Academic Staff

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Prof. Yang, Chun Prof. Yang, Chun
Prof. YANG Chun (Charlotte) (楊春教授)

Chair Professor
Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Economic Geography,
Urban and Regional Development,
China and Southeast Asia

Office:AAB 1230
Tel:(852) 3411 5830
Fax:(852) 3411 5990
Email:chunyang@hkbu.edu.hk
EDUCATION
  • Ph.D., The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • M.Sc, Sun Yat-sen University, China
  • B.Sc., Sun Yat-sen University, China
VISITING SCHOLARSHIP
  • Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, Newcastle University, UK (2019)
  • Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, USA (2008)
  • Department of Geography, University of Utah, USA (2008)
EDITORIAL SERVICES
  • Editor (June 2023 – ) Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society (Oxford University Press)
  • Editorial Board Member (Oct. 2022 – ) Applied Geography (Elsevier)
  • Editorial Board Member (Dec. 2014 – ) Journal of Economic Geography (Oxford University Press)
  • Editorial Advisory Board Member (July 2022 – ) Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space (Sage)
  • Editorial Board Member (Oct. 2022 – ) Progress in Economic Geography (Elsevier)
  • Associate Editor (Jan. 2014 – Dec. 2019) Regional Studies, Regional Science (Taylor & Francis)
  • Co-Editor (Jan. 2015 – ) Bandung: Journal of the Global South (Brill)
  • Editorial Board Member (Jan. 2021 – ) Economic Transformation Series, Agenda Publishing, U.K.
  • International Advisory Board member (Jan.2021 – ) Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society, Berlin, Germany
TEACHING FIELDS / COURSES TAUGHT
  • GEOG2025 Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta: A Survey
  • GEOG3006 Regional Geography of China (core course)
  • GEOG4026 Geography of Economic Development
RESEARCH INTERESTS
  • Urban and regional development
  • Transnational corporations, foreign investment, global/cross-border production networks
  • Geographies of innovation, digital technologies and platforms
  • Industrial restructuring and local clusters
  • Cross-border regions and geopolitics of regional governance
  • China (especially Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area) and Southeast Asia
ORCID: 0000-0002-0169-3449
External Competitive Research Grants (as Principal Investigator)
 
  • 1/2024―12/2026, Localization or regionalization? Digital platform-driven industrial restructuring and reconfiguration of smart production networks in China’s Greater Bay Area. Hong Kong Research Grant Council, General Research Fund (HK$1,216,200)

  • 3/2022 ― 08/2025, Hong Kong Chronicles: Urban Transportation Volume (香港志‧城市交通卷). Our Hong Kong Foundation (HK$4,658,000)

  • 1/2021 ― 12/2024, Cross-border Fresh Fruits Production and Trade networks of Chinese Firms in ASEAN in the Context of “One Belt One Road” Initiatives (一帶一路背景下中國企業在東盟國家的跨境水果生產和貿易網絡研究). National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Fund (國家自然科學基金面上項目), (RMB550,000)

  • 1/2021 ― 06/2024, Evolving Spaces and Scales of Innovation in China: The Emergence of Makerspace Innovation in Digital Fabrication in Shenzhen. Hong Kong Research Grant Council, General Research Fund (HK$ 816,600)

  • 1/2016 ― 12/2019, China–ASEAN Industrial Relocation and Restructuring of Regional Production Networks: Evidence from Vietnam and Cambodia (全球生产网络视角下中国 – 东盟产业转移及区域生产网络重构: 以跨国公司从珠三角转向越南和柬埔寨为例). National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Fund (國家自然科學基金面上項目), (RMB600,000)

  • 1/2017 ― 12/2018, The Evolution of Creative Industry Clusters: A Comparison of Cases in China and Germany. Germany Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) and Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme (HK$99,800)

  • 1/2013 ― 12/2016, From Exports to Selling in China: Market Rebalancing of Transnational Corporations and Restructuring of the Export-led Development Model. Hong Kong Research Grant Council, General Research Fund (HK$994,887).

  • 1/2010 ― 12/2013, Regional Innovation Systems in Post-reform China: Indigenous Innovation and Regional Transformation in the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong Research Grant Council, General Research Fund (HK$796,145)

  • 10/2009 ― 04/2012, Restructuring of Hong Kong Manufacturing in the Pearl River Delta: Challenges and Policy Responses. HKSAR Government Public Policy Research (PPR) Scheme (HK$373,152)

  • 1/2005 ― 12/2007, Industrial Clusters of Hong Kong and Taiwanese Investment in Mainland China: the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta as Cases. Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Competitive Earmarked Research Grant (CERG), (HK$586,680)

 

Selected Internal Funded Research Grants (as Principal Investigator)
 
  • 10/2023 ― 9/2025, Digital platform-driven labour mobility in China: from manufacturing to platforms work, Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty Niche Research Areas grant, HK$845,700)

  • 04/2021 ― 6/2023, Digital ageing in the Greater Bay Area: A comparative study of the social media platforms adopted by the cross-border old adults from Hong Kong and local older people in the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong Baptist University Research Development Fund: Research Network on Healthy Ageing, HK$168,000).

