The development of market socialism in China has contributed to a spatial economic transformation characterized, among other things, by the apparent capacity to rapidly industrialize without transferring large numbers of people into big cities. The most striking element of this transformation has been the phenomenal growth and spatial proliferation of industries in particular areas of the Chinese countryside. The conventional wisdom of existing theories of development, industrialization, and urbanization does not adequately explain the emergence of these relatively productive regions. This thesis examines the key patterns and underlying processes and mechanisms which must be accommodated in a new analytical and conceptual framework for understanding rural transformation and the wider spatial economic restructuring in China's lower Yangzi delta. The overall objective is to explore the theoretical implications of the local character of regional change through an evaluation of a hypothetical model of mega-urbanization. The model situates the emergence and specific patterns of industrial production within a complex network of interactions and interrelationships embedded in overlapping administrative and institutional structures which are themselves largely tied to the circumstances of particular places. The resulting investigations are based upon an analysis of regional and local level statistical and other documentary sources, numerous interviews, field observations, and a survey questionnaire of rural enterprises which was part of a detailed case study of one county level area in the lower Yangzi delta. Two central findings are revealed. First, the patterns and underlying processes and mechanisms of regional development in the delta are fundamentally linked to intensely localized exigencies and opportunities within the wider Chinese space economy. Second, external economies, the dynamics of agglomeration, and the role of large cities and other exogenous forces, while significant, were less important in the delta than were endogenous forces. The details of these findings are incorporated into a revised model of mega-urbanization which highlights the critical processes and mechanisms which underlie the patterns observed, what establishes these processes and mechanisms, and what stabilizes and reproduces them. The thesis concludes by suggesting an agenda for the creation of appropriate planning and management responses for the lower Yangzi delta region.

The development of market socialism in China has contributed to a spatial economic transformation characterized, among other things, by the apparent capacity to rapidly industrialize without transferring large numbers of people into big cities. The most striking element of this transformation has been the phenomenal growth and spatial proliferation of industries in particular areas of the Chinese countryside. The conventional wisdom of existing theories of development, industrialization, and urbanization does not adequately explain the emergence of these relatively productive regions. This thesis examines the key patterns and underlying processes and mechanisms which must be accommodated in a new analytical and conceptual framework for understanding rural transformation and the wider spatial economic restructuring in China's lower Yangzi delta. The overall objective is to explore the theoretical implications of the local character of regional change through an evaluation of a hypothetical model of mega-urbanization. The model situates the emergence and specific patterns of industrial production within a complex network of interactions and interrelationships embedded in overlapping administrative and institutional structures which are themselves largely tied to the circumstances of particular places. The resulting investigations are based upon an analysis of regional and local level statistical and other documentary sources, numerous interviews, field observations, and a survey questionnaire of rural enterprises which was part of a detailed case study of one county level area in the lower Yangzi delta. Two central findings are revealed. First, the patterns and underlying processes and mechanisms of regional development in the delta are fundamentally linked to intensely localized exigencies and opportunities within the wider Chinese space economy. Second, external economies, the dynamics of agglomeration, and the role of large cities and other exogenous forces, while significant, were less important in the delta than were endogenous forces. The details of these findings are incorporated into a revised model of mega-urbanization which highlights the critical processes and mechanisms which underlie the patterns observed, what establishes these processes and mechanisms, and what stabilizes and reproduces them. The thesis concludes by suggesting an agenda for the creation of appropriate planning and management responses for the lower Yangzi delta region. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Through the case study of the Shijiahe site, Tianmen, Hubei, this thesis investigates the dynamics of enclosures along the Middle Yangzi River during the third millennium BC. During the early third millennium over a dozen of enclosures were constructed in this region, earlier than elsewhere in China during this millennium. All were abandoned and some re-settled around 2000 BC, followed by another episode of abandonment. The major theoretical paradigms dominating the field are culture history and social complexity. The thesis argues that these are insufficient to fully appreciate the actual details and dynamics of the developments at the Middle Yangzi sites. As an alternative, this thesis employs a combination of approaches. A detailed practice-based analysis of the biography of Shijiahe reveals dynamics of identity formation and changes to tradition not observed before. The techniques of enclosure construction, reasons for their construction and abandonment will also be discussed. The thesis acknowledges the central importance of religion and interaction as two essential underlying currents of prehistoric lives that, in the case of China, have largely been ignored. From this angle a series of objects, such as red pottery cups, pottery pointed-bottom vessels and jade ornaments, from Shijiahe are investigated and their religious significance established. They and the practices they were used in are also mapped according to their find spots, which show the connection of Shijiahe with regions even beyond the Middle Yangzi, such as the Yellow and Huai river regions. These interactions were probably also stimulated by religious practices. The northward connections are of particular importance, as they confirm that the Yangzi, and the giant swamp of the Yunmengze in the Jianghan Plain, were formidable barriers southwards. The usually posited direction of movements from the Yellow River into the south must be challenged on the basis of this thesis, which argues for multiple directions of interaction and transmission of objects and ideas.

