Document Type
Think Piece
Abstract
Despite the conventional portrayal of the Chinese revolution as a predominantly peasant-oriented movement, cities emerged as critical arenas for the Chinese Communist Party’s project of modernization and class restructuring during Maoist period (1949–1976). Over the past decade, scholarly attention has increasingly turned to the urban dimensions of the early years of the People’s Republic. This think piece addresses how recent scholarship on cities offers new analytical insights into our understanding of Maoist China by focusing on six recently published monographs. Themes to be discussed in this essay include the contested and evolving notion of socialist modernity, the transformative effects of industrialization on urban social and economic structures, the rise of grassroots activism and individual agency, the incorporation of environmental considerations into state planning, and the interconnectedness of urban centers with their immediate surroundings and broader transregional and international networks. Through these thematic and methodological interventions, the subfield of Maoist urbanism has become markedly more nuanced, comprehensive, and diversified than it was a decade ago.
Citation Information
Yang, Taoyu. "THINK PIECE: Urban Echoes: How the New Historiography on Cities is Reframing our Understanding of Mao’s China." Asia Pacific Perspectives 19, No. 1 (2025)