  • 01/2015 ― 12/2016, Moving to the Inland: Spatial reorganization of regional production networks in China’s “World Factory”. Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty Research Grant (HK$150,000)

  • 01/2014 ― 12/2015, New path creation and uneven resilience of old industrial areas in China. Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty Research Grant.

  • 01/2013 ― 12/2014, Urban and regional resilience in the post-crisis global economy: Insights from the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty Research Grant.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Chan, D. Y.-T. and Yang, C. (2025) Shifting Production to Southeast Asia: Electronics Transnational Corporations Moving to Vietnam since the 2000s. Lexington Books. Rowman and Littlefield. 236pp.

Garretsena, H., Kitson, M. and Yang, C. (2025) Global forces and local impacts: megatrends in regional development. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. doi.: 10.1093/crjes/rsae047.

Ma, C.-Y. and Yang, C. (2024) The moderating effects of mobile applications on the use of urban green space and mental health of older people: A mixed-method investigation in Hong Kong. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 91: 128182. Doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2023.128182.

Yang, C. and Chan, D. Y.-T. (2023) Geopolitical risks of strategic decoupling and recoupling in the mobile phone production shift from China to Vietnam: Evidence from the Sino-US trade war and COVID-19 pandemic. Applied Geography, Vol. 158, 103028. Doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.103028.

Yang, C., Ma, C.-Y., Wang, J. and Zhou, Y. Q. (2023) Cross-border ageing in China’s Greater Bay Area: A comparative study of mobile application adoption by Hong Kong older migrants and local older adults in Shenzhen. Transactions in Planning and Urban Research, doi: 10.1177/27541223221150653.

Yang, C. (2023) Interconnected Worlds: Global Electronics and Production Networks in East Asia, by Henry Wai-chung Yeung, Stanford University Press, 2022. Regional Studies, 57(2): 397-398. doi: 10.1080/00343404.2022.2141502.

Yang, C. (2022) Cross-border expansion of digital platforms and transformation of the trade and distribution networks of fresh fruit imports from Southeast Asia to China. Global Networks, 22 (4): 716-734. doi: 10.1111/glob.12352.

Yang, C., Lai, D.W.L., Sun, Y., Ma, C.-Y. and Chau, A.K.C. (2022) Mobile application use and loneliness among older adults in the digital age: Insights from a survey in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health, 19, 7656. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137656.

Butollo, F., Gereffi, G., Yang, C. and Krzywdzinski, M. (2022) Digital transformation and value chains. Global Networks, 22 (4): 585-594. doi: 10.1111/glob.12388.

Chan, D. Y.-T. and Yang, C. (2022) Institutional escape and embeddedness in the cross-border production networks: Relocation of Chinese electronics small and medium-sized enterprises to Vietnam. Journal of Contemporary China, 31 (137): 675-692. doi:10.1080/10670564.2021.2010859.

Coe, N. M. and Yang, C. (2022) Mobile gaming production networks, platform business groups and the market power of China’s Tencent. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 112 (2): 307-330. doi: 10.1080/24694452.2021.1933887.

Yang, C. and Chan, D. Y-T. (2021) Market expansion of domestic gaming firms in Shenzhen, China: Dilemma of globalization and regionalization. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (Journal of Economic and Human Geography), 112 (3): 256-273. doi: 10.1111/tesg.12459.

Hassink, R. and Yang, C. (2021) Creative industries at the intersection between local agglomeration, national regulation and global networks. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (Journal of Economic and Human Geography), 112 (3): 217-219. doi: 10.1111/tesg.12474.

Sok, S. and Yang, C. (2021) Brawn drain from Cambodia: A comparative study of transnational labour migration to Malaysia and South Korea. Bandung: Journal of the Global South, 8(1): 22-44. doi: 10.1163/21983534-08010002.

Yang, C. (2020) The transformation of foreign investment-induced exo(genous)-urbanisation amidst industrial restructuring in the Pearl River Delta, China. Urban Studies, 57(3): 618-635. doi.org/10.1177/0042098019859266.

Fu, T., Yang, C. and Li, L. (2020) Market imperative and cluster evolution in China: evidence from Shunde. Regional Studies, 54(2): 244-255. doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1673329

Pan, F., Yang, C., Wang, H. and Wójcik, D. (2020) Linking global financial networks with regional development: a case study of Linyi, China, Regional Studies, 54(2): 187-197. doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1599844

Su, X., Agnew, J., Cox, K. R., Yang, C. and Lim, K. F. (2020) Reading Kean Fan Lim’s On Shifting Foundations: State Rescaling, Policy Experimentation and Economic Restructuring in Post-1949 China Political Geography, 83, 102244. doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102244.

