Chinese Cities

The Courses

Here is a detailed overview of what will be discussed during the courses

1 / Tuesday 27 January 2026

城市 - from the ancient to the new

We introduce the general spatial organization of China, some major urban and architectural traditions with example of ancient housing typologies for a few major cities. We also examine the successive generations of planning imaginaries that lead China's urbanization since the last century.

Main Reading :

Wu, Fulong. "Introduction: leaving the soil" in Creating Chinese Urbanism: Urban Revolution and Governance Changes. (p.1-21) London: UCL Press, 2022.


Additional readings :
  • Graezer Bideau, Florence. "Planning: From Model to Modules." in Realtime: Making Digital China (p. 41-59), EPFL Press 2020.
  • Ang, Yuen Yuen. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap. Cornell University Press, 2016. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1zgwm1j.
  • "Neville Mars - The Chinese Dream: A Society Under Construction"
  • "Brendan McGetrick & Jiang Jun - Urban China Work in Progress"

View the slides


2 / Tuesday 3 February 2026

地 - Land: governance and territorial reforms

We dive into China's governance models and land reform policies, particularly focusing on Local Government Financing Vehicles. We see the role played by land property development in the urbanization of China, and how it relates to the administration of cities.

Main Reading :

Ong, Lynette H. “State-Led Urbanization in China: Skyscrapers, Land Revenue and ‘Concentrated Villages.’” The China Quarterly 217 (March 2014): 162–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741014000010.


Additional readings :
  • "Chen, Ting. 2017. State Beyond the State: Shenzhen and the Transformation of Urban China. Rotterdam: nai010 publishers."
  • "Wu, Fulong. “The Long Shadow of the State: Financializing the Chinese City.” Urban Geography 44, no. 1 (January 2, 2023): 37–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2021.1959779."
  • "Documentary: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chinese_Mayor"
  • Tomba, Luigi. 2014. Chapter 2 “Micro-Governing the Urban Crisis”. The Government Next Door: Neighborhood Politics in Urban China. Ithaca; London, Cornell University Press.
  • Hsing, You-tien. 2006. "Land and Territorial Politics in Urban China." The China Quarterly (187):575-591
  • Wang, June, and George S. M. Li. 2017. “State territorialization, neoliberal governmentality: the remaking of Dafen oil painting village, Shenzhen, China.” Urban Geography 38(5):708- 728.

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3 / Tuesday 10 February 2026

网 - Infrastructure and Planning Networks

We explore regional planning and infrastructure networks in China shapes national and regional development, including transportation systems (high-speed rail, metro, bike-sharing, Didi). We examine the case study of the Pearl River Delta to understand regional approaches to urban planning

Main Reading :

Rippa, Alessandro and Tim Oakes. "Infrastructural Thinking in China: A Research Agenda." The China Quarterly 255 (2023): 547-559. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/infrastructural-thinking-in-china-a-research-agenda/C956D2B5DE1D60A1540AB8C1BA21A4E9.


Additional readings :
  • Oakes, Tim. "Geographies of infrastructure III: Infrastructure with Chinese characteristics." Progress in Human Geography 46, no. 4 (2022): 1009-1020. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03091325211033652.
  • Hilgefort, Jason. "Belt and Road initiative: infrastructure as foreign policy." Domus, March 7, 2019. https://www.domusweb.it/en/speciali/guest-editor/winy-maas/gallery/2019/03/07/infrastructure-as-foreign-policy.html.
  • Plantin, J-C. "WeChat as infrastructure." LSE, 2018. https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/91520/1/Plantin_WeChat-as-infrastructure.pdf.
  • "Xiao, Zhongxian. "Conceiving Chinese Speed: Sociotechnical Imaginaries of High-Speed Rail in Post-1978 China." Made in China Journal (blog), December 22, 2023. https://madeinchinajournal.com/2023/12/22/conceiving-chinese-speed-sociotechnical-imaginaries-of-high-speed-rail-in-post-1978-china/."
  • Al, Stefan. Factory Towns of South China. Edited by Stefan Al. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. https://hkupress.hku.hk/pro/261.php.
  • "Hilgefort and Li in Realtime: Making Digital China. Lausanne: EPFL Press, 2020."
  • China Made Project Briefs. https://chinamadeproject.net/china-made-briefs/.

