The Great Urban Transformation
Politics of Land and Property in China
You-tien Hsing
Reviews and Awards
"Stands as a bold and ground-breaking attempt to contest popular beliefs and challenge perceived notions. Hsing is to be congratulated for producing such an important milestone on the journey of scholarly enquiries into the gigantic and profound great urban transformation with a scale no less significant than the one masterfully addressed by Polanyi half of century ago. It is a milestone that sets the beginning of a long journey."--Annals of the Association of American Geographer
"A magisterial study of the territorial competition that ignites this process in core cities like Shanghai, as well as the urban fringes and (most wrenchingly) the rural hinterlands. Reform era decentralization and market restructuring initiated a scramble for authority over profitable redevelopment. Hsing draws on immersive field research-using colorful vignettes of her personal experiences at the beginning of each empirical chapter-and a formidable command of reform-era land laws."--Cities
"[An] excellent guide to understanding the ongoing urban boom in China... Fascinating examples of urban development, mostly from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, accompany incisive conceptualization and analysis....what comes through is how rapid, complicated, and wrenching China's urban transformation has been."--CHOICE
"This book is a masterful piece of scholarship and meaningful analysis. It is a most innovative contribution to the understanding of the transformation of China. It shows how the politics of land development is at the same time the key source of capital accumulation and class formation, and the trigger of social conflicts that may threaten the new Chinese order. Professor Hsing is one of the leading researchers on the study of capitalism in China, and her new book will change our way of thinking about one of the most important processes that are remaking our world."--Manuel Castells, University Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
"A path-breaking book that brings to light one of Chinas most opaque yet profound developments-the momentous contestations over land. Professor Hsing unravels the complex struggles over land use rights, housing entitlement and property ownership that have embroiled ordinary citizens and state officials at different levels of the Chinese government. It is an epic story told with analytical clarity, theoretical insights and deeply engaging human dramas."--Ching Kwan Lee, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
"In this landmark book, Hsing captures the complex and contingent nature of property-making and property-ownership in rapidly-urbanizing China. This ambitious book should be read by everyone interested in the contemporary politics in China, and the ways state and society are co-produced and co-constitutive of the expanding urban landscape."--Aihwa Ong, Professor of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley
"Cities are the pivot of China's economy, as it resumes its place on the world stage. Shooting skyward, exploding outward, China's great cities seem to consume all in their path. Resistance is hard, and even the Chinese state has been reshaped to serve the urban juggernaut. No one captures this better than Professor Hsing. The Great Urban Transformation is essential reading for every student of Chinese development and global cities."--Richard A. Walker, Professor of Geography, University of California
