BETWEEN CHAI AND QIAN: How Unfinishedness and Ruination Have Reshaped Urbanity in China's ‘Coal Capital’ after the Construction Boom

Abstract

The author would like to thank the IJURR reviewers and editorial team, as well as Sean Philips Smith, for their constructive comments and suggestions. This research was funded by the MEDIUM project (2015)(2016)(2017) and by the Centre d'études français sur la Chine contemporaine (CEFC), Hong Kong (2017-2019). Any shortcomings are my own.

Of Other Dreamlands: Vernacular Adaptation, Urban Exploration, and Alternative Spectacles in China's Abandoned Themed Spaces

“…Although marginalised, abandoned themed spaces are part of the cityscape, and even located near dense areas. Their uncertain urban redevelopment, sometimes taking decades, challenges the dominant, linear paradigm on China's fast urban growth (Audin 2022). As sites of consumption and leisure, abandoned theme parks are not associated with the trauma of economic crises (Arbodela 2017; Lam 2018).…”