Suzhou in Transition

Beibei Tang, Paul Cheung

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367617738
• eBook ISBN: 9781000217698
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Through the lens of the city of Suzhou, this edited volume presents views on the complex interaction between the central state, market agents, local governments and individuals who have shaped the development of Chinese cities and urban life.

Featuring a range of disciplinary perspectives, contributors to this volume have all undertaken research in one municipality – Suzhou – to consider how history and culture have evolved during the modernisation of Chinese cities and the transformation of urban space, as well as shifting rural–urban relations and urban life during the reform era. The volume is underscored by a complex dynamic system consisting of three interlocked mechanisms through which the central and local state interact: history and culture, social and economic life, and administration and governance. As such, chapters analyse responses both from the state and society as driving forces of local development, with an interplay between tradition and heritage on the one hand and China's economic and social development on the other.

Suzhou in Transition will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese and urban studies, as well as urban sociology and geography.

1

SUZHOU IN TRANSITION

An introduction

Beibei Tang and Paul Cheung

Background

The present volume is a study of social change and development in contemporary China from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. It has been four decades since China’s economic reforms began in 1978. In the past forty years, Chinese cities have undergone significant administrative economic, political, spatial, and social transformation. Chinese cities and urban life have experienced further development as a result of market reforms which started in the early 1990s and which were undergirded by a nationwide drive for urbanisation. These development trajectories took shape in a relatively short period of time, and resulted, among other things, in the Chinese economy becoming the second largest globally. Through a concerted effort to focus on the city of Suzhou, this edited volume provides an overview of these unprecedented urban transformations, a detailed examination of the dynamics and driving forces of these social changes, and a thorough analysis of the implications of these experiences for China’s future development at large.

This volume includes a wide range of academic writing that covers evolving history and culture during the modernisation of Chinese cities, transformation of urban landscape and space, as well as changing rural–urban relations and urban life during the reform era. As a whole, the multi-disciplinary studies presented here underscore the interplay between tradition and heritage on the one hand and China’s economic and social development on the other. The studies in this volume also offer insightful understandings of the profound impact on the lives of individuals resulting from China’s market reforms and urbanisation. From multiple disciplinary perspectives, then, this volume presents different views upon the complex interaction between the Party-state, market agents, and individuals who have significantly shaped the development of Chinese cities and urban life.

The contributors to this volume have all conducted their research in one particular Chinese municipality – Suzhou – which on face value is itself a curious mix of the old and new. Located in the south of Jiangsu province in Yangtze River Delta, Suzhou is among the “Key Cities in Yangtze River Delta” identified by the State Council (State Council 2016). Known as Gusu or Pingjiang in ancient times, Suzhou is seen as the origin of the Wu culture and one of the first National History and Cultural Cities recognised by the Chinese government. With its long history traced back to 2,500 years ago, as well as gardens and a Grand Canal listed as World Cultural Heritage sites by UNESCO, Suzhou enjoys the reputation of a unique tourism city. It also hosts eight national-level economy and technology development parks, two national-level new and high technology industry development zones, and one international business zone (State Council 2016). In 2018, Suzhou’s GDP reached over 1.85 trillion RMB, ranked the top of Jiangsu province and the seventh in the country (Suzhou Municipal Government 2019). Its GDP per capita in 2018 reached over 170,000 RMB, ranked the sixth in the country. Suzhou currently administers five districts (qu) and four county-level cities (xianjishi), with a registered population exceeding 10 million among whom 76% are urban population (Suzhou Municipal Government 2019).

With a recorded history of its commercial activity, in recent decades Suzhou has been going through expansion of physical infrastructure and urban population. And the great urban transformations have brought new demands on the city’s local governance and population management. Suzhou is a microcosm of the development and transformation that have taken place in China during this period of time, with some of its local practices and experiences shared by other parts of the country. As shown in this volume, Suzhou has been experiencing economic success and this has led to rising levels of wealth and living standards. Tourism development and the development of high-technology industry have brought considerable economic benefits to local government as well as to local communities in terms of transport, livelihood, and rising prosperity. These changes are associated with the country’s broader transformations of physical environment, social interactions, and economic life, as well as different modes of state–society relations.

