Tag Archives: urba-china

Midday siesta

Siesta

This photo was taken last April behind the Huguang Guild Hall in Chongqing. Huguang Guild Hall is located in Chaotianmen, an old neighbourhood at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze rivers, which used to be the landing place for boats travelling on both rivers. Now this neighbourhood awaits its demolition. The guild hall, built during the reign of Qianlong, will remain standing while witnessing the high-speed modernization of the neighbourhood. The photo was taken just after lunch, the time of the siesta, a sacred custom in China.

The Chinese treasure the siesta, and devote at least half an hour a day for resting after lunch no matter where they are or what they are doing: white-collars take their pillows to their office and have no qualms falling asleep at desks; university students vanish as they go to their dorms to take a nap just after lunch and before afternoon classes resume. The siesta is regarded as a healthy activity according to Chinese medicine. This is an interesting philosophy when contrasted with the West, where it has almost become a synonym of laziness. Ever since I was a kid, whenever I went abroad, foreigners would tell me about the Spanish “easy” approach to work, something that was apparently related to our devotion to the siesta. In Spain, people have grown increasingly polarized about this topic, and most office workers said adiós to siesta a long time ago. The Chinese, on the contrary, seem to have got away with keeping it, and their reputation as tough workers remains intact despite adhering to this tradition. Also, they all seem to agree on the benefits of a good siesta.

Looking at this lady resting at the entrance of the temple enjoying the coolness provided by the stone walls, one feels inspired to make the best use of the idle afternoons of this summer interlude.

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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From socialist danwei to new danwei

Chai, Yanwei (2014). From socialist danwei to new danwei: a daily-life-based framework for sustainable development in urban China. Asian Geographer. Published online: 1 August 2014. DOI: 10.1080/10225706.2014.942948

The danwei (or work unit) compound was the basic spatial and social unit of urban China in the pre-reform period, and its transformation has been an important part of the larger transitions that have remade urban China during the reform era. This paper investigates spatial and social changes in urban China over three stages; namely, the formation of the socialist danwei system, the decline of the socialist danwei and the formation of a new kind of danwei. I argue that the socialist danwei included positive elements like mixed land use, job-housing balance and social equality, while the decline of the socialist danwei system has resulted in many negative outcomes such as spatial mismatch and social segregation. In proposing a framework for new danwei, I suggest that urban life should be structured around residents’ daily activity spaces based on their daily-life-circle systems. The concept of the new danwei offers a practical solution through combining a human-focused approach with consideration of China’s contemporary economic and social reality. The paper concludes with a discussion on possible avenues for future research.

Read full text on Taylor & Francis Online (restricted access)

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Outdoor activities in gated communities

The development of gated communities in Chinese cities has been studied by several researchers such as Pow Choon-Piew1. In a recent article, Wu, Wei and Wang chose to focus on the use of outdoor open space in these communities, choosing a gated community in Xiamen for their case study2. This community contains several different housing types (low-rise, medium-rise and high-rise buildings) surrounded by different designs for green spaces. They conducted their research by distributing a questionnaire to the residents gathering information on their outdoor activities within their gated communities (walking, practising sports, walking their dog, swimming…) and correlated their answers with their profile (age, gender, education, job, family income).

According to these findings, children, housewives and retirees benefited most from outdoor spaces. This study also shows that residents living in communities with large open spaces, and have a high annual income, are not more likely to take advantage of this feature and do not necessarily practise more outdoor activities. Therefore, we can argue that residents see green space more as an indicator of social status rather than something that meets a real need for outdoor activities.

  1. POW, C.-P. (2009). Gated communities in China: class, privilege and the moral politics of the good life. Abingdon and New York: Routledge []
  2. WU Caiwei, WEI Yongping, and Mark Y. WANG (2014). Planned gated communities in urban China : outdoors activities and designed leisure spaces. In Mark Y. WANG, Pookong KEE, and Jia GAO. Transforming Chinese cities. London UK and  New York NY: Routledge []

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Public health: A sustainable plan for China’s drinking water

Tao Tao & Kunlun Xin, Public health: A sustainable plan for China’s drinking water, Nature,  30 July 2014

Making drinking water safe is a priority in China. Serious health and social problems concentrate in areas where the water quality is poor. Every year, 190 million people in China fall ill and 60,000 people die from diseases caused by water pollution such as liver and gastric cancers1. Around 300 million people face shortages of drinking water2. In a 2009 nationwide assessment, one-quarter of 4,000 urban water-treatment plants surveyed did not comply with quality controls, stoking public fears about the health impacts.

