Behind the Faces of Aestheticized Urbanism in Tunxi, China

Abstract Urban policy in China has become increasingly predicated on securing an approved aesthetic that reflects ideological campaigns and political programmes. In highlighting the role of the aesthetic in Chinese urbanism, this article argues that the party‐state draws on an aesthetic palette that places the contemporary urban landscape in a historical narrative of orderly central power and authority. China's aestheticized urbanism is standardized, commodified and sanitized, with the result that the living and working conditions of local residents are subordinated to political and economic priorities. The argument runs counter to recent work highlighting an apparently more emollient approach to urban development. The article draws on the case of Tunxi, a small but important urban settlement in eastern China, close to the celebrated Huangshan mountains and at the centre of one of the country's historical regional cultures. The project to regenerate Tunxi and attract more tourists involved demolishing older buildings, removing residents and constructing new traditional‐style commercial outlets in a pattern familiar throughout China. In this way, a specific understanding of what traditional culture means and looks like is designed into the urban landscape with the aim of presenting an officially sanctioned scripting of history and relegating residents to the city outskirts.