Urban Change and Modernity
- LAST REVIEWED: 22 April 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 22 April 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0031
- LAST REVIEWED: 22 April 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 22 April 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0031
Introduction
China has a long and rich urban tradition. At many periods in human history, Chinese cities were the world’s largest. However, beginning in the 19th century western European and American cities began to be seen as model modern cities, because they seemed to promote industrial development, advanced transportation technology and utilities, democratic governance, and an atmosphere of cultural creativity and cosmopolitanism. Compared with London and New York, a city like Suzhou, which had once been the most populous in the world, then seemed economically, technologically, politically, and culturally “backward.” Since that time the study of Chinese cities has evolved from approaches that tended to confirm that verdict of backwardness and to analyze the reasons for it (the classic study is the sociologist Max Weber’s Die Stadt [The city], originally published posthumously in 1921); see Theoretical Perspectives) to approaches that explore Chinese urban development on its own terms. In the late 19th century Chinese cities started to be affected by the new technologies, administrative systems, and urban culture that had been developed in western Europe and the United States (and adopted or adapted enthusiastically in nearby Japan). Research on the period between the 1890s and 1940s generally focuses on the transformation of Chinese cities in the absence of a strong central government but with a relatively free economy and flow of information and goods from abroad. The victory of the Maoist revolution in 1949 caused a radical shift in urban development, closing the cities off from most international influences. Scholarship on that period examines, among other topics, the attempts to shift industry to rural areas and the increasing but uneven regimentation of urban life. After Mao’s death in 1976, the new leadership under Deng Xiaoping opened up the country and encouraged the rapid development of industries and cities, resulting in the most spectacular urban boom in human history. Major topics of study in this period include the place of municipalities and cities in the political system, the politics concerning control over urban land and development, the vast “floating population” of migrants who lack residency rights in the cities, and the growth of a lively consumer culture. Over the whole range of scholarship on Chinese urbanism, the question of how Chinese cities have shaped and are shaping what “modernity” means is often raised but has not by any means been answered satisfactorily.
General Overviews
“Chinese urbanism and modernity” is a vast and rather amorphous topic. The works in this section offer different sorts of overviews. Sit 2010 was designed as a textbook to accompany courses in Chinese urban history; it is mostly concerned with geography, demography, politics, and economics. Wu and Gaubatz 2012, which is more concise and which concentrates on the contemporary period, also adopts a social science approach. Wu, et al. 2010 offers a huge amount of quantitative data and draws on Chinese scholarship more fully than the other works. Although Xu 2000; Li, et al. 2007; and Jinnai, et al. 1998 focus on only one city each, their long time frames and multifaceted analyses provide good, overarching accounts of Chinese urban development that highlight continuity. Ma 2006 is a useful, short introduction to the range of studies undertaken since the late 20th century on Chinese urbanism and modernity.
Jinnai Hidenobu 陣内秀信, Shu Jiken 朱自煊, and Takamura Masahiko 高村雅彦, eds. Pekin: Toshi kūkan o yomu (北京: 都市空間を読む). Tokyo: Kajima, 1998.
A long durée (long-term) study of Beijing’s urban spatial development with a useful bibliography of Japanese works on the city.
Li, Lillian M., Alison J. Dray-Novey, and Haili Kong. Beijing: From Imperial Capital to Olympic City. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
This comprehensive history of Beijing covers the period from 1400 to the early 21st century. Timed to appear before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it addresses a general audience but is based on the latest research.
Ma, Laurence J. C. “The State of the Field of Urban China: A Critical Multidisciplinary Overview of the Literature.” In Special Issue: Urban China. Edited by Laurence J. C. Ma. China Information 20.3 (2006): 363–389.
Short introduction to a special issue on urban China covering history, geography, political economy, and other approaches. Ma is a senior scholar in the field with an extensive publication record. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Sit, Victor F. S. Chinese City and Urbanism: Evolution and Development. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific, 2010.
