China in Transition (GEOG20010)

This subject is about a changing China. The focus of the subject is the ongoing social, economic and political transformation and the impacts of the reforms on China’s people and environment. The subject covers three sets of topics: Urban geography and China (housing and land reforms, changing morphology from socialism to capitalism, urban enclavism and gated communities, migrant workers and urban villages); China’s economic development (Open door policy and geography of “Made in China”; Wenzhou Model, Pearl-River-Delta Model, state-owned enterprises, inequality, poverty alleviation and migration, rural development and governance); and China’s environment challenges (water management, environmental governance, and climate change).

This subject is about the changing geography of ‘Red Capitalist’ China. The focus of the subject is the ongoing social, economic and political transformation and the impacts of the reforms on China’s people and environment. The subject covers three sets of topics: China’s many faces (generation conflicts; ethnic minorities, rural China; physical landscapes and environment; Chinese women - “half sky”); China in transition (large is not beautiful, population policy and one-child only; China’s reform model; open door policy and geography of “Made in China”; population mobility and urbanisation; and spatial shifts of development focus); China’s major challenges (AIDS/HIV, geography of commercial sex industry; income polarisation; corruption and “Guanxi” with Chinese characteristics; “get rich quickly” and environmental cost; development and resource demand; and Three Gorges Dam resettlement).