Becoming Urban: Periurban Dynamics in Vietnam and China – Introduction

The new urbanization in Vietnam and China, a result of the opening of their economies to the world, the consequent relaxation of central planning, and the sweeping reforms that have had a transforming effect on these countries, has focused attention on the encounters of an ever-expanding urban with the densely populated rural zones—the periurban—that surround large cities in the region. The effects of horizontal expansion on property rights, land use, occupations, social interaction, and the physical environment have been ongoing for between 20 and 30 years and have been profound. Some of them are the object of the four case studies that provide the empirical substance of this special issue.

The research reported here was not part of a larger project. It brings together four studies that happened to address interesting aspects of the encounter between urban and rural in two neighbouring countries with socialist regimes that are on the same development trajectory. We do not claim to make vast generalizations, but note the specificities of each case as worthwhile in their own right.

In her case study of a village on the outskirts of Hanoi, Labbé provides a micro-history that focuses on resistance/negotiations as villagers defend their territory against the encroaching city. Harms, an anthropologist, looks at how city and countryside are discussed in everyday speech by the inhabitants of a village on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, where urban and rural are understood symbolically as “inside” and “outside” and are conceived as standing in a dialectical relationship. Shieh’s study of a suburban village of Nanjing concerns the new forms of governance that are experienced as the village becomes progressively integrated with the city. Finally, Abramson and Qi report on the reconstruction of ethnic villages on the far periphery of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, that were devastated by the 2008 earthquake, and are now being rebuilt as potential tourist destinations for Chengdu residents. A concluding chapter by Leaf comments on all four case studies, drawing wider comparisons to the urbanization experience in East And Southeast Asia.

城市化：越南與中國的都市邊緣動態——引言

越南和中國新近的城市化進程是其向世界進行的經濟開放、集中計劃的鬆弛和給這些國家帶來根本轉變的改革大潮共同作用的結果，這一進程把不斷擴張的城市與人 口密集的農業區域——圍繞在大城市周邊的都市邊緣地帶——之間的相遇推到了關注的焦點。橫向擴張對土地權、土地使用、職業、社會交往、和物質環境的影響在 過去的二三十年裏一直在持續進行并且影響深遠。本期刊登的四項實例研究對其中的一些問題進行了探討並為特定的問題提供了實體經驗。

本期文章中所報告的研究並非一個大型項目的分支。本期祗是將探討兩個同屬社會主義制度並在同樣的發展軌跡上的鄰邦及其城鄉相遇中一些另人感興趣的方面的四篇文章組織在了一起。我們無意作出廣闊的普遍性結論，但認為每個實例中的特定性都很有價值。

在她關於河內周邊農村的研究中，Labbé的微觀歷史聚集於村民們在保衛他們的領域免受城市侵蝕時所進行的抵制和協商。Harms的人類學研究攷察 胡志明市邊緣地帶的農村居民在日常談話中是如何談論城市和鄉村的，他們將城市和農村象徵性地理解為”內”和”外”，並將二者理解為處於一種辨證的關係之 中。Shieh對南京郊區農村的研究關注的是當農村日益被城市同化時其所經歷的新形式的行政管理。最後，Abramson和Qi的研究報道了在2008年 的地震中受災慘重、現在被作為成都居民今後的旅遊點而重建的四川省會成都周邊少數民族農村的重建過程。Leaf的結篇結合對東南亞的城市化經驗的廣泛的比 較對這四個實例研究進行了評論。