This study examines the roles and social meanings of historic preservation under Taipei's globalization process. According to our results, the contentious planning process for Dihua Street had generated a public sphere in which various visions, values and meanings regarding the existing urban form were identified, proposed and contested. This process is positive for a city in terms of constructing a democratic civil society. From this perspective, preservation issues of Dihua Street no longer struggle between cultural preservation and capital accumulation. Rather, the preservation of Dihua Street is a political process concerning the exploration, choice and negotiation of possible meanings for an old urban form in a new historical and social context.