Staff Profile

Background

I am a human geographer and town planner interested in: 1) urban studies; 2) cultural studies; 3) environmental governance and 4) planning in China. Over the last few years I have developed a research programme which has investigated green urban branding, green politics, the Hanfu Movement, and environmental governance in China. Currently, I am working on a project on the Grand Canal in China. Specifically, I am interested in the role of the canal in urban environmental planning.

Qualifications and current roles

My first degree was in Human Geography and Planning at Shanghai Normal University (Shanghai, China). I then did a masters in Urbanization and Development at the London School of Economics (LSE). Currently, I teach planning and geography in APL. Furthermore, I am a climate change fellow working on the new MSc Leadership in Climate change and Sustainability in School X. I am also a senior tutor in School X. 

Languages

I am a native Mandarin speaker and I am fluent in English. 

My main research interest in contempopray Chinese urban space and politics in urban development. 

Funded Research Projects:

Urban National Parks Project (funded by Catherine Cookson Foundation , PI: Maggie Roe) 

Period: October 2017 to March 2018, duration of work: 15 weeks 

The Hanfu Project (funded by British Council of Art; PI: Dr. Andrew Law)

Period: July 2015 to September 2015

I am currently contributing to the following modules: 

Semester 1 

TCP1027 Shaping Towns and Cities (Lead for Study Skills)

APL1002 Study Skills Session (Lead teacher)

TCP8034 Planning and Sustainability (Guest Lecturer) 

TCP3099 Dissertation (Supervisor)

SCX8000 Facing up to Climate Change: A multidisciplinary perspective (Module leader)

SCX8002 Professional Skills (Contributor)

Semester 2

TCP2036 The Global Course (Module Leader)

TCP7021 Spatial Strategies (Main contributor)

TCP8097 Green Infrastructure and Landscape Planning (Main contributor)

APL3004 Chinese Cultural History and Urban Development (Guest Lecturer)

TCP3099 Dissertation (Supervisor)

SCX8000 Facing up to Climate Change: A multidisciplinary perspective (Module leader)

SCX8002 Professional Skills (Contributor)

Other modules that I have contributed to in the past: 

TCP2035 Study Trip (Key organizer of the China Trip)

TCP3061 Contemporary Planning Issues (Course Organizer)

TCP2034 Urban Design: How Public is Public Space? (Guest Lecturer)

TCP3054 Planning Theory and Politics (Guest Lecturer)

TCP2030 Urban Poverty: A Global Perspective  (Seminar Teacher)

• Articles

  • Law A, Qin Q. The Hanfu movement in China: a study of the movement in Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Xi’an. Sine. The Publication of the Scotland-China Association 2024, Summer 2024(1), 12-21.
  • Xu H, Gao J, Yu X, Wang C, Liu Y, Wen J, Qin Q. Study on Suburban Land Use Optimization from the Perspective of Flood Mitigation—A Case Study of Pujiang Country Park in Shanghai. Sustainability 2024, 16(8), 3436.
  • Xu H, Gao J, Yu X, Qin Q, Du S, Wen J. Assessment of Rainstorm Waterlogging Disaster Risk in Rapidly Urbanizing Areas Based on Land Use Scenario Simulation: A Case Study of Jiangqiao Town in Shanghai, China. Land 2024, 13(7), 1088.
  • Law A, Qin Q. Reflexive Han-Ness, Narratives of Moral Decline, Manchurian Subjects and “Mass” Societal Others: A Study of the Hanfu Movement in the Cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Xi’an. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 2022, 52(2), 230-255.
  • Roe MH, Townshend T, Davies C, Ward Thompson C, Gulsrud NM, Qin Q. Urban National Parks or National Park Cities?. Town and Country Planning 2018, 87(7).
  • Law A, Qin Q. Searching for economic and cosmopolitan roots: the historical discourse of “Hankou Merchant Port Nostalgia” in the central Chinese city of Wuhan 武汉. METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture 2018, 35(2), 173-195.

• Book Chapters

  • Law A, Qin Q. Hegemonic Han Identities and Alternative Subjectivities: The Contemporary Hanfu Movement as a Marginal Cross-generational Subculture. In: Emily Williams, Loredana Cesarino, ed. China from the Margins. New Narratives of the Past and Present. London: Routledge, 2025.
  • Qin Q, Law A. The Case of the North Lake (Beihu) Ecological New Town in Jining, Shandong: Discourses of Class, Taste, Luxury Consumption and ‘Conduct’. In: Abdulai, RT; Azuah, KGB, ed. Sustainable Real Estate in the Developing World. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021, pp.83-114.

• Review

  • Townshend T, Roe M, Davies C, Qin Q. National Park City: Salutogenic city?. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment 2018, 217, 203-211.