This book dives into the mise-en-scène of contemporary China to
explore the "becoming cinema" of Chinese cities, societies, and
subjectivities. Set in the wake of China's radical and rapid period of
urbanization and infrastructural transformation, and situating itself in
the processual city of Ningbo, the book combines empirical,
ficto-critical, and philosophical methods to generate a dynamic account
of everyday life as new forms of consumer culture bed in. Harnessing a
Realist approach that allows for different scales of analysis, the book
zooms in on five architectural assemblages including: surreal real
estate showrooms; a fragmented history museum; China's "first and best"
Sino-foreign university; a new "Old town"; and weird gamified
"any-now(here)-spaces." Together these modern arrangements and machines
for living cast light upon the broader picture sweeping up greater
China.
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