Read the full text on Nature

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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The race for expansion – Cerdá Year

Captura de pantalla 2014-08-08 a las 03.08.28

Exactly 150 years ago, on the 7th of June 1859, the Plan for Reform and Development of Barcelona was approved. This was the work of Ildefonso Cerdá. The Plan is considered to be a pioneer in the development of modern urbanism. What continues to surprise today is Cerdá’s capacity to predict the protagonistic role which public transport would play in the city.

For more information on the Cerdá Year, please click here: http://www.anycerda.org/eng/

 

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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Chinadialogue

Chinadialogue (https://www.chinadialogue.net/) was launched on 3 July 2006 by an independent, non-profit organisation based in London and Beijing. It is a completely bilingual website that focuses on environmental issues like climate change, pollution, and water and food security. A website worth exploring.

Chinadialogue

Chi-Han Ai

Ph.D. candidate of EHESS ( École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) focusing on regional economic development in China and Taiwan.

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How global are Chinese cities?

The global aspect of Chinese cities has been widely studied, but the originality of Su, Xue and Agnew’s article is their focus on the political dimension of Chinese cities’ global status1.

This article does not look at where international companies’ headquarters are in China, but instead scrutinizes the location of international organisations, diplomatic agencies, and international non-governmental organisations and media agencies. For obvious reasons, most of them can be found in Beijing. Cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou also host a significant number of international organisations, but the authors notice that many smaller Chinese cities have also recently gained political influence on the international scene.

This article shows that the expansion of international organisation offices and their presence in China is a consequence of the central Chinese authorities’ political evolution over the last thirty years (new diplomatic relations and economic opening-up). After conducting interviews in Guangzhou, the authors argue that at the local level, the implantation of international offices is also motivated by several factors including a city’s regional position, its historical ties and the presence of a large international business community.

This study reveals the interconnection between economic and political influence on ranking global cities.

Furthermore, Chinese second-tier cities can strengthen their global status further as China improves its regional relations. A city like Kunming will gain more influence with the consolidation of the Greater Mekong region.

  1. SU Nian, XUE Desheng, John AGNEW (2014). World cities and international organizations: political global-city status of Chinese cities.  Chinese Geographical Science, 24(3), pp.362‒374. Retreived July 15, 2014 from  http://egeoscien.neigae.ac.cn/fileup/PDF/20140310.pdf []

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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China Information: Special issue on cyberpolitics

F1.mediumChina Information‘s latest issue, vol. 28, no. 2 (July 2014) is a special issue on cyberpolitics, put together by guest editor Guobin Yang. The articles are free for download until 16 August 2014.

China Information presents timely and in-depth analyses of major developments in contemporary China and overseas Chinese communities in the areas of politics, economics, law, ecology, culture, and society, including literature and the arts.

China Information pays special attention to views and areas that do not receive sufficient attention in the mainstream discourse on contemporary China. It encourages discussion and debate between different academic traditions, offers a platform to express controversial and dissenting opinions, and promotes research that is historically sensitive and contemporarily relevant.

