existing urban design approaches with a perspective attentive to the temporal and embodied dimensions of ageing people\u0026rsquo;s inhabitant environment. The acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework developed here highlights how modest, everyday sites and habitual routes and routines operate as anchors of continuity for older residents, particularly in historic urban areas like Beijing\u0026rsquo;s Hutongs that are facing redevelopment pressures. While the framework does not claim to replace established tools such as participatory mapping or GIS analysis, it provides urban designers with a diagnostic lens for recognising and supporting ordinary but socially vital spaces that might difficult to capture through other means. Overall, the study contributes to enriching \u003cb\u003eage-sensitive\u003c/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003econtext-specific\u003c/b\u003e urban design strategies, while acknowledging that film remains a complementary mapping method for understanding lived urban experience and the micro-geographies.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. Literature review","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.1 Ageing in urban regeneration projects\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eUrban regeneration projects in historic neighbourhoods often leads to the displacement or marginalisation of ageing populations (de Oliveira et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). How to ensure spatial justice and equitable design for old-age residents in evolving urban and social environments has become central to discussions (Zhang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR64\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Chen et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Prabowo and Temeljotov-Salaj, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR51\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Ren and Chai, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR53\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; Zhang, Yan and Mao, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR66\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e). While concept of \u0026ldquo;ageing in place\u0026rdquo; highlights the significance of neighbourhood familiarity, accessibility, and social inclusion for elderly people\u0026rsquo;s wellbeing (Costa-Font, Elvira and Mascarilla-Mir\u0026oacute;, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e; Finlay et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), researches document how the elderly faces increasingly fragmented urban environments in Beijing\u0026rsquo;s historic neighbourhoods, marked by declining accessibility and shrinking social networks due to processes of displacement and gentrification (Zhang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR65\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Wang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR57\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Wang and Gao, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR59\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). On the one hand, the large scale demolishment has forced their family members and familiar contacts to relocate to new high-rise or suburban areas (Goldman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2003\u003c/span\u003e); on the other hand, the left Hutong communities are transformed under state-led agendas of heritage preservation or aesthetic \u0026ldquo;beautification\u0026rdquo;, which frequently disregard the lived experiences of long-term residents (Wu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR61\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). These interventions, driven by top-down planning and symbolic narratives, risk severing elderly residents\u0026rsquo; psychological attachment to place and destabilising their everyday routines (Gao and Cheng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Beyond China, urban ageing has been linked to broader processes of urban transformation and spatial inequality. Scholars have demonstrated how old-age people are especially vulnerable to socio-spatial exclusion under speculative development, particularly in gentrifying heritage areas (Garc\u0026iacute;a and R\u0026uacute;a, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Prabowo and Temeljotov-Salaj, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR51\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Yet despite growing recognition of urging design practices for \u0026ldquo;age-friendly\u0026rdquo; (Buffel and Phillipson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Wang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR57\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e), many planning and analytical frameworks remain ill-equipped to capture the lived, embodied, and affectively rich experiences of older residents. This gap points to the need for alternative tools and perspectives that can visualise and foreground the intimate geographies of ageing in transforming urban environments.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.2 Urban acupuncture as urban regeneration strategy\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn response to this gap, urban acupuncture is a design and planning approach that targets strategic micro-sites to catalyse broader urban transformation. Originally proposed by Spanish architect Manuel de Sola-Morales (De Sol\u0026agrave;-Morales, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e), the concept draws from the logic of acupuncture medicine\u0026mdash;activating precise points to restore systemic balance\u0026mdash;and has since been developed further by Brazilian architect Jaime Lerner and Finnish architect Marco Casagrande (Hoogduyn, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). Across a rich body of related discourse, urban acupuncture has gradually evolved into a people-centric, sustainable planning tactic for urban regeneration. It commonly sheds light on informal, small-scale initiatives that enliven unnoted urban places and encourages planners and decision-makers to address urban issues through low-cost interventions, often framed as a process of \u003cem\u003ebio-urban healing\u003c/em\u003e (Naghibi, Faizi and Ekhlassi, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Nassar, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Pascaris, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Salman and Hussein, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). However, most urban acupuncture strategries remain primarily focused on physical form and spatial activation, with less attention paid to the lived experiences of socially marginalised groups. For example, in the case of Taipei, Casagrande (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e) identifies unofficial community gardens and urban farms as key \u0026ldquo;acupoints\u0026rdquo; that activate idle spaces through residents\u0026rsquo; self-organised activities (Casagrande, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). Similarly, Hoogduyn\u0026rsquo;s Amsterdam case study highlights caf\u0026eacute;s, churches, and schools as catalytic sites for community revitalisation, but does not specifically consider the distinct spatial and social needs of ageing populations (Hoogduyn, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). This presents an important gap: while urban acupuncture is celebrated as a bottom-up and participatory approach, its implementation frequently universalises community needs, overlooking the differentiated vulnerabilities and practices of older adults. Hence, addressing this issue requires a \u003cb\u003ediagnostic mapping device\u003c/b\u003e that can reveal where and how ageing residents already anchor their daily lives, before any design interventions are introduced.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e2.3 Film as counter-mapping device\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eRegarding the need for a more resident-centred diagnostic approach, counter-mapping has emerged as a key practice for reclaiming experiential and marginalised spatial knowledge. Counter-mapping challenges the dominance of technocratic, top-down spatial models by foregrounding the narrative and everyday dimensions of place-making (Peluso, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1995\u003c/span\u003e; Dalton and Mason-Deese, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). While traditional cartography has been re-evaluated for its role in spatial abstraction and control (Harley, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1992\u003c/span\u003e; Crampton, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e), counter-mapping reorients attention to the spatial knowledge embedded in lived routines and sensory experience (Perkins, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). In urban design, counter-mapping has been embraced as a method to document, contest, and reimagine urban spaces through practices that resist dominant narratives (Harris and Hazen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e; Goodchild, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e). Participatory mapping projects, often involving community members, have been used to surface local knowledge and articulate alternative spatial imaginaries that challenge exclusionary planning practices (Elwood, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e; McCall and Dunn, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). However, much of this work has focused on spatial analysis through participatory GIS, cognitive cartography, and digital data visualization, leaving the temporal and atmospheric aspects of urban life, particularly for older residents, insufficiently explored.