UB gathers experts in urban studies to address China’s social and urban transformations

Lan Deng / Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan.

Presenting “Housing Production and the Structural Transformation of China's Real Estate Development Industry,” Lan Deng has been studying housing and real estate development in both the U.S. and China. Her research examines the different types of interventions the two countries have developed to provide decent housing and quality neighborhoods for their residents.

Citing a real estate development company that in 2018 was building in 228 cities and constructing more than 72 million square meters of space, Deng described the “aggressive expansion” of this industry in China. Driven by the country’s economic reform in the 1980s and a state capitalist system, China’s real estate dynamics are shaped by a dominant state role. China’s central state, which controls the two key inputs in real estate development – land and capital – works in close coordination with local government bodies to assemble land and property and auction it off to the highest bidder (through an “open land market”). 

Cindy Fan / Professor of Geography, Vice Provost for International Studies & Global Engagement, UCLA

Cindy Fan provides strategic leadership for the university’s international partnerships and agreements, represents UCLA globally, promotes international education and research, and oversees the International Institute. Fan is internationally known for her research on migration, split households, gender, and regional development in China.

In presenting “Does Hukou Still Matter?”, Fan considers China’s household registration system (which has its origins in ancient China) in the context of the country’s rural-urban migration. In documenting an individual’s residency, parents, spouse and date of birth, hukou is connected to social programs provided by the government and is based on their agricultural or non-agricultural status. In her research, Fan considers the mobility of Chinese migrants and the relative value of rural and urban hukous. Through interviews and field study, Fan shows that rural Chinese tend to value urban hukou and will choose to migrate to larger cities for better employment opportunities, despite the higher cost of living. The migration may separate households, leaving children in the care of grandparents and requiring travel between rural and urban areas. Large cities prefer more highly educated residents and may turn down rural hukou holders. Smaller cities are more open to migrants, according to Fan. Her research also considers the value of rural hukou, including access to arable land and food, and a sense of place and home. 

Piper Gaubatz / Professor & Department Head, Dept. of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Piper Gaubatz is an urban geographer specializing in the study of urban change, development and planning in East Asia. Her current research interests include analysis of the changing role of public space in Chinese cities, analysis of the diffusion of urban and environmental planning practices and ideologies from eastern to western China, and ongoing research on urban environmental history in China.

In presenting “From Mass Rallies to Mass Transit: Public Squares in Urban China,” Gaubatz discussed the Chinese city’s public square as “kind of a bellwether or way of understanding what happens to the surrounding city more broadly.” The Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949 brought with it the dawn of the public square as a centralizing agent and symbolic space for gathering. Over the second half of the 20^th century and the past two decades, the uses of these squares have changed and adapted, involving multiple constructions and deconstructions as green spaces, sites of memoriam, parks, and spaces for recreation and cultural events, all of which have shaped the culture, economy, health and physical aspects of the surrounding city. 

Lan Wang / Dean and Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University

Lan Wang is also the founder and head of the Healthy City Lab at Tongji University. Her research focuses on healthy city planning and design, urban development strategy and planning, and methodology and technology for urban planning. Professor Wang serves as Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the China Healthy City Committee (2018-present), and Secretary General, National Steering Committee of Urban and Rural Planning Education China (2010-2019).

Presenting “Planning Healthy Cities in China,” Wang shared findings from her examination of the built environment in Asian cities and its impact on cognitive function in older adults. In an effort to build evidence-based understanding of cognitive health in older adults in ultra-dense Asian cities, Wang conducted fine-scale studies and collected data on thousands of subjects. Among the conclusions: neighborhood densities of aging populations and even group living is correlated with cognitive health, as are the proximity of educational and community cultural facilities. 

Youqin Huang / Professor of Geography and Planning, Associate Vice Provost, University at Albany, SUNY.

Youqin Huang received her Ph.D. in Geography from University of California, Los Angeles. Her research aims to understand the impact of socioeconomic transformation and government policies, focusing on housing, migration, and health/wellbeing.

In presenting “Subjective Wellbeing in Transitional China,” Huang provides insight on the interrelated factors behind happiness and wellbeing across the demographic diversity of China. Factors include geography, spatial variation, individual and household criteria, and the trajectory of wellbeing indicators over time. Critical associations with subjective wellbeing include an individual’s sense of security and level of social cohesion, e.g., with relatives living nearby, having access to community resources, and being engaged in community affairs. Access to infrastructure, both physical and social, is another key indicator of overall wellbeing. Migrants, both in rural and urban contexts, report lower levels of wellbeing. Older generations within these categories tend to be happier when income levels are greater, while younger generations value home ownership more than income. 

Jamie Peck / Professor of Geography, University Killam Professor, and Distinguished University Scholar, University of British Columbia

With long-term research interests in economic geography, urban and regional studies, and institutional political economy, Jamie Peck has recently published "Variegated economies" (2023, Oxford), "Urban studies inside/out: theory, method, practice" (2020, Sage, coedited with H Leitner & E Sheppard), "Market/place: exploring spaces of exchange" (2020, Agenda, coedited with C Berndt & NM Rantisi), and "Offshore: exploring the worlds of global outsourcing" (2017, Oxford).

Yingling Fan / Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota

Yingling Fan explores the health and equity dimensions of urban environments, envisioning cities as inclusive spaces that promote shared happiness and collective well-being. Fan’s visionary work on enhancing everyday urban experiences has garnered widespread recognition and has been featured in leading media outlets, including Time Magazine, National Geographic, The Atlantic, Forbes, and The Guardian. 

Fan’s presentation, “Routes of Joy: Exploring Transportation Happiness with Digital Day Reconstruction,” considers urban environments as interventions for inclusivity and the promotion of shared happiness and collective wellbeing. She is interested in “momentary emotional wellbeing,” referring to research by psychologist Barbara Frederickson that finds an accumulation of these “moments” is not only an indicator of long-term emotional wellbeing but causally related. Fan is particularly concerned with the tech-inundated, highly efficient and surveillance-oriented environments of the modern city, which invert humans from the position of “agent” to that of “subject.” Her research has focused on human engagement with transportation as a significant part of daily life, and how it affects their emotions and future behaviors. Fan and her team have developed an app that leverages smartphone and AI sensing data with inputs and surveys from users to document how engaging with transit, whether private or public, affects their emotional state. Findings vary by city, with people in Shenzhen, e.g., happiest when using their car, versus using E-bikes in Xi’an, and car sharing in Minneapolis, where residents also reported higher levels of emotional wellbeing when using a riverside parkway versus busy and highly traffic city streets. Ride sharing and bike sharing were universally more preferred than private cars or bikes. According to Fan, “If our environment can shape people and how people feel at the moment, and that will lead to enhanced health, survival and fulfillment, then urban planners and engineers and contribute to human development.” 

Qing Shen / Professor of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington

Qing Shen is director of the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning. His areas of academic interest are urban economics and transportation planning and policy. He has developed analytical frameworks for understanding urban spatial structure, examined the social consequences of automobile-oriented metropolitan development, and investigated the differential impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) on population groups. His current research focuses primarily on what transit agencies should do in response to the challenges and opportunities brought by mobile ICT-enabled new mobility services, such as ride-hailing and on-demand micro transit.