Aestheticisation Rent Seeking and Rural Gentrification Amidst China s Rapid Urbanisation the Case of Xiaozhou Village Guangzhou 2013 Journal of Rural

8162019 Aestheticisation Rent Seeking and Rural Gentrification Amidst China s Rapid Urbanisation the Case of Xiaozhou Villhellip

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullaestheticisation-rent-seeking-and-rural-gentrification-amidst-china-s-rapid 115

Aestheticisation rent-seeking and rural gentri1047297cation amidst Chinarsquosrapid urbanisation The case of Xiaozhou village Guangzhou

Junxi Qian a Shenjing He b Lin Liu b c

a Center for Cultural Industry and Cultural Geography School of Geographical Sciences South China Normal University Guangzhou 510631 Chinab Guangdong Key Laboratory for Urbanization and Geo-simulation Center of Integrated Geographic Information Analysis School of Geography and

Planning Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou 510275 Chinac Department of Geography University of Cincinnati Cincinnati OH 45221-0131 USA

Keywords

Rural gentri1047297cation

Counter-urbanisation

Aestheticisation

Commodi1047297cation

Rent-seeking

Post-socialist China

a b s t r a c t

Amidst Chinarsquos immense and rapid urbanisation gentri1047297cation has spread from urban centres to peri-

urban and rural areas Employing an analytical perspective built from the literatures on counter-

urbanisation rural immigration and rural gentri1047297cation this study examines the two-stage gentri1047297ca-

tion processes in Xiaozhou village Guangzhou China Situating rural gentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou against

broader backdrops e such as urbanisation in Guangzhou and the preservation regulations imposed by

the local state e this article unveils the ways in which interplays between the aestheticisation of rural

living and indigenous villagersrsquo rent-seeking behaviour fostered rural immigration and gentri1047297cation In

Xiaozhou grassroots artistsrsquo aestheticisation and colonisation of the village ignited an initial stage of

gentri1047297cation The subsequent commodi1047297cation of rural land and housing induced by increasing con-

centration of art students and middle class ldquoelite artistsrdquo led to deepened gentri1047297cation studenti1047297cation

and eventually displacement of pioneer gentri1047297ers In this process local villagersrsquo rent-seeking behaviour

went hand in hand with aestheticisation and commodi1047297cation of rural space This 1047297nding questions the

representations of victimised local rural residents in much of Western literature on rural gentri1047297cation

The special role played by the government policy and institutional arrangement in the stories of Xiaozhou also has the potential to add a new dimension to rural gentri1047297cation explanations In sum this

paper shows that explanations of the perplexing dynamics of rural immigration and gentri1047297cation can

bene1047297t from more 1047298exible and 1047298uid conceptualisations of ldquogentri1047297ersrdquo and ldquogentri1047297cationrdquo as a whole

2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

1 Introduction

Chinarsquos recent development are characterised by a rapid tran-

sition from a rural-dominant society to a continuously enlarging

urban society According to the latest Chinese of 1047297cial statistics for

the very 1047297rst time in history more than 50 percent of the Chinese

population has taken up residence in the numerous and expanding

cities and towns (Pan et al 2012) Serving as buffer zones betweenurban cores and remoter rural areas peri-urban areas are therefore

experiencing the most vigorous transformation and have become

hot spots to observe the rapid changes in both Chinese rural and

urban societies Since the early 1980s rapid expansion of urban

settlements and the construction of roads and industrial sites have

encroached into peri-urban areas Thus far China has seen three

waves of urban expansion starting respectively in the early 1980s

and around 1992 and 2003 These have been called the three Chi-

nese ldquoenclosure movementsrdquo (Wang and Chen 2003) Noticeably

about 80 of new construction land during the urbanisation pro-

cess was converted from rural cultivated land particularly in major

metropolitan regions along the eastern coast

As a counter measure to the somehow uncontrollable loss of

arable land the State Council of the PRC published a strict policyknown as ldquoBasic Agricultural Land Preservation Regulationsrdquo in

1998 (Heet al2009) In cases where restrictions on cultivated land

appropriation were less effective the local state converted entire

villages or their farmland to urban construction land and forcefully

ldquourbanisedrdquo villagers In other cases villages survived relentless

urban encroachment owing to the enforcement of preservation

regulations by the central state or the implementation of alterna-

tive development strategies by the local state Yet both the physical

environment and socio-demographic compositions of these vil-

lages were fundamentally changed due to close proximity to and

constant interactions with cities In preserved peri-urban villages

Corresponding author

E-mail addresses junxiqiangmailcom (J Qian) heshenjmailsysueducn

(S He)

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Rural Studies

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e w w w e l s e v i e r c om l o c a t e j r u r s t u d

0743-0167$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

httpdxdoiorg101016jjrurstud201308002

Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 331e345



more often than not gentri1047297cation has started to take place with

arrivals of urban middle class artists tourists businessmen and

various other social groups

In this paper we examine the socio-spatial restructuring of peri-

urban rural areas in China by interrogating processes of urban-to-

rural migration rural gentri1047297cation and accompanying social

economic and cultural transformations in Xiaozhou Village

Guangzhou We tell a story of how the immigration of avant-garde

artists initiated rural socio-economic transformation and how this

evolving process was related to municipal government policies

artistsrsquo aesthetics of authentic rurality and local villagersrsquo aspira-

tion for economic development Here the term ldquoauthentic ruralityrdquo

refers to Xiaozhoursquos many resemblances to socio-cultural realities

and traditional ways of life in Chinarsquos remote past But it also im-

plicates idealised and romanticised representations which neither

the past nor the current Xiaozhou could live up to Our viewpoint in

this paper is that Xiaozhoursquos local attributes evoked a conception of

rurality which did bear certain traces of social realities but was

nonetheless radically reconstructed and reframed within a number

of abstracted ideas and vocabularies

The unprecedented urban expansion in Guangzhou and rural

preservation regulation imposed by the Municipal Government

situated Xiaozhou in a development dilemma which renderedpossible the immigration of urban grassroots artists What under-

pinned urbanitesrsquo move into Xiaozhou was an emerging cultural

consciousnessin a fast developing China that the rural wasengraved

with alternative symbolic meanings and social relations distinct

from logics of development and the market (Oakes 2009) Both

modernist pursuits for economic growth and postmodern emphasis

on subjective well-being underlay the consumption of Xiaozhou

(Qun et al 2012) As Xiaozhou was associated with the label of ldquoart

villagerdquo with its combination of both rural aesthetics and avant-

garde art intensifying commodi1047297cation of rural space took place

owing to the in1047298ows of both art students seeking art training ser-

vices and a relatively small amount of urban middle class

This paper employs the term ldquorural gentri1047297cationrdquo to charac-

terise rural incomersrsquo consumption of rural aesthetics and theensuing valorisation of local land and housing Yet it also develops

an overview of literatures on counter-urbanisation and rural

immigration to situate stories of Xiaozhou into broader intellectual

contexts Besidesthis paper spotlights the ways in which local rural

residents acted as active agents in the commodi1047297cation of rural

space During Xiaozhoursquos two-stage rural gentri1047297cation local vil-

lagersrsquo involvement was essential to the translation of rural aes-

thetics into substantial economic gains They capitalised on rural

gentri1047297cation by pro1047297ting from housing rents and providing com-

munity services The convergence of artistsrsquo astheticisation of rural

living and villagersrsquo rent-seeking behaviour led to dramatic socio-

spatial changes in this rural community which had been previ-

ously less sensitive to land and housing values This study combines

both production and consumption side analyses to examinegentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou It aims to add to our understandings of

the intricate relations between urban expansion the production of

cultural meanings and the commodi1047297cation of rural space in the

context of the dynamic transformation of a fast developing

economy

2 The time-spaces of counter-urbanisation and rural

gentri1047297cation

21 Counter-urbanisation rural gentri 1047297cation in the context of

rural socio-spatial change

Since the 1970s studies of the industrialised societies in the

West have made substantial efforts to gauge the reversal of

population concentration in major metropolitan areas namely the

process of counter-urbanisation Champion (1989a) describes

counter-urbanisation as the redistribution of population from

concentration in major metropolitan areas towards smaller

metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan territories Mitchell

(2004) has noticed in counter-urbanisation the migration of pop-

ulation which is downward along the hierarchy of human settle-

ments namely from major metropolitan areas to smaller urban

concentrations or non-metropolitan rural settlements Certainly

counter-urbanisation is not always a migrational phenomenon

natural growth of non-metropolitan settlements also re-shapes

distributive patterns of national population In this paper howev-

er we focus on the role which urban-to-rural migration plays in

contributing to counter-urbanisation

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s growths of rural population

were observed across Europe (eg Fielding 1982 Kontuly and

Vogelsang 1988 Champion 1989b 2001) and in other industri-

alised societies such as the United States (Berry1980) and Australia

(Hugo and Smailes 1985) While factors contributing to counter-

urbanisation are arguably diverse and also vary between

different socioeconomic contexts cross-cultural analyses have

spotlighted three sets of causal relations In the 1047297rst place a po-

litical economic approach towards counter-urbanisation has fore-grounded the spread of economic activities and employment

opportunities into rural areas (Berry 1980 Champion 1989a

2002) Fieldingrsquos (1989) well-known thesis on the relationships

between counter-urbanisation and rural economic restructuring

for example contends that the in1047298ux of metropolitan population

into ruralareas was the outcome of relocations of previouslyurban-

based managerial and service jobs As a result rural areas wit-

nessed a rapid increase of the service class but much lower

immigration rates of the working class Lower labour costs in rural

areas further motivated the dispersal of economic activities in a

postmodern age (Fielding 1982 Dean et al 1984 Coombes et al

1989)

A second major incentive for counter-urban migration is the

greater availability of inexpensive housing in non-metropolitanareas (Dean et al 1984 Champion 2002) Vartiainenrsquos (1989a

