Andrew Stokols is a researcher and writer whose work has focused largely on the environmental and social consequences of urbanization. As a Fulbright Scholar based in Xi’an, Stokols investigated the forced relocation of villagers to new urban housing across western China. His reporting on the relocation of nomadic herders in Qinghai and farmers in southern Sha’anxi was featured in chinadialogue. He has also been a contributing writer for The Atlantic, where he wrote about the true size of China’s cities and the geographic distribution of China’s surnames. Before moving to Xi’an, Stokols worked at the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center on a project to document and share the history of Beijing’s hutong, as a Princeton-in-Asia Fellow. He recently spoke at the New York Times Cities for Tomorrow conference on China’s urbanization.

In 2014, Stokols was based in Seoul at the Joong-Ang Daily/International New York Times, where he wrote about eco-cities in Korea and China-Korea relations.

Stokols graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with degrees in History and Urban Planning.

Last Updated: March 2, 2015

Earthbound China

03.02.15

Village Acupuncture

Andrew Stokols
On a bamboo-covered mountaintop the mud-walled houses of Diaotan village are just barely visible through the thick fog that often shrouds this remote hamlet in China’s Zhejiang province. Worn but sturdy earthen walls still enclose the largest...