1st Edition
Reinventing the Chinese City Urban Regeneration and Governance in Transition
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
The shift from large-scale redevelopment towards rescaled urban regeneration
The diversification of stakeholders and its challenges in urban regeneration
Urban residents’ rights in neighbourhood regeneration
Urban-rural integrated development and rescaled urban regeneration
Research objectives and questions
The structure of the book
Chapter 2 Urban regeneration in a territorial governance framework
Urban regeneration as a territorialization process
Scalar mismatch in urban regeneration governance
Urban regeneration in a decentralized regime
Towards a territorial governance framework
Territorial governance, social structures, and institutionalism
Reforming discourse, structure, and tools in China’s urban regeneration
Chapter 3 Urban regeneration in the Socialist Era
Introduction
Territorial politics, governmentality, and the socialist space
Urban regeneration strategies in the early socialist urbanization
Ideological shifts in urban planning and development
Cascading political campaigns and their consequences in urban development
Work unit and built environment regeneration
Standardization during urban development austerity
Changed attitudes towards Soviet influences in urban development
Hangzhou’s socialist urban development and regeneration
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Micro-scale residential neighbourhood rehabilitation
Introduction
The state and urban citizens in residential neighbourhood rehabilitation
The transition theory
The rescaled state, urban citizen, and residential communities
Neighbourhood rehabilitation as a spatial selectivity strategy
Hangzhou’s old residential neighbourhood rehabilitation
Neighbourhood resident participation
State and non-state partnerships in Hemu New Village
The complexity of property rights
Conclusion
Chapter 5 Republican and socialist industrial heritage reuses
Introduction
Scalar mismatch in industrial heritage conservation
The discussion of scalar mismatch
Scalar mismatch in China’s heritage conservation
The territorialization of industrial heritage
Territorialized urban regeneration strategies
China’s industrial heritage conservation as a territorialization process
Hangzhou Silk Printing and Dyeing United Factory
Hangzhou’s industrial heritage conservation and reuse
The conservative reuse of Hangzhou Silk Printing and Dyeing United Factory
Xi’an Dahua Textile Factory (Dahua 1935)
Dahua Textile Factory compounds
Dahua’s residential neighbourhoods
Conclusion
Chapter 6 Historic neighbourhood conservation and rehabilitation
Introduction
Authorized heritage discourse in heritage conservation
The authorized heritage discourse
Authorized heritage discourse in China’s historic district conservation
Southern Song Imperial Street conservation in Hangzhou
The history of Southern Song Imperial Street and the conservation district
Wang Shu’s approach to Southern Song Imperial Street conservation
Sanxuejie historic neighbourhood conservation in Xi’an
The transformation and conservation of Sanxuejie historic neighbourhood
Residents and small businesses in Sanxuejie historic neighbourhood
Self-help rehabilitation and informal construction
Conclusion
Chapter 7 Urban natural resource conservative development
Introduction
Natural resource conservation through the prism of political ecology
Scalar configuration and territorial delineation
Property rights and environmental justice
Social capital and community
China’s ecological civilization and eco-cities
The Xixi National Wetland Park in Hangzhou
The history and transformation of the Xixi Wetland
The conservation and rehabilitation plan
Challenges in the conservation and rehabilitation implementation
Indigenous villagers’ resettlement and employment
Social capital of resettled residents
Conclusion
Chapter 8 Conclusion
Urban regeneration in transitional governance
The territorial governance framework for urban regeneration
The diversification of urban regeneration
Concluding remarks
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Zhu Qian is an Associate Professor in the School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Canada. His primary research interests lie in urban land use reform, urbanization and resettlement, planning in urban–rural interface, and urban regeneration in Chinese cities. He has published widely on these topics, including the recent books Property Rights and Urban Transformation in China (Edward Elgar, 2022) and When Formalization Fails: The Credibility of Informality in China’s Resettlement Communities (with Chen Yang, Cambridge University Press, 2026).
"Zhu Qian’s rich holistic approach to understanding the historical importance of the paradigm shift now underway in urban governance and planning in China provides an exceptionally valuable comparative framework for moving research and practice everywhere toward inclusive, socially justice, and environmental regenerative city regions in our rapidly urbanizing world."
Mike Douglass, Emeritus Professor, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii at Manoa
"China’s urbanisation has shifted from rapid expansion to regeneration. Reinventing the Chinese City effectively captures this transformation. It is the first comprehensive and cutting-edge account of various regeneration approaches, including neighbourhood rehabilitation, industrial heritage reuse, conservation, and ecological preservation. Zhu Qian lucidly narrates detailed cases while maintaining conceptual clarity of the big picture. Its conclusion is highly profound and insightful – despite institutional innovations and plural actors, state centrality remains in urban regeneration. This is a must-read for those seeking to understand urban changes in today’s China."
Fulong Wu, Bartlett Professor of Planning, University College London
"Why do urban regeneration projects in contemporary China often deviate from their lofty ambitions? Through case studies from Hangzhou and Xi'an, Qian's study shows how entrenched political hierarchies, commercial logics, and stakeholder coordination challenges make context-sensitive redevelopment difficult."
Kyle Jaros, Associate Professor of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame
