BEIJING On May 14, Peter Ho presented his new book ‘Unmaking China’s Development: The Function and Credibility of Institutions’ at the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands (press release). The event was well-attended with representatives of the China Ministry of Natural Resources, Wall Street Journal, Ford Foundation, CITIC, Singapore Straits Times, and the Dutch Financial Daily. See below for some visual impressions.

Opening by the Deputy Ambassador

Prof. Ho presenting

A difficult case of urban renewal

Talking about ex-ownership issues

Q&A chaired by the Cultural Attache

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WUZHEN In the beautiful town of Wuzhen, Rem Koolhaas, architect of the CCTV Building in Beijing and the Pritzker Prize laureate, hosted an “interview marathon”. During this event he held non-stop interviews on new trends in China’s agriculture with leading intellectuals, artists, writers, planners and officials. Koolhaas engaged in the interviews through a high-speed video-conference link, each interview lasting 20 minutes. The interviewed persons included the rural thinker Wen Tiejun, Professor Peter Ho, PLA Genenal Zhu Chenghu, and the renowned novelist Chen Danqing. For more information, see the program.

Prof. Ho during the interview by Koolhaas

Wen Tiejun and PLA general Zhu Chenghu

The audience

Famous writer Chen Danqing

Prof. Ho during the interview by Koolhaas

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Due to great interest of the session’s topic the PLPR organizers decided to allocate three slots for the session ‘Credibility of Informality’. This allowed for three inspiring sessions – chaired by Peter Ho, Rachelle Alterman and Benjamin Davy – with presentations on the related topics of planning, land and housing in a variety of contexts, including Israel, Serbia, China and Hong Kong. 

Please read the full report here.

Video impressions:

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