Cette thèse examine la relation entre paysage et imaginaire national dans le contexte du paysage transformé des Trois Gorges du fleuve Yangzi en République Populaire de Chine à travers l’exploration de trois types de dimensions du paysage : politique, poétique et économique. Tout d’abord, l’étude des dimensions politiques met en évidence la marchandisation du paysage des Trois Gorges réalisée par l’Etat à travers l’invisibilisation de la disparition du paysage, ainsi que l’absence massive d’agentivité du peuple dans sa relation au paysage national, concluant ainsi à l’épuisement de l’appréciation paysagère. Ensuite, l’étude des dimensions poétiques analyse le livre Three Gorges Diary de Yan Changjiang 颜长江, journal intime littéraire et photographique décrivant les dernières années du paysage fluvial avant sa submersion et exprimant une intense émotion de regret menant à un sursaut de résistance. Puis, l’étude des dimensions économiques considère l’intérieur du paysage fluvial avec une étude ethnographique menée dans un village situé à l’entrée de la Gorge Qutang et s’interroge sur la question de l’absence du paysage due à un manque d’extériorité et donc de distanciation, et la question de l’apparition économique du paysage liée à la relation entre paysage et droits fonciers ruraux et à l’événement national de la traversée de la Gorge Qutang par un funambule canadien en 1995. Enfin, prenant pour bornes temporelles l’année 1994 avec le début de la construction du Barrage des Trois Gorges et l’année 2014 avec la gratuité de l’entrée au site touristique du barrage accordée à tous les visiteurs « chinois » (distingués en terme de définition raciale étendue au-delà de la Chine continentale), cette thèse se termine sur une longue conclusion en forme d’essai sur la question de la kitschification de la réalité dans le contexte de la postmodernité dans les années 2010 et sur le potentiel subversif de l’imagination d’une nouvelle appréciation paysagère dans l’opposition à la marchandisation de la réalité. / This thesis examines the relation between landscape and the national imaginary in the context of the Yangzi’s Three Gorges transformed riverscape in the People’s Republic of China through the exploration of three kinds of landscape dimensions: political, poetic and economic. First, the study of the political dimensions highlights the commodification of the Three Gorges landscape performed by the State through the invisibilisation of the landscape’s disappearance, as well as the massive absence of agency from the people in its relating to the national landscape, thus concluding in the exhaustion of landscape appreciation. Second, the study of the poetic dimensions analyses Yan Changjiang 颜长江’s book Three Gorges Diary, a literary and photographical diary recounting the last years of the riverscape before its submersion and expressing an intense emotion of regret leading to a burst of resistance. Third, the study of the economic dimensions considers the inside of the riverscape with an ethnographic study carried out in a village located at the entrance of the Qutang Gorge and reflects upon the issue of the absence of landscape due to the lack of distancing exteriority, and the issue of the economic appearance of landscape related to the question of the relation between landscape and rural land rights and to the context of the national event of the tightrope walk over the Qutang Gorge that took place in 1995. Finally, starting in 1994 with the beginning of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam and ending in 2014 with the free entrance to the Three Gorges Dam touristic spot granted to all the “Chinese” visitors (with a racial definition extended to non-mainlanders), this thesis ends on a long conclusion in the form of an essay on the question of the kitschification of reality in the context of postmodernity in the 2010’s and on the subversive potential of the imagining of a new landscape appreciation in opposing the commodification of reality.