Hu, X. and Yang, C. (2019) Institutional change and divergent economic resilience:  Path development of two resource-depleted cities in China. Urban Studies, 56(16):  3466-3485. doi.org/10.1177/0042098018817223.

Hu, X. and Yang, C. (2018) Building a role model for rust belt cities? Fuxin’s economic revitalization in question. Cities, 72: 245-251. doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2017.09.002.

Seamus, G. and Yang, C. (2018) From foreign technology dependence towards greater innovation autonomy: China’s integration into the information and communications technology (ICT) global value chain (GVC). Area Development and Policy, 3(1): 132-148. doi: 10.1080/23792949.2017.1305870.

Yang, C. (2017) The rise of strategic partner firms and reconfiguration of personal computer production networks in China: Insights from the emerging laptop cluster in Chongqing. Geoforum, 84: 21-31. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.05.010.

Yang, C. and Fu, T. (2017) From exports to sell in China: Transformation of the export-oriented furniture firms in the Pearl River Delta. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 99 (4): 380-398. doi:10.1080/04353684.2017.1365255.

Yang, C. and He, C. (2017) Transformation of China’s “World Factory”: Production relocation and export evolution of the electronics firms. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. 108 (5): 571-591. doi: 10.1111/tesg.12222

Yang, C., Fu, T. and Li, L. (2017) Emerging adaptation of local clusters in China in a shifting global economy: Evidence from furniture cluster in Houjie Town, Dongguan. Growth and Change, 48 (2): 214-232. doi: 10.1111/grow.12191

Yang, C. (2016) Relocating the labour-intensive manufacturing firms from China to Southeast Asia: a preliminary investigation. Bandung: Journal of the Global South, 3 (3):1-13. doi: 10.1186/s40728-016-0031-4.

Yang, C. (2016) Evolution of regional innovation systems in China: Insights from emerging indigenous innovation in Shenzhen, in Shearmur, R., Carrincazeaux, C. and Doloreux, D. eds., Handbook on the Geographies of Innovation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 322-333. doi: 10.4337/9781784710774.00035.

Yang, C. (2015) Government policy change and evolution of regional innovation systems in China: Evidence from strategic emerging industries in Shenzhen. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 33 (3): 661-680. doi: 10.1068/C12162r.

Yang, C. (2014) State-led technological innovation of domestic firms in Shenzhen, China: Evidence from Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) industry. Cities, Vol. 38: 1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2013.12.005.

Yang, C. (2014) Market rebalancing of Global Production Networks in the Post-Washington Consensus Globalizing Era: Transformation of Export-oriented Development in China. Review of International Political Economy, 21 (1): 130-156. doi: 10.1080/09692290.2013.776616.

Liu, Y. and Yang, C. (2014) Strategic Coupling of Local Firms in Global Production Networks: The Rise of the Home Appliance Industry in Shunde, China. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 54 (4): 444-463. doi: 10.1080/15387216.2014.883286.

Yang, C. (2013) From Strategic Coupling to Recoupling and Decoupling: Restructuring of Global Production Networks and Regional Evolution in China. European Planning Studies, 21 (7): 1046-1063. doi: 10.1080/09654313.2013.733852.

Yang, C. and Li, S.-M. (2013) Transformation of Cross-boundary Governance in the Greater Pearl River Delta, China: Contested Geopolitics and Emerging Conflicts. Habitat International, Vol. 40: 23-34. doi: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.02.001.

Yang, C. (2012) Restructuring the Export-oriented Industrialization in the Pearl River Delta, China: Institutional Evolution and Emerging Tension. Applied Geography, 32: 143-157. doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2010.10.013.

Yang, C. (2011) Spatial Transformation of Cross-Border Production Networks of Taiwanese Investment in Mainland China: The Case of Personal Computer Industry. Acta Geographica Sinica, 66 (10): 1343-1354. China Geographical Society.

Yang, C. and Liao, F. H. (2010) Industrial Agglomeration of Hong Kong and Taiwanese Manufacturing Investment in China: A Town-level Analysis in Dongguan. The Annals of Regional Science, 45 (3): 487-517. doi: 10.1007/s00168-009-0305-8.

Yang, C. and Liao, F. H. (2010) Backward Linkages of Cross-border Production Networks of Taiwanese PC Investment in the Pearl River Delta, China. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 101 (1): 199-217. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9663.2009.00540.x.

