While the Chinese urban movement has successfully transferred surplus labor from the countryside to urban industries that urgently require free and cheap labor, numerous problems have arisen as a result of the unprecedented huge-scale process. Such conditions such as overcrowding, substandard housing, lack of social services, corruption, and abuse of power have often reached crisis stage. American college students often ask: How does the government control the largest urban population in the world? Why do newly developed, highly commercialized cities continue to support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rather than challenging the old regime? What happens when urban residents have problems with a party-controlled government?
This book, collects essays from the best scholars in their fields and examines urban issues, including identifying residents’ concerns, analyzing policy problems, and providing some answers to these pivotal questions. They address this important topic from a Chinese-American perspective through a cooperative interdisciplinary research effort among Chinese-American scholars interested in the subject. Their scholarship makes a significant contribution through multi-faceted components from different fields such as economics, political science, criminal justice, law, anthropology, sociology, and education. The authors introduce and explore the theory and practice of policy patterns, political systems, and social institutions by identifying key issues in Chinese government and society contained within the larger framework of the international sphere.
Originally from Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Tianjin, and other cities in China, these authors have received training and advanced degrees from American universities and colleges, thus bringing uncommon perspective and conclusions by focusing on urban studies specific to China. Their endeavors move beyond the existing scholarship and seek to spark new debates and proposed solutions while reflecting on established schools of history, religion, linguistics, and gender studies. Crucial to this volume is the assessment of historical and empirical data found in these essays that place major events in the context of Chinese tradition, its culture, and national security. Using comprehensive coverage to create a broad and solid foundation of knowledge, this collection presents a better understanding of the current Chinese metropolitan climate and includes legitimate issues with city policy implementation.
While the Chinese urban movement has successfully transferred surplus labor from the countryside to urban industries that urgently require free and cheap labor, numerous problems have arisen as a result of the unprecedented huge-scale process. Such conditions such as overcrowding, substandard housing, lack of social services, corruption, and abuse of power have often reached crisis stage. American college students often ask: How does the government control the largest urban population in the world? Why do newly developed, highly commercialized cities continue to support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rather than challenging the old regime? What happens when urban residents have problems with a party-controlled government?
This book, collects essays from the best scholars in their fields and examines urban issues, including identifying residents’ concerns, analyzing policy problems, and providing some answers to these pivotal questions. They address this important topic from a Chinese-American perspective through a cooperative interdisciplinary research effort among Chinese-American scholars interested in the subject. Their scholarship makes a significant contribution through multi-faceted components from different fields such as economics, political science, criminal justice, law, anthropology, sociology, and education. The authors introduce and explore the theory and practice of policy patterns, political systems, and social institutions by identifying key issues in Chinese government and society contained within the larger framework of the international sphere.
Originally from Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Tianjin, and other cities in China, these authors have received training and advanced degrees from American universities and colleges, thus bringing uncommon perspective and conclusions by focusing on urban studies specific to China. Their endeavors move beyond the existing scholarship and seek to spark new debates and proposed solutions while reflecting on established schools of history, religion, linguistics, and gender studies. Crucial to this volume is the assessment of historical and empirical data found in these essays that place major events in the context of Chinese tradition, its culture, and national security. Using comprehensive coverage to create a broad and solid foundation of knowledge, this collection presents a better understanding of the current Chinese metropolitan climate and includes legitimate issues with city policy implementation.