1989b) study of rural population growth in Finland provides an

example of how the dream of younger families with meagre eco-

nomic resources to become owner-occupants could be realised only

in non-metropolitan settlements Finally environmental and social

amenities in rural areas and rural lifestyles are also key attractions

to counter-urbanites Cultural meanings and symbols associated

with rural life are translated into romantic geographical imagina-

tions This on the one hand explains the considerable presence of

retired people in urban-to-rural immigration (Dean et al 1984

Champion 1989b) On the other hand the non-economic or

ldquophenomenologicalrdquo (Dean et al 1984) aspects of rurality

contribute profoundly to ruralward movements of economically

active social groups in particular members of the expanding ser-vice class

Given the diversity of socioeconomic factors related to counter-

urbanisation and rural immigration it is reasonable to assume that

rural immigrantsrsquo class identities socioeconomic statuses and in-

tentions of migration are inherently heterogeneous Due to the

economic and pragmatic reasons for rural immigration such as

employment opportunities and a search for cheap housing it is

unsurprising that members of the working class have been

frequently represented in analyses of the socioeconomic compo-

sitions of rural immigrants (Sant and Simons 1993 van Dam et al

2002 Bijker and Haartsen 2012) Neither do economic activities of

rural working class indicate a cohesive and uniform occupational

community (Hoggart 2007) Surelythis argument does not need to

be at the expense of a broad observation that middle class counter-

J Qian et al Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 331e 345332



urban migration is still highly visible in rural socio-spatial

restructurings across different national contexts

Even the pursuit for landscape aesthetics and idyllic rural life-

style which is widely thought to be a middle class practice

(Halfacree 2008) is not universally determined by possession of

economic assets As van Dam et alrsquos (2002) study of rural immi-

gration in the Netherlands has shown cultural capital and eco-

nomic capital do not necessarily converge at the individual level

While certain economically marginal rural immigrantsrsquo cultural

capital conforms to mainstream norms and ideologies (eg rural

teachers) more studies have paid attention to those who dwell in

rural cultural ambiences to enact anti-capitalist non-conformist

sentiments or identities (Williams and Jobes1990) Thus Halfacree

(2008) advocates that we need to embrace a broad range of people

and experiences in examining rural population growth With a

theoretical elaboration of ldquomarginal rural immigrantsrdquo as well as a

case study of new ldquocroftersrdquo in the highlands and islands of Scot-

land Halfacree (2001 2004) has examined the ways in which the

rural was imagined and inhabited as an alternative universe to

capitalist economic relations In an eraof constant moveruralareas

are being re-fashioned as mobility landscapes which are scripted by

ruralward migrantsrsquo multifaceted experiential engagements with

places dynamics between movement and emplacement in termsof ldquobelonging community and socio-cultural expressionrdquo

(Halfacree 2012 p 211)

To understand the nuances in social economic and cultural

factors and motivations contributing to urbanpeoplersquos relocation to

rural areas it is necessary to scale down our analyses to particular

and context-speci1047297c urban-to-rural movements at the microscopic

level (Hoggart 1997) Such movements may be coexistent with the

continuing concentration of population in urban areas at a national

scale as in the case of contemporary China This approach allows us

to locate speci1047297c streams of ruralward migration examine partic-

ular social economic and cultural characteristics of rural destina-

tions and understand various motivations driving relocation Here

rurality according to Vartiainen (1989a) is analysed as an expres-

sive and meaningful conception of ordinary people It is imbricatedin everyday knowledge and highly contextualised in local condi-

tions The meaningfulness of the rural arises from historically and

geographically speci1047297c attributes of rural settlements It does not

simply point to landscape aesthetics or idyllic rural lifestyle but

also other situated aspects of rural locations such as housing

availability communal social relations or employment opportu-

nities (Vartiainen 1989a Halfacree 1994)

The second body of literature which this paper engages with is

the research on rural gentri1047297cation in particular the ways in which

urban-to-rural migrants catalyses the revalorisation of land value

and housing market in rural areas (Phillips 2004) If counter-

urbanisation can often be analysed in terms of ruralward move-

ments at a microscopic level rural gentri1047297cation can be seen as

under certain circumstances and within some conceptualisations aparticular unfolding of counter-urban migration Studies of

counter-urbanisation also shed lights if we try to ground rural

gentri1047297cation into broader rural restructurings and personal mo-

tivations While this paper acknowledges that rural gentri1047297cation

refers to movements of capital but not necessarily people to

established rural settings it concurs with observations made in

many studies that rural gentri1047297cation often involves immigration

in particular from urban areas A large section of immigrating

gentri1047297ers consists of urban middle class homeowners who carry

an intention to consume nature and the perceived authenticity of

rural life through high levels of economic capital (Cloke et al 1991

Phillips 1993 Darling 2005)

In accordance with many commentatorsrsquo appealin the studies of

urban gentri1047297

cation this paper will analyse both the production

side and consumption side to reach a comprehensive explanation

of rural gentri1047297cation (Hamnett 1991) Yet Hamnettrsquos (1991) effort

to add together theories on individual motivations and political

economic factors to construct an integrated presumptively all-

encompassing explanation has been open to criticism (Phillips

2002) Following Smith (1992) this paper does not see produc-

tion and consumption as two separate analytical domains Struc-

tural factors embedded in local political economy and individuals rsquo

cultural agency are articulated with each other Dynamics of both

production and consumption converge at the level of individual

gentri1047297ers The agency of individual gentri1047297ers to consume

neighbourhood culture and ambience is situated in broader social

circumstances and articulated with the modes of economic pro-

duction and other agents working within the regime of capital

circulation Whether gentri1047297ersare objects which capital acts upon

or direct producers of the material environment they are impli-

cated in class-based or other forms of social power

On the consumption side emphasis in the literature has been

largely placed on the construction of a post-industrialpost-modern

cultural identity featured by a keen intention to consume nature

and authentic rural lifestyles (Urry 1995) The perceived rurale

urban distinction consolidated in the repertoires of cultural rep-

resentations has given the centre and shape of a countryside ideal(Cloke 1997 Bunce 2005) Drawing from theories on hyper-

realism and the post-modern turn in signi1047297cation a number of

scholars have contended that meaningful signs and symbols of

rurality have been re-territorialised as abstract signi1047297cations in

order to de1047297ne the essential nature of rural places and lifestyles

(Murdoch and Pratt 1993 Halfacree 2006) In building up a place-

based economy of experiences (Hines 2010 2012) the idyllic vision

of authentic rurality includes several aspects First rurality refers to

landscape appeal aestheticised nature and sometimes also a sense

of solitude and isolation incubated by immersion in vast limitless

natural environments (Smith and Phillips 2001 Phillips 2005a)

Second it may involve a sense of slow-pace small-town lifestyles

organic communities and inclusive social and cultural structures

(Ghose 2004 Phillips 2005a Smith and Holt 2005 Hines 2012)Smith and Phillipsrsquo (2001) account of village greeni1047297ers for

example has portrayed gentri1047297ers who resisted capitalist work

ethics by living with alternative rhythms of everyday life in rural

communities in which they also developed strong communal sol-

idarity Finally the notion of rurality may also be related to op-

portunities of rural-based recreation and consumption (Hines

2010 2012)

On the production side studies have highlighted the post-

industrial transition in the economic structure of Western coun-

tries a broad context in which the multiple socio-economic pro-

cesses related to gentri1047297cation constitute an alternative

development strategy to revitalise rural economy in the post-pro-

ductivist countryside (Marsden et al 1993 Murdoch and Marsden

1994) In such circumstances consumption of symbolic meaningsof rurality plays a key role in the restructuring of local economic

relations (Phillips 2002 2004 2005b Hines 2010) As the base of

rural economy shifting from land-based agricultural production to

a post-modern economy of symbols and experiences (Hines 2010

2012) the dynamics of disinvestment and reinvestment are now

coupled with particular social groupsrsquo buying into particular life-

styles which facilitates the post-productivist reproduction of rural

spaces Phillips (1993 2004 2005a) has provided a comprehensive

line of studies employing the idea of rent gap to explore cycles of

disinvestment and reinvestment in rural built environment He

argues that rural gentri1047297cation can be plausibly conceptualised as

revalorisation of rural physical environment which was initially

valued and economically productivebut nowleft in a declining and

unproductive state (Phillips 1993 2005a) Darlingrsquos (2005) further

J Qian et al Journal of Rural Studies 32 (2013) 331e 345 333



intervention suggests that in rural gentri1047297cation values of nature

are in fact socially constructed which are constitutive of local dy-

namics of capital driven by the consumption of recreational

wilderness

22 Artistsrsquo re-making of rural space and analytical perspectives in

this research

This paper has a special focus on artist immigrantsrsquo imagination

consumption and re-making of rural spaces The role that artists

play in restructuring both urban and rural settlements has been

well documented In the studies on urban gentri1047297cation artists are

often described as pioneer gentri1047297ers who are important players in

the primary stage of neighbourhood change (Clay 1979 Ley 1996

2003) Artist gentri1047297ers reject monotonous suburban life and

embrace the cultural diversity of the inner city They identify with

the freedom from middle class conventions and are attracted to

bohemian lifestyles (Caul1047297eld 1994) Ley (1996) views artist gen-

tri1047297ers as pioneers of a unique fraction of middle class which is

armed with sophisticated cultural capital In other words pioneer

gentri1047297ers are distinguished more by cultural sensitivities than

economic af 1047298uence Artist gentri1047297ers are prone to concentrate in

dilapidated neighbourhoods or derelict manufacturing spaces forlow-cost housing and art spaces (Zukin 1989 Ley 2003 Cameron

and Coaffee 2005)

However as neighbourhood change deepens artistsrsquo presence

often provides a cultural impetus for commercial redevelopment of

the inner city and the cultural ambience that they have created is

exploited by real estate developers In this process cultural capital

facilitates the circulation of economic capital (Zukin 1989 Ley

1996) As a result culture in artistsrsquo ldquoloft residencerdquo moves away

from its bohemian anti-capitalist essence and is transformed into

a commodity consumed by wealthy urban middle class (Field and

Irving 1999) Ironically artists e the very people whose aesthetic

dispositions render possible further stages of capital investment

and gentri1047297cation e are often subject to displacement in this pro-

cess (Ley 2003) Some other studies however indicate that artistsare not necessarily anti-capitalist On the contrary they sometimes

play an active role in the marketing and selling of gentri1047297ed resi-

dences (Cole 1987 Harris 2012)

On the other hand there is also a notable tendency for artists to

seek rural locations for cultivating cultural capital and seeking

affordable spaces of artistic production Spectorskyrsquos (1955) widely

cited discussion of exurbanites included those artists who settled in

the rural areas at the fringe of New York City For Spectorsky (1955)

and later Punter (1974) those artists sought inexpensive accom-

modation quiet and remote locations proximity to creative in-

dustries in major metropolitan centres and distance from

established conventions Christaller (1963) also pointed out that

artists such as painters and writers were prone to discover and

exploit environmental amenities and aesthetics in remote ruralareas which often brought about the rise of local tourism In gen-

eral artists are attracted to 1) landscape appeal in rural settlements

(Bunting and Mitchell2001 Mitchell et al 2004) 2) the less hectic

and slow-pace lifestyle associated with the rural (Bunting and

Mitchell 2001 Mitchell et al 2004 Bell and Jayne 2010) 3)

easy access to urban centres (Bunting and Mitchell 2001) 4) the

availability of cheap housing and spaces for artistic production

(Mitchell et al 2004) and 5) in some cases also the economic

opportunities accompanying the booming of rural tourism (Wojan

et al 2007) Recent studies on rural creative industries have also

emphasised the entrepreneurial model of rural artistic production

as well as the role which art plays in fostering rural economic

revival (Markusen 2007 Bell and Jayne 2010 McGranahan et al

2011)