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4 / Tuesday 17 February 2026

造 - The Making of Manufacturing

We explore contemporary tech manufacturing in China, focusing on the Huaqiangbei electronics district, shanzhai culture, hardware supply chains, and electronics manufacturing. This lecture examines the 'Made in China' manufacturing ecosystem and its role in global technology production.

Main Reading :

"O'Donnell, Mary Ann. "From Bamboo Curtain to the Silicon Valley of Hardware." E-Flux, August 2020. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/software/337686/from-bamboo-curtain-to-the-silicon-valley-of-hardware"


Additional readings :

View the slides


5 / Tuesday 24 February 2026

家 - Family: the aging city

We will look into how the spatial transformations of China have profoundly reshaped the way family and generations live together. We will see where and how in the city elderly people, kids, infants and workers usually evolves and the life of families that does not under the same roof anymore. This course will also give us the opportunity to interrogate gender representations and in Chinese cities.

Main Reading :

Yu, Hongyan, Ann Veeck, and Fang (Grace) Yu. “Family Meals and Identity in Urban China.” Edited by Dr. Yuri Seo, Dr. Angela Gracia B. Cruz, Prof. Kim-Shyan Fam. Journal of Consumer Marketing 32, no. 7 (November 9, 2015): 505–19. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-09-2014-1146.


Additional readings :
  • Rochot, Justine. “‘Our Generation’: The Making of Collective Identifications in China and Taiwan.” China Perspectives, no. 2022/1 (March 1, 2022): 3–7. https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.13469.
  • Rochot, Justine. “New Perspectives on Aging in Contemporary China… and Beyond.” Gis Asie (blog). Accessed January 21, 2025. https://www.gis-reseau-asie.org/en/article/new-perspectives-aging-contemporary-china-and-beyond.
  • Hanser, Amy. 2005. “The Gendered Rice Bowl: The Sexual Politics of Service Work in Urban China.” Gender and Society 19(5):581-600.

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6 / Tuesday 10 March 2026

移 - Migrations: becoming urban

We analyse China's historical and contemporary migration patterns, focusing on the hukou system and the experiences of urbanization for hundreds of millions of people. We also investigate the formation of urban villages and the absorption of the rural within Chinese urban areas.

Main Reading :
  • "Film: Last Train Home (Lixin Fan, 2009; released internationally 2010–2011). Available to stream or find online (e.g. PBS, educational platforms, DVD)."

Additional readings :
  • "Franceschini, Ivan. “The Urbanisation of People: A Conversation with Eli Friedman.” Made in China Journal (blog), June 13, 2022. https://madeinchinajournal.com/2022/06/13/the-urbanisation-of-people/"
  • Liu, Tao, and Qiujie Shi. 2020. "Acquiring a Beijing hukou: Who Is Eligible and Who Is Successful?" The China Quarterly 243: 855-868.
  • "Movie « 6th generation » movie directors : Jia Zhangke - 24 City / Jia Zhangke - the world /Wang Xiaoshuai - Chinese Portrait"
  • [ChengZhongCun, in-formality](https://www.in-formality.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chengzhongcun_(China)"
  • "Bach, Jonathan P. G. “Shenzhen: From Exception to Rule.” In Learning from Shenzhen: China’s Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City, edited by Mary Ann O’Donnell and Winnie Won Yin Wong. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226401263.003.0002."
  • "O’Donnell, Mary Ann. “The End of an Era? Two Decades of Shenzhen Urban Villages.” Made in China Journal (blog), December 1, 2021. https://madeinchinajournal.com/2021/12/01/the-end-of-an-era-two-decades-of-shenzhen-urban-villages/."
  • "Ding, Yannan. Urban Informal Settlements: Chengzhongcun and Chinese Urbanism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022."
  • "Wong, Winnie Won Yin. Van Gogh on Demand: China and the Readymade. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013."
  • "Chen, Junyao and Ke Qi. Urban regeneration with the intervention of industrial transformation and curatorial ideas: A Case Study of Dafen Village, Shenzhen. Telematics and Informatics Reports 1-4 (2021) 100004."
  • "Wang, Xiang. Permits, Points, and Permanent Household Registration: Recalibrating Hukou Policy under "Top-Level Design." Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 49, no. 2 (2020): 186–210. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1868102619894739."

