Shifting Sands

Xiaoxuan Lu is an assistant professor in the Division of Landscape Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. She is the coeditor of From Crisis to Crisis: Debates on Why Architecture Criticsm Matters Today, and coauthor of Interstitial Hong Kong: Exploring the Miniature Open Spaces of High-Density Urbanism and Critical Landscape Planning during the Belt and Road Initiative.

The book offers an enduring model for architectural and planning historians interested and invested in global comparisons...[and] reflects a keen response to statebuilding and internationalization within the ever-changing national and international contexts. (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians) [This book is] a truly beautiful object...While it is true that any book attempting a study of all of China’s borders will necessarily only offer a partial view, Shifting Sands does a truly impressive job...[and] describes a complex, emerging and truly transformative geography. (China Quarterly) The insightful case-based texts and collection of materials–from archives to fieldwork on through carefully constructed cartographies–offer a novel perspective to understanding the coupling of new modes of statecraft and resource extraction. Lu’s writing is sharp and well-referenced, and it thoughtfully probes past and present policies on Chinese borderlands. (China Perspectives)

• List of Abbreviations Preface Introduction. Stratigraphy of China’s Borderlands Part I. Exchanges and Flows The International Development of China Infrastructure: China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) Logistics: China Railway Container Transport Corporation (CRCT) Expertise: China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH) Resources: China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) Part II. Corridors and Concessions China and the Transborder Subregions in Asia Silk Road Urbanism: New Town Development in the China-Laos Borderlands The Xinjiang Model: Road Construction in the Kyrgyzstan-China Borderlands Shan-shui Memory: Water Commodification in the China-Korea Borderlands Part III. Settlements and Memories Characteristics of China’s Border Settlements Southwestern Borderlands Northwestern Borderlands Northeastern Borderlands Epilogue Index