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFilm offers a way to address this methodological gap. Scholars have argued that cinematic representation captures the affective and narrative qualities of space (AlSayyad, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e), offering a more embodied form of cartography (Bruno, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1993\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e). By visualizing gestures and atmosphere, film enables a mapping of urban life that transcends static, abstract models (Penz, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). It has been proved that cinema has great potential to represent complex urban spatialities and temporalities (Clarke, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e; Stierli, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR55\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e), to reveal the lived realities of place (Lukinbeal and Zimmermann, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e), and to convey the layered interplay of physical and social geographies (Harper and Rayner, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). Nevertheless, (fiction) film, as a form of artistic representation, never truly mirrors urban reality (Koeck, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). In films, a pre-existing reality is always imbued with the filmmaker\u0026rsquo;s intentions and aesthetic strategies. Equipped with the capability of creating \u0026ldquo;creative geography\u0026rdquo; (Penz, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e), film is, in Bazin\u0026rsquo;s words, \u0026ldquo;a preservation of life by a representation of life\u0026rdquo; (Bazin and Gray, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1960\u003c/span\u003e). This means that cinematic depictions selectively frame and assemble spatial fragments, sometimes even blending different sites into a single narrative setting. Yet these very characteristics also highlight why film is valuable as a counter-mapping device. By assembling fragments, staging atmospheres, and emphasising gestures and routines, cinema does not merely document urban life but can provide some sort of revelation concerning everyday life (Lefebvre, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e), and then translates affective and temporal textures into forms that can be analysed. It provides a complementary diagnostic tool alongside ethnographic and participatory methods, one particularly suited to uncovering tacit attachments and everyday practices that are otherwise difficult to capture. While cinematic analysis has been employed in urban theory for decades (Penz and Lu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Pratt and San Juan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR52\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e), its potential for revealing the lived realities of marginalized groups\u0026mdash;such as ageing residents in historic urban centres\u0026mdash;remains underdeveloped. By integrating counter-mapping with cinematic analysis, this study builds on existing scholarship in critical cartography and cinematic urbanism while proposing a novel method for visualizing the lived city\u0026mdash;one that prioritizes the atmospheric and experiential dimensions of individual\u0026rsquo;s daily inhabited environment.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"3. Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach that integrates \u003cb\u003ecinematic analysis\u003c/b\u003e with the conceptual framework of \u003cb\u003eacupoint-meridian mapping\u003c/b\u003e, reimagined for the purpose of counter-mapping the everyday lived experiences of ageing people in contexts of urban transformation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.1 Conceptual framing\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe conceptual basis for this research\u0026rsquo;s methodology is structured around the acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework, inspired by the logic of traditional acupuncture but adapted as a diagnostic tool for urban design. It reconceptualises the city as a similarly dynamic organism composed of both a hard skeleton (infrastructure and built form) and a soft skin (sensory and affective experience) (Fig.\u0026nbsp;1). Within this reframing, \u003cb\u003e\u0026ldquo;acupoints\u0026rdquo;\u003c/b\u003e are conceived as small-scale, often anonymous places in one\u0026rsquo;s inhabited neighbourhood where meaningful daily interactions unfold. Complementing this, \u003cb\u003e\u0026ldquo;meridians\u0026rdquo;\u003c/b\u003e are novelly introduced as patterned, time-based narrative paths that connect these acupoints, forming a rhythmic and embodied cartography of daily life. Unlike the original acupuncture method in urban design, which identifies critical micro-sites for targeted interventions, this approach does not prescribe interventions but reveals how such lived nodes already function as anchors of daily lived paths. In doing so, it offers designers \u003cb\u003ea diagnostic perspective\u003c/b\u003e: a way to see which ordinary places support the daily continuity and local attachment, and why these places may be more critical for ageing residents.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCrucially, this acupoint-meridian framework enables the mapping of experiential space from the perspective of elderly residents, whose spatial practices and voices are frequently overlooked in processes of urban redevelopment. By making visible their embodied routines and spatial attachments, the method engages with broader debates in critical cartography and age-friendly urban design, highlighting dimensions of urban life that are often overlooked in conventional planning and spatial representation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFilm is particularly well-suited to operationalising this framework. Its narrative and visual qualities are capable of identifying small yet narratively significant places in historic neighbourhoods that may be central to ageing residents\u0026rsquo; daily experiences but are absent from conventional mapping outputs. Through cinematic analysis, the study traces acupoints and meridians by observing where characters repeatedly dwell, pause, or interact, and how these micro-sites are connected by recurring paths or routines.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.2 Data and case selection\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo operationalise the acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework, this study focuses on two contemporary Chinese films set in Beijing\u0026rsquo;s representative historic neighbourhood (ShiChaHai, 什刹海): \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e (2015, Guan Hu) and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e (2006, Hasi Chaolu). First, both foreground ageing protagonists whose lives unfold in close relationship to Hutong spaces. \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e follows an elderly former street figure navigating the tensions between old neighbourhood codes and encroaching urban modernity, while \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e depicts an ageing barber\u0026rsquo;s daily routines within the intimate networks of a Hutong community. Second, both films situate these personal narratives within the broader context of Hutong transformation. Their storylines highlight precisely the kinds of quiet displacement and marginalisation faced by older residents, providing rich material for tracing acupoints and meridians that reveal how ageing residents adapt to and resist urban change. Third, the two films complement each other in terms of narrative style and spatial scope. \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e, with its dramatic storyline and broader coverage of urban settings, offers a spatially expansive lens for identifying diverse acupoints. By contrast, \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e, employs a semi-documentary style that spans ten discontinuous days, largely confined to interior and courtyard settings, thereby foregrounding the repetitive, habitual meridians that structure the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s daily life.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTogether, these films provide contrasting but complementary perspectives: one mapping the distributed micro-sites of ageing life across the Hutong fabric, and the other highlighting the temporal rhythms and embodied routines that anchor everyday continuity. This combination strengthens the diagnostic potential of the acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework by showing how cinematic counter-mapping can capture both spatial nodes and temporal rhythms that are critical for age-sensitive urban design.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec9\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e3.3 Analytic methods\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eData were collected through repeated viewings of \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e, combined with detailed scene-by-scene analysis, which concentrated on visual and narrative elements that convey spatial experience. Framing, camera movement, light, and sound were examined to capture the atmosphere of settings and the affective charge of ordinary places. Filmic techniques\u0026mdash;including pacing, mise-en-sc\u0026egrave;ne, and editing\u0026mdash;were also analysed, as these shape how spaces are sequenced and experienced by characters.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough this process, \u003cb\u003esignificant locations\u003c/b\u003e where elderly characters repeatedly pause or interact were coded as \u0026ldquo;acupoints\u0026rdquo;, while \u003cb\u003erecurrent trajectories and routines\u003c/b\u003e connecting these sites were coded as \u0026ldquo;meridians\u0026rdquo;. Coding was informed by spatial and temporal criteria. Spatial acupoints were considered significant not only when explicitly highlighted in dialogue or narrative action, but also when revealed through subtle repetitions, such as the daily pause of a character under a shaded tree. Temporal meridians were identified by tracking characters\u0026rsquo; movements across the neighbourhood\u0026mdash;whether walking, cycling, or engaging in routine errands\u0026mdash;thereby revealing the embodied rhythms of ageing life in Hutongs.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFindings were subsequently translated into mapping strategies tailored to each film. For \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e, spatial acupoints were mapped using a psychogeographical approach (Wood, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR60\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e) combined with filmic suture theory (Butte, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e) to reveal how fragmented spaces are narratively stitched into coherent personal geographies. For \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e, adapted time-geographic diagrams (H\u0026auml;gerstrand, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1977\u003c/span\u003e) and rhythmanalytical tools (Lefebvre, 2013) were used to visualise recurring spatial categories and their temporal sequence. By integrating visual analysis with theoretical framing, this methodology provides a counter-mapping approach that foregrounds the micro-geographies and fragile routines that hold meaning in the lives of those often marginalised by planning discourse.