Introduction: revitalization of China's industrial cradle



Publication Details

Wang, M. & Cheng, Z. (2014). Introduction: revitalization of China's industrial cradle. Old Industrial Cities Seeking New Road of Industrialization: Models of Revitalizing Northeast China (pp. 1-13). Singapore: World Scientific.

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Since the mid-1970s, the notion of "restless landscape" has been used to describe the radical economic and socio-cultural changes that occurred in the metropolitan areas in Europe and North America (Knox, 1991, 1993). Since the opening-up reform, the notion has also been used to examine the dramatic changes in the post-Mao urban China (Lin and Wei, 2002). Prior research has particularly focused on more developed cities and regions such as Shanghai and the Lower Yangzi Delta along the Southern Coast (Marton, 2000; Shen and Wu, 2012). This is partially due to rapid economic growth along the coastal regions. In fact, the development of Chinese economy was typified by significant regional inequality and disparities between the coast and interior, and some regions were clearly left behind (Fan and Sun, 2008). Before the early-2000s, the notion of restless landscape was inapplicable to most cities in Northeast China (consisting of Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Jilin provinces) that experienced economic stagnancy. In the mid-1990s, the region suffered from more negative shocks such as the massive state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms which led to the retrenchment of millions of SOE workers in the region. Layoffs became an everyday topic and enraged many Northeastern Chinese workers to restlessly fight for their rights and benefits, and search for new employment (Won, 2004; Cai, 2005)…

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