A detailed account of the Chinese urbanization boom and its implications.

While the imperial and socialist periods of Chinese history were marked by a union of society and state, the rapid urbanization of China has dismantled the territorial foundation of an “earth-bound” or rural society. Through this urban revolution, the Chinese state has become a visible factor in the construction of urban life, with State-led rebuilding of residential communities hastening the demise of traditionalism and giving birth to a new China with greater urbanism and state-centered governance. In Creating Chinese Urbanism, Fulong Wu describes the landscape of urbanization in China, revealing the profound impacts of marketization on Chinese society and the consequential governance changes at the grassroots level. Taking the vantage point of concrete residential neighborhoods, this book offers a cutting-edge analysis of how China is becoming urban and conceptualizes the changes in state governance through the process of urbanization.
 

Fulong Wu is professor of planning studies at the UCL Bartlett School of Planning.

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Preface

Introduction: leaving the soil

1 Changing residential landscape: a new urban social geography

2 The end of (neo-)traditionalism

3 Transient space with a new moral order

4 Residential enclosure without private governance

5 Rethinking urban China in an urban debate

Conclusion: a visible state emerging from urban revolution

References
Index