This paper uses the term ldquogentri1047297errdquo to characterise grassroots

artists in Xiaozhou and other rural immigrants who followed

pioneer artistsrsquo paths although positioning them in a broader

context of urban-to-rural migration Informed by preceding dis-

cussions on counter-urbanisation and artistsrsquo re-making of human

settlements we bear in mind the potential heterogeneities of these

gentri1047297ersrsquo class positions and intentions of migration This un-

doubtedly may constrain to some extent the applicability of rural

gentri1047297cation literature to our empiricalanalyses as the bulk of this

literature seems to centre on the middle class identity of gentri1047297ers

and intensive in1047298ow of economic capital Yet this paper names

both grassroots artists and more af 1047298uent immigrants as gentri1047297ers

for two reasons

First avant-garde artists in Xiaozhou 1047297tted well with the ste-

reotypical model of pioneer gentri1047297ers Grassroots artists moved in

when the local economy and housing market were at a low point

But their consumption of rurality and daily spending facilitated the

accumulation of local economic assets and the revalorisation of

local land and housing values As Clay (1979) points out at this

phase of neighbourhood change pioneer gentri1047297ersrsquo actions do not

necessarily fall into market-oriented logics They renovate housing

stocks and create cultural ambience according to distinct cultural

sensitivities and with private capitalSecond following Murdoch (1995) this paper views class iden-

tity as an ongoing process of formation It is constituted through

collective actions and practices at the level of everyday life Class

identity is performative and not con1047297ned within any ontologically

rigid de1047297nition It is also constituted relationally In processes of

gentri1047297cation the distinction between gentri1047297ers and non-

gentri1047297ers is not static but emerges contextually through pre-

sentations of relative differences Different forms of capitals are

played out in the constitution of shared group identities Whether

or not pioneer artistsrsquo cultural capital will be translated into eco-

nomic capital is indeterminate some artists may stay loyal to anti-

capitalist bohemian cultural stance for considerable periods of

time But possibilities for complex interplays between economic

capital and cultural capital are never ruled outThis paper also corresponds with the literature on studenti1047297-

cation by discussing the in1047298ow of art students into Xiaozhou Stu-

denti1047297er as Darren Smith (2005) points out is another type of

social actor who is not af 1047298uent in economic capital but nonetheless

capable of stimulating considerable changes to neighbourhoods

and housing provision So far most studies of studenti1047297cation have

focused on increased demands for student housing due to the

expansion of higher education in the UK (Smith 2002b 2005

2008) In this process many residential communities have under-

gone major transformations as a result of student concentration

Although studenti1047297ers maynot earn high incomes themselves they

often have access to other sources of 1047297nancial support (eg from

their families) and their collective spending power can be con-

textually signi1047297cant Different from more established middle classmembersrsquo colonisation of communities studenti1047297cation is usually

characterised by small investors a more fragmented regime of

capital investment and piecemeal modi1047297cation of residential

neighbourhoods Well equipped 1047298ats are converted to Houses in

Multiple Occupation (HMOs) to adjust to studenti1047297ersrsquo low levels of

economic capital

Several characteristics of studenti1047297cation deserve highlighting

to elucidate empirical discussions in this paper First studenti1047297ers

are usually short-term or seasonal tenants and in most cases they

are not directly involved in the investment on housing stocks Yet

large in1047298ows of students nonetheless reshape socioeconomic

structures and social compositions of communities which is

manifested in the expansion of rented housing decreasing levels of

owner-occupation increases in housing costs and displacement of




established residents (Smith 2005) Second the emergence of

studenti1047297ed neighbourhoods is closely associated with the expan-

sion of educational activities Thus neighbourhoods with proximity

to educational establishments are more likely to become locations

of student concentration (Hubbard 2008 2009) Finally similar to

artist gentri1047297ers studenti1047297ers make up a social group with distinct

cultural orientations (Smith 2002b 2005 2008) Contrary to con-

ventional middle class ethos studenti1047297ers seem to be less con-

cerned with the material conditions of neighbourhoods However

they have their own visions of neighbourhood culture and partic-

ular demands for community-based consumption

Finally while an important line of arguments in existing studies

on counter-urbanisation and rural gentri1047297cation has highlighted

the colonisation of rural space leading to disadvantaged situation

for more established rural population (Cloke and Little 1990 Cloke

et al 1995 1998) we attempt to extend our study beyond the

commodi1047297cation of rural space via economic capital of ldquooutsidersrdquo

and take into account the multiple intentions positionalities and

actions of both rural gentri1047297ers and local residents (Smith and Holt

2005 Smith 2007 Guimond and Simard 2010 Stockdale 2010 )

This perspective entails analyses of the social economic and cul-

tural heterogeneities of both urban-to-rural immigrants and rural

locals Even dynamics of displacement resulting from ruralgentri1047297cation involve intra-class rather than merely inter-class

con1047298icts (Cloke and Thrift 1987 1990 Phillips 1993) Neither do

the various social economic and cultural con1047298icts rest merely upon

the localnon-local divide Therefore diverse intra-class and inter-

class social relations warrant close attention in order to narrate

the detailed unfolding of rural socio-spatial changes e the forma-

tion of power relations is never determined prior to actual social

and spatial practices

On the other hand as Stockdale et al (2000) have suggested

urban-to-rural migration needs to be positioned in a broader

context of rural economic and social restructuring Against this

backdrop rural locals are often the active agents rather than pas-

sive victims of rural gentri1047297cation In the contexts of disinvestment

in agricultural production and the ensuing post-productivist eco-nomic transition many rural communities have exploited gentri-1047297cation as an effective tactic of economic revival (Phillips 1993

Darling 2005) Phillips (2005a) for example has provided an ac-

count of how agricultural decline resulted in the massive loss of

rural labour and the under-use of rural built environment Urban-

to-rural migration therefore was viewed as a desirable remedy

of the de-valorisation of rural land and property values The works

of Little (1987) Shucksmith and Watkins (1991) and Phillips (1993)

have all documented the rapid economic returns which can be

made from housing development in the countryside and rural

residentsrsquo high motivation to undertake extensive building work for

maximising economic gains The roles played by other local agents

of gentri1047297cation e such as local builders architects building soci-

eties (Murdoch and Marsden 1994 Phillips 1993) and real estateagents repackaging and marketing imaginaries of rural idyll (Smith

2002a) e have also been well observed and studied

3 Methodology

This paper is based on a 1047297eldwork conducted in Xiaozhou

Village from 2009 to 2011 During this period we primarily

employed the interview method to obtain qualitative data First in-

depth interviews were conducted with 14 artists who had migrated

to Xiaozhou and 11 local villagers Second another 110 short and

structured interviews were carried out from September 2010 to

April 2011 with a variety of actors involved in rural gentri1047297cation

To cover broadly the social economic and spatial changes in the

village interviewees at this stage included grassroots artists

(n frac14 10) elite artists running commercial galleries (n frac14 10) stu-

dents seeking art training courses (n frac14 20) students who were

already enrolled in art departments in neighbouring higher edu-cation institutions but continued to live in Xiaozhou (n frac14 10) local

residents who were landlords of rented housing (n frac14 10) local

residents who were not landlords of rented housing (n frac14 10) and

local residents running new consumption businesses (n frac14 30)

Questions in the interviews centred on 1047297ve issues 1) the local

social economic and demographic structures before rural gentri-

1047297cation and the ways in which they gradually changed with the

arrivals of different sorts of immigrants 2) how artists perceived

and consumed the rural aesthetics in Xiaozhou and how roman-

ticised accounts of the village differed from local villagersrsquo more

ldquobanalrdquo perceptions of values of rural land and space 3) the social

and economic relations between rural gentri1047297ers and villagers in

terms of housing provision and community services 4) how

various social actors were involved in Xiaozhoursquos more recentsocio-spatial transformation and how local villagers took advan-

tage of the in1047298ows of art students and more af 1047298uent gentri1047297ers 5)

the implications of deepened gentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou for both

local villagers and pioneer gentri1047297ers who suffered from increases

in housing costs

Additionally we also conducted observational work in the 1047297nal

stage of research The purposes of observation were threefold First

observation was undertaken to gauge the changes in rural built

environment especially material spaces now used in ways distinct

from their traditional functions Second we paid speci1047297c attention

to different types of gentri1047297ersrsquo everyday routines and practices in

the village in order to gain 1047297rst-hand impressions of their

emotional and habitual dwelling in rural life Finally we were also

interested in local villagersrsquo social relations and interactions with

in-coming gentri1047297ers as well as the new sets of economic activities

operated as responses to the presence of newcohorts of consumers

4 Xiaozhou socio-spatial restructuring amidst rapid urban

transformation

41 Xiaozhou in between urban expansion and preservation

regulation

Xiaozhou Village is located at the south-eastern periphery of

Haizhu District Guangzhou Separated by Pearl River from

Guangzhoursquos traditional urban centre for centuries Haizhu District

remained an agricultural island relatively isolated from the cityrsquos

urban economy But this situation has been drastically altered

Fig 1 The location of Xiaozhou Village in Guangzhou




during Guangzhoursquos rapid urbanisation while China has furtheredambitious economic reform since the late 1980s (Xu and Yeh

2003) The contemporary Haizhu is a fast growing urban district

experiencing unprecedented changes in both physical environment

and socio-demographic structures Xiaozhou is a historical village

whose origin dates back to the 14th century As an outcome of

Guangzhoursquos urban sprawl Xiaozhou is now one of Haizhursquos few

remaining rural villages situated at the fringe of a fast expanding

city proper (Fig 1)

Unlike many other Chinese villages located at the periphery of a

metropolitan area Xiaozhou has not experienced intense industrial

development in the post-reform era As Linrsquos (1997 2001 2007)

works have pointed out rural development at Chinarsquos urban pe-

ripheries amidst the economic reform is often characterised by

strong industrial growth bolstered by collective ownership of rural

land and bottom-up development initiatives Discussions on this

model of peri-urbanism as Lin (2007) terms it are predominant in

academic writings on post-reform rural development in China (Ma

and Fan 1994 Cui and Ma1999 Shen 2006) However Xiaozhoursquos

trajectory of economic development departed from this well-

researched routine Thanks to Xiaozhoursquos proximity to the ldquoTen-

Thousand-Acre Orchardrdquo a municipal natural reserve the Munic-

ipal Government of Guangzhou has for about two decades applied

rigorous regulations on Xiaozhou which prohibits all types of in-

dustrial development in the village1 This policy is primarily out of

ecological concerns But more recently it has also 1047297tted into the

local statersquos postmodern entrepreneurial strategies of urban mar-

keting which advocate the ldquogreeni1047297cationrdquo of the metropolitan

area and aim to enhance the attractiveness of the urban environ-

ment In 2000 the Municipal Government further named Xiaozhoua ldquoHistorical and Cultural Protected Areardquo While this title glori1047297ed

