Over the past decade, China has invested tremendously in infrastructure development, resulting in dramatic social and cultural changes in both rural and urban regions. It has also promoted an infrastructural development model beyond its borders as part of a newly aggressive foreign policy. Supported by an Asian Responsive Grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, China Made began as a partnership between the Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKIHSS). We have also partnered with the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore and the University of Toronto Asian Institute at the Munk School for Public Policy. China Made explores both of domestic and international dimensions of China’s infrastructure development. The project is meant to shift the research focus from broader geopolitical and international relations perspectives to a finer grained analysis of the infrastructures themselves and the on-the-ground social, cultural, and political dimensions of their construction. We have to date held four academic conferences, in Boulder, Hong Kong, Singapore (held remotely), and Toronto. The project also supported postdoctoral and graduate research positions, and the development of online scholarly resources for project participants and the broader academic community.
For more information, please see the press release from the CU Boulder Magazine for Arts & Sciences here.