This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Andrew Stokols, a Ph.D. researcher at MIT who has been studying the “techno-natural utopia” that the Chinese government is now building a hundred kilometers southwest of Beijing: Xiong’an. Andrew breaks down why he sees it as an urban manifestation of the fundamental ideas embodied in Xi Jinping’s ideological vision for China.
02:02 - Xiong’an New Area as a bold vision for China
07:36 - Planned stages for the development of Xiong’an. Milestones in 2035 and 2050.
12:03 - Cities as expressions of political ideas
15:32 - Different facets of the Xiong’an as the legacy of Xi Jinping
20:03 - The elements of ecological civilization intended to be built into the new city
27:41 - Technologies employed with the intention of making Xiong’an a smart city
31:56 - The idea of incentivizing the digital yuan into the city of Xiong’an
34:55 - Xiong’an as an expression of Chineseness
40:05 - How is Xiong’an discussed in the English-language press outside of China?
47:59 - Approaches to technology and nature in Western and Chinese discourses. The
concept of techno-naturalism.
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com
Recommendations:
Andrew: The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development by Shiping Tang
Kaiser: Five Families by Selwyn Raab
Mentioned:
Andrew’s article on Xiong’an: Chinas techno-natural utopia: A deep dive into Xiong’an
Shanghai Future: Modernity Remade by Anna Greenspan
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
U.S.-China relations in 2020 with Susan Shirk
Online vitriol and identity with The New Yorker’s Jiayang Fan
Sinica celebrates the 500th episode of the China in Africa Podcast
Mary Kay Magistad - On China's New Silk Road (Episode 1: The China Dream)
Black voices in the China space
Poverty eradication by 2020: A reality check
Rapper Bohan Phoenix and DJ Allyson Toy on hip-hop in China
Rerun: Guo Wengui: The extraordinary tale of a Chinese billionaire turned dissident, told by Mike Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson
U.S. Foreign Service Officer Leland Lazarus on China-Caribbean relations
Global Governance 2020: A discussion with Kaiser Kuo and Susan Thornton
Adam Tooze on the geopolitics of the pandemic
Sir Danny Alexander on AIIB in a time of crisis
‘Superpower Showdown’: A conversation with authors Bob Davis and Lingling Wei
Huawei and the 5G ecosystem
Standoff in Ladakh: Ananth Krishnan on the China-India border conflict
The controversy over Fang Fang’s ‘Wuhan Diary’: A conversation with the translator, Michael Berry
Why doesn't the China bubble pop? A conversation with Bloomberg’s chief economist, Tom Orlik
Censored: Molly Roberts on how China uses deterrence, distraction, and dilution to control its internet
‘Superpower Interrupted’: A conversation with veteran China journalist Michael Schuman about his Chinese history of the world
Max Fisher of the New York Times on media coverage of China, COVID-19, and Trump
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free