Daqing and China’s quest for oil: between survival and ingenuity in times of resource scarcity

Daqing in China is well-known as a, if not the, “Chinese oil city”. However, the reasons behind its importance for the People’s Republic of China and the origins of its current spatial organization remain unclear. “How was such growth achieved against the backdrop of the so-called de-urbanization processes? What was occurring at the local level? What happened to the people of my parents’ generation?” Hou Li, a leading Chinese urban scholar, addresses these questions in her latest book, Building for Oil, explaining how the lowering of urban construction standards to the level of rural ones, the focus of investments on production, and the reliance on individual commitment led to China’s unprecedented growth. Despite the absence (or the concealment) of a critical opinion on the part of the author on the events and decisions described, this contribution is of particular importance to understand the path leading to contemporary China.