Speaker:  Amy Zhang, New York University After four decades of reform and development, China is confronting a domestic waste crisis. Starting in the early 2000s, Chinese policymakers came to see waste management as an object of environmental governance central to the creation of “modern” cities. China’s cities started experiments with the circular economy, in which

Speaker:  Zhao Yawei, University of ManchesterThis presentation explores the intersection of migration studies and urban studies, focusing on the case of Dali, a small city that has experienced urban transformations due to lifestyle migration. During the past decade, newcomers have flocked to this city, some of whom called it Dalifornia as its atmosphere reminds them

Speaker:   Samantha Vortherms, University of California, Irvine In Manipulating Authoritarian Citizenship, Samantha Vortherms examines the institutions constructing authoritarian citizenship in the crucial case of China—where internal citizenship regimes control who can and cannot become a local citizen through the household registration system (hukou). She highlights how autocrats use internal citizenship regimes to create particularistic membership in citizenship,

Speaker: Qiao Shitong, Professor of Law and Ken Young-Gak Yun and Jinah Park Yun Research Scholar, Duke University Based on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews, this book provides an ethnographic account of how hundreds of millions of Chinese homeowners practice democracy in and beyond their condominium complexes. Using interviews, survey data, and

Speaker: Cecilia Chu, Associate Professor in Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong This talk will explore three central aspects of urban development in colonial Hong Kong: the advent of modern planning closely entwined with early British segregation policies; the role of property investment in the shaping of building forms; and the emergence of a

Speaker:  Mark Baker, University of Manchester This event series is sponsored by the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab, the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning, and the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Zoom Meeting Link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97147498753 Venue

Speaker: Claudia Huang, California State University, Long Beach The current generational cohort of Chinese retirees have gotten a tough bargain in many ways. Because the one-child policy created an upside-down population pyramid, the customary practice of aging at home under the care of an adult child is becoming increasingly untenable. At the same time, the

Speaker: Zhongjie Lin, Benjamin Z. Lin Presidential Professor of Urban Design, Weitzman School of Design, University of PennsylvaniaAmid groundbreaking political reforms and the largest mass migration in human history, China created over 3,800 new towns to house its burgeoning urban population and sustain rapid economic growth. Driven by marketization, global trade, inter-city competition, and an

Speaker: Song Nianshen, Tsinghua UniversityWhat can one neighborhood reveal about the making of a modern nation? This talk deciphers the unexpected significance of Xita, a half-square-mile quarter in Shenyang, in Northeast China. It shows that over nearly four centuries, Xita has been shaped and reshaped by empire, war, migration, and urban transformation. The history of

Speaker: Su Xiaobo, University of Oregon Financialization has become a central force to reshape urban development. This paper explores one specific mechanism of financialization—state-led venture capital (SVC)—to elucidate an emergent trend in which governments act as equity investors to support startups and scaleups. Such investments are not necessarily aimed at ownership, but rather at fostering

Speaker: Chris Courtney, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History, University of Durham, UK.Cold chains are a vital component of modern cities. Most histories trace their origins to the advent of the ice trade in the nineteenth century. This paper argues that cold chains have been around a lot longer. In China, they have been used

Speaker: Zhao Miaoxi, South China University of TechnologyIn China's system of public land ownership, industrial land leases often extend beyond the relatively short lifespan of enterprises. Consequently, formulating land use strategies that account for business turnover has emerged as a crucial task for urban planning. This lecture explores urban land vacancy through the primary lens of