"Diorama, Path and Project" to Understanding Everyday Life and Urban Space in Transitional Chinese Cities

"Diorama, path and project" by Torsten Hagerstrand is one of the most important contributions to the development of time geography. It introduced the diorama approach along the lines of "the live corporeality of humans and society", and it still enduringly inspires the study of everyday life and urban space in a space-time integrative framework. This article revisits the classic article and reflects on certain key ideas, such as the "thereness" of diorama and the continuity and corporeality of project realization. Specifically, we will stress the applicability and the usefulness of the diorama approach to understanding everyday life and urban space in transitional Chinese cities. Finally, we discuss the enduring power, some methodological issues, as well as research agendas on urban geography and planning research in Chinese cities based on the diorama approach in time geography.