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"4. Findings","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.1 Spatial Acupoint-Meridians of Hutong neighbourhood in \u0026ldquo;Mr. Six\u0026rdquo;\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.1.1 Identifying Mr. Six\u0026rsquo;s lived trajectories and significant locations\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA close reading of \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e reveals a set of modest but recurring locations in the ShiChaHai neighbourhood that function as spatial acupoints within the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s everyday life. These sites are not distinguished by architectural form or official heritage value, but acquire significance through repeated appearances and the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s embodied interactions with them. Taken together, they outline the contours of his lived trajectories and indicate how ordinary places\u0026mdash;alley corners, street stalls, or small gathering spots\u0026mdash;serve as anchors of routine and social connection in the midst of neighbourhood change.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe film\u0026rsquo;s narrative and cinematography play a central role in making these acupoints visible. The camera follows Mr. Six not only through movement but through pause, hesitation, and return, revealing a deeply personal geography of lived space. Key locations emerge (Fig.\u0026nbsp;2), such as his modest courtyard home (Point B), the nearby convenience store (Point A), the alleyway where he pauses to talk with neighbours (Point H), and the lakeside bar where he meets friends (Point F). Each of these places gains significance through repeated appearances and accumulated social interaction. The frozen Houhai Lake (Point E) serves as a particularly charged acupoint\u0026mdash;where Mr. Six reflects, confides in friends, and ultimately collapses. Long takes, ambient sound, and minimal dialogue transform this public site into a space of personal contemplation and vulnerability. The mobile breakfast booth near Yinding Bridge (Point C) further illustrates how informal, mundane sites can become significant acupoints. Its repeated appearance across scenes\u0026mdash;framed with slow pans and intimate dialogue\u0026mdash;marks it as a social node where Mr. Six shares camaraderie with ageing peers. These scenes convey the atmospheric thickness of daily life, reinforcing the importance of such spaces for elderly residents who have remained in neighbourhoods increasingly stripped of younger locals and familiar contacts.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, not all acupoints in \u003cem\u003eMr.Six\u003c/em\u003e can be directly located on the physical map of ShiChaHai. Many buildings in the area have been demolished or redeveloped, prompting the filmmakers to construct artificial neighbourhood sets that simulate a lived historic environment. These \u0026ldquo;creative geographies\u0026rdquo; (Alifragkis and Penz, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e, p. 228) include imaginary locations like the \u0026ldquo;Jing Wei Xiao Chao(京味小炒)\u0026rdquo; restaurant, where Mr. Six reconciles with his son. While such spaces may not correspond to actual sites, their cinematic construction underscores which types of everyday settings carry narrative and emotional weight. In this sense, the film produces a hybrid geography\u0026mdash;interweaving real and imagined locations\u0026mdash;that models the lived ShiChaHai from the perspective of its inhabitants\u0026rsquo; personal experiences and memories.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.1.2 Cinematic suture mappings of ShiChaHai neighbourhood\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe cinematic environment depicted in \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e cannot be mapped through conventional cartographic methods, since orientation, distance, and morphology are often reconfigured for narrative purposes. Nevertheless, film itself functions as a form of cartography: as Bruno suggests, its \u0026ldquo;haptic way of site-seeing turns pictures into an architecture\u0026rdquo;, enabling spectators to construct mental maps of lived space (Bruno, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e, p. 18). In line with the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s movement, the film produces an experience-based geography in which real and imagined places are stitched together into a coherent urban world.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on suture film theory (Butte, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e, p. 20), a cinematic suture map where physical spaces detached from their original urban context are narratively restructured in line with a character\u0026rsquo;s daily behaviour pattern may be a novel model approach to visually model and illustrate the lived geography of ageing residents. In the case of \u003cem\u003eMr Six\u003c/em\u003e, the real ShiChaHai environment is deconstructed into \u0026ldquo;a whole of small bits of space\u0026rdquo;(Perec, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e)(the Yinding bridge, the Houhai park, the Gulou tower, the main streets, etc.), mingled with the imaginary/artificial ones (the Shaking bar, the \u0026ldquo;Jing Wei Xiao Chao\u0026rdquo; restaurant, and the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s home). Movement lines within the narrative stitch these fragments together, forming a cinematic suture map of ShiChaHai area. Consider, for example, a typical morning route (Fig.\u0026nbsp;3a). The protagonist begins in his courtyard home (Point A, imaginary), exits through the back gate, and walks to Houhai Lake (Point B, real), where he greets neighbours. He continues across Yinding Bridge (Point C) and stops at the breakfast booth (Point D), then later skates alone on the frozen lake (Point E) and visits a bar owned by a friend (Point F, imaginary). Though spatially disjointed, these scenes are narratively continuous, allowing the spectator to reconstruct a mental map of the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s urban world. When overlaid on the city\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;hard skeleton\u0026rdquo;, this creates a lived cartography of acupoints and meridians (Fig.\u0026nbsp;3b). Landmarks such as the Gulou Tower provide spatial orientation, but it is the repetition of gestures and interactions that delineate the acupoints. This mapping method highlights the infrastructural invisibility of spaces that are vital to those ageing in place\u0026mdash;spaces often erased by large-scale redevelopment or ignored in planning documents.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.1.3 Cinematic acupoints vs physical nodes\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe identification of acupoints in \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e can be further contextualised by comparing them with conventional urban mapping approaches, which also emphasise nodal points but in a largely geometric or physical sense. Lynch\u0026rsquo;s influential theory of the \u0026ldquo;image of the city\u0026rdquo; identifies nodes as strategic spots for orientation, typically at junctions of paths or in central squares (Fig.\u0026nbsp;4a) (Lynch, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1960\u003c/span\u003e). These nodes form part of a legible mental map, offering abstract symbols of how users perceive urban space. Space Syntax theory, developed by Hillier and Hanson and elaborated by others, similarly highlights nodes, but through axial maps derived from the topological geometry of street networks (Fig.\u0026nbsp;4b) (Jiang and Claramunt, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e; Bafna, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2003\u003c/span\u003e). By mathematically modelling connectivity, the method predicts movement flows and route preferences, emphasising junctions as \u0026ldquo;topological nodes\u0026rdquo; of social and spatial interaction. While both frameworks acknowledge human behaviour and perception, their nodes remain tied to the physical configuration of the city, rather than to the lived and affective significance stressed in the urban acupuncture metaphor.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eApplied to the ShiChaHai neighbourhood, these physical models identify a number of important sites. An axial map generated using DepthmapX highlights three highly integrated main streets as the most likely to attract pedestrian flows, with their junctions marked as the primary nodes of connectivity (Fig.\u0026nbsp;5a). A Lynchian mental map, drawn according to the five elements, similarly draws attention to bridges, metro stations, and main road intersections as key nodes within the public image of ShiChaHai (Fig.\u0026nbsp;5b). Both approaches converge on certain points, most notably the Yinding Bridge, which emerges as a central orientation node across models. Interestingly, the cinematic mapping also identifies Yinding Bridge (Point C) as a significant acupoint, a place where Mr. Six greets friends and encounters daily incidents. The overlap across mappings suggests that physical accessibility and social routine reinforce each other at certain sites. Other overlaps are evident: Point I, a street junction at the edge of the neighbourhood where Mr. Six finally meets his son, appears on all three maps. Such coincidences illustrate how infrastructural integration can coincide with lived significance, for example when breakfast stalls or other informal activities cluster around transportation nodes.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, the cinematic approach highlights acupoints with no equivalent in conventional models. Anonymous street corners where neighbours pause to talk (Point H), the frozen Houhai Lake where Mr. Six skates and confides in a friend (Point E), and the local restaurant where he reconciles with his son (Point G) all function as lived nodes, but are invisible in Lynchian or Space Syntax representations. Their significance lies not in geometry or flow but in repetition and narrative emphasis. For example, the Houhai skating rink recurs across three separate scenes, marking Point E as both a routine setting and a site of emotional intensity.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese comparisons highlight how cinematic mapping expands the concept of the \u0026ldquo;node.\u0026rdquo; By juxtaposing these perspectives, the findings suggest that cinematic counter-mapping provides a complementary tool for urban analysis. It demonstrates that everyday practices often cluster around, but sometimes diverge from, the mathematically or visually significant nodes of the built environment. In doing so, it adds a humanised dimension to conventional models, revealing how ordinary spaces\u0026mdash;such as a skating rink or a breakfast booth\u0026mdash;become crucial anchors in the lived routines of ageing residents.