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7 / Tuesday 17 March 2026

创 - Planning for Innovation

We examine China's planning systems for innovation — from 5-year plans and S&T policy to the rise of smart cities and AI governance. Song Ziqian's presentation on AI and urban policy opens a first-hour discussion on how Chinese cities are deploying AI as an instrument of urban management. We will look at a case study of 'mass entrepreneurship' policy and the cooptation of the maker movement.

Main Reading :
  • Wang, Jing. "The Makers Are Coming! China's Long Tail." In Handbook of Cultural and Creative Industries in China, ed. Michael Keane. Edward Elgar, 2016.

Additional readings :
  • "14th Five-Year Plan — Part 8: Innovation-Driven Development (pp. 88–100)." CSET translation. https://cset.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/t0284_14th_Five_Year_Plan_EN.pdf
  • "Medium- and Long-Term Plan for S&T Development (2006–2020)." Full English translation. https://china-us.uoregon.edu/pdf/final%20print%20version.pdf
  • "Innovation Under Pressure: China's Semiconductor Industry at a Crossroads." American Affairs Journal, Feb 2026. https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2026/02/innovation-under-pressure-chinas-semiconductor-industry-at-a-crossroads/
  • Ding, J. "Deciphering China's AI Dream." Future of Humanity Institute, 2018. https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Deciphering_Chinas_AI-Dream.pdf
  • Liang, Fan et al. "Constructing a Data-Driven Society: China's Social Credit System." Policy & Internet 10(4), 2018.
  • Shao, A. "The 'City Brain' and Algorithmic Governance in China." Urban Studies 59(5), 2022.
  • Renaud, Clément. "Le maker : construction d'une figure politique de l'innovation en Chine urbaine." Espaces Temps, 2019. https://www.espacestemps.net/en/articles/le-maker-construction-dune-figure-politique-de-linnovation-en-chine-urbaine/

View the slides


8 / Tuesday 24 March 2026

Session supprimée

Séance de rattrapage : mardi 28 avril 2026, 10h15–12h15, bâtiment B (56, rue des Saints-Pères), salle 305.


8 / Tuesday 31 March 2026

网 - Places of Chinese Tech

We explore the physical places of Chinese technology through two lenses: (1) the key historical and contemporary local settings for Internet within China — and (2) how digital platforms have physically reshaped cities: delivery networks, ghost malls, dark kitchens, the WeChat city. Case study: biography of a solar panel — from Wuxi and Baoding to global supply chains.

Additional readings :
  • "Trapped in the Shanghai Lockdown, Residents Turn to WeChat Groups for Food." Rest of World, 2022. https://restofworld.org/2022/shanghai-lockdown-wechat-group-buying/
  • "I Am the System: How a Delivery Rider Became Trapped by Algorithms." Sixth Tone, 2020. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1007029
  • Shi, Yiguo, et al. "The Evolution of China's Solar Photovoltaic Industry." Energy Policy 118 (2018): 590–602.
  • Nahm, Jonas. "Exploiting the Implementation Gap: Policy Divergence and Industrial Upgrading in China's Wind and Solar Sectors." The China Quarterly 231 (2017): 705–727.

9 / Tuesday 7 April 2026

闹 - Activism: the right to the city

China's urban development have encountered countless issues and complex situations, leading to frequent protests and sometimes even large unrests. We discuss the various forms of activism in Chinese cities, from environmental protests, heritage preservation, and houseowners strikes.

Main Reading :

"Ho, Peter. “Embedded Activism and Political Change in a Semiauthoritarian Context.” China Information 21, no. 2 (July 1, 2007): 187–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X07079643."


