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.

• 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

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)