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.2 Temporal Meridian-acupoints of ageing Hutong life in \u0026ldquo;The Old Barber\u0026rdquo;\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.2.1 Identifying the old barber\u0026rsquo;s rhythmic routines and places\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eUrban space is experienced not only spatially but also temporally. For older residents in particular, spatial meaning often emerges less from novelty than from repetition and routine. Daily life follows long-standing rhythms shaped by biological regulation, habit, and social ties, even as the surrounding environment shifts. Identifying these rhythmic routines offers critical insight into how ageing bodies\u0026rsquo; engage with \u0026ldquo;place\u0026rdquo; and maintain continuity amid urban change. Drawing from Georges Perec\u0026rsquo;s insight that to live is to pass from one kind space to another (Perec, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e, p. 6), the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s environment in The Old Barber can be categorised into a constellation of \u003cb\u003eplaces\u003c/b\u003e: the bed, the room, the courtyard, the alley, and adjacent urban sites such as restaurants or clients\u0026rsquo; homes. These repeated transitions bind together moments and places through the steady thread of everyday activity.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e, the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s days unfold with remarkable temporal regularity. Rising at 6 a.m., he prepares his tools, visits clients, eats lunch at 12 noon, plays mah-jong, and retires to bed by 9 p.m. The repetition of these gestures across spaces forms a \u003cb\u003ecyclical patterned routine\u003c/b\u003e that links different types of places in a stabilising sequence every 24 hours (Fig.\u0026nbsp;6): the courtyard where he unlocks his tricycle, the client\u0026rsquo;s room where he offers not only haircuts but companionship, the dining table where he eats alone\u0026mdash;each becomes an emotionally charged site, revisited in time. Across the film\u0026rsquo;s ten discontinuous days, a fixed structure of movement and rest emerges, closely resembling ethnographic accounts of ageing in historic Chinese neighbourhoods, where routine movement preserves autonomy and social contact (Gao and Cheng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Wang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR57\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). This routine can be summarised as follows:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"No\" id=\"Taba\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eTime\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eActivity\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpace\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e06:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGets up\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBed\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e06:10\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFreshens up, inserts dentures, brushes hair\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoom\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e07:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eChecks the daily agenda\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoom\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e08:30\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnlocks tricycle, exits home\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCourtyard\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e08:35\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRides through neighbourhood\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eHutong\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e09:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eArrives at customer \u003cspan fontcategory=\"NonProportional\" class=\"\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003e s home\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCustomer \u003cspan fontcategory=\"NonProportional\" class=\"\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003e s courtyard\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e09:10\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrepares tools\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCustomer \u003cspan fontcategory=\"NonProportional\" class=\"\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003e s room\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e09:20\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCuts hair\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCustomer \u003cspan fontcategory=\"NonProportional\" class=\"\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003e s room\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e09:40\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGives massage\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCustomer \u003cspan fontcategory=\"NonProportional\" class=\"\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003e s room\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e11:30\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eTakes food from local restaurant\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eUrban space (restaurant)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e12:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eHas lunch\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoom\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e13:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVisits another client\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCustomer \u003cspan fontcategory=\"NonProportional\" class=\"\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026rsquo;\u003c/span\u003e s room\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e14:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eReturns home\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eCourtyard\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e14:30\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlays mah-jong with friends, watches TV\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoom\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e16:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eChats with son\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoom\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e21:00\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eRemoves dentures, turns off light, goes to sleep\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBed\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a context where urban change often disrupts elder residents\u0026rsquo; mental maps and social ties, repetition becomes a tactic of place-making. By tracking these repeated movements, we can visualize his day as a \u003cb\u003etemporal meridian\u003c/b\u003e\u0026mdash;a recurring sequence of spatial acupoints connected through lived time. Figure\u0026nbsp;7a presents this as an \u0026ldquo;electrocardiogram-like\u0026rdquo; diagram: the x-axis charts film time (~\u0026thinsp;100 minutes), while the y-axis lists five spatial categories. Vertical bars mark duration, while connecting lines trace transitions. A complementary pie chart (Fig.\u0026nbsp;7b) shows the proportion of time in each space, and highlights the density of dwelling and the tempo of transitions. Together, these diagrams demonstrate the temporal architecture of daily life, which reveals not only the where, but the \u003cem\u003ewhen\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ehow often\u003c/em\u003e of spatial occupation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e4.2.2 Cinematic time-space mappings of ShiChaHai neighbourhood\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTraditional urban analysis frequently abstracts movement into functional diagrams or GIS-based trajectories, but such tools often overlook the affective and embodied dimensions of ageing life. To address this, the acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian method integrates time-geography with cinematic analysis.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeveloped by Torsten H\u0026auml;gerstrand, time-geography introduces time as a vertical dimension layered onto a two-dimensional spatial map, producing a three-dimensional model of movement (H\u0026auml;gerstrand, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1977\u003c/span\u003e, p. 62). This system, further elaborated by Lenntorp, enables dynamic modeling of individual movement, capturing how people traverse different places in time(Lenntorp, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1978\u003c/span\u003e, p. 163). While valuable, this approach risks reducing daily life to a geometric trace\u0026mdash;what Tom Mels critiques as \u0026ldquo;unsensual and disembodied\u0026rdquo; (Mels, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e, p. 16). The acupoint-meridian mapping method brought up in this study addresses this gap by integrating rhythmic repetition, affective experience, and spatial specificity. Within this framework, time-space coordinates are not simply plotted as neutral activities. Rather, each site of action\u0026mdash;whether brushing one\u0026rsquo;s hair or serving a meal\u0026mdash;constitutes a spatial \u003cem\u003eacupoint\u003c/em\u003e. The links between them, the \u003cem\u003emeridians\u003c/em\u003e, are not just trajectories of movement, but rhythmic paths composed of repetition, variation, and emotional charge.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFigure 8a presents a temporal meridian-acupoints diagram, adapted from time-geography and infused with rhythmanalytical insight. Here, we construct a vertical axis of time layered onto horizontal spatial acupoints\u0026mdash;bed, room, courtyard, alley, and broader neighbourhood. Vertical tubes indicate activities in specific locations, with their height corresponding to duration. Connecting lines trace the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s daily path, forming a rhythmic sequence that links lived nodes into a temporal meridian. Figure\u0026nbsp;8b refines this into a color-coded rhythmic structure of the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s day, revealing moments of prolonged dwelling, transitional pauses, and habitual flows. These visualized meridians reveal more than routine\u0026mdash;they illustrate the temporal architecture of Hutong life: the syncopated dance between mobility and stillness, solitude and sociability.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCrucially, these mappings make visible the temporal texture of Hutong life. They reveal how repetition creates place, how tempo alters with ageing, and how seemingly ordinary actions\u0026mdash;unlocking a tricycle, removing dentures, eating alone\u0026mdash;embed emotional resonance into space. these meridians are not merely reflective of one man\u0026rsquo;s routine. By capturing the rhythmic meridian-acupoints through film, the method provides urban designers with a diagnostic tool for recognising how older residents inhabit time as much as space.