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Although the formation of overseas Chinese communities in cities constitutes a major trend in reform era China, conceptualisations of the relationship between the overseas Chinese and China remain divided. The overseas Chinese are seen either as temporary migrants with little attachment to the country or as inescapably connected to China through native place. This paper aims to move beyond this dichotomous understanding by examining the processes of place-making among overseas Chinese Christians in Shanghai, one of China’s major urban centres. It draws on ethnographic research conducted within a Christian network and illustrates how these Christians negotiated the forces of global capitalism, state regulations, and an indigenous Christian trajectory to construct a religious territory and centre Shanghai as home. By showing how they understand their place as Christians, this paper argues that economic restructuring in the reform period enabled the emergence of cities as new centres where the overseas Chinese are making a place for themselves. It contributes to the literature on the overseas Chinese and China by redirecting attention from the native place as the locus of overseas Chinese attachment to the city as a new centre of belonging.  [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the People's Republic of China (PRC), educational expansion together with the promotion of market competition is taken as a measure of addressing a structural rural–urban divide in educational inequality. In following the emotional journeys of pursuing a bachelor's degree for 32 rural students in four elite universities in Shanghai, this paper explores an emotive impact of such a measure on rural students. Despite feeling pride at getting into university, many respondents were ashamed because of their perceived academic and social inadequacies vis-à-vis their urban classmates. The stigmatisation of the rural accentuated their feelings of shame and even made many respondents not feel confident about seeking a career in a city. An individualistic approach framed in a self-reliance discourse, even in a socialist society, to address structural educational inequality, is doomed to fail to confront an unequal opportunity structure, but offloads the cost of change, including the emotional cost, to individual students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines the retail rent dynamics of two Chinese cities, Beijing and Shanghai. We use an error correction modelling framework to estimate long-run equilibrium relationships and short-term dynamic corrections. The study period covers 1999–2012. We also run tests to examine the presence of structural breaks. The empirical results suggest that both supply and demand significantly affect retail rents for both cities in the long run. However, in the short term, the change of rent responds to change in income for Shanghai market. Both markets have a rapid speed of adjustment, especially Shanghai market that is more price and income elastic. The results shed some light on the behaviour of retail rent adjustment processes in one of the largest and fast growing emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Followinggaige kaifang, the twin strategy of reform and opening up, Shenzhen has been designated as a Special Economic Zone. The city appeared to have bright future and would serve as the growth engine in China. Despite having an impressive record of economic development since 1979, the prestige of Shenzhen as a commercial centre has always been overshadowed by Shanghai and Hong Kong. A breakthrough finally came when the State Council of China decided to develop Qianhai, a town near Shenzhen, into an international commercial centre. However, shortly after, the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone representing an unprecedented degree of openness in relation to foreign investment and international trade was launched. No one seems to remember the once-hopeful Qianhai area. The aim of this paper is to examine the path of development of the two leading commercial centres in China amidst the wider context of Chinese economic reform. A common issue facing both cities is, although the state generally has no problem in outlining a vision of reform, a translation of this vision into actual credible measures that could be implemented is often problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Students’ daily-life experiences may render favorable effects on the students’ affective domain like interest, enthusiasm, motivation, joy, curiosity, awareness, and eagerness to learn science as not commonly found in the classroom environment. However, no rigorous research has been reported on those aspects in Mainland China despite many recent studies done in various Western countries. Purpose:This paper aims to report and compare the science-related experiences of ninth-graders from two places (in Urumqi City of Xinjiang province and Shanghai) in China through a large-scale survey of their junior secondary three students. Sample:The sample consists of 4115 students in Urumqi City (from 28 schools) and Shanghai (from 25 schools). Design and methods:This study adopted a Likert scale questionnaire instrument, as translated from the international Relevance Of Science Education (ROSE) Project. From a confirmatory factor analysis of the data, we identify and focus on six factors