Cities with Invisible Walls Reinterpreting Urbanization in Post-1949 China

by Chan, Kam Wing

• ISBN13: 9780195857641
• ISBN10: 019585764X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-11-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Weaving together a large body of diverse empirical data and multidisciplinary theoretical literature, Kam Wing Chan analyzes Chinese urban population growth trends and official policies toward urbanization since 1949. Chan establishes that many features of Chinese urban growth are expected outcomes under a form of classical socialism designed to achieve rapid industrialization and argues that invisible walls of administrative measures on restricting rural-urban flows have served to reduce costs of urbanization generated by industrialization and have protected the urban population's interests. In the post-Mao era, he finds that the city gate has gradually been opened but many measures against rural householders have remained in force. Richly documented with Chinese- and English-language sources of urban development in China, this book develops a new interpretative model of the dynamics of socialist urbanization.

Author Biography

Kam Wing Chan is assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Table of Contents

Preface
Tables
Figures
Abbreviations
Introduction	p. 1
A Review of Contemporary Research	p. 7
Urban Definitions and Urban Population Growth since 1949	p. 19
Policies to Restrict Urbanization in the Maoist Era	p. 52
Urbanization Policies in the Post-Mao Era	p. 97
Conclusion	p. 142
Appendix 2.1. Most Recent Urban Designation Criteria Promulgated by the State Council	p. 156
Appendix 2.2. 1990 Census: Components of Urban Population	p. 158
Appendix 2.3. Components of Urban Population Growth by Year, 1950-1990	p. 159
Bibliography	p. 162
Index	p. 191
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