Chengdu’s creative spaces – cultural diamonds or lead balloons?

By Philip Crosbie, PhD candidate, School of Asian Studies, University College Cork. As one of Chinas emerging cities in the south-west, Chengdu is quickly becoming one of the most prosperous and talked about cities in the country’s landscape of urban development. Most projections forecast that Chengdu is becoming a key area of domestic and foreign …

Are You Happy?

By Dr. Xiaoling Zhang, Head of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. Before the week-long holiday with the traditional Mid-autumn Festival on the 30th of September and National Day on the 1st of October happening together, the state Central China Television …

Growing Successful Cities

By Vincent Pan, Studying Commerce and Science at the University of New South Wales Australia. In Shanghai, a tour guide joked that the preferred mode of transport of Shanghai citizens were BMWs. That is, they rode Bicycles, they shared Motorcycles or they used their feet and Walked from A to B. For many citizens, these …

China: A Country in Transition

By Catriona Deery, Studying Geography at the University of Nottingham UK. A country in transition is defined as a nation state that has undergone significant and profound political-economic change over a relatively short period of time. Countries in transition are often scripted as being ‘emerging markets’. They have social impacts including alternative modes of social …