The experiences of Suzhou highlight the complexity of China’s economic and social reforms and their impact on urban life, especially since 1978 (Goodman 2014; Hsing 2010; Zhou 2004; Tang and Parish 2000). Although the reform-era is in a sense continuation of development and modernisation within a broader timeframe, it has its own distinct features in terms of how urban life and cities are being shaped by economic, social, and political forces. Since the 1990s when the Party-state introduced market economy mechanisms to Chinese society (Cao and Nee 2000; Walder 1996; Nee and Matthews 1996; Bian and Logan 1996; Nee 1992), Chinese cities have been significantly affected by state-owned enterprise reform, commercialisation of urban housing, and urbanisation of the countryside. As a result, diversified groups of urban population, spatial restructuring, and new governance issues are all emerging in Chinese cities.

To date, studies on marketisation and urbanisation in China have largely focused on macro-level income and regional inequality (e.g. Whyte 2010; Davis and Wang 2009; Wang 2008; Khan and Riskin 2001; Xie and Hannum 1996), impact on the overall social structure with the emergence of new social groups (e.g. Tang 2018; Wright 2010; Andreas 2009; Lee 2007; Dickson 2003), general spatial transformation and gentrification (e.g. Li and Zhao 2016; Hsing 2010; Lin 2007), and prevailing governance strategies in population management (e.g. Tomba 2014; Read 2012; Heberer and Göbel 2011; Bray 2006). Inadequate attention has been paid to cities as the locus in which actors and their interests meet and, more often than not, conflict with each other. Through the lens of the city of Suzhou, this volume seeks to examine such interactions between relevant actors and places in producing new cities and urban society through dramatic economic transition and development. Specifically, this volume deals with concerns such as the following. What are the key social dynamics which have shaped the urban transformation and development of Chinese cities? How can one understand and interpret such dynamics in historical and regional contexts? And what implications do these dynamics have for disciplinary research as well as area studies?

Research questions and key themes

Despite four decades of reform, China is still going through modernisation, economic development, and spatial transformation. We do not consider these changes as a dialectic, nor do we require them to be complete and radical transformation. Instead, the complexity of changes discussed in this volume is being held in tension with the status quo and repetition of historical patterns. On the one hand, we examine the complicated interactions of various social actors and potential conflicts of interest during the course of social change. On the other hand, we explore the complexity of the social transformation process that consists of changes, continuities, and the status quo. To reveal the complexity, this volume identifies key social dynamics that relocate boundaries, reconstitute dichotomies, and redirect interactions in society. The existing literature overwhelmingly emphasises such dichotomies as the state versus the market, central versus local government, state versus society, and rural society versus urban society. Going beyond the dichotomies identified by previous studies, this volume pays particular attention to illustrating multi-faceted interactions between the central state, local government, market, and society. Specifically, this volume presents a complex dynamic system consisting of three-interlocked mechanisms through which the central and local state interact with each other; the local government mediates central government control over market and society; and the urban society interacts with the countryside. Through these interactions, the edited volume draws attention to ambiguous boundaries in flux which have significantly characterised urban re-development and the transformation of Chinese society.

To date, research on social change and the development of Chinese society, especially in the reform era, has largely focused on national trends, national-scale analysis, or translocal analysis. This volume contributes to this growing body of literature through a local perspective where cultural, socioeconomic, and political boundaries are shaped through social dynamics of multi-faceted interactions taking place in a Chinese city on a daily basis. We argue that the multi-faceted interactions at local level function as both driving forces of and response strategies in the course of local development. The investigation from a local perspective consists of two interrelated aspects: the local manifestation of central state authority; and the local responses to nationwide socioeconomic transformations. This volume analyses the local perspective of the state and the responses of society from three distinct but related aspects of society: history and culture, social and economic life, and administration and governance.

