Periodic Reporting for period 1 - URBAN_CHINA (Urbanization in China's South-western Borderlands. The case of Jinghong, Xiguangbanna)
Reporting period: 2018-02-01 to 2020-01-31
URBANization in CHINA’s southwestern borderlands. The case of Jinghong, Xishuangbanna (URBAN_CHINA) is a pioneering, interdisciplinary research project whose overall scientific objective was to foreground the complexity and diversity of urbanization in China’s non-metropolitan and non-industrial multi-ethnic borderlands through the 2000s-2010s. It took as a case study Jinghong, an emerging city with a sizeable ethnic minority population, in southern Yunnan Province, on the border with Myanmar and Laos.
In particular, this project had 5 Specific Objectives: 1) The first specific objective (SO1) was to explore the changing urban morphology of Jinghong over the last 66 years, taking into account transformations in the urban layout and in the buildings’ aesthetics and structure. 2) The second specific objective (SO2) was to examine how the Chinese government’s urban planning, normative framework and governance underpinning Jinghong’s urban development under post-socialism relates to discourses of development, ethnicity, nation, civilization, citizenship and social order in the border context; and how this fits within or differs from China’s broader national urbanization framework. 3) The third specific objective (SO3) was to investigate the city’s socio-economic and demographic transformations, including the settlement patterns, change in the ethnic and class make-up, the formation of different mixes of “insiders” and “outsiders”, as a consequence of growing Han in-migration since the 1960s. 4) The fourth specific objective (SO4) was to explore the subjective and experiential aspects of Jinghong’s urbanization, probing into how the different groups of people have gained, maintained, transformed or lost their rights and senses of belonging to the city following recent urban re-structuring and in-migration. 5) The fifth specific objective (SO5) was to investigate the strategies and discourses that frame friction or conflict between the Han majority, ethnic minority groups and the government.
Research carried out for URBAN_CHINA found that the new rise of cities in China’s south-western frontier reveals sharply different spatial, political and socio-economic dynamics than long established cities in the centre: 1) urban development and re-development in the borderlands is a state project to “civilize” ethnic minority groups and integrate them into the Chinese nation; 2) frontier urban expansion is a means to securing Beijing's political control over the borderlands; 3) ethnic minorities are not merely victims of state-sponsored projects of space re-structuring, but active participants in the process of frontier urban change; 4) Jinghong's urbanization has favored the rise of ethnic Tai nouveaux riches that constitute a new sui generis frontier middle-class.
The Project had a duration of 24 months, articulated in two different phases at two separate host institutions:
1. 9 months (from 1 February 2018 to 31 October 2018 full-time), at the Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning (DADU), the University of Sassari (UNISS),
2. 15 months (from 1 May 2019 to 31 December 2020 part-time), at the Department of Asian and North African Studies (DSAAM), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (UNIVE).
In particular, this project had 5 Specific Objectives: 1) The first specific objective (SO1) was to explore the changing urban morphology of Jinghong over the last 66 years, taking into account transformations in the urban layout and in the buildings’ aesthetics and structure. 2) The second specific objective (SO2) was to examine how the Chinese government’s urban planning, normative framework and governance underpinning Jinghong’s urban development under post-socialism relates to discourses of development, ethnicity, nation, civilization, citizenship and social order in the border context; and how this fits within or differs from China’s broader national urbanization framework. 3) The third specific objective (SO3) was to investigate the city’s socio-economic and demographic transformations, including the settlement patterns, change in the ethnic and class make-up, the formation of different mixes of “insiders” and “outsiders”, as a consequence of growing Han in-migration since the 1960s. 4) The fourth specific objective (SO4) was to explore the subjective and experiential aspects of Jinghong’s urbanization, probing into how the different groups of people have gained, maintained, transformed or lost their rights and senses of belonging to the city following recent urban re-structuring and in-migration. 5) The fifth specific objective (SO5) was to investigate the strategies and discourses that frame friction or conflict between the Han majority, ethnic minority groups and the government.
Research carried out for URBAN_CHINA found that the new rise of cities in China’s south-western frontier reveals sharply different spatial, political and socio-economic dynamics than long established cities in the centre: 1) urban development and re-development in the borderlands is a state project to “civilize” ethnic minority groups and integrate them into the Chinese nation; 2) frontier urban expansion is a means to securing Beijing's political control over the borderlands; 3) ethnic minorities are not merely victims of state-sponsored projects of space re-structuring, but active participants in the process of frontier urban change; 4) Jinghong's urbanization has favored the rise of ethnic Tai nouveaux riches that constitute a new sui generis frontier middle-class.
The Project had a duration of 24 months, articulated in two different phases at two separate host institutions:
1. 9 months (from 1 February 2018 to 31 October 2018 full-time), at the Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning (DADU), the University of Sassari (UNISS),
2. 15 months (from 1 May 2019 to 31 December 2020 part-time), at the Department of Asian and North African Studies (DSAAM), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (UNIVE).
