Toby Lincoln

Urbanizing China in War and Peace: The Case of Wuxi County

Rural-urban relations are one of the most intractable sources of social inequality in the People’s Republic of China today. As the chief beneficiaries of rising prosperity, urban communities have grown rapidly to now hold more than half of the country’s overall population. Meanwhile, those left behind as registered residents of the countryside continue to receive dramatically lower levels of income and public services. Historians have long traced the origins of this rural-urban divide back to at least the early twentieth century, when the growing influence of global capitalism and modern state-building was disproportionately concentrated in China’s treaty ports and other urban centers. A concomitant deepening of impoverishment in rural areas helped set the stage for the Communist revolution that eventually engulfed the cities and swept Mao to power by mid-century. However, a new study by Toby Lincoln of urbanization in the first half of the twentieth century challenges this conventional narrative of divergence and dichotomization in rural-urban relations.

Fleeing from firestorms: Government, cities, native place associations and refugees in the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance

This article explores the refugee experiences of three communities in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. Social and political organizations worked together in different ways to send people safely back to different parts of China. I argue that this shows how migrant identities were trans-local and that urban identity in the first half of the twentieth century in China was never wholly confined within one city. Rather, networks of individuals and institutions worked together to handle the crisis caused by one of the most devastating invasions of World War II.

The rural and urban at war: Invasion and reconstruction in China during the anti-Japanese war of resistance

This article explores the impact of the Japanese invasion of 1937 on Chinese cities. Focusing on Wuxi, one hundred miles to the west of Shanghai, the author argues that bombing was mainly limited to those commercial and industrial areas of the city that had come to define its modern identity. At the same time, municipal authorities also took steps to prepare the city and its inhabitants for war, although these were largely ineffective. However, the destruction of the invasion actually led to changes in urban morphology as the city was rebuilt in 1938. Meanwhile, out in the countryside, some towns and villages remained wholly unaffected by the invasion. This exposes the need for a spatial analysis of how violence affects different areas in the city and countryside.

The Rural and Urban at War: Invasion and Reconstruction in China during the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance

This article explores the impact of the Japanese invasion of 1937 on Chinese cities. Focusing on Wuxi, one hundred miles to the west of Shanghai, the author argues that bombing was mainly limited to those commercial and industrial areas of the city that had come to define its modern identity. At the same time, municipal authorities also took steps to prepare the city and its inhabitants for war, although these were largely ineffective. However, the destruction of the invasion actually led to changes in urban morphology as the city was rebuilt in 1938. Meanwhile out in the countryside, some towns and villages remained wholly unaffected by the invasion. This exposes the need for a spatial analysis of how violence affects different areas in the city and countryside.

The Inherent Malleability of Heritage: Creating China's Beautiful Villages

ABSTRACT The Beautiful Villages policy is a major policy initiative to secure the socio-economic and environmental development of China. Tracking the development of this policy at a local level reveals the intricacies of policy-making, the extent of local autonomy, and the ways in which rural development is delivered. Contained within this is an examination of the evolving role of heritage within a policy framework that primarily focuses on the natural environment. This article traces the ways in which heritage became a component of this policy in one village in Zhejiang Province. It examines how the value of heritage was gradually realised by government officials and villagers, and how the concept of ecology was broadened to include built heritage, which ensures that funds can be accessed to stimulate rural development. In so doing the article investigates the concept of adaptive governance advanced by Sebastian Heilmann and Elizabeth Perry in the context of the inherent malleability of heritage as both a concept and a process. Focusing on the ways in which institutions recognise and then mobilise heritage to secure instrumental goals enables us to examine the inherent malleability of heritage and how this is aligned to meet specific policy goals in China, as it is around the world.

Introduction: The Habitable City in Chinese History

In June 1949, on the eve of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s most famous architect, Liang Sicheng 梁思成, published an article in Renmin ribao 人民日报 (People’s Daily), entitled Chengshi de tixing ji qi jihua城市的体型及其计划 (The city’s form and its planning). He argued that people living in cities had four basic necessities.

Urbanization and Nature in China: The Example of Lake Tai

For centuries, Lake Tai, 100 miles west of Shanghai, and one of China’s largest freshwater lakes, has been central to the economic prosperity of the region. During the twentieth century, as China’s cities grew in size it became part of the regional urban system. At the same time, the city of Wuxi expanded to encompass part of the lake shore. This meant that the lake was seen as a resource that could contribute to urban habitability. In this role, it provided transport connections, raw materials such as coal and agricultural products, and had tourist value as a natural scenic site. Exploitation of the lake for its various resources has gradually created tensions between its industrial and touristic value. This means that the very natural beauty seen as central to making it a scenic site and part of Wuxi City, has been threatened, affecting in turn the contribution the lake can make to urban habitability.