Cities Surround the Countryside: Urban Aesthetics in Postsocialist China

摘要

This lively exploration of the Chinese city is an adventurous and eclectic work. The book is designed, rather like a walk through the post-socialist city that it describes, as a cascade of ideas, examples, adventures and observations, all of which are strongly oriented to visual example and experience. The underpinning thesis is that the city is the iconic and demonstrable unit of place currency in contemporary China. Not only is the urbanization of China progressing at an extraordinary rate of change, but the population of China, once predominantly rural, is now geared towards urban aspirations and urban ways of being to the degree that rurality has little political or social purchase.