The Researcher, Dr. Antonella Diana, achieved all planned scientific objectives, acquired all planned skills and built fruitful relations with academic institutions worldwide and the general public as follows:
• She received training in analysis of urban systems, theories and methods of urban planning, and GIS (Geographic Information System) and Geomatics by coursework and by research at DADU, UNISS and through attending seminars/conferences on the theme of urban/architecture design organized by the Venice Institute of Architecture (IUAV).
• She carried out 4 and a half-month ethnographic fieldwork in Jinghong, China, to collect first-hand data on the issue of frontier urbanization.
• She presented papers based on the Project research at five international conferences.
• She organized an international conference on the Project theme: “CHINA GOES URBAN. New Insights into China’s Urban Metamorphoses in Post-socialist Times.” DSAAM, UNIVE.
• She delivered seminars/talks to university and high school students in Italy and China.
• She submitted three peer-reviewed articles for academic publications.
• She published a article on the on-line journal Sinosfere, N. 11.
• She taught the course “Contemporary Societies of Southeast Asia” at DSAAM, UNIVE.
• She produced and post-produced the ethnographic
documentary ‘Tai and the City’. The film was screened at the documentary at the Etnofilm Fest. 12th Ethnographic Documentary Film Festival 2019, Monselice (PD), Italy.
• She presented the Project’s results at the European Researchers’ Night (ERN), UNISS.
• An article on the Project’s theme and results will be published in March 2021 on CafoscariNEWS, UNIVE.
• An article about the Project’s dissemination activities was published on the newspaper La Nuova Sardegna.
• She wrote the trilingual report (English-Italian-Chinese) “Urbanization in China’s Southwestern Borderlands. The case of Jinghong. Project Report.”
• She established collaborations and exchanged knowledge with the international academic community and improved skills on conducting research on urbanization from an interdisciplinary perspective.
• She received training in analysis of urban systems, theories and methods of urban planning, and GIS (Geographic Information System) and Geomatics by coursework and by research at DADU, UNISS and through attending seminars/conferences on the theme of urban/architecture design organized by the Venice Institute of Architecture (IUAV).
• She carried out 4 and a half-month ethnographic fieldwork in Jinghong, China, to collect first-hand data on the issue of frontier urbanization.
• She presented papers based on the Project research at five international conferences.
• She organized an international conference on the Project theme: “CHINA GOES URBAN. New Insights into China’s Urban Metamorphoses in Post-socialist Times.” DSAAM, UNIVE.
• She delivered seminars/talks to university and high school students in Italy and China.
• She submitted three peer-reviewed articles for academic publications.
• She published a article on the on-line journal Sinosfere, N. 11.
• She taught the course “Contemporary Societies of Southeast Asia” at DSAAM, UNIVE.
• She produced and post-produced the ethnographic
documentary ‘Tai and the City’. The film was screened at the documentary at the Etnofilm Fest. 12th Ethnographic Documentary Film Festival 2019, Monselice (PD), Italy.
• She presented the Project’s results at the European Researchers’ Night (ERN), UNISS.
• An article on the Project’s theme and results will be published in March 2021 on CafoscariNEWS, UNIVE.
• An article about the Project’s dissemination activities was published on the newspaper La Nuova Sardegna.
• She wrote the trilingual report (English-Italian-Chinese) “Urbanization in China’s Southwestern Borderlands. The case of Jinghong. Project Report.”
• She established collaborations and exchanged knowledge with the international academic community and improved skills on conducting research on urbanization from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The research and results of URBAN_CHINA represent a significant contribution to advancing the study of China’s urbanization in the post-Mao period and to the study of urbanization more broadly. Prior to the implementation of this project, there existed only scholarship that explored urbanization in China’s core cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and focused primarily on the Han ethnic majority population. URBAN_CHINA is the first study to explore and provide first-hand, unique, and cutting-edge information on the intersection of urbanization politics and ethnicity in China’s border regions. Additionally, by drawing on methods and theories from Anthropology, Sociology, Urban Geography, and Urban Planning, the Project has put forward a ground-breaking approach that integrates space, politics, and the lived experiences of a wide range of ethnic minority and state actors into an analytical whole. In so doing, the Project has offered a new perspective on the process of space and place production and social change in China’s contemporary urban revolution than what previously found in the literature. This innovative methodology is a model that can be applied to future studies of urbanization elsewhere in China and in the world.
URBAN_CHINA will bring considerable benefits to the European society and environment and may influence European policy-making. It will provide European citizens a better understanding of the social, environmental, and political issues involved in China's contemporary urbanization and the impact that these might have on peace, social order, quality of air, climate change, international migration, democracy and models of urban development in Europe and the rest of the world in the future. Moreover, the study will provide European policy-makers a better understanding of Chinese urbanization trends and help them design appropriate policies to influence a more sustainable and socially inclusive urbanization in China.
URBAN_CHINA will bring considerable benefits to the European society and environment and may influence European policy-making. It will provide European citizens a better understanding of the social, environmental, and political issues involved in China's contemporary urbanization and the impact that these might have on peace, social order, quality of air, climate change, international migration, democracy and models of urban development in Europe and the rest of the world in the future. Moreover, the study will provide European policy-makers a better understanding of Chinese urbanization trends and help them design appropriate policies to influence a more sustainable and socially inclusive urbanization in China.