Book Review: Perspectives on Chinese Urbanization

The scale and speed of migration into Chinese cities is unprecedented in modern times. Consequently, no single state has ever been pressed to alter its built environment so drastically in just one generation. Much has and will be written about this critical period in urban history. Three timely recent books stand out. The Concrete Dragon by Thomas J. Campanella lucidly describes the broader aesthetic alterations in Chinese cities during this planning and building boom. Shanghai Rising, a volume edited by Xiangming Chen, explores the complicated nexus of state power and global forces that underpins growth in the eponymous business capital. The Great Urban Transformation by You-Tien Hsing explains China’s furious territorial politics from a geographic perspective. Together these interdisciplinary works speak to the broader aesthetic, cultural, and territorial dimensions of urban China’s (literal) ascent. While urbanization is hardly unique to China, these books all give sufficient emphasis to the national context. They grapple with the requisite role of global forces in reshaping local environments, but in toto they tell a story of urbanization with Chinese characteristics.