An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a county).

Historical precursors[link]

In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states the German Confederation and the German Empire, so-called "free imperial cities" (nominative singular freie Reichsstadt, nominative plural freie Reichsstädte) held the legal status of imperial immediacy, according to which they were not subinfeudated to any vassal ruler and were instead subject to the authority of the Emperor alone. Examples included Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck, along with others that gained and/or lost the privileges of immediacy over the course of the Empire's history.

National capitals[link]

In general[link]

A number of countries have made their national capitals into separate entities.

Examples include:

• Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is outside of the country's system of counties.
• London, the capital of the United Kingdom and its constituent country England, is administratively Greater London, which consists of the City of London and 32 London boroughs. Greater London is not one of the metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, which the remainder of England is subdivided into. London has its own assembly and directly-elected mayor, which exercise local government/devolved powers greater than any other city or place in the UK, apart from the nations/provinces of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. One of the boroughs, the City of Westminster, is the seat of government as home to the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and other notable government, judicial and religious buildings. The City of London (which is not, and never has been, the seat of government) has a unique status in British local government; it is part of Greater London for most administrative purposes, but remains a separate ceremonial county, and retains many independent local government powers and civic identity, most notably its own police force and Lord Mayor.
• Oslo, the capital of Norway is an independent city defined both as a municipality and a county.
• Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is not really a city but officially one of Japan's 47 prefectures. Its official name is Tokyo Metropolis, highlighting its special designation. It consists of 49 municipalities, 23 of which are the wards that once made up the no-longer existing Tokyo City.

Federal capitals[link]

In countries with a federal structure, the federal capital is often separate from other jurisdictions in the country, and frequently has a unique system of government.

Examples include:

• Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, is a separate entity counted not as one of the states of the country but rather as a federal capital territory.
• Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, is formally Bogotá, Distrito Capital (Capital District).
• Brasília, the capital of Brazil, is located in a Federal District, which — similar to the ones for Canberra and for Washington — was created especially for the purpose of housing the Federal capital city.
• Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is a separate bi-lingual(Dutch-French) region (the Brussels-Capital Region), independent of both Flanders and Wallonia, despite being entirely surrounded by Flanders (of which it is also the regional capital) and sharing a common language with Wallonia (French).
• Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, received the status of "Autonomous City" via a 1994 amendment to the country's constitution. Previously, Buenos Aires had been designated as a "Capital District".
• Canberra, the capital of Australia, is located in the Australian Capital Territory.
• Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is located in a Capital District.
• Mexico City, the capital of the United Mexican States (Mexico), is coterminous with the Federal District (El Distrito Federal). The 31 states and the Federal District are collectively called "federal entities" (entidades federativas in Spanish).
• Moscow, the capital of Russia, itself forms a Federal City, a capital territory, which is one of the 83 federal subjects of Russia.
• New Delhi — the capital city of India — and the old city of Delhi together form the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
• Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is not within any of the 50 states. It is located in and is co-terminous with (that is, has the same boundaries as) the District of Columbia. The two form one entity. Although the District of Columbia was originally created as a capital territory out of parts of Maryland and Virginia, the portion from Virginia was removed from the Federal District and returned to Virginia in 1846.

Asia[link]

People's Republic of China[link]

In mainland China under the administration of the People's Republic of China, the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing are centrally-administered province-level regions, and they do not belong to any particular province. Additionally, there are several vice provincial cities that are nominally under provinces but are in reality independent of any provinces.

Within some provinces, there are some cities that are directly under provinces, bypassing an administrative level (prefectures and prefecture-level cities).

Hong Kong and Macau are two Special Administrative Regions (SAR) of China which have a high degree of autonomy, except in acts of state like diplomatic relations and national defence.

Republic of China (Taiwan)[link]

Under the administrative division system of the Republic of China, some cities are directly administered by the Executive Yuan, some are administered by provinces (the province of Taiwan is nominal), and some are subordinate to counties. The centrally-administered (Taipei City, Kaohsiung City, New Taipei City, Taichung City, and Tainan City) and province-administered ones are like independent cities under this definition.

