Macau as Method: Recombinant Urbanism in Post-Socialist China

In 'Asia as Method', Chen Kuan-Hsing argues for the value of an indigenous inter-Asian approach to analysing the effects of European imperialism on the countries and citizens of Asia. This article mobilises both Chen's inter-Asian referencing strategy and the city-state of Macau to explore Macau's role in China's engagements with global capitalism. Macau was a European enclave in the Middle Kingdom, the site of China's initial encounter with capitalism during the Ming era, and the country's longest-enduring foreign territory. Adopting a geological or new materialist approach to Chinese urbanism, the article tracks the reiteration of the socio-spatial Macau model in China's 19th century treaty port concessions, 20th century special economic zones, Greater Bay Area megacity, and the new demonstration zone of Hengqin Island, which is adjacent to Macau. The use of 'Macau as method' demonstrates the city's function in a recombinant spatial logic of development in which antecedent geo-spatial forms from China's earlier encounters with capitalism are recovered and reused. As such, Macau serves as an indigenous model for China's contemporary post-socialist development.