Xiaozhoursquos exotic rural identity it imposed further restriction on its

industrial development as well as other forms of large-scale

construction2

As a result despite Guangzhoursquos relentless urban expansion

Xiaozhoursquos rural identity has been relatively undisturbed by outside

forces of modernisation fruit trees are still grown in the village rsquos

orchard old houses built with oyster shells stand alongside narrow

passages paved with old cyan bricks indicating the villagersquos long

history of 1047297shery and meandering rivers 1047298ow across the village

with stone bridges arching above them With the juxtaposition of a

typically rural built environment and a less polluted rural nature it

is unsurprising that todayrsquos Xiaozhou has been associated with

distinct cultural imaginaries which conjure up a strong sense of the

aesthetics of traditional Chinese rurality3 (Figs 2 and 3) Yet we

need to note that authentic rurality in Xiaozhou was not deliber-

ately preserved or constructed by local residents Rather it was the

outcome of the Municipal Governmentrsquos top-down manipulation of

urbanerural divide The economic stagnancy in Xiaozhou due to

the restrictions on industrial development provided a broader

backdrop against which our empirical analyses can be narrated

towards which we now proceed

42 Decline in agricultural productivity and artist-led gentri 1047297cation

The municipal governmentrsquos manipulation of urbanerural

divide unfortunately did not 1047297

t with the local communityrsquos aspi-ration for modernisation and development Before rural gentri1047297-

cation Xiaozhou was caught in a situation in many aspects similar

to the post-productivist countryside in the West (Marsden et al

1993) The traditional agriculture-based economy suffered from

severe decline of productivity due to the deterioration of land

fertility and aggravated air pollution in the metropolitan area of

Guangzhou The Municipal Governmentrsquos restriction on local in-

dustrial development made the problem of economic stagnancy

even more entrenched In consequence most local young people

1047298owed out of the village for employment opportunities in the city

The decreased pro1047297tability of agricultural production and loss of

economically active local population resulted in a high level of

unemployment among remaining villagers which further exacer-

bated the evaporation of agricultural capital

Since the Municipal Government failed to introduce effective

alternative development strategies to Xiaozhou most villagers

whom we talked to during our 1047297eldwork claimed that the re-

strictions on industrial development had placed Xiaozhou in a vi-

cious cycle of underdevelopment and poverty The rhetoric which

portrayed Xiaozhou as an ldquounsuccessful placerdquo and ldquoisland of

povertyrdquo in the midst of Guangzhoursquos modernisation process was

prevalent in villagersrsquo discursive construction

Xiaozhou is a unique place in Guangzhou because of its poverty

Guangzhou is now developing so fast owing to industrialisation

Fig 2 The rural ambience in Xiaozhou Village

Fig 3 The tributary of Pearl River bypassing Xiaozhou and its bank

1 See for example Nanfang Daily September 2011 online article httpgcontent

oeeeecom4194191ef5f6c157676Blog87cf20e1fhtml2 Notice on the Naming of First Batch of Historical and Cultural Protected Areas in

Guangzhou Guangzhou Municipal Peoplersquos Government 2000

3 Plan for the Protection of the History and Culture in Xiaozhou Guangzhou

Municipal Planning Commission 2009




and modernisation But what bene1047297t has been brought to

Xiaozhou In the entire Guangzhou Xiaozhou is the poorest

And the perception of poverty is even stronger when Xiaozhou

is compared with other villages in Guangzhou The Guangzhou

Government unfortunately is not interested in providing more

opportunities of development for this village Interview with

Zheng-Shu local villager

Villagersrsquo narratives of poverty and underdevelopment re1047298ectedthe communityrsquos strong intent for economic development Hence

rural industrial development was seen by villagers as a paradigm

which Xiaozhou should yet failed to follow Local villagersrsquo frus-

tration over Xiaozhoursquos lack of development intersected rural

immigration and gentri1047297cation in the village which commenced in

the early 1990s Due to Xiaozhoursquos unique rural aesthetics

approximately 1 000 urban artists had moved into Xiaozhou

seeking cheap housing and services as well as a slow-pace rural

lifestyle in contrast to Guangzhoursquos overwhelming modernisation

According to a survey we conducted on the interviewed artistsrsquo

socio-demographic characteristics they were generally in their 20s

to 40s and usually well-educated and with college degrees Due to

the economic stagnancy which af 1047298icted the village at the initial

stage of local socio-spatial change artists seemed to be better off than local villagers Indeed villagersrsquo ldquoeconomic despairrdquo and

ldquopovertyrdquo frequented artistsrsquo description of their earlier encounters

with the village

When I 1047297rst came to Xiaozhou about three years ago the eco-

nomic situation was rather disheartening You could get the

impression at your 1047297rst sight that Xiaozhou was very poor

Unlike urbanisedvillagesin the city centre villagersin Xiaozhou

had no chance to let their houses to migrant workers Because it

was a preservation area no real estate development was

possibleSo they could not get any money by selling their land to

commercial developers Also no industries were developed

here because it was not allowed In a word the economy here

was sort of like 50 years before

Interview with A-Dong handcrafter and antique collector

Yet artistsrsquo privileged economic position must not be exagger-

ated In Xiaozhou economic capital was rather unevenly distrib-

uted amongst various sections of rural gentri1047297ers Only more recent

development witnessed the in1047298ux of economically af 1047298uent artists

and business people establishing commercial galleries and luxu-

rious shops In fact most early immigrants were from lower-

middle- or low-income backgrounds and they could probably be

categorised as what Rose (1984) called ldquomarginal gentri1047297ersrdquo Part

of their income was also transferred to villagers in the form of

housing rent Thus the difference between these two groupsrsquo so-

cioeconomic statuses had been gradually narrowed

The relative economic marginality of avant-garde artists was

manifested in three aspects First most artists estimated their netmonthly incomes to be between 2000e4000 Chinese RMB

Although this income level was notparticularly low it seemed to be

notably below the standard of middle class professionals in

Guangzhou Second the artists made a living by selling art works

produced in their small-sized workshops rather than participating

actively in the so-called art industry Partly due to their non-

conformist and bohemian lifestyle their productivity was not

very high Thus the economic prospect of these artists was usually

fairly uncertain Third similar to many counter-urbanites in the

West most artists moved into Xiaozhou in search of cheap housing

and social services since they could not afford high housing ex-

penses in the city centre As the artist Ping Jiang told us in the

interview

The artists in Xiaozhou are not very rich We make a living solely

by selling art works Sometimes we can sell several pieces in a

month but in some months we may not be able to sell anything

So life for us is very uncertain and we have to be very

economically sensitive When we 1047297rst moved in the housing in

Xiaozhou was extremely cheap You could rent a very spacious

workplace at a very low cost In my case I rented the entire

multi-storey building for a few hundred RMB a month Other

than Xiaozhou you could not imagine any similar place in

Guangzhou

Interview with Ping Jiang painter and sculptor

Since land is owned collectively by indigenous communities inrural China it is rural communities which hold exclusive discretion

in the construction and provision of housing in rural areas How-

ever by law the property right of rural land cannot be traded in the

land market before it is converted to urban land which requires the

involvement of local city government This unique system of rural

land ownership meant that in-coming artists needed to turn to

local villagers for rental housing The booming of a local housing

rental market in turn provided a feasible and alternative solution

to the economic standstill As a result local villagers had generally

adopted a fairly friendly attitude towards pioneer rural gentri1047297ers

When I 1047297rst came to the village local villagers were so friendly

to me My landlord and some other villagers were quite willing

to help me renovate and upgrade the house I rented There was

certainly no hostility from local villagers towards artists

InXiaozhou the villagers do not regard the artists as outsiders

who have invaded their community


The blurring of the boundary between insiders and outsiders

indicated that at the very beginning socio-spatial changes in

Xiaozhou were jointly shaped by villagersrsquo aspiration for economic

development and artistsrsquo pursuit of low-cost housing and the

countryside ideal (Bunce 2005) At the time of our 1047297eldwork

Xiaozhou had already been labelled an ldquoart villagerdquo in folk dis-

courses both villagers and artists were willing to incorporate this

new place identity into the construction of Xiaozhou rsquos localness

(Fig 4) Only with this new image as Zheng-Shu pointed out during

Fig 4 Artistsrsquo re-appropriation of Xiaozhoursquos rural space




an interview could Xiaozhou attract the attention of the outside

and create new opportunities of economic development The sub-

sequent process of studenti1047297cation was also closely related to this

identity of ldquoart villagerdquo and could be viewed as a product of place-

making processes in Xiaozhou

5 Avant-garde artists aestheticisation of rural living and the

symbolic consumption of rurality

51 Anti-urbanist sentiment and the discovery of rural aesthetics

In this section we examine avant-garde artistsrsquo discursive con-

struction of rural aesthetics in Xiaozhou The pursuit for aestheti-

cised rural living is one of the major drives of counter-urban

movements and ruralward migration to Xiaozhou also followed

this cultural logic We suggest that what artists constructed was a

hyper-reality of Xiaozhou (Eco 1976) a reality beyond realities

which was discursively performed as essentially different from

prevalent social and cultural conditions of contemporary urban

China It was intrinsically a regime of signi1047297cation grounded in

experiences of everyday life but not to be taken for granted as

absolute truth

The aestheticisation of Xiaozhoursquos rurality began in the early

1990s when two preeminent Guangzhou artists Guan Shanyue

and Li Xiongcai claimed that rurality in Xiaozhou was a valuable

source of artistic inspiration4 But rather than immersing

themselves directly in the physical and social fabrics of the

village both Guan and Li chose to set up their studios outside the

historical village In other words both tended to consume

Xiaozhoursquos rurality in a symbolic rather than an experiential

way by maintaining physical proximity to the village Contrary

to Guanrsquos and Lirsquos preference for symbolic consumption at a

distance it was the grassroots artists who most fundamentally

re-shaped the built environment and activated actual socio-

spatial transformation in the historical village of Xiaozhou

Earlier immigrants to Xiaozhou did not demonstrate a unitary

class identity While a small number of pioneer gentri1047297ers couldrent spacious ancient buildings and conduct luxurious renova-

tion work most of them only afforded relatively newly con-

structed houses with plain physical features Rather than a

shared class position the identity formation of artists as a well

de1047297ned social group cohered in a set of shared tastes values and

aesthetical orientations re1047298ected by the creation and con-

sumption of a whole array of cultural imaginaries and symbols

(Featherstone 1989)

