Ending gated communities: the rationales for resistance in China

Abstract

Although gated communities (GCs) have spread globally, their prevalence in China is often attributed to China’s unique tradition of gated living. In 2016, China announced policy recommendations intending to end GCs, which faced societal resistance. To elucidate the nature of this resistance, we interviewed experienced Chinese officials, practitioners, and scholars—who, inevitably, were themselves GC residents. They challenge the policy in two ways: policy-rejectors justify gating as common sense and stress risks of ungating, whereas policy-sympathizers understand the policy shift but doubt its feasibility. Their rationales reveal ingrained cognitive dissonance and entrenched state-society tension. Such sentiments that resist ungating collectively create practical and ideological barriers to mitigating housing segregation. China’s GCs showcase how private production of civic goods prioritizes market rules and promotes individual values. China’s failure in ungating suggests that the prevalence of privately produced communities can justify exclusion, normalize “gated mindsets,” and reinforce socioeconomic and spatial inequalities.

Keywords:

• Gated communities
• social resistance
• housing development
• club goods
• gated mindsets
• China

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by Samuel Tak Lee Seed Grant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We thank reviewers for Housing Studies and participants of the Urban China Writing Workshop who provided insights and expertise that greatly improved our work. We also thank ZHENG Siqi, XU Miao, LIU Jian, TAN Jialu, and all our interviewees who assisted the research, although they may not agree with all of the interpretations/conclusions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Colleen Chiu-Shee

Colleen Chiu-Shee upon completion of PhD will join the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore for a postdoctoral fellowship. After NUS-ARI, she will join the University of Hong Kong as Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning.

Brent D. Ryan

Brent D. Ryan is Head of the City Design and Development Group and Associate Professor of Urban Design and Public Policy in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. His research focuses on the aesthetics and policies of contemporary urban design, particularly with respect to current and pressing issues like deindustrialization and climate change.

Lawrence J. Vale

Lawrence J. Vale is Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning at MIT, where he is Associate Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning. He served as Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 2002 until January 2009. He has taught in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning since 1988, and he is currently the director of the Resilient Cities Housing Initiative (RCHI), a unit of the School’s Center for Advanced Urbanism. He was president of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History for 2011–2013.