The talk will be at Wooden Box, nr.9 Qinghai Road, Jing’an, Shanghai, 021 5213 2965 Google maps, on Tuesday, June 26th at 7pm, and we encourage you to RSVP since seating may be limited: editor[at]shanghai-review.org
Over the next two decades around 300 million Chinese villagers will move to the city, creating the largest urban society the world has ever seen. Small towns in central and western China are transforming at breakneck pace into huge metropolises with many millions of inhabitants, rivaling global cities like Rio de Janeiro, London,and Moscow, though their names are unknown in the rest of the world. These unexplored cities in the heart of China have focused solely on their physical development over the past decade, but when the physics of their development slows down, as it must, they will then need to shift toward non-physical aspects of development, such as education, sustainability, and most importantly cultural life. Architect Daan Roggeveen (Go West Project) and journalist Duncan Hewitt (Newsweek) will challenge certain assumptions about the nature of Chinese society and pose the question: Can China transform its triumph of brick and concrete into a model that can be a beacon for the world?
Daan Roggeveen is a Shanghai-based architect who, along with journalist Michiel Hulshof,founded the Go West Project, a multidisciplinary research and design studio focusing on the development of emerging megacities. The studio is deeply interested in urban cultures and aims to understand and through research, architecture and media.Go West’s work has been varied and extensive: lectures, blogs, essays, installations, performances, events, photo essays, architectural designs, urban plans, books,and policy proposals. Go West frequently lectures at Chinese and European universities, and has recently published How the City Moved to Mr.Sun – China’s New Megacities, which describes the transformation of potential world cities in central and western China. To contact Mr. Roggeveen, please write to info@gowestproject.com.
Duncan Hewitt writes for Newsweek and other publications from Shanghai, focusing mainly on Chinese society, media and culture. He was previously BBC correspondent in Beijing and was the BBC’s first Shanghai correspondent. He has also written on China for publications including the Guardian, the Economist, Index on Censorship,and the Asia Literary Review, and is a regular contributor to France 24. His book, Getting Rich First: Life in a Changing China, focuses on the social changes accompanying China’s economic transformation of the past two decades, especially the way these have affected ordinary people’s lives. Serialized as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, the book covers issues including urbanization and the destruction of heritage, the media and the internet, youth culture and the sexual revolution, education, welfare reform,and the development of civil society. Mr. Hewitt teaches journalism on the faculty of NYU in Shanghai, and has been President of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Shanghai.Mr. Hewitt holds an MA in Southeast Asian Area Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and has recently translated a Chinese crime novel.
About Hopkins China Forum: Hopkins China Forum events are organized by The Johns Hopkins University and its affiliated alumni associations worldwide. For more information on events in Shanghai, contact the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association –Shanghai at fgt200@gmail.com.
About Young China Watchers:Young China Watchers is an informal group of young professionals living in and working on China. Through regular roundtables and talks, it provides a chance for dynamic individuals -of all nationalities and from all employment backgrounds -to interact, broaden their professional networks, and discuss the most pressing political, economic, and foreign policy issues of relevance to China today. For more information, please write to: youngchinawatchers@gmail.com.