Chronologically arranged, this textbook is strongest on ancient history and contemporary cities. Argues that Chinese cities have been shaped by Confucian values and thus are fundamentally different from cities in other parts of the world.
Wu Renshu 巫仁恕, Kang Bao 康豹, and Lin Meili 林美莉, eds. Cong chengshi kan Zhongguo de xiandaixing (從城市看中國的現代性). Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiu yuan jindai shi yanjiusuo, 2010.
Collection of essays on 19th- and 20th-century urban history with much empirical data.
Wu, Weiping, and Piper Gaubatz. The Chinese City. London: Routledge, 2012.
Concise and thorough survey of issues in contemporary Chinese urbanism with introductory material on urban history. The coauthors are geographers.
Xu, Yinong. The Chinese City in Space and Time: The Development of Urban Form in Suzhou. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2000.
Sophisticated study of urban space in Suzhou, the center of China’s premodern silk industry. Contains useful discussions of Chinese urban theory and the role of such practices as feng shui (geomancy) in urban planning.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- 1989 People's Movement
- Aesthetics
- Agricultural Technologies and Soil Sciences
- Agriculture, Origins of
- Ancestor Worship
- Anti-Japanese War
- Architecture, Chinese
- Assertive Nationalism and China's Core Interests
- Astronomy under Mongol Rule
- Book Publishing and Printing Technologies in Premodern Chi...
- Buddhism
- Buddhist Monasticism
- Buddhist Poetry of China
- Budgets and Government Revenues
- Calligraphy
- Central-Local Relations
- Ceramics
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Children’s Culture and Social Studies
- China and Africa
- China and Peacekeeping
- China and the World, 1900-1949
- China's Agricultural Regions
- China’s Soft Power
- China’s West
- Chinese Alchemy
- Chinese Communist Party Since 1949, The
- Chinese Communist Party to 1949, The
- Chinese Diaspora, The
- Chinese Nationalism
- Chinese Script, The
- Christianity in China
- Civil Society in China
- Classical Confucianism
- Collective Agriculture
- Concepts of Authentication in Premodern China
- Confucius
- Confucius Institutes
- Consumer Society
- Contemporary Chinese Art Since 1976
- Corruption
- Criticism, Traditional
- Cross-Strait Relations
- Cultural Revolution
- Daoism
- Daoist Canon
- Deng Xiaoping
- Dialect Groups of the Chinese Language
- Disability Studies
- Drama (Xiqu 戏曲) Performance Arts, Traditional Chinese
- Dream of the Red Chamber
- Early Imperial China
- Economic Reforms, 1978-Present
- Economy, 1895-1949
- Emergence of Modern Banks
- Energy Economics and Climate Change
- Environmental Issues in Contemporary China
- Environmental Issues in Pre-Modern China
- Establishment Intellectuals
- Ethnicity and Minority Nationalities Since 1949
- Ethnicity and the Han
- Examination System, The
- Fall of the Qing, 1840-1912, The
- Falun Gong, The
- Family Relations in Contemporary China
- Fiction and Prose, Modern Chinese
- Film, Chinese Language
- Film in Taiwan
- Financial Sector, The
- Five Classics
- Folk Religion in Contemporary China
- Folklore and Popular Culture
- Foreign Direct Investment in China
- Gardens
- Gender and Work in Contemporary China
- Gender Issues in Traditional China
- Great Leap Forward and the Famine, The
- Guanxi
- Guomindang (1912–1949)
- Han Expansion to the South
- Health Care System, The
- Heritage Management
- Heterodox Sects in Premodern China
- Historical Archaeology (Qin and Han)
- Hukou (Household Registration) System, The
- Human Origins in China
- Human Resource Management in China
- Human Rights in China
- Imperialism and China, c. 1800–1949
- Industrialism and Innovation in Republican China
- Innovation Policy in China
- Intellectual Trends in Late Imperial China
- Islam in China
- Jesuit Missions in China, from Matteo Ricci to the Restora...
