A revolution of the urban lifestyle in China? An ethnography of a Harbin neighbourhood

Abstract

This chapter offers an ethnographic study of urban politics through the experience of a community living in a poor area of Harbin, China, at the end of the 2000s. Situated in the north-east region of China, and more exactly in the province of Heilongjiang, Harbin became an urban laboratory for the urban policies of Maoist communism for three decades (1950-1980). Here I analyse the influence of different reforms and the process of urban transformation that occurred during my fieldwork.