Includes bibliographical references (pages 168-198) and index.
Socialist space, postcolonial time -- Travelling urban form : the neighbourhood unit in China -- Work unit modernism -- The socialist production of space : planning, urban contradictions, and the politics of consumption in Beijing, 1949-1965 -- Modernity as utopia : planning the people's commune, 1958-1960 -- The latency of tradition : on the vicissitudes of walls -- The new frontier : urban space and everyday practice in the reform era -- Epilogue.