- Journalism and the Press
- Judaism in China
- Labor and Labor Relations
- Landscape Painting
- Language, The Ancient Chinese
- Language Variation in China
- Late Imperial Economy, 960–1895
- Late Maoist Economic Policies
- Law in Late Imperial China
- Law, Traditional Chinese
- Legalism
- Li Bai and Du Fu
- Liang Qichao
- Literati Culture
- Literature Post-Mao, Chinese
- Literature, Pre-Ming Narrative
- Liu, Zongzhou
- Local Elites in Ming-Qing China
- Local Elites in Song-Yuan China
- Lu, Xun
- Macroregions
- Management Style in "Chinese Capitalism"
- Manchukuo
- Mao Zedong
- Marketing System in Pre-Modern China, The
- Marxist Thought in China
- Material Culture
- May Fourth Movement
- Media Representation of Contemporary China, International
- Medicine, Traditional Chinese
- Medieval Economic Revolution
- Mencius
- Middle-Period China
- Migration Under Economic Reform
- Ming and Qing Drama
- Ming Dynasty
- Ming Poetry 1368–1521: Era of Archaism
- Ming Poetry 1522–1644: New Literary Traditions
- Ming-Qing Fiction
- Modern Chinese Drama
- Modern Chinese Poetry
- Modernism and Postmodernism in Chinese Literature
- Mohism
- Museums
- Music in China
- Needham Question, The
- Neo-Confucianism
- Neolithic Cultures in China
- New Social Classes, 1895–1949
- One Country, Two Systems
- One-Child Policy, The
- Opium Trade
- Orientalism, China and
- Palace Architecture in Premodern China (Ming-Qing)
- Paleography
- People’s Liberation Army (PLA), The
- Philology and Science in Imperial China
- Poetics, Chinese-Western Comparative
- Poetry, Early Medieval
- Poetry, Traditional Chinese
- Political Art and Posters
- Political Dissent
- Political Thought, Modern Chinese
- Polo, Marco
- Popular Music in the Sinophone World
- Population Dynamics in Pre-Modern China
- Population Structure and Dynamics since 1949
- Porcelain Production
- Post-Collective Agriculture
- Poverty and Living Standards since 1949
- Printing and Book Culture
- Prose, Traditional
- Qi Baishi
- Qing Dynasty up to 1840
- Regional and Global Security, China and
- Religion, Ancient Chinese
- Renminbi, The
- Republican China, 1911-1949
- Revolutionary Literature under Mao
- Rural Society in Contemporary China
- School of Names
- Shanghai
- Silk Roads, The
- Sino-Hellenic Studies, Comparative Studies of Early China ...
- Sino-Japanese Relations Since 1945
- Social Welfare in China
- Sociolinguistic Aspects of the Chinese Language
- Su Shi (Su Dongpo)
- Sun Yat-sen and the 1911 Revolution
- Taiping Civil War
- Taiwanese Democracy
- Taiwan's Miracle Development: Its Economy over a Century
- Technology Transfer in China
- Television, Chinese
- Terracotta Warriors, The
- Tertiary Education in Contemporary China
- Texts in Pre-Modern East and South-East Asia, Chinese
- The Economy, 1949–1978
- The Shijing詩經 (Classic of Poetry; Book of Odes)
- Township and Village Enterprises
- Traditional Historiography
- Transnational Chinese Cinemas
- Tribute System, The
- Unequal Treaties and the Treaty Ports, The
- United States-China Relations, 1949-present
- Urban Change and Modernity
- Uyghurs
- Vernacular Language Movement
- Village Society in the Early Twentieth Century
- Warlords, The
- Water Management
- Women Poets and Authors in Late Imperial China
- Xi, Jinping
- Xunzi
- Yan'an and the Revolutionary Base Areas
- Yuan Dynasty
- Yuan Dynasty Poetry
- Zhu Xi