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5. Discussion","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.1 An acupuncture diagnostic lens on everyday geographies\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe findings of this study demonstrate that the acupoint-meridian framework, operationalised through cinematic analysis, offers a novel counter-mapping approach that makes visible the lived experiences of ageing residents in Beijing\u0026rsquo;s historic neighbourhoods. This framework does not merely visualise spatial and temporal practices; it highlights how ordinary, often-overlooked places function as anchors of continuity in later life. Using two Hutong films as case studies, the analysis draws attention to the micro-sites and recurrent movement patterns that constitute older adults\u0026rsquo; urban geographies, revealing the narrative and affective dimensions of their lived environments\u0026mdash;qualities that are frequently absent in conventional design models. In doing so, it extends the repertoire of tools available to urban designers by providing a diagnostic lens attuned to the everyday geographies of ageing.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe acupoints and meridians identified in \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e reveal important similarities. In both cases, older residents\u0026rsquo; geographies are structured less by exceptional landmarks than by ordinary settings embedded in daily routine. Whether it is Mr. Six gathering with friends at a breakfast stall or the barber playing cards each evening in his room, these small-scale, recurrent practices demonstrate how compressed and localised spatialities sustain identity and belonging in later life. Such findings underscore for designers the importance of recognising how seemingly mundane places support age-friendly environments.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, the two films highlight complementary emphases. \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e foregrounds a \u003cb\u003espatial\u003c/b\u003e diagnostic perspective, where acupoints\u0026mdash;alley corners, bridges, lakeside stones\u0026mdash;are stitched together through cinematic suture into a hybrid neighbourhood map that reveals which ordinary places anchor social life. \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e, by contrast, foregrounds a \u003cb\u003etemporal\u003c/b\u003e diagnostic perspective, where the cyclical repetition of eating, working, and resting binds together bed, room, courtyard, and alley into a rhythmanalytical framework that reveals the duration and frequency of occupation. Taken together, the two films articulate \u003cb\u003ea spatio-temporal diagnostic framework\u003c/b\u003e for understanding ageing in historic neighbourhoods, where ordinary spaces and repetitive rhythms co-produce a sense of belonging. For urban designers, this synthesis points to the need for tools that capture not only \u003cem\u003ewhere\u003c/em\u003e older residents dwell but also \u003cem\u003ewhen and how often\u003c/em\u003e, recognising that continuity depends as much on temporal rhythm as on spatial form. In practice, such a diagnostic framework expands the vocabulary of urban design, and encourages interventions that are not only spatially sensitive but temporally attuned to the rhythms of ageing life.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.2 A cinematic approach to counter-mapping marginalised life\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis study demonstrates how cinematic analysis can serve as a rich medium for counter-mapping marginalised life, particularly in revealing the lived geographies of ageing residents who are often overlooked in urban redevelopment. In the Hutongs of Beijing, where redevelopment has often rendered long-time inhabitants invisible, film re-centres their presence. The protagonists in \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e navigate urban spaces that are no longer structured for them. Their movements\u0026mdash;skating on Houhai Lake, revisiting familiar stalls, offering haircuts to neighbours\u0026mdash;make visible an alternative urban logic grounded in familiarity and care.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy employing film as a mapping tool, this study expands the conceptual possibilities of counter-mapping. Unlike conventional maps that rely on abstraction and spatial quantification, cinematic mapping captures embodied, narrative, and relational experiences. In ageing contexts, these qualities are crucial. Where participatory GIS or sketch mapping may emphasise spatial logic, film offers a richer depiction of \u003cb\u003ehow spaces are lived\u003c/b\u003e. This is particularly evident in the counter-mapping constructed through \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e. In \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e, for example, the protagonist\u0026rsquo;s repetitive circuits\u0026mdash;rising at dawn, working for his clients, eating at a local restaurant, returning home\u0026mdash;constitute an alternative temporal order to the fast-paced, productivity-driven rhythms of modern urban life. This temporal-spatial pattern makes the intertwining urban life in the historic neighbourhoods explicit by marking the significant lived anchors of the elderly. In \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e, cinematic suturing of real and fictional locations visualises a neighbourhood not as a functional layout, but as an emotionally charged environment where personal social ties and personal identity sustain amidst urban change.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.3 An age-inclusive implication to urban design\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe acupoint-meridian approach offers important implications for age-friendly urban design. It underscores that ageing is not only a demographic or policy issue, but also a spatial and design one\u0026mdash;shaped by the quality of everyday environments and the continuity of embodied routines. As urban regeneration advances, older residents\u0026rsquo; needs\u0026mdash;quiet benches, consistent paths, familiar faces\u0026mdash;\u0026mdash;are often sidelined in favour of aestheticisation or commercial viability.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe findings suggest that design practices must move beyond visual coherence or infrastructure upgrades to embrace \u003cb\u003ethe micro-habits and emotional geographies\u003c/b\u003e that support late-life dwelling. Elements such as modest sitting spaces, familiar paths, or long-term social networks emerge as key components of urban health and inclusion. These micro-infrastructures are not peripheral but central to a city\u0026rsquo;s capacity to care. It also suggests that preserving spatial familiarity and acknowledging everyday rhythms is essential to sustaining ageing communities, particularly in contexts like Beijing\u0026rsquo;s Hutongs where displacement and aestheticisation often undermine continuity. Cinematic counter-mapping enables designers and planners to see these overlooked realities, fostering a more inclusive cartographic imagination. In doing so, it equips urban design with the conceptual and visual tools to see, value, and sustain the lived experiences of older people.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003e5.4 Limitations and Challenges\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile the cinematic acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian approach proposed in this study contributes a novel diagnostic perspective, several limitations and challenges should be recognised when considering its application in urban design. \u003cb\u003eFirst\u003c/b\u003e, film, shaped by directors\u0026rsquo; aesthetic intentions, inevitably involves processes of staging and editing, and may create \u0026ldquo;creative geographies\u0026rdquo; that blend real and imagined locations (Penz, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). As such, cinematic depictions cannot be taken as straightforward mirrors of reality (Koeck, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Instead, they offer partial, affectively charged perspectives that illuminate certain aspects of lived experience. \u003cb\u003eSecond\u003c/b\u003e, the representational power of film raises questions of transferability. The acupoints and meridians traced in \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e are grounded in the specific socio-spatial fabric of Beijing\u0026rsquo;s Hutong neighbourhoods, where the issue of ageing, displacement, and heritage transformation intersect in distinctive ways. Applying the framework in other contexts requires caution: not all urban environments possess the same density of memory-laden micro-sites, nor do all cultural settings value repetition and routine in the same way. This raises the challenge of how far insights derived from cinematic counter-mapping are generalisable beyond this particular case. \u003cb\u003eThird\u003c/b\u003e, there are methodological challenges for integration into professional design practice. Urban designers are accustomed to working with measurable data, GIS analyses, and participatory mapping outputs. Cinematic counter-mapping, by contrast, produces qualitative, affective insights that may be less immediately actionable. The challenge, therefore, lies in translating film-based findings into design vocabularies that can inform planning processes. Without careful interpretation, there is a risk of either romanticising cinematic atmospheres or overlooking the practical constraints of urban development. \u003cb\u003eFinally\u003c/b\u003e, ethical and epistemological considerations arise in using film as a proxy for lived experience. While cinema can vividly capture routines and atmospheres, it cannot replace direct engagement with residents themselves. Participatory approaches remain crucial for validating and grounding insights in lived realities. In this sense, cinematic counter-mapping should be seen not as a stand-alone solution but as a complementary diagnostic tool, one that enriches existing practices of participatory design and critical cartography.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"6. Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study has examined the lived experiences of ageing residents in Beijing\u0026rsquo;s Hutong neighbourhoods through an acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework operationalised by cinematic counter-mapping. Using \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e (2015) and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e (2006), it identified how spatial acupoints\u0026mdash;such as benches, bridges, and courtyards\u0026mdash;and temporal meridians\u0026mdash;such as daily routines of eating, working, and resting\u0026mdash;together sustain continuity and belonging in later life. The two films highlight complementary perspectives: \u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e reveals a spatial map where ordinary places anchor social life, while \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e demonstrates a temporal map where repetitive rhythms of routine provide stability. Taken together, these findings illustrate how ageing in historic neighbourhoods is maintained through spatio-temporal practices that are often invisible in conventional planning tools.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe key contribution of this study to urban design lies in proposing a spatio-temporal diagnostic tool that highlights both overlooked micro-places and the often-invisible rhythms of daily life. By capturing and visualising these ordinary anchors through the lens of cinema, and analysing them within a reframed acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework, the study demonstrates how design practice can better recognise and sustain the lived geographies that underpin ageing in place. Unlike conventional models such as GIS or Space Syntax, which privilege measurable connectivity, or participatory mapping, which relies on co-produced accounts, cinematic counter-mapping offers an alternative proxy for lived experience that foregrounds affect, atmosphere, and repetition. This reframing expands the vocabulary of urban design, encouraging practitioners to see modest infrastructures\u0026mdash;food stalls, shaded paths, courtyards, small meeting nodes\u0026mdash;not as peripheral amenities but as critical sites of age-inclusive continuity.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, the study acknowledges the interpretive nature of cinematic analysis. Films do not mirror urban reality directly; they mediate it through narrative construction and creative geography. Yet this selectivity is also what makes them valuable: cinema translates the facets that otherwise hard to be captured and analysed\u0026ndash;\u0026ndash;everyday gestures, routines, bodily rhythms, and affective attachments\u0026ndash;\u0026ndash;into forms that can be visualised and debated. As such, cinematic counter-mapping should not be seen as a substitute for participatory or ethnographic engagement, but as a complementary tool that enriches design research. Future work might extend this approach by testing the acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework across other urban contexts or marginalised groups. For urban design, the broader implication is clear: sustaining age-friendly environments requires attention not only to physical accessibility but also to the temporal and affective infrastructures that underpin belonging. By situating older residents\u0026rsquo; everyday practices at the centre of design imagination, this study contributes to more inclusive and resilient strategies for historic neighbourhoods facing rapid urban change.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFunding Declaration\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe author received no financial support.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ch2\u003eDeclaration of Interest\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe author declares no conflict of interest.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eYiqiao Sun led the research design, theoretical development, case study analysis, and manuscript writing. She conceptualized the acupoint-meridian mapping framework and conducted the cinematic analysis of case studies.Guoqiang Shen provided overall supervision, critical revisions, and theoretical guidance throughout the project. He contributed to refining the methodological framing and ensuring the academic rigor of the final manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAcknowledgement\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eI would like to express my sincere gratitude to my PhD supervisor at Cambridge University, Professor Fran\u0026ccedil;ois Penz, for his invaluable guidance, insightful feedback, and continuous support throughout the development of this research. His mentorship greatly shaped the conceptual foundations of this work.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlifragkis, S. and Penz, F. (2006) \u0026lsquo;Spatial dialectics: montage and spatially organised narrative in stories without human leads\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eDigital Creativity\u003c/em\u003e, 17(4), pp. 221\u0026ndash;233. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1080/14626260601074136\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1080/14626260601074136\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlSayyad, N. (2006) \u003cem\u003eCinematic urbanism: a history of the modern from reel to real / Nezar AlSayyad\u003c/em\u003e. New York ; London: Routledge.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBafna, S. (2003) \u0026lsquo;Space Syntax: A Brief Introduction to Its Logic and Analytical Techniques\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eEnvironment and Behavior\u003c/em\u003e, 35(1), pp. 17\u0026ndash;29. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1177/0013916502238863\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1177/0013916502238863\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBazin, A. and Gray, H. (1960) \u0026lsquo;The Ontology of the Photographic Image\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eFilm Quarterly\u003c/em\u003e, 13(4), pp. 4\u0026ndash;9. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.2307/1210183\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.2307/1210183\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBruno, G. (1993) \u003cem\u003eStreetwalking on a Ruined Map: Cultural Theory and the City Films of Elvira Notari\u003c/em\u003e. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBruno, G. (2002) \u003cem\u003eAtlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film\u003c/em\u003e. La Vergne: Verso. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttp://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cam/detail.action?docID=5431033\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cam/detail.action?docID=5431033\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e (Accessed: 19 February 2022).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBuffel, T. and Phillipson, C. (2016) \u0026lsquo;Can global cities be \u0026ldquo;age-friendly cities\u0026rdquo;? Urban development and ageing populations\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eCities\u003c/em\u003e, 55, pp. 94\u0026ndash;100. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.03.016\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1016/j.cities.2016.03.016\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eButte, G. (2017) \u003cem\u003eSuture and narrative: deep intersubjectivity in fiction and film\u003c/em\u003e. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Press., \u0026copy;2017.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCasagrande, M. (2012) \u003cem\u003eBiourban Acupuncture\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChen, M. \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e (2023) \u0026lsquo;The impact of the residential environment on Chinese older people\u0026rsquo;s aging-in-place intentions: A mediation and moderation analysis\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eHabitat International\u003c/em\u003e, 140, p. 102908. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2023.102908\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1016/j.habitatint.2023.102908\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eClarke, M. (2002) \u0026lsquo;The Space-Time Image: the Case of Bergson, Deleuze, and Memento\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eThe Journal of Speculative Philosophy\u003c/em\u003e, 16(3), pp. 167\u0026ndash;181.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCosta-Font, J., Elvira, D. and Mascarilla-Mir\u0026oacute;, O. (2009) \u0026lsquo;`Ageing in Place\u0026rsquo;? Exploring Elderly People\u0026rsquo;s Housing Preferences in Spain\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eUrban Studies\u003c/em\u003e, 46(2), pp. 295\u0026ndash;316. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1177/0042098008099356\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1177/0042098008099356\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCrampton, J.W. (2011) \u003cem\u003eMapping: A Critical Introduction to Cartography and GIS\u003c/em\u003e. John Wiley \u0026amp; Sons.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDalton, C. and Mason-Deese, L. (2012) \u0026lsquo;Counter (Mapping) Actions: Mapping as Militant Research\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies\u003c/em\u003e, 11(3), pp. 439\u0026ndash;466. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v11i3.941\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.14288/acme.v11i3.941\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDe Sol\u0026agrave;-Morales, M. (2008) \u003cem\u003eA matter of things\u003c/em\u003e. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eElwood, S. (2006) \u0026lsquo;Negotiating Knowledge Production: The Everyday Inclusions, Exclusions, and Contradictions of Participatory GIS Research\u0026lowast;\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eThe Professional Geographer\u003c/em\u003e [Preprint]. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003e10.1111/j.1467-9272.2006.00526.x\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1111/j.1467-9272.2006.00526.x\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e (Accessed: 27 May 2025).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEmery, C.R., Wu, S. and Raghavan, R. (2015) \u0026lsquo;The Hutong effect: informal social control and community psychology in Beijing\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eInjury Prevention\u003c/em\u003e, 21(2), pp. 121\u0026ndash;125. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041117\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041117\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFinlay, J. \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e (2022) \u0026lsquo;\u0026ldquo;My neighbourhood is fuzzy, not hard and fast\u0026rdquo;: Individual and contextual associations with perceived residential neighbourhood boundaries among ageing Americans\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eUrban Studies\u003c/em\u003e, 60(1), pp. 85\u0026ndash;108. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221089582\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1177/00420980221089582\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGao, S. and Cheng, Y. (2020) \u0026lsquo;Older People\u0026rsquo;s Perception of Changes in Their Living Environment after Relocation: A Case Study in Beijing, China\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health\u003c/em\u003e, 17(6), p. 2021. