The Great Urban Transformation

Review from previous edition excellent guide to understanding the ongoing boom in China ... Fascinating examples of urban development, mostly from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, accompany incisive conceptualization and analysis. Summing up: Recommended. * K.E. Stapleton, CHOICE *
Its highly readable narrative style alone makes this an important book: through diverse case studies, Hsing explains complicated development scenarios with clarity and insight ... refreshing and challenging * Carolyn Cartier, China Quarterly *
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, University of California at Berkeley, Author of Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural logic of Transnationality and Buddha in Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America *
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, University of California at Berkeley *
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 of Southern California *
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, University of California *