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We use several research tools, such as observations, interviews and textual analysis, to assess the experience of 'doing the month' in Yuezi Clubs with the aim of deepening understanding of the Chinese 'home'. Analysis of data from three Yuezi Clubs in Guangzhou reveals that the traditional 'doing the month' exacerbates intergenerational and regional customary conflicts in modern Chinese families. However, the emergence of the Yuezi Club was a timely invention that has averted such conflicts. We find that Yuezi Clubs strengthen nuclear family bonds. This paper extends the role of capital in shaping the Chinese home, including the social construction. Our findings uncover specific cultural practices in Chinese homes and expand Marxist theory in furthering understanding of Chinese homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's domestic mobile gaming firms, such as Tencent, which has developed into the world's biggest gaming firm by revenues in a short span, have outweighed the leading counterparts in the Western advanced economies. Despite an increasing attention has been paid to the global investment of Chinese gaming firms, this paper argues that their market expansion has focused on the selected Southeast Asian countries. This arguement is developed through the aurthors' extensive field investigation and personal interviews with games developers and publishers in Shenzhen, where Tencent is located, during the early 2017 and late 2019. We showcase that the protective multi‐scalar institutions in which the Chinese gaming firms have dominated in the domestic market, have prevented the overseas market expansion of these firms. Although the government‐designated extra‐local inter‐firm collaboration has helped narrow the technological gaps and articulate China's firms into the global production networks, the market gaps between the domestic and western economies have not been overcome in the expansion to overseas markets. This study sheds light on that the market expansion of Chinese gaming firms has stucked in a dilemma between globalization and regionalization. While China's domestic gaming firms, particularly Tencent, have been evolving into lead firms in the global games production networks, their market power has been confined at domestic and regional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co‐production of films entails a variety of transborder mobility and trans‐local production networks, which are further complicated by state intervention through co‐production treaties or arrangements. This paper unravels the process of Mainland China–Hong Kong film co‐production that has been explosive after the promulgation of 'Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement' (CEPA). Drawing on the information of all Mainland–Hong Kong co‐produced films between 1998 and 2017, we chart the collaborative networks of studios and creative staffs and examine the commercial and artistic performances of co‐produced films to illustrate the impact of regulatory reform on the evolution of cross‐border film co‐production. We argue that CEPA is among the series of national regulatory reforms to enable marketisation of the film industry and, further, to construct an imagined new identity of Chinese culture at the supranational scale. However, the cultural goals have been given way to the commercial interests of co‐production with the implementation of CEPA policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 'popular geopolitics' and 'Internet geopolitics', this study examines China's responses to the US war on terror by comparing print narratives with Internet discussions. The results indicate that Chinese print media embraces a different but unanimous narrative strategy than the Anglo‐American discourses on the war on terror, which rejects a binary construction between terrorism and the US but instead portrays both as playing violent and immoral roles. This study also finds that Internet discussion has greatly challenged such geopolitical expression, which is reflected in the emergence of both resistant and ensemble discourses in the online community. These findings demonstrate that the Internet as a new type of information technology has changed the organisation and expression of geopolitical power and incorporates broader actors into its structure. It is valid and necessary to look at the Internet as an important variable affecting the current geopolitical landscape. In this sense, this paper enriches the literature of critical geopolitics and, to a notable extent, signifies a broader agenda for Internet geopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of the spatial and topological structure of three types of urban networks within the Yangtze River Delta. These networks consist of transport infrastructure links, business interactions in producer services firms, and leisure mobility. The influence of distance, size, administrative borders, landform contiguity, cultural affinities, economic alliances and administrative rank are examined. We position our findings as an empirical elaboration of the formation of multiplex urban networks. Our results show that in spite of significant correlations between all of these explanatory factors and the three urban networks, only some factors affect each of the three networks. More specifically, the business network has a weak dependence on distance and cultural affinities; intercity mobility is closely related to the size of cities' populations and distance; and landform patterns remain a fundamental basis for intercity transport linkages. Our results highlight China's hierarchical‐administrative specifics in the shaping of urban networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underlying