In the Western context counter-urbanisation and rural gentri-

1047297cation often go hand in hand with population decentralisation at

the national scale and a decrease of urban-based population

(Phillips 2009) But in the case of Xiaozhou urban-to-rural immi-

gration was parallel to urban expansion in the context of Chinarsquos

post-socialist economic transition To some extent avant-gardeartists in Xiaozhou could be seen as what Oakes (2005) called the

ldquomodern subjectrdquo According to Oakesrsquo (2005) thesis a modern

subject is one whose freedom to seek hisher ideal lifestyle is

enabled by social and cultural transformations associated with

modernity Yet culturally the modern subject rejects modernity and

views modern life to be uprooting and alienating Thus modern

subjects embark on an endless search for alternative time-spaces

They travel across a variety of places and construct imagined dif-

ference between the modern society and somewhere else which is

ldquouncontaminatedrdquo by forces of modernity

Indeed the cultural logics of authentic rural life in Xiaozhou

could be seen as avant-garde artistsrsquo critical re1047298ections over expe-

riences of modernity For them urban expansion and urban-

centred socio-economic restructuring were hallmarks of an

emerging Chinese modernity As development and modernisation

became the zeitgeists in post-socialist Chinese society rural space

on the other hand anchored an alternative social ordering outside

the cultural contours of modernity In artistsrsquo romantic represen-

tations of Xiaozhou there was an idealised image of traditional

Chinese lifestyle with its timelessness serenity and reclusiveness

It stood in a sharp contrast to capitalist social relations economic

development and commodi1047297cation

Artistsrsquo discursive construction of Xiaozhou was often stuffed

with an anti-urbanist sentiment Urban living in their narratives

was described as essentially unnatural and alienating The decay of

nature the ascending logics of capitalist economic relations and

commodi1047297cation and urban peoplersquos heavy involvement in pro1047297t-

making were themes spotlighted in the discourses on post-socialist

Chinese urbanism Apocalyptic accounts of urban living in

contemporary China were structured around artistsrsquo lament upon

the loss of organic experiences of nature the decline of sincere and

genuine-hearted inter-personal relations and the alienating effects

of consumerism

Nowadays in Guangzhou the harmony between nature and

humans is no longer visible Also many traditional neighbour-

hoods and streets have been torn down to make way for mod-

ernisation What people care about the most is how much

money they can make and what ldquoqualitiesrdquo of life they can

achieve e such as big and luxurious houses commodities and

living conditions which are considered to be ldquomodernrdquo Peoplersquos

relations with others are often based on careful calculations of

personal interests In Xiaozhou I can get a whole bunch of

vegetables from a villager for just one RMB because villagers do

not really care about how much money they can make with

resources at their hands Can you imagine this happening in

Guangzhoursquos city centre

Interview with Qing-Yuan photographer and 1047297lm maker

For artistsrsquo humanenature harmony and social relations outside

logics of money and commodity were two fundamental charac-

teristics of traditional Chinese culture In accordance with the

critical assessment of contemporary Chinese urbanism a discursive

terrain of aestheticised rural place and life emerged as we will

discuss in the next subsection

52 Representing and consuming the ideal countryside

The artistsrsquo anti-urbanist sentiment did not mean that they were

totally isolated from urban-based civilisation On the contrary they

depended highly upon elements of modernisation to enact theiridentities as professional workers and modern consumers Also

since most artists were self-employed art workers and private

sellers of art works they relied on clusters of commercial galleries

and creative industries in the urban centre of Guangzhou Hence

Xiaozhoursquos proximity to the city was a key contributing factor to its

socio-spatial changes Retreating to the village for the consumption

of alternative cultural aesthetics in this sense was a temporary

escape from conventional cultural experiences As A-Xing e a

freelancer grassroots artist e suggested

Xiaozhou is a place close to the city so you are not so isolated

from the modern elements of urban life But the most

important thing is that you can have some memories here It

brings you back to your childhood when most of China had not

4 In this research we were unable to interview directly Guan and Li Stories about

them have been drawn from interviews with avant-garde artists




yet been turned into a big construction site Trees nature rivers

and community life here are all different from those in

Guangzhou e Guangzhou is a city but here the village remains

Interview with A-Xing painter and photographer

Three aspects of rurality were most fundamental in constituting

artistsrsquo imagination of rural living in Xiaozhou namely rural nature

the rural lifestyle and local villagers who were fondly imagined as

innocent uncontaminated rural others In the 1047297rst place being

close to nature in Xiaozhou was interpreted by artists to be

healthier and more consistent with traditional Chinese philoso-

phies advocating the humanenature harmony The only landscapes

in Xiaozhou which were genuinely natural and also deemed

attractive were a tributary of Pearl River bypassing the village and

several creeks it fed into Artists justi1047297ed their emotional attach-

ment to these natural bodies of water by evoking a Chinese tradi-

tion which extolled humansrsquo intimacy with water Thus banks

alongside the river and creeks were the primary loci which

attracted artistsrsquo leisure time The village orchard on the other

hand was an outcome of human activities but still bore noticeable

elements of nature Hence it was also considered a quintessential

element of Xiaozhoursquos rural attractiveness Charms of the orchard

were associated not only with trees and greeneries but also peas-

antsrsquo ldquopeacefulrdquo ldquoself-suf 1047297cientrdquo agricultural work and the fresh

less unpolluted air

For artists Xiaozhou rendered possible a diversity of ways for

experiencing the innermost organism and rhythm of nature Artists

usually described their encounters with rural nature in visual and

haptic senses Visual and haptic exposures to nature gave rise to a

shared rhetoric that rurality in Xiaozhou provided a more dynamic

sensuous and affective way of living

In Xiaozhou what fascinates me the most is the creek in front of

my house and the 1047297sh in that water e you know those white

small 1047297sh Arenrsquot they the smallest 1047297sh in the world Looking

at those 1047297sh I see a great harmony emerging out of a big dis-

order How incredible I always include the 1047297

sh into my paint-ings I often jump into the creek trying to catch some of them

and the onlookers always laugh at me so relentlessly

Interview with He-Ji painter and calligrapher

Despite the strong emotional attachment to Xiaozhoursquos nature

lifestyle seemed to play an even more notable role in shaping art-

istsrsquo perception of traditional Chinese rurality Lifestyle in Xiaozhou

manifested itself in both unconventional experiences of time-space

at the level of everyday life and an alternative social ordering

outside commodi1047297cation and capitalism Artists almost unani-

mously agreed that artistic production in Xiaozhou was at least

partly detachable from initiatives of pro1047297t-making Thus artists did

not have to suffer from the pressure associated with a normal

professional job A leisurely lifestyle involving activities such as

walking dogs wandering around and chatting with people

featured frequently artistsrsquo portrayals of rural living In their nar-

ratives in contemporary Chinese cities living an ordinary profes-

sional life was like ldquorunning after timerdquo and the pursuits for

personal success and personal income created neoliberalised social

subjects similar to what Herbert Marcuse (2002) called the ldquoone-

dimensional manrdquo But Xiaozhou on the contrary provided diverse

routines and trajectories of everyday life as well as unconventional

unordered experiences of time and space

The experience of temporality in Xiaozhou for these artists was

not linear or rigidly ordered but fragmented emotionally laden

and full of surprises Discourses of alternative experiences of time

were intertwined with the rhetoric that Xiaozhou as a whole was a

social space uncontaminated by capitalist cultures and social

relations Artistsrsquo accounts of alternative work ethics in Xiaozhou

expressed this romantic mentality vividly

I run a restaurant in Xiaozhou to earn a small income but I donrsquot

really care about the pro1047297ts I can make from it When the

business is bad I would rather cut my own spending rather thanextend my working hours In my restaurant there is no so-

phisticated ldquocustomer servicerdquo I serve my customers dishes and

then I go to enjoy my own time I enjoy sunshine in Xiaozhou

When there is golden beautiful sunshine I become so greedy

for sunshine and would rather suspend my business

Interview with Li-Jie calligrapher and painter

It was the same aspiration for unconventional socio-cultural

experiences of everyday life that produced the imagination of

innocent local villager uncontaminated by forces of modernisation

Artistsrsquo discourses often represented local villagers as sincere

innocent rural others living outside broader social processes of

capitalism and commodi1047297cation Traditional Chinese culture and

ways of socialisation artists believed had been well preserved inlocal villagersrsquo identity and social life For artists there was a strong

communal comradeship embedded in local villagersrsquo everyday life

with intense interconnections between community members

Local celebrations of traditional Chinese festivals for example were

frequently mentioned in artistsrsquo portrayals of communal life in

Xiaozhou

Here it is the typical Chinese countryside e it is of the greatest

cultural vitality in China In festivals like the Dragon-Boat

Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival local villagers have their

own rituals and celebrations When weddings or funerals take

place in the village they give me a particularly strong impres-

sion that local villagers are so closely bound with each other

showing a very strong sense of community


Meanwhile Xiaozhoursquos being uncontaminated by pro1047297t-making

and capitalism also implied material bene1047297ts inter alia affordable

housing and inexpensive local services The search for cheap

housing determined artistsrsquo structural dependence upon the local

community for basic livelihood For many artistsrsquo inexpensive

housing in the village re-af 1047297rmed the cultural image of money-

insensitive innocent rural people Local villagers thus served as

remote imaginaries whose otherness was romantically celebrated

Representations of rural others were also framed with references to

the cultural tropes of timelessness authenticity and reclusion

There was once a local villager living next to me He was in his

middle age but seemed to be free of burdens of work Every day

Fig 5 Xiaozhoursquos authentic rurality in Chen Kersquos painting




he would sit on the threshold of his house facing the river

reading newspapers and chatting e he had his own ways of

entertainment I was thinking that it was exactly the lifestyle

that I was dreaming of But ever since he rented the 1047297rst 1047298oor of

his house to a shop owner I have never seen him again Is he

keeping his previous lifestyle with his leisureliness and idle-

ness I hope so but who knows rdquo


In sum the experiences of nature slow-pace lifestyle and

imagined rural others were fundamental to the constructed

knowledge of a serene rustic Chinese countryside The past was

often elicited to frame artistsrsquo anti-modern and anti-capitalist

subjectivities As the painter Chen Ke represented in his series of

paintings the place identity of Xiaozhou was captured as a remote

past with social relations and cultural meanings frozen in time

(Fig 5) In conjuring up such a cultural imagery of authentic rural

living artists also made attempts to incorporate their conceptions

of rurality into spaces of artistic production which contributed to

the transformation of local built environment by incorporating

certain 1047298avours of art into the reinvention of the local past For

example the artists demonstrated a unanimous preference for old

houses In Xiaozhou almost all the remaining houses older than a

hundred years had been converted into small galleries or studios

Normally artists would renovate houses and do slight decorations

using certain artistic elements (Fig 6) Yet all artists refused to

change the 1047298avours of rurality in any radical way The traditional

wooden doors to the houses the tall wooden roofs and the old

furniture were the most cherished cultural relics which were

deliberately and carefully preservedInterestingly even those artists who failed to rent a truly old

