The Habitable City in China: Urban History in the Twentieth Century (Politics and Development of Contemporary China)

This book offers a new perspective on Chinese urban history by exploring cities as habitable spaces. China, the world’s most populous nation, is now its newest urban society, and the pace of this unprecedented historical transformation has increased in recent decades. The contributors to this book conceptualise cities as first providing the necessities of life, and then becoming places in which the quality of life can be improved. They focus on how cities have been made secure during times of instability, how their inhabitants have consumed everything from the simplest of foods to the most expensive luxuries, and how they have been planned as ideal spaces. Drawing examples from across the country, this book offers comparisons between different cities, highlights continuities across time and space—and in doing so may provide solutions to some of the problems that continue to affect Chinese cities today. Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. Introduction: The Habitable City In Chinese History / Xu Tao -- 2. The Chinese Corpsmen In The Shanghai Volunteer Corps / Xu Tao -- 3. Kunming Dreaming: Hope, Change, And War In The Autobiographies Of Youth In China's Southwest / Aaron William Moore -- 4. Securing The City, Securing The Nation: Militarization And Urban Police Work In Dalian, 1945 -- 1953 / Christian A. Hess -- 5. To See And Be Seen: Horse Racing In Shanghai, 1848 -- 1945 / Ning Jennifer Chang -- 6. Second-class Workers: Gender, Industry, And Locality In Workers' Welfare Provision In Revolutionary China / Robert Cliver -- 7. A Utopian Garden City: Zhang Jingsheng's `beautiful Beijing' / Leon Antonio Rocha -- 8. Habitability In The Treaty Ports: Shanghai And Tianjin / Isabella Jackson -- 9. Urbanization And Nature In China: The Example Of Lake Tai / Toby Lincoln -- 10. Conclusion: Are Chinese Cities Becoming More Habitable? / Karl Gerth. Toby Lincoln, Xu Tao, Editors. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: The Habitable City in Chinese History....Pages 1-21 The Chinese Corpsmen in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps....Pages 23-41 Kunming Dreaming: Hope, Change, and War in the Autobiographies of Youth in China’s Southwest....Pages 43-70 Securing the City, Securing the Nation: Militarization and Urban Police Work in Dalian, 1945–1953....Pages 71-90 To See and Be Seen: Horse Racing in Shanghai, 1848–1945....Pages 91-111 Second-Class Workers: Gender, Industry, and Locality in Workers’ Welfare Provision in Revolutionary China....Pages 113-141 A Utopian Garden City: Zhang Jingsheng’s ‘Beautiful Beijing’....Pages 143-168 Habitability in the Treaty Ports: Shanghai and Tianjin....Pages 169-191 Urbanization and Nature in China: The Example of Lake Tai....Pages 193-215 Conclusion: Are Chinese Cities Becoming More Habitable?....Pages 217-223 Back Matter....Pages 225-231 Annotation Offers a new perspective on Chinese urban history by exploring cities as habitable spaces. China, the world's most populous nation, is now its newest urban society, and the pace of this unprecedented historical transformation has increased in recent decades. The contributors to this book conceptualise cities as first providing the necessities of life, and then becoming places in which the quality of life can be improved. They focus on how cities have been made secure during times of instability, how their inhabitants have consumed everything from the simplest of foods to the most expensive luxuries, and how they have been planned as ideal spaces