Yang, C. (2009) Strategic Coupling of Regional Development in Global Production Networks: Redistribution of Taiwanese Personal Computer Investment from the Pearl River Delta to the Yangtze River Delta. Regional Studies, 43 (3): 385-407. doi: 10.1080/00343400802508836.

Yang, C. (2007) Divergent Hybrid Capitalisms in China: Hong Kong and Taiwanese Electronics Clusters in Dongguan. Economic Geography, 83 (4): 395-420. doi: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2007.tb00380.x.

Yang, C. (2006) The Geopolitics of Cross-boundary Governance in the Greater Pearl River Delta, China: A Case Study of the Proposed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Political Geography, 25 (7): 817-835. doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.08.006.

Yang, C. (2006) The Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong: An Evolving Cross-boundary Region under “One Country, Two Systems”. Habitat International, Vol. 30: 61-86. doi: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2004.06.004

Yang, C. (2006) Overseas Chinese Investment in Transition: The Case of Dongguan. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 47 (5): 604-622. doi: 10.2747/1538-7216.47.5.604.

Yang, C. (2005) An Emerging Cross-boundary Metropolis in China: Hong Kong and Shenzhen under “Two Systems”. International Development Planning Review, 27 (2): 195-225. doi: 10.3828/idpr.27.2.3.

Yang, C. (2005) Multi-level Governance in the Cross-boundary Region of Hong Kong-Pearl River Delta, China. Environment and Planning A, 37 (12): 2147-2167. doi: 10.1068/a37230.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Chapters in Books

Chan, D. Y-T. and Yang, C. (2022) The transformation of Asian electronics production networks: evidence from the participation of Vietnam, in Bryson, J., Billing, C., Graves, W. and Yeung, G. eds. A Research Agenda for Manufacturing Industries in the Global Economy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 157-175.

Yang, C. (2021) The distribution of imported fresh fruits from Southeast Asia in China, in Pritchard, B. ed. Global production networks and rural development: Southeast Asia as a fruit supplier to China, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 156-177.

Yang, C. (2019) “Reterritorialization”, in Orum, T. ed. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1699-1704. doi.org/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0270.

Fu, T. and Yang, C. (2018) Industrial upgrading and downgrading of the export-oriented furniture firms in the market reorientation towards China’s domestic market, in Capik, P. and Magdalena, D. eds. Relocation of Economic Activity: Contemporary Theory and Practice in Local, Regional and Global Perspectives, Springer, pp. 53-68.

Yang, C. (2017) Industrial Restructuring, in Richardson, D., Castree, N., Goodchild, M., Liu, W., Kobayashi, A. and Marston, R. (eds.) The Wiley-AAG International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology, Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0471.

Yang, C. (2017) Innovation and Regional Development, in Richardson, D., Castree, N., Goodchild, M., Liu, W., Kobayashi, A. and Marston, R. (eds.) The Wiley-AAG International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology, Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0886.

Yang, C. (2017) Manufacturing Industry, in Richardson, D., Castree, N., Goodchild, M., Liu, W., Kobayashi, A. and Marston, R. (eds.) The Wiley-AAG International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology, Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0103.

Yang, C. (2016) Evolution of Regional Innovation Systems in China: Insights from Emerging Indigenous Innovation in Shenzhen, in Shearmur, R., Carrincazeaux, C. and Doloreux, D. eds., Handbook on the Geographies of Innovation, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 322-333.

Yang, C. (2015) Market rebalancing of global production networks in the Post-Washington Consensus globalizing era: Transformation of export-oriented development in China, in Neilson, J., Pritchard, B. and Yeung, H. W-c. eds. Global Value Chains and Global Production Networks: Changes in the International Political Economy, London: Routledge, pp. 123-155.

Yang, C. (2014) From Strategic Coupling to Recoupling and Decoupling: Restructuring of Global Production Networks and Regional Evolution in China, in Parrilli, M. D. ed. The Competitiveness of Clusters in Globalized Markets: Implications for Regional Development. Routledge, pp. 80-97.

Yang, C. (2014) Emerging Regional Innovation Systems in Shenzhen: Technological Evolution of Foreign-invested and Indigenous Firms, in Liefner, I. and Wei, Y. D. eds. Innovation and Regional Development in China, Routledge, pp.191-215.

Yang, C. (2011) A Cross-boundary Mega City-region in China Under ‘Two Systems’: Multi-level Governance in the Greater Pearl River Delta, in Wastl-Walter, D. ed. The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies, London: Ashgate (ISBN 978-0-7546-9047-4), pp. 439-456.

Yang, C. (2011) The Greater Pearl River Delta Cross-border Mega-city Region and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, in Mo, C. and Kim, Y. H. eds., The Emerging Cross-border Mega-City Region and Sustainable Transportation, Honolulu, Hawaii: East-West Centre, pp. 82-119.