spatial forces of firm networking practices are understudied in the literature of economic geography. This paper aims to reveal patterns and mechanisms of networking practices and relates them to China's transitional context based on empirical data from a firm survey in the Pearl River Delta. It addresses the localisation effect as the primary factor in explaining the selection of networking partners. The results of this paper suggest a strong tendency towards networking with local government agencies vis-à-vis weak linkages with business partners. Furthermore, it reveals that the intent of bonding with local authorities through interpersonal relationships increases with the localisation of customers. Meanwhile, firms are more likely to pursue learning-oriented networks with competitors as the number of suppliers in the same city increases. The findings add to the understanding of network relations in China, in particular to the rationales behind relations to local government officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rapid urbanisation of China has received growing attention regarding its urban residential environments. In this article, we model the spatial heterogeneity of housing prices and explore the spatial discrepancy of landscape effects on property values in Shenzhen, a large Chinese city. In contrast to previous studies, this paper integrates the official housing transaction records and housing attributes from open data along with field surveys. Then, the results using the hedonic price model (HPM), geographically weighted regression (GWR) without landscape metrics and GWR with landscape metrics are compared. The results show that GWR with landscape metrics outperforms the other two models. In summary, this research provides new insights into landscape metrics in real estate studies and can guide decision‐makers plan and design cities while also providing guidance to regulate and control urban property values based on local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gauges the reach of the state in regulating the flows of academics and harnessing them for development in China. Drawing upon a review of policy documents, secondary data and fieldwork findings from a research project that studies the developmental impact of academic mobility among Chinese scholars active in the Chinese- German academic space, this paper challenges the 'talents sans frontières' notion on the one hand, and illustrates the limits of the state on the other. Mobile scholars are conceptualised as active agents who are nested in, and hence being regulated by and at the same time shaping the Chinese state and its policies. Mobile scholars (and their local(ised) colleagues) are engaged in multiple relationships (ranging from collaborative, contradictory to conflictual ones) with the state, sometimes reinforcing and at other times toppling its notions of development. These relationalities call for new interpretations of the dynamic, contextualised and complex mobility-development nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we study empirically the determinants of location of inward FDI in China at the city level using firm‐level data for the period 1999–2009. In particular, we focus on the role of specialisation, diversification and competition externalities having controlled for the extensive set of city and regional characteristics including the regional market potential. We estimate both the conditional and multinomial logit models. We find that agglomeration externalities play an important role in determining the location of inward FDI in Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The service industry in China has been undergoing rapid growth, especially since the early 1990s. However, little research has been conducted regarding its characteristics, spatial patterns and dynamics. Based on the theories of economic growth, economic transition and urban hierarchy, this paper develops an analytical framework for elucidating the growth of the service industry in China. We find that cities with a high increment in the service industry tend to be located in coastal areas, and mainly constitute megacities and large, highly developed cities. Cities with higher administrative rank, such as centrally administrated municipalities, cities designated in the State Plan and provincial capitals, maintain relatively high growth in the service industry. It is concluded that China's economic transition and urban hierarchy play significant roles in the growth of the service industry, suggesting that service industry growth in China does not strictly adhere to growth patterns observed in Western countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The shortage of land resources has become a serious problem in China's rapid urbanisation. A recognised method for solving arable land resource shortage problems is to encourage marginal farmers to terminate their arable land use contracts with the government so that they can be transferred to farmers with better prospects. This paper analyses the drivers behind farmers’ willingness to terminate their arable land use contracts based on survey data from agricultural households in Guanzhong, Shaanxi Province, China, using a multivariable logistic model. Results show that households led by male householders, with large families, fewer agricultural labourers, more plots of land, including family members with non‐agricultural skills training and including family members who are covered by rural residents’ health insurance, are more likely to terminate their contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The high speed railway (HSR) has played a crucial role in the regional integration of urban networks in China. This paper analyses HSR passenger flows instead