Urban villages (chengzhongcun) constitute a unique distinctive spatial phenomenon produced during China’s rapid urbanization. These settlements formed through the expansion of urban built-up areas into collectively owned rural land, reveal a complex interaction between land systems, migration flows, and urban development pressures. For a long time, urban villages served as crucial spaces for accommodating immigrant populations and supporting urban economic growth. Simultaneously, they have become focal points of urban governance and redevelopment policies. As China's urban development gradually shifted from large-scale expansion to stock-oriented urban renewal, urban village transformation has become a key issue in both academic research and planning practice. In this context, it is necessary to systematically review the development of urban village research, clarify the evolution of academic understanding, and understand how the research agenda responds to policy and social changes. This study aims to examine the historical trajectory and cognitive shifts in Chinese urban village research. By reviewing academic literature published between 2002 and 2025, this paper analyzes the evolution of research themes, theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches in this field. Its goal is to reveal the dynamic process by which urban village research has shifted from descriptive observation to more systematic theoretical exploration, while identifying the key drivers shaping this shift.Methodologically, this study combines bibliometric analysis with qualitative literature interpretation. Datasets of academic publications on urban villages from major Chinese academic databases were collected and screened. Quantitative bibliometric techniques were employed to examine publication trends, keyword co-occurrence, institutional distribution, and research networks. These analyses revealed the temporal evolution of research hotspots and the structural characteristics of academic communities involved in urban village research. Based on this, qualitative thematic analysis was conducted to explain the conceptual development and theoretical orientation of the literature. By integrating quantitative mapping and qualitative synthesis, this study reconstructed the historical process of urban village research and identified major shifts in academic focus.The results show that urban village research has undergone a gradual transition from early phenomenological description to more comprehensive theoretical construction. Initial research focused primarily on identifying and describing the spatial and institutional characteristics of urban villages. With the strengthening of redevelopment policies and urban governance reforms, research focus gradually expanded to issues such as land policy, redevelopment strategies, spatial restructuring, and community governance. Over time, an interdisciplinary perspective has become increasingly prominent, integrating insights from urban planning, geography, sociology, economics, and governance studies. Recent research has further introduced new themes such as sustainable urban regeneration, digital technologies, and community engagement. A key finding of this study is that policy interventions have played a pivotal role inshaping the trajectory of research on urban villages. Major policy initiatives and redevelopment projects have repeatedly triggered shifts in research agendas, prompting scholars to move from descriptive narratives toward more systematic and interdisciplinary analyses. The interplay between policy practice and academic inquiry has significantly influenced the processes of knowledge production within this field. Based on a synthesis of literature trends, this study proposes an analytical framework that explains the development of urban village research through three interconnected dimensions: demand, mechanisms, and evolution. The demand dimension reflects the socioeconomic motivations driving the transformation of urban villages, including housing needs, the restructuring of land values, and the pressures of urban expansion. The mechanisms dimension highlights the interplay among policy instruments, economic forces, and spatial restructuring processes, which ultimately shape the outcomes of redevelopment efforts. The evolution dimension emphasizes the adaptive transformation of redevelopment strategies across various levels of governance and through the application of diverse planning instruments. Collectively, these dimensions provide a structured perspective for understanding the dynamic processes underlying the transformation of urban villages.This study contributes to the existing literature by elucidating the academic trajectory and research dynamics of urban villages in China. It underscores the role of policy-driven transformations in shaping academic inquiry and demonstrates the growing importance of interdisciplinary approaches in comprehending complex urban phenomena. From a broader perspective, these findings deepen our systemic understanding of urban villages within the context of China’s rapid urban transformation and serve as a reference point for future academic research. Furthermore, the insights derived from this review carry implications that extend beyond the Chinese context. Although urban villages are deeply rooted in China’s specific institutional framework, the issues they embody, such as informal housing provision, land governance, and community transformation, are widely observed in rapidly urbanizing regions across the globe. Consequently, the experiences of urban village transformation in China may contribute to broader international discussions regarding urban informality, governance innovation, and sustainable urban regeneration. By tracing the academic evolution of urban village research and synthesizing its theoretical developments, this study establishes a knowledge foundation for future research directions, policy formulation, and practical approaches to urban renewal.