building would place in their more recently built housesa variety of

old furniture old crafts and other old objects collected from local

villagers in order to create an ambience of historical density Li

Huan a painter and handcrafter who nicknamed herself ldquogarbage

collectorrdquo suggested that nostalgia for cultural relics of the past

was intimately intertwined with the constitution of the artistsrsquo

identity

I am such a fanatic for old things and I collect old objects and old

furniture from all local villagers Local villagers do not know

how to appreciate the aesthetic values of old things and they

think those things are just useless e they tend to simply throw

out old objects I collect those things from villagers so that they

will not be disposed so carelessly Sometimes I buy them at very

low prices but often the villagers simply give them to me for

free

Interview with Li Huan painter and handcrafter

6 Rent-seeking behaviour commodi1047297cation of rural space

studenti1047297cation and the displacement of grassroots artists

61 The value of rural land as a contested discursive terrain

Avant-garde artistsrsquo anti-urbanist and anti-capitalist sentiments

determined that despite a notable booming of local market of

rented housing there was a relatively low degree of commodi1047297-

cation in the early artist-led gentri1047297cation process Most studios

were sustained on artistsrsquo own work and labour Some artists had

established small businesses such as a restaurant or handicraft

shop to provide basic livelihood Almost all avant-garde artists

whom we interviewed suggested that pro1047297t-making was not their

prioritised concern They unanimously claimed that commodi1047297ca-

tion was at odds with their understanding of authentic rural life-

style Avant-garde artists also refused to depict themselves as pureconsumers of rurality On the contrary they grounded their artistic

production and everyday life 1047297rmly in the ongoing construction of

the localnessof Xiaozhou In most artistsrsquo arrangements of spaces of

everyday life the space of production and the space of consump-

tion were highly overlapped in order to contest the rigid boundary

between the regimes of production and consumption which artists

believed to be typical of cultural logics of modernity A most

illustrative example was that in the cases of many artists the space

of artistic production was interwoven with other kinds of functions

and businesses Mr Ye a painter and sculptor who ran a small

restaurant blended his studio and restaurant together in the same

physical space and his restaurant itself could be used for displaying

his artistic works By working on his paintings and sculptures right

in front of dining customers he trespassed on the division of eco-nomic production and everyday reproduction in modernity thus

exhibiting 1047298avours of organic and primitive Chinese rural living

At the same time it seemed that local villagers were also less

active in commodifying the experiences of rural living to sell to

pioneer gentri1047297ers The relationship of commodity exchange be-

tween artists and local villagers was highly restricted to the pro-

vision of housing and other necessities such as foods and groceries

Other than that there seemed to be very limited social interaction

between them During our interviews most local villagers admitted

that they felt a remarkable cultural distance from artists and

therefore could not participate in the production and construction

of an aestheticised countryside ideal Many villagers described

themselves as ldquoless cultivatedrdquo people who had no ability to

appreciate art and thus could not understand the ways in whichartists constructed the imaginaries of rurality

Indeed during the initial stage of gentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou one

notable feature was the absence of any third-party agents facili-

tating the commodi1047297cation of rural space However although there

seemed to be a tacit agreement between local villagers and artists

to sustain a less commodi1047297ed local socio-economic environment

there was also an inherited tension between the two social groupsrsquo

cultural positions This tension was visible from the substantial

absence of engaged mutual contact between them but it most

obviously manifested itself in the two groupsrsquo radically different

interpretations of the values of rural land and space We have so far

discussed extensively that for avant-garde artists the village was a

crucial space for the enactment of particular cultural aesthetics But

for most villagers the place of Xiaozhou was intrinsically a space of

Fig 6 Artistsrsquo re-appropriation of domestic space of a rural house




economic production and mundane everyday life In villagersrsquo

narratives Xiaozhoursquos physical environment was inscribed with

memories of everyday routines e the rivers trees bridges and

houses were simply taken-for-granted elements of mundane eco-

nomic and social activities Most villagers whom we interviewed

showed little interest in preserving an uncontaminated rurality but

demonstrated a strong aspiration for modernisation and economic

prosperity Some other villagersrsquo attitudes were in an ambiguous

position between aspiration for modernisation and attentiveness to

preserving authentic place identity But even for those villagers the

preserved rurality should not be removed from economic prag-

matism the imageries of rurality should be used not simply for

spectacular consumption but also for attracting continuous eco-

nomic opportunities

As Ghose (2004) suggests during rural socio-spatial change

gentri1047297ers and more established local residents may demonstrate

radically different interpretations of values of rural land and space

The chasms between differentiated identities and positions

contribute to potential cultural con1047298icts In this study con1047298icts

between avant-garde gentri1047297ersrsquo and local villagersrsquo different in-

terpretations of values of rural land unfoldedin the ensuing process

of studenti1047297cation and in1047298ux of middle class We shall discuss this

second stage of rural gentri1047297cation in the following twosubsections

62 Rent-seeking commercialisation and studenti 1047297cation in

Xiaozhou

As Xiaozhou became famous as an artist enclave a large number

of art students began to move into the village seeking possible

training programmes from senior artists Most students were pre-

paring for the entrance examination of an art college or art school

In order to capitalise on the blooming market of art training some

middle-class professional artists also moved to Xiaozhou to

establish training institutions The in1047298ow of art students started

around the year 2007 and within nearly four yearsrsquo time the

student-related industries including housing provision and other

forms of social services became the cornerstones of local economy

in Xiaozhou During our interviews local villagers reported that

most households could at least earn an extra income of 20000

Chinese RMB every year from student-related economies mainly

the letting of housing Also there was now a huge stock of prop-

erties owned collectively by villagers and managed by the Village

Committee At the time of our 1047297eldwork approximately 80 art

training institutions had been set up in Xiaozhou

The distinct artistic ambience in Xiaozhou which was to a large

extent attributed to the presence of grassroots artists played a key

role in encouraging the concentration of art students As many

students suggested they came to Xiaozhou since they envisaged

the possibilities of establishing personal connections with avant-

garde artists in the villages

In Xiaozhou artists are engaged in almost all kinds of artistic

production Many of them are also skilled and renowned The

presence of different kinds of art and many artists can facilitate

our communication with senior colleagues which will be

extremely helpful to our pursuit of a career in art

Interview with an art student (Interview ST02)

But interestingly grassroots artists actually demonstrated a very

low degree of involvement in such art training programmes The

anti-commodi1047297cation position of grassroots artists determined

their cultural distance from the commercialisation of rural space for

the purpose of pro1047297t-making Qing-Yuan a photographer and 1047297lm

maker who had been living in Xiaozhou for four years expressed a

strong oppositional stance towards the use of rural space for arttraining courses

Why do they come to set up training institutions in Xiaozhou

The reason is simple they want money Other than that they

have no knowledge of what is the truly valuable legacy in the

village The process of commodi1047297cation will poison the rural

lifestyle in the village Money can be found everywhere but we

only have one place like Xiaozhou in Guangzhou


Hence economic opportunities created by the booming of art

training in Xiaozhou attracted other professional artists moving

into the village to meet studentsrsquo demands for training tutors Many

artists who established training institutions were from a middle

class background (including many college professors and culturalindustry professionals) and they normally required larger indoor

spaces than grassroots artists for the purposes of teaching and

training (Fig 7) In the meantime most art students preferred

seeking housing in the village during their studies simply for

conveniencersquos sake These two parallel processes jointly contrib-

uted to a recent explosion of thehousing rental market in Xiaozhou

A process of studenti1047297cation was now clearly noticeable As a

sample survey conducted by local Village Committee estimated5

while the number of avant-garde artists was around 500e1000

at least 8000 students came to Xiaozhou each year for a short-term

training scheme which normally lasted for two to four months It

seemed that students had already replaced grassroots artists as the

main force of local socio-spatial change

The studentsrsquo and new professional artists

rsquo demand for space in

the village 1047297tted perfectly with local villagersrsquo intent on rent-

seeking and local economic development Local villagers were

keen to accommodate the studentsrsquo demands for housing and

capitalise on the economic potential of studenti1047297cation Although

in rural China land is owned by the local community collectively

each rural household is actually allocated a speci1047297c plot of land for

the purpose of housing construction Thus theoretically every

household in Xiaozhou had access to economic interests generated

by the housing boom The extent to which a particular household

could bene1047297t from rural gentri1047297cation depended on the 1047297nancial

Fig 7 The built environment in Xiaozhoursquos recently developed ldquoNew Villagerdquo

5

The researchersrsquo interview with Xiaozhou Village Committee December 2012




means they could mobilise for the construction of extra housing

space6 Compared to avant-garde artists most local villagers

preferred letting houses to students as the latter group carried

with them slightly higher levels of economic capital due to parentsrsquo

1047297nancial support and thus afforded higher housing rent In the

meantime art students normally required less space than artists

Thereby a multi-storey building could be divided into several one-

bedroom 1047298ats and let to a number of students simultaneously This

pattern of housing consumption to some extent was similar to the

mode of House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in urban Britain

(Hubbard 2008) but with relatively shorter tenancy and less so-

phisticated provision of housing facilities

Studenti1047297cation in Xiaozhou drastically re-shaped the local

built environment and socioeconomic structure On the one hand

heavy investment was made by local villagers on the renovation

and construction of housing stocks Since 2008 local villagers had

demolished a large number of traditional-style houses to make

room for constructing new multi-storey houses Three reasons

explained the substitution of newly built houses for old ones First

as the number of art students increased signi1047297cantly during a

short period of time the traditional architectural structure of

houses with its limited space and number of rooms available

could hardly meet the bursting demands from students Secondhouses built in a traditional style were dif 1047297cult to be divided into

multiple 1047298ats Third in the context of rural China every rural

household is entitled to use only one plot of local land for housing

construction ( zhaijidi in Chinese) Due to the limited availability of

land for each household it seemed that new housing spaces in

Xiaozhou had to be built upon ruins of old ones Normally newly

built houses were with a plain architectural style and equipped

with modern housing facilities such as en-suite toilettes and

douches With a more economised and rational arrangement of

space a multi-storey building could simultaneously accommodate

6 to 10 art students which was a highly pro1047297table enterprise for

local villagers

On the other hand with a rapidly increasing student population

a whole array of commodi1047297ed community services had emerged inthe village Unlike avant-garde artists art students usually acted as

pure consumers and their everyday reproduction relied thor-

oughly upon local villagersrsquo provision of consumption services Our

interviews with art students suggested that although studenti1047297ers

did not possess high levels of economic capital themselves a

considerable proportion of them were nonetheless from middle

class families Financial support from families meant that many of

them did possess considerable amounts of disposable cash (nor-

mally 2000 RMB per month for one student) To capitalise on stu-

dentsrsquo spending power spaces of consumption like restaurants

stores bookshops bars and cafeacutes had mushroomed in the village

during the past four years Some of those new spaces of con-

sumption were even run by business owners who were not native

to the village and their presence also created new opportunities of rent-seeking for local villagers

