Reading the walls: Visual governmentality and public response in Tianjin subway murals

Abstract

In rapidly expanding urban transit systems, subway murals are increasingly mobilized as visual governance, staging city narratives and shaping how commuter space is felt and read. Drawing on 59 semi-structured interviews across all 26 mural-equipped Tianjin Metro stations (29 murals), this study develops a perception–preference–needs framework linking eight visual elements—shape, color, symbol, contrast, material, light, form, and space—to articulated cultural, aesthetic, functional, and emotional needs. The findings show that murals with locally legible imagery, coherent composition, and durable, well-crafted materials were more often described as supporting place attachment, visual comfort, and spatial intelligibility. By contrast, works perceived as hard to read at a glance, historically or ideologically distant, or visually intense in high-flow zones were more frequently associated with fatigue, distancing, and disengagement, especially when competing with wayfinding under time pressure. These patterns portray metro murals as negotiated texts in everyday travel, revealing both the reach and limits of visual governance. The article offers a mid-range analytic tool for evaluating transit murals and argues for low-friction, user-informed processes—such as feedback loops and legibility testing—to improve fit with diverse commuter readings.