As the chapters in this volume show, the “organic” development of places over time has always been intertwined with state involvement, and the role of the state has largely been manifested through local governance. The concept of the state in the Chinese context has always played a significant role in how places become identified and experienced (Goodman 2016; Guo 2013; Wright 2010; Friedmann 2005; Zhou 2004; Walder et al. 2000). Especially in the reform era under the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1978, the role of the state has always been a research focus in studies of social change. Most scholarly efforts have highlighted the role of the central state towards explaining the monopoly of the Communist Party in political power, tight control of public security, domination of decision-making, intervention into the market economy, and rigid administrative structure. In addition, the state-as-manifest-at-the-local-level perspective has attracted increasing attention in recent years and led to closer examination of the critical role of the local state in the implementation of central policy initiatives with flexibility, variations, and local innovations, despite the control of the central state and rigid administrative structure (Tang 2018; Wu 2013; Carrillo and Duckett 2011; Smith 2010; Landry 2008). The volume expands this important approach to cover the market reform period and multiple aspects of social changes, through an examination of how this local perspective influences the social transformation of one city.

State intervention is an interactive dynamic with constantly changing markets and culture. Local variations, flexibilities, and innovations are important in explaining how the state is experienced at a local level, and to what extent the state intervention shapes the making of place and identity during social changes. The three chapters in Part I explain the role of the local state played in influencing the historical and cultural life. Going through Suzhou’s 2,500-year history, Stephen L. Koss’s chapter reveals how the local state evolved along with the devastations and recoveries it experienced. Focusing on the city’s cultural heritage and spatial transformation, the chapter by Yi-Wen Wang and Christian Nolf illustrates how the local state shapes the city’s cultural reproduction. Sara Sterling’s research explains the involvement of the local state during the economic development and urbanisation in China along with the innovations introduced to one industry.

In Part II, the three chapters examine the impacts of the local state on urban development and social life, starting with Jiawen Han’s analysis of the spatial reproduction of the city. Sheng Zhong and Shengxi Xin’s chapter examines rural development in reform-era China and reveals the role of the state which intertwines with the role of the capital in shaping urban–rural relations during China’s urbanisation. Paul Cheung’s chapter reveals how the state exerts an influence upon social behaviour among the rural-to-urban migrant population through the interaction between state policies concerning the management of migration and, separately, language.

State involvement is further illustrated in Part III which analyses local administration and governance. Through the approach of spatial governance, Hu De and Carolyn Cartier emphasise state involvement in producing gradual transformation of cities by creating administrative divisions. Focusing on neighbourhood services provision, Beibei Tang’s chapter highlights the role of the local state in coordinating local governance in providing public services in neighbourhoods.

The local manifestation of the central state is accompanied by the response mechanisms of a society in adjusting to the changes. If the changes are exogenous, the chapters have shown the endogenous dynamics to adapt to, embrace, and adjust to the changes. Recent studies have persistently examined the responsiveness of the Chinese Party-state to explain the regime legitimacy and sustainability (Chen et al. 2016; Tang 2016; Wright 2010; Landry 2008; Chen 2004; Nathan 2003). As this volume argues, the responsiveness is not only limited to the Party-state, it is also observed in a city’s reactions to the evolution of society. In other words, the city presented in this volume is not in a passive position as the receiver of the changes. Instead, by responding to various circumstances including new opportunities, external pressures, and damaging conflicts, Suzhou has consistently evolved and transformed in ways that enabled it to preserve its place as one of the most socially, culturally, and commercially desirable locales in China. None of these responses is a one-off event. As illustrated by the chapters in this volume, the city of Suzhou has repeatedly transformed itself: a key factor in Suzhou’s longstanding pattern of successful adaptation and transformation.

From a historical and cultural perspective, as Koss’s chapter suggests, regardless of what fate and fortune have brought, Suzhou prevailed, excelled, and prospered by making the most of circumstances driven by external forces. Wang and Nolf’s chapter explains how responses – in the form of capitalising cultural heritage – contribute to city branding and identity building during the development of cultural tourism. With a more specific focus on the divergence in contemporary wedding culture as realised in bridal paraphernalia retailed in Suzhou, Sterling’s chapter reveals that responses to economic development and forces in and outside of China play a significant role in the process of place-making. During its transformation from an old cultural capital to a highly developed urban space, the responsiveness reveals how the resistance and gentrification have helped to link the past, present, and future of the city life, as chapters in Part II show. Han’s chapter examines how responses, including imitation, adoption, and addition, play a significant role in the spatial production aimed at symbolising the city’s cultural tradition, albeit in different ways.

Responsiveness is shown not only by...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Suzhou in transition: an introduction
• PART I: Historical and cultural transformation
• PART II: Urban development and social life
• PART III: Administration and governance
• Index