Building an image of Villages-in-the-City: A Clarification of China's Distinct Urban Spaces

Villages-in-the-city (chengzhongcun) as distinct urban spaces in Chinese cities have attracted a lot of scholarly attention, and the term has been variously interpreted. The term 'urban village' was initially borrowed and applied to describe this urban phenomenon. While the term in a Western context refers to a planned neighbourhood that features good urban planning and design, the question posed in this essay is: are villages-in-the-city the Chinese equivalent of urban villages? Furthermore, within China, villages-in-the-city are always regarded as migrant enclaves, no different from Zhejiang village or Xinjiang village in Beijing. Are they the same kind of settlement? A primary aim of this essay is to reassert the differences between villages-in-the-city and urban villages that have developed in the United Kingdom. A secondary objective is to explore the variations between villages-in-the-city and Zhejiang village. Through investigating the variations between these urban morphologies, this study attempts to fill gaps in the current literature and hence clarify the misconceptions and confusion about Chinese villages-in-the-city. Resume De nombreuses etudes ont ete consacrees aux 'villages dans la ville' (chengzhongcun) en tant qu'espaces urbains differencies au sein des grandes villes chinoises, et le terme a ete interprete de maniere variee. l'origine, on a emprunte et applique l'expression 'village urbain' pour decrire ce phenomene; dans un contexte occidental, celle-ci decrit un quartier amenage, caracterise par un urbanisme et une conception de bon niveau. Ce texte pose donc la question suivante: les villages dans la ville sont-ils les equivalents chinois des villages urbains? De plus, en Chine, les villages dans la ville sont toujours consideres comme des enclaves pour migrants, tels les 'villages' de Zhejiang et de Xinjiang a Beijing. S'agit-il du meme type d'implantation? La premiere finalite de ce travail est de retablir les differences entre les villages dans la ville et les villages urbains qui se sont developpes au Royaume-Uni. Un second objectif sera d'examiner les divergences entre les villages dans la ville et le village de Zhejiang. En analysant les divergences entre ces morphologies urbaines, l'etude s'efforce de completer la litterature actuelle et, ce faisant, de clarifier les idees fausses et les confusions a propos des 'villages dans la ville' en Chine.