Review by Choice Review
By the year 2030, one billion people, or one out of every eight inhabitants on Earth, will live in one or another of China's multitude of drab, polluted, and congested yet rapidly growing cities. An acute observer of this stunning urban metamorphosis, Miller (managing editor, China Economic Quarterly) offers both a sharp analysis of its complex facets and a serious critique of the immense ongoing problems Chinese urbanization poses now and in the near future. Over the decades since 1980, China's cities have not exactly welcomed 500 million additional residents, half of whom constitute an underclass of rural migrants lured to cities by economic necessity. Often poorly paid, badly housed, and scorned by privileged city dwellers, these ersatz urbanites have commonly been denied basic amenities (health care, education, basic social security) under Beijing's restrictive hukou ("household registration") system. Buttressed by numerous vignettes of urban life and issues, Miller's important study lays out the pressing tasks facing central and local governments, including the need to abolish hukou constraints, establish rural private property rights in land, and integrate some 300 million farmers and future urban consumers into larger, more livable cities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional audiences as well as general readers. R. P. Gardella emeritus, United States Merchant Marine Academy
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
