Hello everyone! I am a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Built Environment program at the University of Washington. Together with two fellow graduate students, we are organizing a panel for the AAS 2027 on the transformation of physical and digital urban spaces in contemporary China.
We are seeking one additional panelist, as well as individuals interested in serving as chair or discussant.
Here is a brief introduction to our panel:
Afterlives of Urban Space: Spatial Transformation in Post-Socialist China
This panel examines how urban spaces in post-socialist China are not simply destroyed or replaced. Instead, they are preserved, reimagined, and remade through governance, cultural representation, memory, and affect.
The three current papers approach these spatial "afterlives" through informal public spaces in urban China, disappearing landscapes in Chinese cinema, and digital reconstructions of vanished environments in online youth culture.
We approach urban spatial transformation as a political, cinematic, and digital practice in everyday life. We aim to explore how state policy, market development, cultural production, and everyday actors negotiate the unresolved promises and disruptions of China's reform era.
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Please feel free to reach out to me via email!
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Summer Dai
PhD Candidate, Built Environment
University of Washington, Seattle
xuandai@uw.edu------------------------------