which are directly correlated with students’ science-related experiences outside school environment in Xinjiang and Shanghai and employ relevant factor scores to compare the gender, regional, and socioeconomic effects. Results:As revealed by thet-test, gender and regional differences were statistically significant in affecting (1) students’ outdoor living experience, (2) hands-on experience of transportation, and (3) their daily-life experience with do-it-yourself tools and models. In all three aspects, boys and Xinjiang students possessed richer experiences than girls and Shanghai students, respectively. Conclusions:Based on ANOVA tests, Shanghai students’ out-of-school science-related experiences were more often significantly affected by various socioeconomic variables (including their parents’ education and occupation and their family income) than Xinjiang students. From cross-regional comparison, Chinese students had much fewer science-related experiences than those of Greek and Finnish students. The limitations and educational implications of the present study are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Shanghai’s officials and urban planners often equate development with “cleaning up the streets.” The snacks (xiao chi 小吃) that are sold from the small shops and mobile stands—dumplings steamed in wooden baskets, nighttime barbeques, carts selling stir-fried noodles—are seen to belong to a past that must be overcome. This paper reflects on the changing fate of Shanghai’s street food in order to analyze tensions between a regulated, formal commercial sector and a much more anarchic informal economy as it plays out in the making of the future city. It argues that the informal is not simply a temporary phenomenon, and that the evolutionary conception of economic growth in which a “backward” black market progresses to a more “advanced” formal sphere masks a deep (and sometimes violent) struggle. Shanghai’s importance as a model for twenty-first century urbanism rests not only on its high-speed trains and super-tall skyscrapers, but also, just as vitally, on its street food, street markets and street life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the diverse semiotic landscapes which may be experienced as a consequence of apparently mundane rides taken upon the Shanghai metro. I first present, and then untangle, the ideological discourses that form, clash and, at times, collapse during these journeys. In order to elaborate upon the composition of these signs, they are viewed from multiple perspectives, although significant reference is made to Roland Barthes’ punctum/studium dialectic. These signs are not only read as manifestations of robust ideology but also as indeterminate, and fragile. This article is also concerned with pragmatics on the Shanghai metro, or the relationships between people and signs, and illustrates how passengers perform within this semiotically charged environment in ways which, sometimes, undo, or subvert, urban rationality. Although this article specifically focuses upon the Shanghai metro, and one particular route in its parliament of lines, it is intended these observations not only inform but also are informed by accounts of social spaces beyond these limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the Chinese government has announced the “Internet plus” national strategy to encourage the development of Internet industries, particularly “innovations at the grassroots level.” Supportive government policies at the national and local level, and strong market demand have led to the rise of “Internet plus” entrepreneurs. Many of them are not setting up their own offices but are using shared or co-working offices. This study examines the geographical factors, reasons, and processes behind the emergence of co-working offices for these Internet start-up firms through on-site observations and in-depth interviews with the management and users at major co-working offices in Shanghai, China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the past 20 years, Hong Kong and Shanghai's total fertility rates (TFR) have undergone drastic changes: first declining and then rebounding. We use a decomposition method to assess changes in the TFRs of these two cities during the period 1990–2010. During the period of decline from 1990 to 2000, the decrease in marital fertility rate (MFR) was the major cause behind Shanghai's TFR decline; the decrease in nuptiality and MFR were equally responsible for the decline in Hong Kong's TFR. During the 2000–2010 period, although the decline in nuptiality exerted downward pressure on TFR, both cities experienced an increase in TFR mainly due to an increase in the MFR. Analysis of the difference in TFR between the two cities in 2010/2011, also reveals that Hong Kong's marriage delay has a negative impact on fertility and it is the higher MFR that leads to a higher TFR than Shanghai's TFR. It also shows that a reduction of first- and second-order births is equally responsible for Shanghai's lower MFR. Despite the one-child policy in Shanghai, some couples continue to postpone their first births, while others have even chosen to be childfree (a preferred term to ‘childless’). The tempo distortion is diminishing more prominently in Hong Kong, while the decline in fertility aspiration adds much uncertainty to future fertility trends in Shanghai. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]