Introduction: China’s Urbanization and CCP Transformation, Xiaobing
Li and Xiansheng Tian
Note on Transliteration
Abbreviations
Part I: Manufacturing, Market, and Migrants
Chapter 1: Economic Globalization and China’s Urbanization in the
Post-Mao Era, Yunqiu Zhang
Chapter 2: Characteristics of Xi’an’s Emerging Private Consumer
Market, Linda Wang
Chapter 3: Half Realized Dreams: Consumption of Domestic Sojourners
in Urban China, Xiaofen Chen
Part II: Demographic Changes and Urban Problems
Chapter 4: Urban Chinese Elderly: Demographic Characteristics and
Their Impact on
Socioeconomic Status, Jianjun Ji and Changyong Yu
Chapter 5: Marco Signs of Emerging Real Estate Speculation Urban
China, Guoqiang Shen
Chapter 6: New Rural Construction and Township Establishment,
Xiaoxiao Li
Chapter 7: The Spatial Study of Catholic Market in Urban China,
Zhaohui Hong and Jianfeng Jin
Part III: Social Crises and Political Control
Chapter 8: Cry for Help: An Analytical Study of the Cases at the
Maple Women’s Counseling Center in Beijing, Yi Sun
Chapter 9: Urban Air Pollution vs. Economic Sustainability, Jingyi
Song
Chapter 10: Demolition or Preservation? China’s Dilemma in Urban
Heritage Protection 239, Patrick Fuliang Shan
Chapter 11: Ghost Town in China: A Comparison with the Shrink City
in the West, Kun Zhao
Part IV: Continuing Struggle and CCP Survival
Chapter 12: Power vs. Law: Legal Reform and Party Control, Qiang
Fang
Chapter 13: Maternal and Children Healthcare in Ethnic Minority
Towns of Xinjiang, Dongyu Yang
Chapter 14: Modern Public Hygiene Movements in Guangzhou, Guangqiu
Xu
Chapter 15: Pension Reform in Urban Areas, Ting Jiang
Conclusion: New Political Culture and Emerging Social Groups,
Xiaobing Li and Xiansheng Tian
Xiaobing Li is professor and chair of the Department of History and
Geography at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Xiansheng Tian is professor of history at the Metropolitan State
University of Denver.
This collection of 15 articles brings a range of social scientific
methods to bear on phenomena shaping contemporary Chinese cities,
including the impact of foreign investment, migrant workers’
experiences, the socioeconomic status of the elderly, real estate
speculation, urban Catholic churches, reasons for women’s use of
crisis services, air pollution, heritage preservation, ghost
cities, urban governance and rule of law, healthcare, and pension
reform, among others. One unifying thread is the background of the
authors, almost all of whom are natives of China who received their
graduate training in the US. The tightly focused chapters tend to
cite Chinese language scholarship and sources more than
publications in English, so the collection can serve as an
introduction to Chinese academic literature on the topics
addressed. The editors have contributed an introduction and
conclusion that point out common themes.... Summing Up:
Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
*CHOICE*
This impressive volume provides a rare and, in many ways, an inside
look at the impact of urbanization on the relationship between the
Party and the people it governs. Going well beyond standard
documentary research by using a mixed methodological approach,
including personal interviews, ethnographic field research, and the
analysis of official government and court documents, the
contributors highlight such serious problems as the growing
inequality and offer a sophisticated assessment, raising and
responding to many of the key questions China will have to address
as the Party seeks to balance competing interests while enhancing
legitimacy in its ongoing program of reform.
*Stanley Rosen, University of Southern California*
The editors have put together a superb collection of essays that
deal with some of the most important issues on the subject. This
book is useful not only for scholars, but also for policymakers and
students of China.
*Shiping Hua, University of Louisville*
Americans believe that markets, economic growth, and urbanization
will lead to the growth of a middle class and hence to democracy.
This has not happened in China. The contributors to Urbanization
and Party Survival in China: People vs. Power draw on their deep
knowledge and connections in China to show how the Chinese
Communist Party has been able to allow well-connected individuals
to become immensely wealthy while continuing to use the legal
system as a tool to maintain a single-party dictatorship. While
exposing the Party–business nexus of wealth and power, these essays
also show us how the logic of China’s economic growth and
urbanization, while benefiting some, have also caused deep
suffering for others, including a growing population of urban
poor.
*Harold M. Tanner, University of North Texas*
This indispensable collection examines urbanization from nearly
every conceivable perspective. The scholars who have written
well-researched interdisciplinary chapters are all of Chinese
origin. For years, they have immersed themselves in the cities
about which they write. They conclusively show that urbanization
has not yet led China in the direction of democratization or human
rights reforms. For students of China’s expanding growth and power
in the world, this book is essential reading.
*Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox, Western Connecticut State University*
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