Abstract：There is a paradox in China about the use of the concept of the “suburb”. On the one hand, it is a concept widely used in sociology, urban planning, and other humanities. On the other hand, the use of this concept is relatively narrow. Some scholars use the concept of urban and rural areas to analyze the society, pay little or no attention to the particularity of the suburbs. This is mainly due to the lack of discussion of when the Chinese conception of suburbs was formed. Some scholars believe that Beijing in the Qing Dynasty had a suburban boundary, perhaps the earliest urban “suburb” in the world. But the more popular view in the academic world is that this is a widely used concept matured in the late 1980s. Both of these views are debatable. In general, the academic field is rather vague when using this concept. This undoubtedly limits the scope of its use, which in turn limits the space for its discussion. This thesis mainly discusses the formation process of modern suburbs. In modern times, with the development of social economy, some cities are prospering, urban municipal and autonomous problems have gradually become prominent, and the traditional urban-rural combined governance system has also been questioned. Ever since the establishment of the Nanjing National Government, there has been a wave of city establishment in China, some cities and villages have been eventually divided and governed, and municipal governments have been established. However, not all cities were considered suitable for setting up municipal government. Restricted by various financial conditions, some municipal governments were abandoned soon after they were established. At the beginning of the establishment of municipal governments, the scope of the city was basically limited to the area within the original city wall, and the rural areas were largely excluded from urban governance. However, the municipal governments have rarely been content to limit their jurisdiction to the original area, so they were and still are trying to expand to surrounding rural areas. Some rural residents resisted on the grounds of “separation of urban and rural areas” and were unwilling to be included in urban jurisdiction. However, each municipal government still gradually expanded their urban limits, eventually forming urban suburbs. Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese invasion, the use of “rural” classifications was more common. But after the Chinese victory in the war, the term “suburban” became more prevalent. After having suburbs, cities are no longer purely industrial and commercial gathering places, but have included vast rural hinterlands. In a certain sense, the emergence of suburbs means that urban and rural areas are once again governed. Suburbs are assigned various functional orientations in urban plans formulated by cities. Some of these have been realized, and the suburban face has changed dramatically. However, most city’s urban plans are difficult to implement, rendering makes the potential of suburbs unrealized. The construction of public facilities is also concentrated in the urban areas, and suburbs are neglected; the gap between the suburbs and centres is becoming more and more obvious. Also, the rural attributes of the suburbs are not taken seriously, and most cities do not have specialized agencies for their management and construction. Coupled with the constraints of the financial system at that time, there have been many inconsistencies and difficulties in suburban governance. However, some cities such as Nanjing have actively started to explore suburban construction, and Qingdao has also been relatively successful. This is mainly because of the fact that it is not entirely city-centered, which paid attention to the rural attributes of the suburbs, sets up more flexible governance institutions, and provided financial support. Although Qingdao’s approach has been used for reference by other cities, it has not had a national impact. Sorting out the concept of suburb will help to expand the research space of history and other disciplines, and besides the concept of urban and rural areas, attention should also be paid to the use of the concept of the suburb.
訾夏威. 郊归何处：近代中国城乡分治格局下的郊区形成与治理困境[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2022, 52(5): 151-164.
Zi Xiawei. Where Is the Suburb? The Formation and Governance Dilemma of Suburbs in the Pattern of Modern China's Urban-Rural Partition. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2022, 52(5): 151-164.
2022, Vol. 52 
