The Spectacle of the Chinese City

The Special Issue on "The Spectacle of the Chinese City: Urban Atmospheres, the Built Environment and Everyday Practices" in the journal Visual Studies is finally out! Thank you to Dennis Zuev for the fantastic co-editorship and to all the authors (Sanderien Verstappen, Willy Sier, Martin Minost, Ryan McCaffrey, Kiah Rutz, Federica Mirra, Gladys Pak Lei Chong and Tim Simpson) for their stimulating contributions!

All of these contributions extend our perspective on the Chinese city beyond the spectacle. Buildings are not static bystanders; their full potential crystallises through the ideas and practices of the people that make and inhabit them. Expecting that the city will always remain the same in China or elsewhere is inappropriate; visual scholars should therefore follow and document the ongoing process of refabrication – whether this is related to specific facets, such as the aesthetics of the inner-city core, to housing estates, to urban infrastructure hubs or indeed to the intricate relationship between, and diversity of, different urban forms in the same city.