of commonly‐used time schedules for measuring different polycentricity in urban networks. Using 2013 origin/destination (O/D) passenger flow data, we analyse the spatial configurations of 99 HSR cities at the national scale in China. In addition, we compare the spatial configurations of three regional urban networks: the Pearl River Delta, the Yangzi River Delta and the Bohai Rim. The outcomes show that the three functional regions connected by HSR are the most dominant polycentric regions in China and that the Bohai Rim is less hierarchical than the other two. We conclude that the comprehensive Chinese HSR networks are largely polycentric, especially in the central and eastern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many questions regarding local economic phenomena involve issues of spatial and temporal dependence and heterogeneity. One of the main ideas of the socialist market economic system which was set up in 1978 in China is 'those becoming rich earlier bring along other people, all achieving the common richer eventually'. However, after several decades, having performed a series of balanced development strategies and policies, is this purpose true or not? How about the outcome of regional level of planning strategies under the socialist-market system? This paper focus on the intra provincial development, and uses per capita GDP of Guangdong, one of the most developed provinces in China to analyse the economic development of prefecture-level cities from 1978 to 2013 with a new exploratory space-time method. Three conclusions can be drawn as follows: first, the degree of regional economic development is gradually deepening along with rapid economic development in Guangdong province and the per capita GDP difference is gradually widening between the Pearl River Delta region and the non-Pearl River Delta region. The core-periphery relation is clear within the provincial level's development. Second, the trend and position of space-time paths are different across regions. Third, the space-time paths have not intersected across poor and rich regions during the last 33 years. Widening uneven development is concealed by the 'fast growth' economic phenomenon. The macro-economic environment has had some effects on different regions, with the effect on fast growing areas, such as the core region of the Pearl River Delta the most obvious. There is a lag effect on other undeveloped areas. At the same time, under the socialist market economic system, the market is the main motivation behind regional discrepancies, and some policies and strategies aimed at narrowing the gap have had limited success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has started to develop the world's largest high-speed rail network in the twenty-first century with the general aims of developing the economy and increasing environmental sustainability. Meanwhile economic reforms have created massive movements of rural workers towards urban labour markets. The co-existence of these movements with a HSR network raises the question about the impacts of the HSR on rural migrants and the livelihoods in their villages. This paper seeks to analyse these impacts from a livelihood perspective. Two main roles of transport are analysed: transport as delivering access to new economic opportunities and transport as an industry providing employment. Statistical data and fieldwork evidence in Qiya, a small village in Hunan province, show that the opening of the Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR line decreased their access to places of employment both in terms of cost and time, but the HSR construction created employment opportunities for the villagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's spectacular economic growth has been spatially uneven, with much development occurring in eastern coastal areas. In particular, three metropolitan 'super-regions' have become China's most competitive knowledge-based economies, consisting of the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Gulf Region. This paper benchmarks the competitiveness of these regions, with a view to exploring which region is best positioned to become the most dominant knowledge-based economy over time. Through the theoretical lens of dynamic comparative advantage, it is shown that each region has hugely increased its competitiveness through improvements in the capacity to absorb and diffuse knowledge. It is further shown that due to multi-dimensional advantages the Yangtze River Delta, incorporating the Shanghai metropolis, is best positioned to become the dominant hub of China's future knowledge economy. It is concluded that China's leading regions will require further economic policy adjustments in order to secure their future competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-reform China, rapid motorisation causes various problems like traffic congestion, diminishing road safety and air pollution. Adequate policies necessitate an understanding of the forces behind changing mode choices, but the rapidly developing literature is not complete yet. This paper aims to help fill that gap with an analysis of mode choice for commuting and shopping-leisure trips in Nanjing. Using the Nanjing Residents Travel Survey, we find that models with the same independent variables explain mode choice in Nanjing better than in other cities in the world. Comparatively, members of 'adult families' use public transport and walking more often than the private car and bicycle. And inhabitants of danwei neighbourhoods walk more often than residents in commodity housing estates. These conclusions suggest that ongoing socio-spatial transformations will push mode choice in China further towards private car use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]