Quyu (区域) and the many lives of “region” : language, policy and scale perspective

Regional studies often treat the region as a sub‑national unit, and it spans from neighbourhoods to cross‑border macro‑regions. In Asia, this elasticity is intensified by language. Words that look equivalent on paper rarely carry identical histories, politics, or scales. This short piece reflects on the Chinese notion of quyu (区域) and how it travels between domestic and international contexts, seen through the eyes of a Chinese scholar working in Sweden.