The mid-20th-century communist ideal was for cities that were of the people, by the people and for the people'. Wang Jun, an editor at Outlook Weekly magazine and author of a best-selling book on the planning of Beijing, describes how the ambition to accommodate public life in urban space is a relatively modern phenomenon that goes against the grain of a long tradition of landownership in China. Given this background, can the original notion of the 'People's City' ultimately survive the current wave of property privatisation?
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