Additional readings :
  • Wang, J., and S.M and Li. “State Territorialization, Neoliberal Governmentality: The Remaking of Dafen Oil Painting Village, Shenzhen, China.” Urban Geography 38, no. 5 (May 28, 2017): 708–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1139409.
  • "Ning, Ou. Utopia in Practice: Bishan Project and Rural Reconstruction. Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics. Singapore: Springer, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5791-0."
  • Amar, Nathanel. “‘We Come from the Underground’: Grounding Chinese Punk in Beijing and Wuhan.” Popular Music 41, no. 2 (2022): 170–93.
  • "Documentary: Under the dome"

10 / Tuesday 14 April 2026

层 - The Folded City

We examine social stratification through the lens of Chinese urban housing. Starting from Hao Jingfang's sci-fi novella 'Folding Beijing', we trace the trajectory from the danwei compound to the privatized xiao qu, and explore how the residential compound became both the basic cell of Chinese cities and the primary mechanism of inequality. Case study: Chongqing's vertical city.

Main Reading :

Tomba, Luigi. The Government Next Door: Neighborhood Politics in Urban China. Chapter 2: "Micro-Governing the Urban Crisis." Cornell University Press, 2014.


Additional readings :
  • Hao Jingfang. "Folding Beijing." Uncanny Magazine, 2015. https://uncannymagazine.com/article/folding-beijing-2/ (Hugo Award 2016 — read this first)
  • "What China's Gate Debate Says About Trust." Sixth Tone, 2016. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/838
  • "Does Evergrande's Collapse Threaten China's Economy?" Council on Foreign Relations, 2021. https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/does-evergrandes-collapse-threaten-chinas-economy
  • Pow, Choon-Piew. Gated Communities in China: Class, Privilege and the Moral Politics of the Good Life. Routledge, 2009. (Chapter 1)

11 / Tuesday 21 April 2026

保 - Governing Risk

We examine how Chinese cities govern risk — from floods and earthquakes to ecological degradation and urban shrinkage. Rather than a survey of natural hazards, this week asks: who decides where the risk goes, whose neighborhood gets the incinerator, which communities are relocated after the earthquake? Case studies: Sichuan earthquake reconstruction, Wuhan sponge city, and the shrinking cities of the Northeast.

Main Reading :

Chen, Jia-Ching. "Social-Environmental Dilemmas of Planning an 'Ecological Civilisation' in China." In The Routledge Companion to Planning in the Global South. Routledge, 2017.


Additional readings :
  • Crawford, A.O. "Shengtai Wenming: What China's 'Ecological Civilisation' Actually Means." Substack, 2023. https://aocrawford.substack.com/p/shengtai-wenming
  • Schrag, Jacque. "How Does Water Security Affect China's Development?" ChinaPower, 2020. https://chinapower.csis.org/china-water-security/
  • "Glossary: Decoding How China Talks about Energy and Climate Change." Carbon Brief, 2025. https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/glossary/china/
  • Monjon, Stéphanie et al. "Understanding 'Ecological Civilization' According to China." IDDRI, Sep 2021.

12 / Tuesday 28 April 2026

外 - Abroad: The export of the Chinese city

A 4-hour session (includes the cancelled Mar 24 session). We open with a critical synthesis: what has Chinese urban planning gotten right and wrong over 12 weeks? Then we examine China's global urban influence through the Belt and Road Initiative, with Xi'an as the Silk Road anchor and Africa SEZs as the export case. Second half: final group presentations.

Main Reading :

Huang, Zhengli, and Andrea Pollio. “Between Highways and Fintech Platforms: Global China and Africa’s Infrastructure State.” Geoforum 147 (December 1, 2023): 103876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103876.


Additional readings :
  • "Bunnell, Tim. “China at Large, Chinas for Comparative Conversation: A Commentary on ‘Urbanizing Dynamics of Global China.’” Urban Geography 43, no. 10 (November 26, 2022). https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2022.2140968."
  • "Jordan, Austin. “Setting the Record Straight on China’s Overseas Infrastructure Investments – Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.” Accessed April 14, 2025. https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/research/blog/setting-the-record-straight-on-chinas-overseas-infrastructure-investments/."
  • "https://www.nai010.com/en/product/progress-prosperity/"