Articles

  • Guobin Yang
    Political contestation in Chinese digital spaces: Deepening the critical inquiry
    [Abstract] [Full text]
  • Silvia Lindtner
    Hackerspaces and the Internet of Things in China: How makers are reinventing industrial production, innovation, and the self

    [Abstract] [Full text]
  • Marina Svensson
    Voice, power and connectivity in China’s microblogosphere: Digital divides on SinaWeibo
    [Abstract] [Full text]
  • Jesper Schlæger and Min Jiang
    Official microblogging and social management by local governments in China
    [Abstract] [Full text]
  • Steven J. Balla
    Health system reform and political participation on the Chinese Internet
    [Abstract] [Full text]
  • Robeson Taj Frazier and Lin Zhang
    Ethnic identity and racial contestation in cyberspace: Deconstructing the Chineseness of Lou Jing
    [Abstract] [Full text]
  • Marcella Szablewicz
    The ‘losers’ of China’s Internet: Memes as ‘structures of feeling’ for disillusioned young netizens
    [Abstract] [Full text]
  • Ning Zhang
    Web-based backpacking communities and online activism in China: Movement without marching
    [Abstract] [Full text]

Visit CIN’s website for more information on the journal, subscribing and submitting manuscripts, and follow CIN’s Facebook page.

Aurélia Martin

Chargée de communications et des médias pour l'UMR Chine Corée Japon (CNRS)

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Reform of the hukou: Not a liberalisation of the rural land market

Captura de pantalla 2014-07-30 a las 16.32.49

This news piece concerns the  hukou reform announced on Wednesday (guowuyuan guanyu jinyibu tuijin huji zhidu gaige de yijian – 院关于一步推籍制度改革的意), which plans to eliminate the anachronistic distinction between agricultural  and non-agricultural registration. From now on, citizens will be classified simply as residents. The report explains that the reform won’t affect a liberalisation of rural land rights that would allow urban residents moving towards rural areas and acquire rural land-use rights, which is illegal up to now. The report explains that the reform won’t affect the “bidirectional flow of people” (shuangxiang liudong – 双向流动), in contrast to the existing legal framework that only permits the “one-way circulation of rural residents towards the city”.

Please click here to watch the report on chinanews.com: http://www.chinanews.com/shipin/2014/06-21/news447205.shtml

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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The Discursive Turn: deliberative governance in China’s urbanized villages

Tang, Beibei (2014). The Discursive Turn: deliberative governance in China’s urbanized villages. Journal of Contemporary China, Prepublished June, 24, 2014.  DOI:10.1080/10670564.2014.918414

This article examines local governance and citizen participation in China through unstructured public deliberation. Case studies from two urbanized villages show that unstructured, informal public deliberation potentially leads to more autonomy and diverse channels for pursuing citizens’ appeals at the local level, along with increased consideration given by local government to grassroots requests relating to practical governance matters. Although taking place outside formal political institutions, unstructured public deliberation can exert influences on policy or decision-making inside government organizations through well-coordinated transmission mechanisms between the public and the local government. During this process, well-resourced community organizations and actors play a vital role through their bridging functions to produce dynamic relations of deliberative governance. This bridging role serves to deliver deliberative outcomes from the public sphere to the decision-making authorities, and it also includes the collection of feedback on policy as well as the means to negotiate for policy adjustment by facilitating a policy implementation process.

Read full text on Taylor & Francis Online (restricted access)

Beibei Tang webpage

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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International experience for Chinese urbanisation

2000年以来,我国城镇化率年均提高约1.35个百分点。这种大规模、高速度的城镇化在为经济社会发展注入强大动力的同时,也给生态环境带来巨大压力。在实现城镇化与环境保护双赢的问题上,欧美等发达国家和地区积累了一些有益经验,可以为我们提供借鉴与参考。

突出规划先行和政府引导。在城镇化早期,许多国家对城市发展放任自流,导致城市无序发展、贫民窟泛滥、卫生状况恶化、环境污染严重等“城市病”。为 此,英国政府颁布了世界上首部“城市规划法”,成为第一个较为成功地治理“城市病”的国家。德国在道路交通、电力通讯、排水排污等基础设施建设方面注重发 挥规划的指导作用,既立足于当前的实际需要,又着眼于未来的长远发展。日本在20世纪50年代就着手制定一系列国土与区域规划,并根据不同时期、不同地区 的发展不断对其进行调整与修编,还通过制定法律强化其引导作用。挪威、丹麦、美国等则通过开征碳税、对低碳经济实施财政补贴和税收优惠,利用市场杠杆,引 导鼓励企业和社会公众开展低碳行动,促进城市健康发展。

