Re-territorializing Mengla: From “backwater” to “bridgehead” of China's socio-economic development

Abstract

This profile of Mengla contributes to our understanding of the city itself and the drastic transformations underway in China's vast inner Asian borderlands. Applying the conceptual lens of territorialization, it offers a critical review of the physical and discursive transition of Mengla from “backwater” to “bridgehead” within the specific context of China's anti-poverty campaign. It first contextualizes the city's recent transformation within three waves of socialist modernity imposed on Xishuangbanna since 1949. Second, it outlines the evolution of poverty reduction in China, focusing particularly on how the Development-oriented Poverty Reduction program has transformed Mengla and the broader Dianxi Area. Third, the development of the Mengla Experimental Zone illustrates how a hybridized BRI-poverty reduction program has further accelerated Mengla's urbanization. Fourth, a detailed case study of Nanla New District reveals a novel form of frontier urbanism characterized by a tourism-related real estate development model. This profile concludes with three lessons, namely the importance of integrating environmental and social histories into urban history studies, interpreting the impacts and effects of the BRI in relation to other development initiatives, and investigating the discursive spaces of development projects to reveal the socio-ecological values that undergird the physical transformations observed on the ground.