Korea (Republic of Korea)[link]

In addition to its nine provinces, South Korea has seven province-level "metropolitan cities." By far the largest among these in terms of population is the capital, Seoul, called a teukbyeol-si (특별시; literally, special city), which is home to more than 20% of the entire population of the country. The remaining six independent cities are called gwangyeok-si (광역시; literally, large city) whose names are: Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, Incheon, Gwangju, and Ulsan.

Historically, these independent cities have been carved from the province that surrounds them. Consequently, they typically share a strong regional and cultural identity with the adjoining province(s). For instance, Gwangju, located at the center of Jeolla region, is heavily associated with the region. Seoul and Incheon are said to make up the National Capital Area along with the densely populated Gyeonggi that almost completely encompasses them.

One interesting relic of the newer independent cities is that, in some cases, the government administrative buildings (docheong) of the provinces they were once a part of are still located within city boundaries, meaning that these provinces have capitals that are not within their borders.

In 2006, the ruling party floated a proposal to completely eliminate all current province and independent-city borders. This plan would divide the entire republic into fifty or sixty city- or county-level administrations, similar to the system in Japan. The plan was intended to help reduce regional discrimination and animosity by eliminating provincial identity.

Philippines[link]

Many major cities in the Philippines are independent cities, classified as either "highly urbanized" or "independent component" cities. These cities do not share their tax revenues with any province, and are administratively and legally not part of any province, although many still group them as components of the provinces to which they previously belonged for convenience and reduced complexity. There are 38 of them, with 16 being located in Metro Manila, 8 in the rest of the Luzon island group, 7 in the Visayas and 7 in Mindanao.

Europe[link]

Austria[link]

In Austria, a similar concept is the Statutarstadt.

Bosnia and Herzegovina[link]

The city of Brčko has the status of a "district", governed by the top-level country administration (Bosnia and Herzegovina). It is independent of both Entities that constitute Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). All other cities and municipalities are under the jurisdiction of the Entity (in Republika Srpska) or under the jurisdiction of cantons (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bulgaria[link]

The capital city of Sofia has the status of oblast (region).

Croatia[link]

The capital city of Zagreb has the status equal to županija (county), whereas all other cities and municipalities are under a county jurisdiction.

France[link]

See also: Administrative divisions of France.

The city of Paris is both a département and a commune; it is the only French city with this status. The Council of Paris (Conseil de Paris) exercises functions similar to those of a departmental council (conseil général) and a city council (conseil municipal). However, Paris and the départements closest to it are part of the Île-de-France région.

Germany[link]

See also: List of German urban districts.

In Germany, different states have either the Stadtkreis ("Urban County") or Kreisfreie Stadt (literally, "County-Free City").

Examples of German independent cities are:

• Stuttgart
• Cologne (Köln)
• Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main)
• Leipzig
• Munich (München)
• Duisburg
• Nuremberg (Nürnberg)
• Freiburg
• Oldenburg
• Osnabrück
• Bielefeld
• Münster

Additionally, the German City-states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg function as federal states. The City-state of Bremen is comprised solely of the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven (which was originally founded as an ocean port for the city of Bremen).

Hungary[link]

See also: List of towns in Hungary

In Hungary, 23 of the cities are "cities with county rights". These cities have equal rights with the 19 counties of Hungary.

Norway[link]

In Norway, Oslo is both a municipality (kommune) and a county (fylke) within itself.

Poland[link]

In Poland, many of the biggest cities comprise their own city counties (formally "cities with county rights"). They are suitably marked on the list of counties in Poland.

Russian Federation[link]

In the Russian Federation, Moscow and Saint Petersburg are both subjects of the federation and cities themselves.

Spain[link]

In Spain, there exist two so-called autonomous cities, Ceuta and Melilla, which are located on the North African coast surrounded by Morocco and have been under Spanish jurisdiction since the 15th century. Spain is a highly decentralized state organized in autonomous communities. These two cities hold their special status because they are not large enough to be considered regions on their own. Nonetheless, they function as autonomous communities with a high degree of self-administration and law-making powers.

Ukraine[link]

In Ukraine, the cities of Kiev and Sevastopol are part of the country constituent regions along with the autonomous republic of Crimea (ARK), and 24 other oblasts (see Oblasts of Ukraine).

