Empty homes

Author(s)

Willy Sier, Sanderien Verstappen

Abstract

With 22 per cent of its housing stock vacant, China has the highest vacancy rate in the world. Yet Chinese cities are marked by constant expansion and the construction of high-rise buildings. Why are all these ‘empty homes’ being built? And what moves people to buy homes in which they cannot live? In this article, we explore these questions through a filmmaking project embedded in long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Wuhan. The film Empty Home, included in this article, focuses on the social and symbolic aspects of home- and city-making, revealing the importance of homeownership for mobile Chinese families in a rapidly transforming society. This article views the real-estate market as an important site for constructing citizen-state relations and argues that the symbolic and social significance of empty homes is crucial for understanding the deep meanings of the Chinese state’s drive for urban expansion and Chinese citizens’ desire to become homeowners. In addition to contributing to knowledge about Chinese homemaking, the article shows how using filmmaking in ethnographic fieldwork can strengthen the research process.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

External organisation(s)

Utrecht University

Journal

Visual Studies

Volume

39

Pages

24-32

No. of pages

9

ISSN

1472-586X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2217796

Publication date

06-2023

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology, 504008 Ethnography

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Visual Arts and Performing Arts

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/9e532afc-b696-4963-b5dc-a666723784c7