Source: School of Geography and Planning
Written by: School of Geography and Planning
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

As one of the summer semester’s postgraduate teaching activities of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), the “First Doctoral Students Forum of China Urbanization Research” was held successfully on September 1-3, 2014. The forum was co-organized by School of Geography and Planning at SYSU, Institute of Urbanization at SYSU, Cultural Industry and Cultural Geography Research Center at South China Normal University (SCNU), and Guangdong Urban & Rural Planning and Design Institute. The theme of the forum is "Contemporary Chinese Urban Transformation". A total of 24 doctoral students from 13 universities including Southeast University, Tongji University, Renmin University of China and The University of Hong Kong took part in the forum.

In the opening ceremony of the forum, Zhu Hong, Vice President of South China Normal University; Gao Jiuqun, Director of Academic Training Office of Graduate School at SYSU; Zhang Yuanxun, Secretary of School of Geography and Planning at SYSU; and Chen Xiaohong, Deputy Dean of School of Geography and Planning at SYSU, delivered welcome speeches respectively. The forum invited Professor Su Xiaobo from Department of Geography at University of Oregon, Professor Zhu Hong from School of Geography at SCNU, Professor Wang Xingping from School of Architecture at Southeast University, Professor Ma Xiangming from Guangdong Urban & Rural Planning and Design Institute, and Professor Yuan Qifeng from School of Geography and Planning at SYSU to give 5 academic reports. In addition, 24 reports by doctoral students were divided into four sessions — urban evolution, urban life, urban effect and urban mechanisms.

In the closing ceremony of the forum, Professor Bao Jigang, Dean of School of Tourism Management at SYSU, and Professor Liu Yungang from School of Geography and Planning at SYSU gave a brief speech, encouraging the doctoral students to make great efforts in academic research, and putting forward their expectations for the future development of the participants. Professor Li Zhigang from School of Geography and Planning at SYSU gave a summary of the forum.

Finally, the forum announced the excellent papers reviewed by the organizing committee. The first prize was “Reconstruction of Accompany-for-Study Mothers’ Daily Lives under Small-scale Rural Migration” by Zheng Shilin. The second prize papers were "Changes in Urban Community Life from the Public Perspective: The Case of An Office Compound” by Xiao Zuopeng and “Social Integration of Affordable Housing Communities in Chinese Big Cities during New Urbanization” by Chen Hongsheng. The third prize went to “An Analysis of the ‘Economic’ Attributes of Economic Volume Ratio: From the Perspective of Profit” by Zhu Kai, “A Study of the Relocation and its Impact of Africans in Guangzhou and Foshan” by Song Guangwen, "Intergenerational Interaction between Chinese Youth and Their Parents: A Comparison of Only and Non-only Children” by Fan Wenting, and "Evaluation and Construction of Shanghai Ecological Network System” by Yan Kai and Wang Baoqiang.