United Kingdom[link]

In the UK, having city status gives the city's local government no additional inherent powers; city status depends on a grant from the monarch and merely confers on the place so-designated the right to call itself a city. Many cities and large urban areas are unitary authorities, meaning they have their own local government, separate from the surrounding county. (However a number of large urban areas have a number of unitary authorities, such as Greater Manchester, which mean they do not have a unified, city-wide local government.) County borough referred to a borough or a city, independent of county council control in England and Wales from 1889 to 1974 with the term continuing in use in Northern Ireland. Wales re-introduced the term in 1994 for use with certain unitary authorities.

North America[link]

Canada[link]

In the Canadian province of Ontario, the same type of city is referred to as a single-tier municipality (there are also separated municipalities). In Quebec, they are often called separated cities, as they are not Regional County Municipalities. Cities and towns in Alberta are not part of rural municipalities such as counties. In New Brunswick, all county government was abolished in 1967^[1]. Therefore, in theory, all cities, townships, and settlements in New Brunswick could be considered independent cities.

United States[link]

There are 42 independent cities in the United States, with 39 of these in Virginia (in Virginia, cities are separate from counties even if they function as county seats). The three others are Baltimore, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; and Carson City, Nevada.

While resembling an independent city, New York City is a unique case, with the city divided into five boroughs, each of which is territorially conterminous with a county of New York State.

Another type of locality is known as a consolidated city–county. In a consolidated city-county, as in an independent city, there is one single local government. But in a consolidated city-county, the city and the county nominally both exist, although they are the same entity (the City of Denver, Colorado and Denver County; the City of San Francisco, California and San Francisco County), whereas in an independent city, the county does not even nominally exist (Falls Church, Virginia, Carson City, Nevada).

Washington, D.C. is coterminous with the District of Columbia, which is not a part of any state. It cannot be considered "independent" because it is under Congressional oversight as the U.S. national capital.

References[link]

Notes

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

The party for Giles' fourth expedition. Young is seated on the left.

Jess Young was an explorer who accompanied Ernest Giles during his fourth expedition, making some important botanical collections along the way.

Little is known of his early life; it is not even certain whether "Jess" was a full given name or an abbreviation. In May 1875 Giles, in listing the members of his expedition party, referred to him as "Mr Jess Young, a young friend of Sir Thomas Elder, lately arrived from England." Giles' party left Beltana, South Australia on 6 May, and arrived in Perth, Western Australia on 13 November. During the expedition, Young collected the specimens of a number of new plant species, including Eucalyptus salubris, Eucalyptus youngiana and Eremophila youngii, all from the vicinity of Queen Victoria Spring. The latter two species were later named in Young's honour.

Not much is known of Young's life following his expedition with Giles, but the National Herbarium in Melbourne has specimens of Acacia collected by him between 1875 and 1880. In 1878, he published an account of his expedition in Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, describing himself as "Astronomer of the Giles Expedition".

References[link]

• Hall, Norman (1978). Botanists of the Eucalypts. Australia: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. ISBN 0-643-00271-5. 
• Giles, Ernest (1889). Australia Twice Traversed: The Romance of Exploration. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. 

Further reading[link]

• Jess Young (1878). "Recent Journey of Exploration across the Continent of Australia; Its Deserts, Native Races, and Natural History". Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 20: 116–141. DOI:10.2307/196436. JSTOR 196436. 

Jia Zhangke
Chinese name	賈樟柯 (Traditional)
Chinese name	贾樟柯 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Jiǎ Zhāngkē (Mandarin)
Born	1970 Fenyang, Shanxi, China
Occupation	Film director, film producer
Years active	1995–present
Awards Golden Montgolfiere 1998 Xiao Wu 2000 Platform TFCA Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2004 The World Asian Film Award for Best Director 2006 Still Life Golden Lion 2006 Still Life LAFCA Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2008 Still Life

Jia Zhangke (simplified Chinese: 贾樟柯; traditional Chinese: 賈樟柯; pinyin: Jiǎ Zhāngkē; born 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, China) is a Chinese film director. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai and Zhang Yuan.^[1]

Jia's early films, a loose trilogy based in his home province of Shanxi, were made outside of China's state-run film bureaucracy, and therefore are considered "underground" films. Beginning in 2004, Jia's status in his own country was raised when he was allowed to direct his fourth feature film, The World, with state approval.

