Culture-Led Rural Revitalisation in Chinese Intermediary Cities: Challenges and Opportunities during the Pandemic : WestminsterResearch

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Chapter title	Culture-Led Rural Revitalisation in Chinese Intermediary Cities: Challenges and Opportunities during the Pandemic
Authors	Verdini, G. and Xin, X.
Editors	Pernice, R. and Chen, B.
Abstract	In recent years China has attempted to reorient its urban-biased growth regime by promoting rural regeneration in intermediary cities, strengthening, at the same time, urban-rural linkages. Culture-led revitalisation has emerged as a pivotal approach of this policy shift towards more sustainable urbanisation, and various national programs have been launched. However, structural institutional weaknesses of intermediary cities, such as administrative marginalisation, fiscal constraints and limited human capital, are today challenging the ambition of local governments. Additionally, the explosion of the COVID-19 and its consequences, have substantially undermined two essential aspects of culture-led revitalization in intermediary cities: cultural and rural domestic tourism, and the incipient cultural and creative sector. This poses a serious risk for the successful implementation of such initiatives. This paper presents the case of two rural villages in Longchang, a typical Chinese intermediary city in the city of Neijiang, Sichuan, to discuss the challenges faced by the local culture-led revitalisation practices, and to highlight the impact of the pandemic. The findings suggest that the culture-led approach, which has elsewhere successfully driven forms of sustainable urban transformation, can hardly solve today the marginalisation of intermediary cities given the mutating conditions of the local context, especially after the pandemic. However, the learning from the two cases identified suggests that an active local community, particularly in one case study, can make a difference, showing the potential of more endogenous and sustainable approaches which is worth considering for the future.
Book title	Australia and China Perspectives on Urban Regeneration and Rural Revitalization
Year	2024
Publisher	Routledge
Published	30 Apr 2024
Place of publication	London
Series	Routledge Research in Planning and Urban Design
ISBN	9781032538945
	9781003414186
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003414186-9
File	File Access Level Open (open metadata and files)
Web address (URL)	https://www.routledge.com/Australia-and-China-Perspectives-on-Urban-Regeneration-and-Rural-Revitalization/Pernice-Chen/p/book/9781032538945

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