To meet the increasing demands for student housing the

village itself extended its physical boundaries beyond the histor-

ical village Due to Xiaozhoursquos status as a municipal ldquoHistorical

and Cultural Protected Areardquo demolition of old houses and con-

struction of new ones were regarded to be at odds with the

Municipal Governmentrsquos project of historical preservation Hence

demolition and construction within the historical village were

closely monitored by the local state As a result much of the

recent construction of housing space took place in a newly

developed area which was originally agricultural Development of

this area targeted primarily students middle class artists and art

training institutions With intensive construction of new built

environment this area had already grown into a territorially

unique space combining various functions of artistic production

training and consumption Local villagers called this newly

developed area the ldquoNew Villagerdquo and it could be seen as the

strongest manifestation so far of the local communityrsquos initiatives

of economic development

63 The in 1047298ux of middle class artists and the dynamic of

displacement

Almost at the same time as studenti1047297cation and rapid devel-

opment of consumption businesses an increasing number of urban

middle class 1047298owed into Xiaozhou In a similar vein tourism had

recently emerged as well Other than middle class artists who ran

training institutions two other types of urban middle class werenow visible in the village elitist urban artists operating commercial

art galleries and business people who opened 1047297rms in the village

for trading antiques and art works Both groups were also keen on

the consumption of idyllic rurality Similar to avant-garde artists

they were attracted to rural nature and slow-pace lifestyle They

also preferred living in renovated old houses and decorating their

galleries and shops with old furniture and local handicrafts How-

ever they were much more directly involved in pro1047297t-making and

commodi1047297cation

Meanwhile due to the rapid growth of housing rental market

the rents for housing and studios in the village dramatically

increased As we have pointed out earlier villagers in Xiaozhou

had an inherited right to local land and thus ran no risk of being

displaced Resultantly it was grassroots artists who were mostvulnerable to displacement elicited by increased housing rent

During the 1047297rst stage of rural gentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou it was

avant-garde artists who initiated the closing of the rent gap in

rural land (Darling 2005) but this process was constrained by the

limitation of grassroots artistsrsquo economic power In the second

stage studenti1047297ers and urban middle class incomers further

released the potential of rural land value Within the dynamics of

the evaporation and revalorisation of rural land value it was

grassroots artists who eventually suffered from capital-induced

displacement

Although we had no access to accurate and systematic data on

the increase of local housing rent there was a general impression

amongst grassroots artists that the average level of housing rent in

Xiaozhou at least doubled since the large-scale in1047298ow of stu-denti1047297ers and urban middle class gentri1047297ers In consequence

grassroots artists who could no longer afford housing costs were

being displaced involuntarily from the village But the issue of

affordability wasonly one facet of a complex story Due to the large-

scale demolition of old houses and intensifying commodi1047297cation in

Xiaozhou avant-garde artistsrsquo romanticised representations of

rurality had been more and more disarticulated from socioeco-

nomic realities For them the once cherished rural space of identity

performance had been profoundly reduced to a space of economic

pragmatism Hence even many artists who possessed relatively

higher levels of economic capital and thus were less vulnerable to

increased housing costs were moving out of Xiaozhou to seek

alternative locations in the cityrsquos periphery which could satiate

their never-ending pursuit for authentic rurality

6 The situation might be somehow different when economic values are generated

from properties collectively owned by the villagers and managed by the Village

Committee since during our interviews a number of villagers reported that village

leaders may bene1047297t more from the incomes produced by these properties through

black box transactions and ldquocorruptionrdquo Yet we do not have solid empirical evi-

dence to support the villagersrsquo accusation




7 Conclusion

In this paper we have adopted a context-motivation-actor

framework to unpack the complexities of the socioeconomic pro-

cesses cultural identities and power relations underlying the

immigration and gentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou Village It 1047297rst positions

the socio-spatial changes in Xiaozhou in a broad political economic

context of post-productivist rural decline Authentic rurality in

Xiaozhou was a socially and politically mediated product largely

attributed to Guangzhou Municipal Governmentrsquos top-down

manoeuvre of place-making and space-production The paper

then proceeds to examine the cultural identities which motivated

pioneer gentri1047297ersrsquo movement to Xiaozhou In particular it pre-

sents a detailed account of grassroots artistsrsquo discursive construc-

tion of nature slow-pace rural lifestyle and innocent sincere rural

others Similar to marginal rural settlers analysed by Halfacree

(2001 2004 2008) Xiaozhou offered grassroots artists a life-

world which countered capitalist economic relations and domi-

nant cultural zeitgeists in post-reform urban China The romantic

and bohemian cultural ambience cultivated by pioneer artists soon

started to feed into more substantial economic interests The in1047298ux

of economic capital e in the form of the spending power of stu-

denti1047297ers and urban middle class e

had been coupled with localvillagersrsquo exclusive discretion in land development and housing

construction

This paper has employed a relatively 1047298exible and less closed

approach to understand the complex processes of immigration

gentri1047297cation and commodi1047297cation In the 1047297rst place we view

rural gentri1047297ers as a social group which has been formed through

collective actions common projects and shared cultural sensi-

tivities (Murdoch 1995) This perspective has enabled us to draw

from discussions on artists in urban gentri1047297cation literature and

conceptualise grassroots low-income artists as pioneer gentri-

1047297ers in a rural context In the case of Xiaozhou pioneer artists rsquo

cultural aesthetics and identity positions were intrinsically anti-

capitalist and anti-urban Yet they were no less agents of

commodi1047297cation and gentri1047297cation than studenti1047297ers and middleclass immigrants since it was precisely the cultural capital which

they accumulated that initiated the closing of local rent gap

Second this study has analysed rural gentri1047297cation as co-

produced by both appropriation of rural space by immigrants

and the local communityrsquos initiatives of economic development

We have thereby examined local rural residents as active agents

in both the valorisation of housing value and the local economic

restructuring

For Xiaozhou social and economic power exercised to shape the

process of gentri1047297cation was dispersed and embedded in the

complexities of social and economic relations We have opened our

view to both intra- and inter-class relationships (Phillips 1993

Hines 2010) The complex and unsettled social relations between

rural gentri1047297ers and the local community manifested themselves infairly different ways in Xiaozhoursquos two stages of gentri1047297cation At

the 1047297rst stage gentri1047297cation was unfurled in seemingly harmo-

nious winewin transaction between in-coming grassroots artists

and local villagers At the second stage grassroots artists were

situated in tensioned relationships with others agents in rural

socio-spatial restructuring including rent-seeking villagers middle

class artists and students who were also in a shortage of economic

capital but could profoundly reshape local housing niche with their

sheer number With local villagersrsquo aspiration for economic pros-

perity further catalysed by the concentration of art students

business-oriented artists and other middle class immigrants rent-

seeking behaviour induced a surge of deepened commodi1047297cation

and studenti1047297cation which eventually resulted in the displacement

of grassroots artists

In sum this paper views rural gentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou as an

evolving process which proceeded along the fermentation mani-

festation and intensi1047297cation of the interactions and con1047298icts among

various value orientations cultural orientations and identity posi-

tions In this process institutional factors e namely urbanisation

programmes the preservation regulation imposed by the local

state and the system of land ownership in rural China e played

indirect yet quintessential roles in setting up the broader structural

contexts for rural changes Noticeably local villagers in Xiaozhou

undermined representations of victimised rural locals which have

frequented existing literature on rural gentri1047297cation Quite the

contrary motivated by strong aspiration for economic development

in face of rampant urbanisation and modernisation local villagers

became the crucial players in activating and intensifying Xiaozhoursquos

social and economic restructuring

This study attempts to enrich extant understandings of rural

gentri1047297cation in non-Western contexts and broaden the analytical

perspectives in gentri1047297cation studies It does not view consump-

tion and production as mutually separate domains of analysis

Rather cultural agency which motivates the consumption of rural

space articulates with social circumstances and political economic

contexts in which reproduction of land and housing values is

rendered possible The discussion on the special roles of govern-ment policies and institutional arrangements in Xiaozhoursquos socio-

spatial transformation also has the potential of adding a new

dimension to rural gentri1047297cation explanation Overall this paper

shows that explanations of the perplexing dynamics of rural

immigration and gentri1047297cation can bene1047297t from more 1047298exible and

1047298uid conceptualisations of ldquogentri1047297ersrdquo and ldquogentri1047297cationrdquo as a

whole

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Liyun Qian and Bin Liu for their

contributions to the 1047297eldwork and Yuxuan Xu for producing Fig 1

We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers andProfessor Michael Woods for their valuable comments suggestions

and guidance This research is supported by National Science

Foundation of China (NSFC Grant Numbers 41322003 41271180

41171140 and 41271183) and National Social Science Funds of China

(NSSFC Grant number 11ampZD154)

References

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Bijker RA Haartsen T 2012 More than counter-urbanisation migration to pop-ular and less-popular rural areas in the Netherlands Popul Space Place 18643e657

Bunce M 2005 The Countryside Ideal Routledge LondonBunting TE Mitchell CJA 2001 Artists in rural locales market access landscape

appeal and economic exigency Can Geogr 45 268e284Cameron S Coaffee J 2005 Art gentri1047297cation and regeneration - from artist as

pioneer to public arts Eur J Hous Policy 5 39e58Caul1047297eld J 1994 City Form and Everyday Life Torontorsquos Gentri1047297cation and Critical

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Champion AG 2002 Testing the differential urbanization model in Great Britain1901e1991 Tijdschr Econ Soc Geogr 94 11e22

Christaller W 1963 Some Considerations of Tourism Location in Europe the Pe-ripheral Regions-underdeveloped Countries-recreation Areas Regional ScienceAssociation Papers XII Lund Congress pp 95e105