Jia's films have received critical praise and have been recognized internationally, notably winning the Venice Film Festival's top award for Still Life. He has been described by critics and film directors as being perhaps "the most important filmmaker working in the world today."^[2]

Education[link]

Jia's interest in film began in the early 1990s, as an art student at the Shanxi University in Taiyuan. On a lark, Jia attended a screening of Chen Kaige's masterpiece, Yellow Earth. The film, according to Jia, was life changing, and convinced the young man that he wanted to be a director.^[3] Jia would eventually make it to China's prestigious Beijing Film Academy in 1993, as a film theory major, giving him access to both western and eastern classics, as well as an extensive film library.^[3]

Directorial career[link]

Early work[link]

While a student at the Beijing Film Academy, Jia would make three short films to hone his skills. The first, a ten minute short documentary on tourists in Tiananmen Square entitled One Day in Beijing, was made in 1994 on self-raised funds.^[4] Though Jia has referred to his first directorial effort as inconsequential and "naive", he also described the short day and half shoot as "excitement...difficult to express in words."^[5] But it was Jia's second directorial effort, the short film Xiao Shan Going Home (1995), that would bring him to the attention of the film world. It was a film that helped establish Jia's style and thematic interests and, in Jia's words, was a film that "truly marks the beginning of my career as a filmmaker."^[6] Xiao Shan would eventually to screen abroad where it won a top prize at the 1997 Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards.^[1] More significantly, the film's success brought Jia in contact with cinematographer Yu Lik-wai and producer Li Kit Ming,^[1] two men who along with producer/editor Chow Keung would come to form Jia Zhangke's "core...creative team."^[7] With their support, Jia was able to begin work on Xiao Wu, which would become his first feature film. Before graduating, however, Jia would make one more short film, Du Du (1996), a film about a female college student faced with several life-changing decisions. The film, little seen and rarely available, was for Jia an exercise of experimentation and technique, as it was filmed without a script.^[8] For Jia, the film was an important learning experience, even if he was "not terribly proud" of the end result.^[8]

Underground success[link]

Upon graduation, Jia embarked on his first feature length film, with producer Li Kit Ming and cinematographer Yu Lik-wai. Xiao Wu, a film about a pickpocket in Jia's native Fenyang, emerged out of Jia's desire to capture the massive changes that had happened to his home in the past few years.^[9] Additionally, the film was a rejection of what Jia felt was the fifth generation's increasing tendency to move away from the reality of modern China and into the realm of historical legend.^[10] Shot on a mere 400,000 RMB budget (or about US$50,000),^[1] Xiao Wu would prove to be a major success on the international film circuit, bringing Jia a deal with Takeshi Kitano's production house.^[1]

Jia capitalized on his success with Xiao Wu with a two internationally acclaimed independent features. The first, Platform, was partially funded in 1998 through the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) of the Busan (Pusan) International Film Festival when Jia received the Hubert Bals Fund Award (HBF) for his project. (Ahn, Soo Jeong, The Pusan Film Festival, South Korean Cinema and Globalization,2012, 104-105). Platform was a three hour epic about a provincial dance and music troupe transitioning from the 1970s to the early 1990s. The film has been called the masterpiece of the entire sixth generation movement.^[11] Starring Wang Hongwei, Jia's classmate and star of Xiao Shan Going Home and Xiao Wu, Platform was also the first of Jia's films to star actress Zhao Tao, a former dance teacher. Zhao would go on to serve as Jia Zhangke's muse as the lead female role in Unknown Pleasures, The World, and Still Life, as well as acting in 24 City and the short film Cry Me a River (both in 2008).

With 2002's Unknown Pleasures, Jia began a foray into filming in digital video (although his first experimentation with the medium came a year before, in 2001's short documentary In Public). Xiao Wu, Platform and Unknown Pleasures are sometimes seen collectively as an informal trilogy of China's transition into modernity.^[12] Unknown Pleasures, a meditation on the aimless "birth control" generation to emerge out of the one-child policy helped cement Jia's reputation as a major voice in contemporary Chinese cinema.^[13] All this despite limited theatrical runs and obscurity in mainland China. Indeed, none of the three films were ever publicly released in the PRC, although pirated DVD sales were brisk, a fact commented on by Jia near the end of Unknown Pleasures when Xiao Wu, the character (Wang Hongwei again), attempts to buy the DVD of Xiao Wu, the film.^[14]

Wider success[link]

Jia Zhangke at 2008 Venice Film Festival

Beginning with 2004's The World, Jia began to work with official approval from the Chinese government.^[15] The shift from independent to state-approved was not in isolation, however, but was part of a broader movement by many "underground" film directors turning legitimate.^[16] For many critics, the shift to legitimacy did not blunt Jia's critical eye, and The World was well received both abroad and – somewhat surprisingly – by the Chinese government.^[16] Taking place in Beijing's World Park, the film was also Jia's first to take place outside of his home province of Shanxi.