重视环境保护和生态建设。早在19世纪末,英国学者霍华德就提出了“田园城市”理论。英国在伦敦城市规划中提出应设置环城绿带,并于1935年通过 “绿带开发限制法案”,保障环城绿带建设。德国政府每4年出台一轮生态建设计划,要求各地城镇规划和建设必须充分尊重当地的自然条件,追求环境的优美舒适 及人与自然的和谐。荷兰对城市用地和建设规模实行年度计划控制,城镇规划和建设项目要经过严格的环评和审核后方可实施。日本在战后创造了举世瞩目的“经济 奇迹”,但也成为公害泛滥的“污染大国”,为此先后颁布“环境基本法”“公害防止条例”“环境行动计划”等几十项法律法规和行动计划,开展大规模的环境保 护、污染防治和生态建设,经过30多年的努力,恢复了环境的优美清洁。

加强空间管控和集约发展。空间管控作为一种有效的资源调控手段,集约发展作为提高资源利用效率的可行路径,日益成为城镇化和城镇规划的重要内容。早在 1872年,面对西部开发热潮、工业化迅速推进和环境污染日益严重,美国国会就通过黄石法案,成立了世界上第一个自然保护区——黄石国家公园。截至目前, 美国已设立57座国家公园、300多处自然和历史圣地、12000多处历史遗址和保护性建筑。新加坡是集约紧凑型发展的代表,尽管国土面积狭小,但仍留有 60%以上的土地没有开发,是全球在城市内保留大片原始雨林的两个国家之一。

强调城乡统筹和区域协调。大多数发展中国家的工业化和城镇化往往以牺牲农业和小城镇发展为代价,造成农村凋敝、生态空间退化、城乡发展失衡,以及人口 资源向大城市过度集中、环境不堪重负、区域发展失衡等问题。与之相反,欧美、日本等发达国家和地区在城镇化中期就关注并采取措施推进城乡和区域协调发展。 比如,德国采取乡村城镇化、城镇分散化的方式,一方面通过土地整理、村庄更新和产业非农化,促进乡村就地城镇化;另一方面通过城镇分散化,把传统的乡村居 民点直接转为工商业城镇。日本20世纪70年代确立了“大都市圈规划”“地方都市圈规划”“首都圈规划”等,以大城市为依托、以中小城市和小城镇为网络建 设城市群。英国、法国、美国、韩国等也通过实施“城市群”“城市反哺农村”战略,分解大城市环境压力,促进城乡和区域协调发展。

强化智能建设和智慧管理。物联网、互联网、云计算的应用,使得城市信息化向智能化发展。2008年IBM公司提出“智慧地球”概念,在全球掀起智慧城 市建设热潮:新加坡启动“智慧国2015”计划,韩国提出“U—CITY”建设大纲,日本提出“I—JAPAN”智慧城市计划,美国和欧盟国家也推出了智 慧城市建设试点。日本横滨通过智能能源管理,使社区能源消耗降低25%,二氧化碳排放量大大减少。巴西里约热内卢与IBM公司联手建立智能化“城市运营中 心”,强化了城市运营、环境安全和灾害预警的智能化管理。当前,智能化建设和智慧管理已成为各国提高城市效率、减少资源消耗、优化城市环境、增强国际竞争 力的重要手段。

The orginial website : http://opinion.people.com.cn/n/2014/0720/c1003-25303670.html

Chi-Han Ai

Ph.D. candidate of EHESS ( École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) focusing on regional economic development in China and Taiwan.

