Project meeting January 2020

A project meeting was held at Freie Universität Berlin on January 17, 2020. All three members of the DFG research project team, Elena Meyer-Clement, René Trappel and Xiang Wang attended the meeting.

In the morning, Xiang Wang presented the preliminary findings from her four-month fieldwork about the redevelopment of urban villages (chengzhongcun) in Guangzhou. Prof. Bettina Gransow from the Chinese Studies department and Kimiko Suda, a recent PhD graduate, also joined the presentation and the discussion session thereafter.

In the afternoon, Elena presented her fieldwork findings in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Afterwards, the project team shared their latest publications and upcoming plans for fieldwork, conferences and publications.

Fieldwork in Gansu Province

In March 2019 Elena Meyer-Clement and René Trappel, in cooperation with Lanzhou University, conducted fieldwork in Gansu province. The team visited villages, village relocation spots, and urban villages in Lanzhou, Zhangye and Dingxi and conducted interviews with local cadres and residents. The fieldwork provided important insights into the goals, processes and mechanisms of the modernization and urbanization of rural China under the “Rural Revitalization Strategy” in Gansu province.

Elena and René also held lectures (in Chinese) at the Gansu University of Politics and Law.

(photo credit: author)