Manqi Wang

Research subject

Urban redevelopment in China - a case study of Guangzhou

Primary supervisor: Professor Fulong Wu
Secondary supervisor: Dr Fangzhu Zhang
Starting date: September 2018
Projected completion date: September 2022

Cities in post-reform China are undertaking significant transformation in terms of land efficiency, land ownership, and decision-making systems during market transition. Urban redevelopment, as a focal concern of Chinese urbanisation, has been extensively studied from a variety of perspectives by urban researchers worldwide. Among various topics, urban redevelopment in inner-city areas has increasingly been paid attention to.

Since the policy of incremental urban redevelopment proposed in 2016 in Guangzhou, previous studies on urban redevelopment in China have left many questions to be addressed. This research aims to make theoretical contribution to recent debates on property-led redevelopment in China and its possible outcome-gentrification. By examining recent urban redevelopment cases in the inner-city Guangzhou, it tries to get a better understanding of current policy transformation (from large-scale demolition to incremental urban redevelopment) and practices of urban redevelopment in China, aiming to shed some light on urban redevelopment and governance in the global South.

Biography

Manqi is a research student at the Bartlett School of Planning under the supervision of Prof. Fulong Wu and Dr. Fangzhu Zhang. Her research focuses on the transformation of urban redevelopment in post-reform China based on the theoretical framework of property-led redevelopment and gentrification. Manqi got her master degree MSc International Planning from UCL in 2017. Before returning to UCL for pursuing a Ph.D. in Planning Studies, she worked as an urban planner (intern) at the Renewal Bureau in Guangzhou and ICMA in Washington, D.C.

Manqi intends to further develop her academic interest in urban governance in China through the lens of urban redevelopment to improve the understanding of different roles and complex interactions among the actors as well as gentrification in the Chinese context to shed light on urban redevelopment in the global South.