Reinventing the Chinese City

"Over the past several decades, China has undergone the largest process of urbanization in human history. While this process has been ongoing for more than the past half-century, the rapid growth of Chinese cities reached new heights in the 2010s. In 2011, China's urbanization rate passed 50%. Just two years later, China's urbanization rate hit 53%, surpassing the world average, and today, over 60% of China's population lives in urban areas. While it is well known that this growth has been driven at least partly by policy, the demands of the ever-increasing urban population has come to be a significant driver of policy in China in the twenty-first century. Reinventing the Chinese City unpacks new paradigms of Chinese urban planning and development in that period of escalating growth since 2010. Richard Hu focuses on three urban phenomena-'green revolution', 'smart city movement', and 'great innovation leap forward'-that are spreading throughout and becoming increasingly influential in China. He draws upon case studies of Beijing, Hangzhou, and Hefei to analyze the enabling factors, rationales, and effects of these phenomena, and to examine the paradoxes that they engender. Xiong'an, a new experimental city, offers an additional opportunity to critically explore the idealized version of the urban future in China. Hu also investigates the recent changes in Hong Kong-the most 'un-Chinese' Chinese city-after the 2019 social movement: the city is being reoriented towards its 'second return' under 'one countrytwo systems', which is at a critical mid-point of its 50-year tenure. By analyzing the trajectory of these cities, Hu provides a careful accounting of the theory that has dominated urban policy in China since 2010, and is likely to shape the trajectory of Chinese urban planning and development in the coming decades.""--
Since the late 1970s, China has undergone perhaps the most sweeping process of urbanization ever witnessed. This is typically understood as a story of growth, encompassing rapid development and economic dynamism alongside environmental degradation and social dislocation. However, over the past decade, China’s leaders have claimed that the country’s urbanization has entered a new stage that prioritizes “quality.” What does China’s new urban vision entail, and what does the future hold in store?Richard Hu unpacks recent trends in urban planning and development to explore the making and imagining of the contemporary Chinese city. He focuses on three key concepts—the “green revolution,” “smart city movement,” and “great innovation leap forward”—that have become increasingly influential. Through case studies of Beijing, Hangzhou, and Hefei, Hu analyzes how attempts to achieve greater sustainability, promote data-driven governance, and foster innovation have fared on the ground. He also considers the experimental city Xiong’an in terms of China’s idealized vision of the urban future and investigates how the recent experiences of Hong Kong relate to regional and national development projects.Reinventing the Chinese City provides a careful accounting of the ideas that have dominated urban policy in China since 2010, emphasizing key continuities underlying claims of novelty. Shedding light on the transformations of the Chinese city, this book offers a new perspective on the factors that will shape the trajectory of urbanization in the coming decades.
Richard Hu unpacks recent trends in urban planning and development to explore the making and imagining of the contemporary Chinese city.