Overview

This book argues that the production of new urban spaces is a crucial means of state governance in contemporary urban China. The local officials reinforce their political and economic dominance by applying their visions of modernization and globalization to urban planning and regeneration. The implementation of such plans revalorizes the established revolutionary utopianism and authoritarianism by producing radical changes in social space. The state-led spatial production also spawns broad political and cultural discourses at both elite and grassroots levels. These discourses are instrumental in the contests for power, or financial interests associated with spatial rearrangements, between local officials, corporate elites, and the general public. The complexities of this spatial culture reflect the postmodern and postcolonial conditions of urban China and entail critiques of the official visions of modernity. Samuel Y. Liang highlights local and historical factors and their negotiation with national and global factors in the spatial production and discourses, and frames them in light of theories of modernist architecture and planning, postmodernism, urban entrepreneurialism, and the continued Chinese revolutionary culture and governance.

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9780415695909

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Reviews

Remaking China's Great Cities is on the whole a strong contribution to our knowledge about urban transformation in the PRC. It has opened new windows onto this huge topic and deserves attention from urban scholars across disciplines. - Max D. Woodworth, The China Quarterly 2015 Samuel Liang's latest book, Remaking China's Great Cities: Space and Culture in Urban Housing, Renewal, and Expansion gives a comprehensive overview of rapid urbanization in China since 1949...This book explores multiple dimensions of urbanization in China substantiated by well-illustrated case studies. It is highly readable and makes a valuable contribution to our knowledge about Chinese urban development trajectories from historical perspectives. - Hing-wah Chau, The University of Melbourne, China Information 29 (3)

"""Remaking China’s Great Cities is on the whole a strong contribution to our knowledge about urban transformation in the PRC. It has opened new windows onto this huge topic and deserves attention from urban scholars across disciplines."" - Max D. Woodworth, The China Quarterly 2015 ""Samuel Liang’s latest book, Remaking China’s Great Cities: Space and Culture in Urban Housing, Renewal, and Expansion gives a comprehensive overview of rapid urbanization in China since 1949...This book explores multiple dimensions of urbanization in China substantiated by well-illustrated case studies. It is highly readable and makes a valuable contribution to our knowledge about Chinese urban development trajectories from historical perspectives."" - Hing-wah Chau, The University of Melbourne, China Information 29 (3)"

Remaking China's Great Cities is on the whole a strong contribution to our knowledge about urban transformation in the PRC. It has opened new windows onto this huge topic and deserves attention from urban scholars across disciplines. - Max D. Woodworth, The China Quarterly 2015 Samuel Liang's latest book, Remaking China's Great Cities: Space and Culture in Urban Housing, Renewal, and Expansion gives a comprehensive overview of rapid urbanization in China since 1949...This book explores multiple dimensions of urbanization in China substantiated by well-illustrated case studies. It is highly readable and makes a valuable contribution to our knowledge about Chinese urban development trajectories from historical perspectives. - Hing-wah Chau, The University of Melbourne, China Information 29 (3)

Author Information

Samuel Y. Liang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

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