This project will focus on three different case studies of old neighborhood reconstruction in Guangzhou at three critical moments of the process of China’s urbanization since the early twentieth century. It aims at adding significant historical complexity to conventional accounts of post-Mao processes of urbanization, while challenging master narratives of urban transformation that give too much agency to state actors. The project will make an important contribution to recent debates on infrastructure, power, and governance in the fields of urban studies, anthropology, post-colonial studies, and STS, adding a much-needed non-Western perspective into what remains a largely Western-centric research agenda.