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062021\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.3390/ijerph17062021\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGarc\u0026iacute;a, I. and R\u0026uacute;a, M.M. (2018) \u0026lsquo;\u0026ldquo;Our interests matter\u0026rdquo;: Puerto Rican older adults in the age of gentrification\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eUrban Studies\u003c/em\u003e, 55(14), pp. 3168\u0026ndash;3184. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017736251\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1177/0042098017736251\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGoldman, J. (2003) \u003cem\u003eFrom Hutong to Hi-Rise: Explaining the Transformation of Old Beijing, 1990\u0026ndash;2002\u003c/em\u003e. Master Thesis. MIT.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGoodchild, M.F. (2007) \u0026lsquo;Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eGeoJournal\u003c/em\u003e, 69(4), pp. 211\u0026ndash;221. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-007-9111-y\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1007/s10708-007-9111-y\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGuo, H. and Klein, B. (2005) \u0026lsquo;Bargaining in the Shadow of the Community: Neighborly Dispute Resolution in Beijing Hutongs\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eOhio State Journal on Dispute Resolution\u003c/em\u003e, 20(3), pp. 825\u0026ndash;910.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eH\u0026auml;gerstrand, T. (1977) \u0026lsquo;The impact of social organization and environment upon the time-use of individuals and households\u0026rsquo;, in \u003cem\u003eSocial Issues in Regional Policy and Planning\u003c/em\u003e. Reprint 2011. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807530.59\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1515/9783110807530.59\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHarley, J.B. (1992) \u0026lsquo;Deconstructing the map\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003ePassages\u003c/em\u003e [Preprint]. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttp://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4761530.0003.008\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4761530.0003.008\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHarper, G. and Rayner, J. (2010) \u003cem\u003eCinema and Landscape: Film, Nation and Cultural Geography\u003c/em\u003e. Intellect Books.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHarris, L.M. and Hazen, H.D. (2005) \u0026lsquo;Power of Maps: (Counter) Mapping for Conservation\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies\u003c/em\u003e, 4(1), pp. 99\u0026ndash;130. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v4i1.730\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.14288/acme.v4i1.730\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHoogduyn, R. (2014) \u0026lsquo;Urban Acupuncture \u0026ldquo;Revitalizing urban areas by small scale interventions\u0026rdquo;\u0026rsquo;, in. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Urban-Acupuncture-%22Revitalizing-urban-areas-by-Hoogduyn/df206172aad\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Urban-Acupuncture-%22Revitalizing-urban-areas-by-Hoogduyn/df206172aad\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e244ea05a3939de4608dd4e241ce21 (Accessed: 7 March 2024).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJiang, B. and Claramunt, C. (2002) \u0026lsquo;Integration of Space Syntax into GIS: New Perspectives for Urban Morphology\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eTransactions in GIS\u003c/em\u003e, 6, pp. 295\u0026ndash;309. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9671.00112\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1111/1467-9671.00112\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKoeck, R. (2013) \u003cem\u003eCine-scapes: cinematic spaces in architecture and cities\u003c/em\u003e. New York: Routledge.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLefebvre, H. (1991) \u003cem\u003eThe production of space\u003c/em\u003e. Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell, Basil Blackwell.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLefebvre, H. (2013) \u003cem\u003eRhythmanalysis: space, time and everyday life\u003c/em\u003e. Translated by S. Elden and G. Moore. London: Bloomsbury (Bloomsbury revelations).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLefebvre, H. (2014) \u003cem\u003eCritique of Everyday Life: The One-Volume Edition\u003c/em\u003e. London ; New York: Verso Books, p. 912.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLenntorp, B. (1978) \u0026lsquo;A Time-Geographic Simulation Model of Individual Activity Programmes\u0026rsquo;, in T. Carlstein, D. Parkes, and N.J. Thrift (eds) \u003cem\u003eHuman Activity and Time Geography\u003c/em\u003e. London: E. Arnold, pp. 162\u0026ndash;180.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLerner, J. (2014) \u003cem\u003eUrban acupuncture\u003c/em\u003e. Translated by M. Margolis, A. Daher, and P. Muello. London: Island Press, 2014, \u0026copy;2014.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLukinbeal, C. and Zimmermann, S. (2006) \u0026lsquo;Film Geography: A New Subfield (Filmgeographie: ein neues Teilgebiet)\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eErdkunde\u003c/em\u003e, 60(4), pp. 315\u0026ndash;325.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLynch, K. (1960) \u003cem\u003eThe image of the city\u003c/em\u003e. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960 (Publication of the Joint Center for Urban Studies).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMcCall, M.K. and Dunn, C.E. (2012) \u0026lsquo;Geo-information tools for participatory spatial planning: Fulfilling the criteria for \u0026ldquo;good\u0026rdquo; governance?\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eGeoforum\u003c/em\u003e, 43(1), pp. 81\u0026ndash;94. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.07.007\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.07.007\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMels, T. (2004) \u0026lsquo;Lineages of a geography of rhythms\u0026rsquo;, in \u003cem\u003eReanimating places: a geography of rhythms\u003c/em\u003e. London: Routledge, pp. 3\u0026ndash;43.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNaghibi, M., Faizi, M. and Ekhlassi, A. (2020) \u0026lsquo;The role of user preferences in urban acupuncture: Reimagining leftover spaces in Tehran, Iran\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eUrbani Izziv\u003c/em\u003e, 31(2), pp. 114\u0026ndash;126.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNassar, U. (2021) \u0026lsquo;Urban Acupuncture in Large Cities: Filtering Framework to Select Sensitive Urban Spots in Riyadh for Effective Urban Renewal\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eJournal of Contemporary Urban Affairs (JCUA)\u003c/em\u003e, 5, pp. 1\u0026ndash;18. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2021.v5n1-1\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.25034/ijcua.2021.v5n1-1\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ede Oliveira, S.M.L. \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e (2019) \u0026lsquo;Cities and Population Aging: A Literature Review\u0026rsquo;, in S. Bagnara et al. (eds) \u003cem\u003eProceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018)\u003c/em\u003e. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1395\u0026ndash;1404. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_141\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_141\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePascaris, J.P. (2021) \u003cem\u003eHealing Neighbourhoods through Urban Acupuncture\u003c/em\u003e. thesis. Ryerson University. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.32920/ryerson.14651664.v1\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.32920/ryerson.14651664.v1\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePeluso, N.L. (1995) \u0026lsquo;Whose Woods Are These? Counter-Mapping Forest Territories in Kalimantan, Indonesia\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eAntipode\u003c/em\u003e, 27(4), pp. 383\u0026ndash;406. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.1995.tb00286.x\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1111/j.1467-8330.1995.tb00286.x\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePenz, F. (2008) \u0026lsquo;From Topographical Coherence to Creative Geography: Rohmer\u0026rsquo;s The Aviator\u0026rsquo;s Wife and Rivette\u0026rsquo;s Pont du Nord\u0026rsquo;, in \u003cem\u003eCities in Transition: The Moving Image and the Modern Metropolis\u003c/em\u003e. London: Wallflower Press, pp. 123\u0026ndash;140.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePenz, F. (2022) \u0026lsquo;Cinema as Urban Modelling: Understanding urban phenomena through fiction films\u0026rsquo;, in E. Stein, G. Halegoua, and B. Kredell (eds) \u003cem\u003eThe Routledge Companion to Media and the City\u003c/em\u003e. Routledge, pp. 15\u0026ndash;28.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePenz, F. and Lu, A. (eds) (2011) \u003cem\u003eUrban Cinematics: understanding urban phenomena through the moving image\u003c/em\u003e. Cambridge: Intellect.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePenz, F., Reid, A. and Thomas, M. (2017) \u0026lsquo;Cinematic Urban Archaeology: The Battersea Case\u0026rsquo;, in \u003cem\u003eCinematic Urban Geographies\u003c/em\u003e, pp. 191\u0026ndash;221. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46084-4_11\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1057/978-1-137-46084-4_11\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePerec, G. (1997) \u003cem\u003eSpecies of spaces and other pieces / Georges Perec ; edited with an introduction and translated by John Sturrock.\u003c/em\u003e London: Penguin (Penguin twentieth-century classics).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePerkins, C. (2008) \u0026lsquo;Cultures of map use\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eThe Cartographic Journal\u003c/em\u003e, 45(2), pp. 150\u0026ndash;158. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1179/174327708X305076\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1179/174327708X305076\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePrabowo, B.N. and Temeljotov-Salaj, A. (2023) \u0026lsquo;The older adults in the smart urban heritage area: A mini-scoping review of inclusivity in the World Heritage sites\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eIFAC-PapersOnLine\u003c/em\u003e, 56(2), pp. 9570\u0026ndash;9575. