Chinese Urbanism: Critical Perspectives

281 Pages·2018·3.779 MB·English

by  Mark Jayne

CHINESE URBANISM
This book provides a definitive overview of contemporary developments in our
understanding of urban life in China. Multidisciplinary perspectives outline the
most significant critical, theoretical, methodological and empirical developments
in our appreciation of Chinese cities in the context of an increasingly globalized
world. Each chapter includes reviews and appraisals of past and current theoretical
development and embarks on innovative theoretical directions relating to Marxist,
feminist, post-structural, post-colonial and ‘more-than-representational’ thinking.
The book provides an in-depth insight into urban change and considers in what
ways theoretical engagement with Chinese cities contributes to our understanding
of ‘global urbanism’. Chapters explore how new critical perspectives on economic,
political, social, spatial, emotional, embodied and affective practices add value to our
understanding of urban life in, and beyond, China.
Chinese Urbanism offers valuable insights which will be of interest to students
and scholars alike working in geography, urban studies, Asian studies, economics,
political studies and beyond.
Mark Jayne is Professor of Human Geography at Cardiff University, UK. He is
a social and cultural geographer whose research interests include consumption,
the urban order, city cultures and cultural economy and has published over 80
journal articles, book chapters and official reports. Mark is author of Cities and
Consumption (Routledge, 2005), co-author of Alcohol, Drinking, Drunkenness:
(Dis)Orderly Spaces (Ashgate, 2011) and Childhood, Family, Alcohol (Ashgate, 2015).
Mark is also co-editor of City of Quarters: Urban Villages in the Contemporary City
(Ashgate, 2004), Small Cities: Urban Experience Beyond the Metropolis (Routledge,
2006), Urban Theory Beyond the West: A World of Cities (Routledge, 2012) and Urban
Theory: New Critical Perspectives (Routledge, 2017).

CHINESE URBANISM
Critical Perspectives
Edited by Mark Jayne
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Mark Jayne; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Mark Jayne to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
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utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-20171-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-20172-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-50585-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
List of illustrations viii
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xv
1 An introduction to critical perspectives on Chinese urbanism 1
Mark Jayne
PART I
Space and place 15
2 Towards critical urbanism: urban public space in modern China 17
Junxi Qian
3 Urbanism as a state project: lessons from Beijing’s Green Belt 30
Hyun Bang Shin and Yimin Zhao
4 Nature, housing and everyday life in Chinese cities 47
Junfang Xie
PART II
Identity, lifestyle and forms of sociability 63
5 Encountering strangers: prostitution and urban life in
Dongguan, China 65
Xiaomei Cai and Xiaobo Su
vi Contents
6 Greening the Chinese city: young people, environmental
activism and ChinaNet 74
Alison Hulme
7 Interstitial spaces of caring and community:
commodification, modernisation and the dislocations of
everyday practice within Beijing’s hutong neighbourhoods 86
Melissa Y. Rock
PART III
Consumption and urban cultures 107
8 Tasting, savouring, signalling: articulating the luxury brand
experience in Chinese cities 109
Annamma Joy, John F. Sherry, Jr. and Jeff Jianfeng Wang
9 Food, alcohol and the ‘ideal’ home in urban China 121
Chen Liu
10 Pop-up urbanism: selling Old Beijing to the creative class 137
Amy Yueming Zhang
PART IV
(Im)mobilities and materialities 149
11 Urban cross-border mobilities: geopolitical encounters and
bordering practices of ‘Taiwanese compatriots’ in China 151
J. J. Zhang
12 Contested (im)mobilities and rhythms of Chinese cities:
urban transformation and ‘slow life’ in Sanya 165
Jingfu Chen
13 Chinese urban informality and migrant workers’
negotiation of work/life balance 175
Gengzhi Huang, Tao Lin and Desheng Xue
PART V
Bodies, emotions and atmospheres 187
14 Embodying Chinese urbanism 189
Mark Jayne and Ho Hon Leung
Contents vii
15 Noisy cities 202
Jie Zhang
16 Creativity and Chinese urbanism: the moral atmosphere of
Lishui Barbizon 208
Jun Wang and Yan Li
17 Afterword: critical Chinese urbanism for the
twenty-first century 221
Mark Jayne
Bibliography 225
Index 259
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
2.1 Teahouse in Chengdu 24
2.2 Collective red-song singing in Guangzhou 26
3.1 A golf course in the planned second green belt 39
3.2 The street view of the resettlement community in Sunhe 43
4.1 The first public park in Shanghai 53
4.2 Cao Yang new residential district Shanghai, c. 1950 54
4.3 Tube-shaped apartment housing, c.1960 55
4.4 Beijing’s QianSanMen high-rise residential housing, c.1976 57
4.5 New urban residential district housing, c. 1980s 57
4.6 Shijiazhuang private residential housing, c. 1992 58
4.7 ‘Vanke’ scene garden housing in Guangdong, c. 2000 58
7.1 Clothes drying on a makeshift clothes-line in an alleyway, Beijing 93
7.2 Carving out their own social space 94
7.3 Public exercise equipment in a Beijing hutong 95
7.4 Cars parked in a hutong alleyway, Beijing 96
7.5 Bicycles locked to fixtures on the side of the road 98
7.6 Hand painted sign on garage 99
7.7 Foot traffic and an elderly man sitting on a dengzi (small stool) 99
7.8 The many private uses of a narrow hutong alleyway 100
7.9 Sign posted on courtyard door 103
7.10 Hand written sign posted on courtyard door 103
7.11 Sign posted on courtyard door 104
9.1 The open kitchen 126
9.2 and 9.3 The dining area 129
9.4 A box of Mao-tai 132
Illustrations ix
9.5 A plant that is fertilised by food waste 134
10.1 and 10.2 A pop-up shop during and after Beijing Design Week 143
10.3 A design idea experimented during Beijing Design Week 144
10.4 Pop-up uses with an emphasis on book design 145
10.5 A long-established gallery close to Yangmeizhuxiejie 146
10.6 A construction site in Yangmeizhuxiejie 146
11.1 The Taiwan Passport and the Taiwan Compatriot Permit 155
11.2 Taiwanese tourists at the arrival lounge of the Dong Du Ferry
Terminal 161
12.1 Real estate projects near the beach 169
12.2 Two officials having an afternoon nap at the beach 171
12.3 Father Tea 173
13.1 The location of the leather industry in Guangzhou 179
13.2 Informal workers in global leather production networks 180
13.3 A typical informal factory in Shiling, Guangzhou 181
13.4 Members of a knitting group 184
14.1 Young people celebrating National Children’s Day 194
14.2 ‘Dancing-as-advertisement’ by commercial massage staff 194
14.3 Older people exercising in urban parks 195
14.4 Older women dancing in a public shopping street 195
14.5 Older people night-time ballroom dancing in urban parks 196
14.6 Examples of massage venues in Chinese cities 199
16.1 Lishui Old Street 213
16.2 ‘Best photo spot’ 214
16.3 Us and them: encounters between painters and tourists 216
16.4 ‘Yet-to-be authorised’ artist Wang in the studio 218
Tables
4.1 Typology of urban green space 60
4.2 Classification of residential area and public and private green space 61