Xiaohong Tan

Xiaohong Tan is an urban researcher and planner specialising in urban regeneration, participatory planning and urban governance. She studied urban planning at Sun Yat-sen University and Peking University before receiving her doctorate in Urban Regeneration and Planning Theory from the University of Kassel. She subsequently served as Assistant Professor at Guangdong University of Technology and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kassel.
Her research explores the governance and knowledge dynamics of urban regeneration, with particular attention to participation, social learning and the negotiation of planning conflicts. Empirically grounded in long-term field research in Chinese cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, her work also develops comparative perspectives on planning practices in China and Germany.

Since 2019, she has led several funded research projects within the broader field of urban regeneration, addressing topics including artistic interventions, informal housing governance, heritage preservation and adaptive reuse, social innovation and urban gardening initiatives. She has published in international journals such as Habitat International, disP – The Planning Review, Urban Research & Practice, Journal of Rural Studies and Urban Planning.