Clay P 1979 Neighborhood Renewal Middle-class Resettlement and Incumbent

Upgrading in American Neighborhoods DC Heath Lexington




Cloke P 1997 Country backwater to virtual village Rural studies and rsquothe culturalturnrsquo J Rural Stud 13 367e375

Cloke P Little J 1990 The Rural State Limits to Planning in Rural Society OxfordUniversity Press Oxford

Cloke P Phillips M Rankin D 1991 Middle-class housing choice channels of entry into Gower South Wales In Champion T Watkins C (Eds) People inthe Countryside Studies of Social Change in Rural Britain Paul ChapmanLondon pp 38e52

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464Halfacree K 1994 The importance of rsquothe ruralrsquo in the constitution of coun-

terurbanization evidence from England in the 1980s Sociol Rural 34 164e

189Halfacree K 2001 Constructing the object taxonomic practices rsquocounter-

urbanisationrsquo and repositioning marginal rural settlements Popul Space Place

7 395e

411Halfacree K 2004 A utopian imagination in migrationrsquos terra incognitaAcknowledging the non-economic worlds of migration decision-making PopulSpace Place 10 239e253

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Halfacree K 2008 To revitalise counterurbanisation research Recognising aninternational and fuller picture Popul Space Place 14 479e495

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Hines JD 2010 Rural gentri1047297cation as permanent tourism the creation of the`Newrsquo West Archipelago as postindustrial cultural space Environ Plan D Soc

Space 28 509e

525Hines JD 2012 The post-industrial regime of productionconsumption and the

rural gentri1047297cation of the new west archipelago Antipode 44 (1) 74e97Hoggart K 1997 Rural migration and counterurbanization in the European pe-

riphery the case of Andaluciacutea Sociol Rural 37 134e153Hoggart K 2007 The diluted working classes of rural England and Wales J Rural

Stud 23 305e317Hubbard P 2008 Regulating the impacts of studenti1047297cation a Loughborough case

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Mitchell CJA Bunting TE Piccioni M 2004 Visual artists counter-urbanites inthe Canadian countryside Can Geogr 48 152e167

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University Press New Brunswick




more often than not gentri1047297cation has started to take place with

arrivals of urban middle class artists tourists businessmen and

various other social groups

In this paper we examine the socio-spatial restructuring of peri-

urban rural areas in China by interrogating processes of urban-to-

rural migration rural gentri1047297cation and accompanying social

economic and cultural transformations in Xiaozhou Village

Guangzhou We tell a story of how the immigration of avant-garde

artists initiated rural socio-economic transformation and how this

evolving process was related to municipal government policies

artistsrsquo aesthetics of authentic rurality and local villagersrsquo aspira-

tion for economic development Here the term ldquoauthentic ruralityrdquo

refers to Xiaozhoursquos many resemblances to socio-cultural realities

and traditional ways of life in Chinarsquos remote past But it also im-

plicates idealised and romanticised representations which neither

the past nor the current Xiaozhou could live up to Our viewpoint in

this paper is that Xiaozhoursquos local attributes evoked a conception of

rurality which did bear certain traces of social realities but was

nonetheless radically reconstructed and reframed within a number

of abstracted ideas and vocabularies

The unprecedented urban expansion in Guangzhou and rural

preservation regulation imposed by the Municipal Government

situated Xiaozhou in a development dilemma which renderedpossible the immigration of urban grassroots artists What under-

pinned urbanitesrsquo move into Xiaozhou was an emerging cultural

consciousnessin a fast developing China that the rural wasengraved

with alternative symbolic meanings and social relations distinct

from logics of development and the market (Oakes 2009) Both

modernist pursuits for economic growth and postmodern emphasis

on subjective well-being underlay the consumption of Xiaozhou

(Qun et al 2012) As Xiaozhou was associated with the label of ldquoart

villagerdquo with its combination of both rural aesthetics and avant-

garde art intensifying commodi1047297cation of rural space took place

owing to the in1047298ows of both art students seeking art training ser-

vices and a relatively small amount of urban middle class

This paper employs the term ldquorural gentri1047297cationrdquo to charac-

terise rural incomersrsquo consumption of rural aesthetics and theensuing valorisation of local land and housing Yet it also develops

an overview of literatures on counter-urbanisation and rural

immigration to situate stories of Xiaozhou into broader intellectual

contexts Besidesthis paper spotlights the ways in which local rural

residents acted as active agents in the commodi1047297cation of rural

space During Xiaozhoursquos two-stage rural gentri1047297cation local vil-

lagersrsquo involvement was essential to the translation of rural aes-

thetics into substantial economic gains They capitalised on rural

gentri1047297cation by pro1047297ting from housing rents and providing com-

munity services The convergence of artistsrsquo astheticisation of rural

living and villagersrsquo rent-seeking behaviour led to dramatic socio-

spatial changes in this rural community which had been previ-

ously less sensitive to land and housing values This study combines

both production and consumption side analyses to examinegentri1047297cation in Xiaozhou It aims to add to our understandings of

the intricate relations between urban expansion the production of

cultural meanings and the commodi1047297cation of rural space in the

context of the dynamic transformation of a fast developing

economy

2 The time-spaces of counter-urbanisation and rural

gentri1047297cation

21 Counter-urbanisation rural gentri 1047297cation in the context of

rural socio-spatial change

Since the 1970s studies of the industrialised societies in the

West have made substantial efforts to gauge the reversal of

population concentration in major metropolitan areas namely the

process of counter-urbanisation Champion (1989a) describes

counter-urbanisation as the redistribution of population from

concentration in major metropolitan areas towards smaller

metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan territories Mitchell

(2004) has noticed in counter-urbanisation the migration of pop-

ulation which is downward along the hierarchy of human settle-

ments namely from major metropolitan areas to smaller urban

concentrations or non-metropolitan rural settlements Certainly

counter-urbanisation is not always a migrational phenomenon

natural growth of non-metropolitan settlements also re-shapes

distributive patterns of national population In this paper howev-

er we focus on the role which urban-to-rural migration plays in

contributing to counter-urbanisation

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s growths of rural population

were observed across Europe (eg Fielding 1982 Kontuly and

Vogelsang 1988 Champion 1989b 2001) and in other industri-

alised societies such as the United States (Berry1980) and Australia

(Hugo and Smailes 1985) While factors contributing to counter-

urbanisation are arguably diverse and also vary between

different socioeconomic contexts cross-cultural analyses have

spotlighted three sets of causal relations In the 1047297rst place a po-

litical economic approach towards counter-urbanisation has fore-grounded the spread of economic activities and employment

opportunities into rural areas (Berry 1980 Champion 1989a

2002) Fieldingrsquos (1989) well-known thesis on the relationships

between counter-urbanisation and rural economic restructuring

for example contends that the in1047298ux of metropolitan population

into ruralareas was the outcome of relocations of previouslyurban-

based managerial and service jobs As a result rural areas wit-

nessed a rapid increase of the service class but much lower

immigration rates of the working class Lower labour costs in rural

areas further motivated the dispersal of economic activities in a

postmodern age (Fielding 1982 Dean et al 1984 Coombes et al

1989)

A second major incentive for counter-urban migration is the

greater availability of inexpensive housing in non-metropolitanareas (Dean et al 1984 Champion 2002) Vartiainenrsquos (1989a

1989b) study of rural population growth in Finland provides an

example of how the dream of younger families with meagre eco-

nomic resources to become owner-occupants could be realised only

in non-metropolitan settlements Finally environmental and social

amenities in rural areas and rural lifestyles are also key attractions

to counter-urbanites Cultural meanings and symbols associated

with rural life are translated into romantic geographical imagina-

tions This on the one hand explains the considerable presence of

retired people in urban-to-rural immigration (Dean et al 1984

Champion 1989b) On the other hand the non-economic or

ldquophenomenologicalrdquo (Dean et al 1984) aspects of rurality

contribute profoundly to ruralward movements of economically

active social groups in particular members of the expanding ser-vice class

Given the diversity of socioeconomic factors related to counter-

urbanisation and rural immigration it is reasonable to assume that

rural immigrantsrsquo class identities socioeconomic statuses and in-

tentions of migration are inherently heterogeneous Due to the

economic and pragmatic reasons for rural immigration such as

employment opportunities and a search for cheap housing it is

unsurprising that members of the working class have been

frequently represented in analyses of the socioeconomic compo-

sitions of rural immigrants (Sant and Simons 1993 van Dam et al

2002 Bijker and Haartsen 2012) Neither do economic activities of

rural working class indicate a cohesive and uniform occupational

community (Hoggart 2007) Surelythis argument does not need to

be at the expense of a broad observation that middle class counter-

































































urban gentri1047297











































2010 2012)



























wilderness


this research
















and Coaffee 2005)






































2011)













for two reasons









































economic capital





























































3 Methodology





























in housing costs













transformation


regulation

















city proper (Fig 1)
























construction2














































































with the village




































interview










Guangzhou


















































absolute truth






















(Featherstone 1989)






































of consumerism

































































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e























































































urban gentri1047297











































2010 2012)



























wilderness


this research
















and Coaffee 2005)






































2011)













for two reasons









































economic capital





























































3 Methodology





























in housing costs













transformation


regulation

















city proper (Fig 1)
























construction2














































































with the village




































interview










Guangzhou


















































absolute truth






















(Featherstone 1989)






































of consumerism

































































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e





























wilderness


this research
















and Coaffee 2005)






































2011)













for two reasons









































economic capital





























































3 Methodology





























in housing costs













transformation


regulation

















city proper (Fig 1)
























construction2














































































with the village




































interview










Guangzhou


















































absolute truth






















(Featherstone 1989)






































of consumerism

































































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e











































































3 Methodology





























in housing costs













transformation


regulation

















city proper (Fig 1)
























construction2














































































with the village




































interview










Guangzhou


















































absolute truth






















(Featherstone 1989)






































of consumerism

































































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e

































city proper (Fig 1)
























construction2














































































with the village




































interview










Guangzhou


















































absolute truth






















(Featherstone 1989)






































of consumerism

































































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e
















































with the village




































interview










Guangzhou


















































absolute truth






















(Featherstone 1989)






































of consumerism

































































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e












































absolute truth






















(Featherstone 1989)






































of consumerism

































































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e

















































less unpolluted air




























































Xiaozhou




























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e





























































identity








free








































































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e







































nomic opportunities











Xiaozhou










































































5






































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e



























































local villagers



































displacement



























displacement



























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e


























7 Conclusion























construction



















restructuring
















































whole

Acknowledgements








References








































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e


















































7 395e









Space 28 509e










2527e2544

















e427


















17e





































Documents

Aestheticisation Rent Seeking and Rural Gentrification Amidst China s Rapid Urbanisation the Case of Xiaozhou Village Guangzhou 2013 Journal of Rural