Steve Randy Waldman
is #NoahSmith’s portrayal of China’s not-so-great quality of urbanism fair? https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/thoughts-on-sinofuturism
Thoughts on Sinofuturism

What does it mean for China to be "the future"? And what does that future look like?

Noahpinion
May 7, 2025 at 12:42amWeb
Show threadWeltzeitgeistMay 7, 2025
@interfluidity No, it's Noah Smith. The guy who's always wrong about everything.
Show threadSteve Randy WaldmanMay 7, 2025
@wackJackle ha!
Show threadBenjamin RossMay 7, 2025
@interfluidity The "microdistrict" he describes is actually copied from the Soviet Union ("mikroraion" in Russian). I haven't been to China, but spent quite a bit of time in Russia, sleeping, working & visiting mostly in this environment, in the 90s,.There they had the flaws described by the people Smith quotes.
I remarked at the time that these areas in St Petersburg (where I mostly went) were nicer than elsewhere. Was told that German captives built a lot of it there after WW2.