The article examines the role of the "architecture of spectacle" in Beijing's process of urban renewal in the context of the preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. The author suggests that the megaprojects have helped legitimate the autocratic political power structures in post-socialist China, working as an instrument for urban image creation and state propaganda, diverting the citizen's attention from social problems caused by the renewal process itself. On the other hand, it calls attention to the potentially critical side of this same logic of spectacle, which has aroused popular criticism against hegemonic discourses.
Spectacle; redevelopment; contemporary architecture; China; Olympic Games