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On June 22^nd, the editorial department of Chinese Social Sciences Today organized and hosted the “Seminar on Realistic Approaches to the ‘New Pattern of Urbanization in China” in Beijing. Attendees discussed urbanization from an array of perspectives and issues, touching on its historical value and current significance, feasible approaches to current challenges, and how to simultaneously honor the goals of cultural preservation and urban renewal.

 “The new-pattern urbanization should be one where the urbanization of industry, people, land, society and rural areas are integrated and simultaneous processes,” commented Mu Haiping, director of the Decision-making Advisory Department at the Chinese Academy of Governance. Dubbing this pattern “five-in-one urbanization”, Ma said the New Pattern will be a complex and comprehensive process. He expects it to accelerate China’s socioeconomic development and be a driver of domestic demand.

The New Pattern is part of the Chinese dream, affirmed Ni Pengfei, director of the Center for City and Competitiveness at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.  Ni said that the New Pattern will have a four-pronged effect, bringing about mass migration, remapping and integrating the national landscape, and promoting a fundamental transformation of China’s economy and creating cultural cohesion and opportunities for cultural revival. What makes the new approach feasible is its emphasis on sustainability and human-orientation, Ni continued, adding that it is characterized by green development.

Elaborating on some of the real changes that will take place to make the New Pattern possible, Ni said that China’s industrial structure will be adjusted to better facilitate sustainable, human-oriented development. Driven by innovation, the pattern will also be open and diverse. To achieve these goals, Ni advised that China needs to improve infrastructure in the urban and rural areas, as well as increase average household income and facilitate equal access to public services.

At the current stage of China’s urbanization process, the declining rural population has not resulted in a greater land supply. Zhou Chengjun, a fellow from the Financial Research Institute at the People’s Bank of China, explained that land is being converted to urban areas faster than the population urbanizes. At this point, there is more industrial land with a low floor area ratio (the proportion of a building’s floor space to the land area the building is on) than agricultural land, which is the fundamental reason why land supply has not increased as China’s population urbanizes.

Urbanization is not about the proliferation of city squares, highways and lawns, Zhou said. Instead we need to make better use of the land, developing intensively what we do develop and otherwise saving it, he advised.

Tian Qing, a fellow at the Chinese National Academy of Arts described some of the strategies for navigating the dilemmas involved in cultural inheritance in the process of urbanization. Different locales have provided habitats for various cultures, and this diversity is the basis for future development, Tian said. The big danger is homogenization. He cautioned that urbanization also threatens to uproot traditional local cultures, so we have to protect them.

Tian identified three areas in particular that are pivotal for cultural diversity and not jettisoning traditional culture in the course of development: protecting landmarks and ancient villages rich in cultural connotation while pushing forward with urbanization; leaving space for traditional culture when drawing the blueprints for urbanizing; and protecting handicrafts in different locales.

Representatives from local enterprises exchanged ideas with scholars about urbanization and its inherent difficulties. Zheng Fusheng, president of Zhongda Co. LTD in Anyang, Henan Province, introduced his company’s experience and achievements in the urbanization process. Introducing some of his company’s benefits from following the New Pattern, he seconded Ni’s emphasis on its people-centric vision. The New Pattern needs support from the related industries, Zhou said, adding that it should also foreground cultural inheritance. Zhou’s ideas were well received by scholars attending the seminar.

 

Tang Hongli is a reporter from Chinese Social Sciences Today.

 

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 466, Jun 24.

Chinese link:

http://www.csstoday.net/xueshuzixun/jishizixun/81230.html

Translated by Jiang Hong