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2023.10.259\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1016/j.ifacol.2023.10.259\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePratt, G. and San Juan, R.M. (2014) \u003cem\u003eFilm and urban space: critical possibilities\u003c/em\u003e. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014, \u0026copy;2014.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRen, M. and Chai, N. (2025) \u0026lsquo;Resilience Renewal Design Strategy for Aging Communities in Traditional Historical and Cultural Districts: Reflections on the Practice of the Sizhou\u0026rsquo;an Community in China\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eBuildings\u003c/em\u003e, 15(6), p. 965. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15060965\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.3390/buildings15060965\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSalman, K.A.H. and Hussein, S.H. (2021) \u0026lsquo;Urban acupuncture as an approach for reviving\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eIOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science\u003c/em\u003e, 779(1), p. 012031. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/779/1/012031\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1088/1755-1315/779/1/012031\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eStierli, M. (2013) \u003cem\u003eLas Vegas in the Rearview Mirror: The City in Theory, Photography, and Film\u003c/em\u003e. Getty Publications.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSun, Y. (2025) \u0026lsquo;Making urban memory visible: the on-screen transformation of Beijing\u0026rsquo;s hutong districts during modernization (1940s\u0026ndash;2010s)\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eUrban History\u003c/em\u003e, 52(2), pp. 264\u0026ndash;282. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926824000014\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1017/S0963926824000014\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWang, F. \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e (2020) \u0026lsquo;Isolated or integrated? Evaluation of ageing-friendly communities in Old Beijing City based on accessibility, social inclusion and equity\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eIndoor and Built Environment\u003c/em\u003e, 29(3), pp. 465\u0026ndash;479. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1177/1420326X19896834\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1177/1420326X19896834\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWang, J. (2011) \u003cem\u003eBeijing Record: A Physical and Political History of Planning Modern Beijing\u003c/em\u003e. Singapore ; London: World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWang, Y. and Gao, C. (2021) \u0026lsquo;Research on the Design of Aging Leisure Landscape in Community\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eJournal of Physics: Conference Series\u003c/em\u003e, 1838(1), p. 012045. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1838/1/012045\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1088/1742-6596/1838/1/012045\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWood, D. (2010) \u0026lsquo;Lynch Debord: About Two Psychogeographies\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eCartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization\u003c/em\u003e, 45(3), pp. 185\u0026ndash;199. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.3138/carto.45.3.185\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.3138/carto.45.3.185\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWu, F. (2016) \u0026lsquo;State Dominance in Urban Redevelopment: Beyond Gentrification in Urban China\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eUrban Affairs Review\u003c/em\u003e, 52(5), pp. 631\u0026ndash;658. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1177/1078087415612930\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1177/1078087415612930\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYang, Q. (2016) \u0026lsquo;Transformation of Living Space in Hutongs through the Process of Urban Development\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eCambridge Journal of China Studies\u003c/em\u003e, 11(1), p. 68.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYu, S. (2017) \u0026lsquo;Courtyard in conflict: the transformation of Beijing\u0026rsquo;s Siheyuan during revolution and gentrification\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eThe Journal of Architecture\u003c/em\u003e, 22(8), pp. 1337\u0026ndash;1365. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2017.1394349\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1080/13602365.2017.1394349\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eZhang, J. \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e (2015) \u0026lsquo;Living environment and life satisfaction of aged population in Beijing Municipality\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eProgress in Geography\u003c/em\u003e, 34(12), pp. 1628\u0026ndash;1636.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eZhang, W. (2012) \u003cem\u003eInvestigation of outdoor residential environment of the elderly in Beijing Hutong area\u003c/em\u003e. Master Thesis. Univeristy of Tianjin. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://kns.cnki.net/kcms/detail/detail.aspx?dbcode=CMFD\u0026amp;\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://kns.cnki.net/kcms/detail/detail.aspx?dbcode=CMFD\u0026amp;\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003edbname=CMFD2012\u0026amp;filename=1012022403.nh\u0026amp;v=xU3VzHnUJfEHONTFaHCd3KkYVENTlD9y4FOp9lY%25mmd2BylTLbNSzyB%25mmd2FHwA4Me8FjkBg5 (Accessed: 11 August 2021).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eZhang, Z., Yan, Z. and Mao, Y. (2025) \u0026lsquo;Effect of the establishment of age-friendly communities on the life satisfaction levels of the elderly in Beijing\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eJournal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology)\u003c/em\u003e, 65(1), pp. 12\u0026ndash;21. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2024.22.051\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2024.22.051\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eZhu, Y. and Ye, C. (2024) \u0026lsquo;Urban renewal without gentrification: toward dual goals of neighborhood revitalization and community preservation?\u0026rsquo;, \u003cem\u003eUrban Geography\u003c/em\u003e [Preprint]. Available at: \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/\" targettype=\"URL\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003e10.1080/02723638.2022.2159651\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1080/02723638.2022.2159651\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e (Accessed: 20 June 2025).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"urban-design-international","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"Learn more about [URBAN DESIGN International](https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41289)","snPcode":"41289","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41289/3","title":"URBAN DESIGN International","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer SNAPPs","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"counter-mapping, cinematic cartography, urban acupuncture, ageing urban populations, Beijing’s historic neighbourhoods","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7173112/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7173112/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper proposes a counter-mapping approach to visualising and analysing the everyday lived experiences of ageing residents in Beijing\u0026rsquo;s historic Hutong neighbourhoods through film. Adapting the metaphor of urban acupuncture, it introduces an acupoint\u0026ndash;meridian framework that identifies emotionally and socially significant micro-sites (\u0026ldquo;acupoints\u0026rdquo;) in the neighbourhood and the repetitive, habitual routes and routines (\u0026ldquo;meridians\u0026rdquo;) that connect them. Through scene-by-scene analysis of two Chinese films\u0026mdash;\u003cem\u003eMr. Six\u003c/em\u003e (2015) and \u003cem\u003eThe Old Barber\u003c/em\u003e (2006), the study reveals how ordinary places such as shaded benches, alley corners, and food stalls, as well as temporal rhythms of daily activities such as eating, working and resting, sustain continuity and belonging in later life. Together, these findings articulate a spatio-temporal diagnostic tool for urban design, demonstrating how this cinematic counter-mapping method can surface overlooked geographies of marginalised groups, and thus support more participatory and inclusive practices to historic neighbourhood renewal.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Counter-Mapping the Lived Experiences of Ageing Residents in Historic Beijing: An Acupoint-Meridian Approach through Film","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-28 16:27:37","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7173112/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2026-02-19T15:09:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-02-18T19:23:31+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"43474664876621972572031226191657929007","date":"2026-01-23T19:54:01+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-11-07T13:54:53+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"65185466871586865341565086751831389629","date":"2025-11-03T10:53:51+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"267161363567580392792622250199405470173","date":"2025-10-31T16:07:42+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-10-13T12:19:36+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-09-28T15:47:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-09-26T00:56:08+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"URBAN DESIGN International","date":"2025-09-25T09:11:23+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"urban-design-international","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"Learn more about [URBAN DESIGN International](https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41289)","snPcode":"41289","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41289/3","title":"URBAN DESIGN International","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer SNAPPs","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"f6fe02a1-11a1-419a-90ce-48aab8e2fcad","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 28th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-02T08:41:43+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-28 16:27:37","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7173112","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7173112","identity":"rs-7173112","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}