Rethinking the development of economic geography in mainland China

Economic geography is a discipline encompassing diverse scopes and approaches. As such, it is not easy to achieve well-founded dialogues between economic geographers from different countries, though such dialogues are necessary for establishing a well-developed platform of discussion. The authors attempt to help scholars from other countries understand the development of economic geography in China by showing how such development has been affected by the country's institutional and economic conditions. They First introduce the context in which economic geography has developed in China and discuss changes in the definition of economic geography in the country. They then examine post-1949 development of economic geography in China in terms of research orientations or tasks, funding, and organization, The authors argue that the development of economic geography is embedded in a broad socioeconomic and institutional context and that this context is key to understanding the development of economic geography in different countries.