In 2006, Jia returned to his experimentation with digital film with his film Still Life. The film would see Jia's status both at home and abroad raised when it won the coveted Golden Lion in the 2006 Venice Film Festival.^[17] The film, a diptych film about two people searching for their spouses in the backdrop of the Three Gorges Dam, was accompanied by the companion documentary Dong, about artist Liu Xiaodong.

The 2000s have seen Jia at a prolific period of his career. Following the success of Still Life, Jia was reported to be working on a gangster film, The Age of Tattoo ("Ciqing shidai"). Originally planned to be released in 2007, production on The Age of Tattoo was delayed after lead Jay Chou pulled out of the project,^[18] with Jia moving on to other films. These included a second documentary, Useless, about China's clothing manufacturing business, which garnered the director the Orizzonti Doc Prize at Venice in 2008,^[19][20] and 24 City, an ambitious work that chronicles the lives of several generation of women. At the London Film Festival, 24 City was accompanied by another Jia short film, Cry Me a River, a romance starring Summer Palace actors, Hao Lei and Guo Xiaodong, and Jia regulars Zhao Tao and Wang Hongwei.^[21]

As of 2009, Jia is working on another documentary, this time about the history of Shanghai.^[22] Jia is also beginning work on his first big budget production, a historical film titled In the Qing Dynasty, which will be produced by the Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To.^[22]

His most recent film, I Wish I Knew, is a documentary exploring the changing face of Shanghai. I Wish I Knew debuted in the Un certain regard competition in the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.^[23]

Themes[link]

Jia's films treat themes of alienated youth, contemporary Chinese history and globalization, as well as his signature usage of the long-take, colorful digital video and his minimalist/realist style. The World, in particular, with its portrayal of gaudy theme park filled with recreations of foreign landmarks is often noted for its critique of the globalization of China.^[24][25]

Jia's work speaks to a vision of "authentic" Chinese life, and his consistent return to the themes of alienation and disorientation fly in the face of the work of older filmmakers who present more idealized understandings of Chinese society. Critic Howard Feinstein described the director as a "rare breed of filmmaker capable of combining stunning artifice with documentary truth."^[26]

Critics have noted that whereas "Fifth Generation" filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou churn out export-friendly and lushly-colored wuxia dramas, Jia, as a "Sixth Generation" filmmaker, rejects the idealization of these narratives in favor of a more nuanced style. His films, from Xiao Wu and Unknown Pleasures to Platform and The World, eschew the son et lumière that characterizes so many contemporary Chinese exports. But the films' recurrent and reflexive use of "pop" motifs ensure that they are more self-aware than the similarly documentarian Chinese films of Jia's Sixth Generation peers.^[27]

Filmography[link]

As director[link]

As actor[link]

As producer[link]

(Excluding production credits for Jia's own directorial efforts.)

See also[link]

• Xstream Pictures – Jia Zhangke's production company, founded with Yu Lik-wai and Chow Keung.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jia Zhangke

• Jia Zhangke at the Internet Movie Database
• Jia Zhangke at AllRovi
• Jia Zhangke at the Senses of Cinema directory of great directors
• Overloaded Peking – documentary starring Jia Zhangke
• BigScreen Festival with Jia Zhangke
• Postsocialist Grit An essay on ideology and aesthetics in Platform and Unknown Pleasures at Offscreen Journal
• A conversation with Jia Zhangke
• Jia Zhangke on The Realist Imperatvie at Asia Society
• Q&A with Jia Zhangke at VIFF 2010 at the Intermedias Review
• The Quest for Memory: Documentary and Fiction in Jia Zhangke's Films, Jiwei Xiao, Senses of Cinema 59

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