Urban China talks: Lifestyle Migration in Urban China

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Escaping to Dalifornia: Lifestyle Migration in Urban China

By Yawei Zhao, Lecturer, University of Manchester

This presentation explores the intersection of migration studies and urban studies, focusing on the case of Dali, a small city that has experienced urban transformations due to lifestyle migration. During the past decade, newcomers have flocked to this city, some of whom called it Dalifornia as its atmosphere reminds them of California. The first part of the talk examines the relationship between lifestyle migration and urbanization through the lens of "extended urbanization.” The notion, introduced by Henri Lefebvre and then developed by Neil Brenner and other urban theorists, is used to unpack socio-spatial changes of Dali. I argue that extended urbanization has unfolded in a distinct mode that I call lifestyle-oriented urbanization, in addition to tourism urbanization that is already happening in the city. At the local scale, urban processes extend from cities to peri-urban areas, while at the national scale, urban processes extend from economically prominent cities like Beijing and Guangzhou to peripheral places like Dali. The second part of the talk zooms in on how lifestyle migrants have contributed to lifestyle-oriented urbanization in Dali by means of three forms of place-making: creative, aesthetic, and transgressive. Overall, this presentation discusses how lifestyle migration sparks socio-spatial transformations in peripheral places that are often overlooked in urban studies and how these changes have, in turn, sustained lifestyle migration.

Yawei Zhao is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on digital technologies and infrastructures within the urban context, and she is particularly interested in how peripheral places have been transformed by the fast-growing digital economy. Yawei also works on the intersection of lifestyle migration and urbanization. Her research has been funded by the British Academy, IJURR Foundation, and Mitacs Canada, and it has appeared in Environment and Planning E, Cities, Geoforum, Housing Studies, and Urban Geography, among others.