Interpreting gentrification in Chengdu in the post-socialist transition of China: A sociocultural perspective

Abstract

This article explains the gentrification process in Chengdu, China, during the 2000s from a sociocultural perspective. It examines the spatial pattern of and correlations within gentrification in the inner city of Chengdu and embeds the gentrification process within the context of post-socialist societal transition in major Chinese cities. The research reveals that while state-led urban strategies provided the initial impetus of gentrification in Chengdu, the consumer revolution has awakened personal consumption as a force sustaining its development. Gentrifiers in Chengdu were constituted by a cohort of high-income consumers of varying socioeconomic backgrounds but collectively motivated by a new urbanism privileging the accumulation of social and cultural capital. Moreover, political-economic elites have led the creation of this new urbanism and oriented the sociocultural change of inner-city gentrifiers. Consequently, this article argues that a consumer class, replacing a socioeconomic class, has nurtured class-related urban change and, consequently, social conflict in certain inner-city areas. State and society interactions, rather than state or society domination, have determined the characteristics of gentrification in Chengdu.