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Holly Ming’s book on Chinese migrant children’s education

 

MingBookEarlier this year, Holly H. Ming (senior researcher at the Youth Foundation, Hong Kong) published an interesting book on migrant children’s education in China.
This book is actually adapted from her PhD dissertation that she prepared at the Harvard Kennedy School.
This book is structured in four parts. Each of them starts with a migrant’s story and educational aspiration. The author has chosen to adopt an empathic tone; it is clear she cares about these people and their issues. It would be misguided to think that her approach is not academic enough. Actually, Holly Ming’s demonstration is backed with strong references, and she conducted numerous interviews to prepare this book.
She first introduces readers to the status of migrants and their children in cities, and then in a second part, described migrant children’s quest for identity. Most migrant children do not remember their early life in their mother province, but still need to find their own place in their host city.
In a third part, the author studies the career decisions of migrant students and the obstacles they face in pursuing their professional ambitions.
According to her findings, some progress has been made toward the integration of migrant children in public schools (although migrant schools – private schools for migrants delivering low quality courses – still exist in several cities). Several host municipalities reduced paperwork and so more migrant children can attend these schools. But the persistence of the hukou system still prevents many of them from taking the senior high school entry examination. Most migrant children have to choose between taking this exam in their home province, where the syllabus is different from the one followed in their host cities, or leaving school and searching for low-wage jobs, repeating their parents’ fate.
She ultimately presents several policies that could help second-generation migrants to get the education they deserve.
After reading this book, written with heart, we can argue that China does not properly nurture talent. This second generation of migrants faces too many obstacles to succeed. Without proper policies, they will suffer from the same social exclusion their parents experienced.
These children and their families show an incredible thirst for education; they know education is the key to social advancement. More funds and programmes need to be allocated to migrant children to reduce social inequalities and insure a real meritocracy where second-generation migrants and fuerdai (富二代) (the second generation of the upper class) will receive the same education and compete for high social status.

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Developing rural tourism: the PAT Program and ‘ Nong jia le ’ tourism in China

Baoren Su (2012)), 1 Developing Rural Tourism: the PAT Program and ‘Nong jia le’ Tourism in China, Internation Journal of Tourism Research, 15, 611-619.

Published online 24 July 2012 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.1903.
  1. College of Tourism and City Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China []

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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City scale models and their implications

Maqueta

This photo was taken during UrbaChina’s 4th International Conference, which was held in Chongqing from 28 to 30 May. Attendees paid a visit to the Chongqing Planning Exhibition Gallery. This giant scale model of the city of Chongqing, displays all existing and planned buildings up to 2020. After seeing the scale model and listening to the optimistic presentation, one of the attendees made a very sharp remark observing that such a scale model would be unimaginable in his country, France in this case. He was not talking about the technical difficulty of producing such a model, but to the number of legal questions that would make it virtually impossible to predict the future development of a city in such detail. This scale model not only includes new public spaces that require an expropriation procedure, but also new private developments, condominiums, office buildings, shopping malls, in locations where nowadays probably include only private properties (and collective land). In China, it means that the city agreed many years in advance to expropriate the area of land necessary to carry out this transformation. It means that the local government considers any activity related to urbanisation as able to answer the general interest. It also presupposes that the local government will manage to find the financial resources to undertake the gigantic construction work. Finally, had this been the scale model of a European city, it would also assume that nobody would oppose the urban plan, which is not unusual. Besides, the Courts sometimes decide in favour of the opponents, compelling city planners to modify the plan.

 

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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Commuting tools and residential location of suburbanization: evidence from Beijing

Yao, Yonglin and Wang Shuai (2014). Commuting tools and residential location of uburbanization: evidence from Beijing. Urban, Planning and Transport Research: An Open Access Journal, 1 (2), 274-288.  Retrieved 4 July, 2014, from  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21650020.2014.920697

Since the 1990s, the population of Beijing has decentralized. This paper studies the relationship between residents’ commuting tools and their residential location during suburbanization by applying field survey data, statistical methods, and Geographic Information System techniques. The results show that public transportation is the most common choice for commuting. Residents commute the shortest distance do so by walking/bicycling and residents commute the longest distance do so by taking bus/subway. The likelihood of using bus/subway increases as the distance becomes longer; the likelihood of commuting by car/taxi has a very weak correlation with commuting distance. The results imply a public transportation-oriented suburbanization model in Beijing. By further mapping the subway lines and the geographic distribution of newly built houses from 2008 to 2012, it is discovered that public transit especially the subway plays a significant role in residential relocation in Beijing. This could explain the city sprawl in suburbanization in China.

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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