The Case of the North Lake (Beihu) Ecological New Town in Jining, Shandong: Discourses of Class, Taste, Luxury Consumption and ‘Conduct’

Qin, Q; Law, A

The Case of the North Lake (Beihu) Ecological New Town in Jining, Shandong: Discourses of Class, Taste, Luxury Consumption and ‘Conduct’

Lookup NU author(s): Qianqian Qin, Dr Andrew Law ORCiD

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Abstract

In recent years, a great deal of work has emerged on the idea of eco-cities in China. Specifically, writers have discussed the role of the entrepreneurial state in the construction of eco-cities and following from this, scholars have noted the role of eco-cities in the production of high-end real estate and new forms of capital accumulation and land-acquisition. Whilst this book chapter, supports these arguments, it is suggested that broader socio-economic and cultural discourses have also played a major role in the production of eco-cities and indeed the spaces they manifest. Here rather than sites of land acquisition and capital accumulation alone, eco-cities and real estate spaces are constructed through discourses of class, distinction, taste, consumerism and human conduct. In the work that follows, we explore these ideas through a new eco-city known as the North Lake (Beihu) Ecological New Town, located alongside the city of Jining, in Shandong province. Whilst this new development zone, has played an enormous role in urban expansion, the new real-estate zone has been configured through discourses of class, high-end consumerism and ideas of human conduct and human behavior. In exploring the eco-city in this way, we propose that new forms of eco-urbanism in China are playing a part in the production of new forms of Chinese middle and upper class identities and new forms of citizenship – where being ‘green’ is also a site of distinction, taste and indeed ‘civilized’ behavior.