Abstract：Against the backdrop of China’s comprehensive advancement of urban regeneration, multi-stakeholder collaboration has emerged as a core paradigm in urban design practice. However, conventional pedagogical approaches remain largely confined to a designer-led, single-agent mindset, making it difficult for students to grasp the diverging demands and negotiation dynamics among diverse stakeholders, including the government, the market, experts, and the public. Drawing upon serious game theory, this paper introduces an innovative pedagogical framework termed “BaQiSha” (Eight Banners Battle). This method translates the socio-organizational characteristics of the historic Eight Banners system into a role-playing educational tool. Using the urban regeneration of the Garden Street Historic and Cultural District in Harbin as a live studio case, the course guides students through multiple rounds of cognitive conflict and deliberative negotiation by simulating distinct roles: the Plain Yellow Banner (Government), the Plain Red Banner (Market), the Plain White Banner (Experts), and the Plain Blue Banner (The Public). The pedagogical practice demonstrates that this method significantly enhances students’ multi-stakeholder empathy and systemic thinking. Furthermore, the studio outcomes have provided valuable planning references for the actual regeneration of the Garden Street District. This study validates the efficacy of serious games as an educational medium for tackling complex urban is sues, offering a replicable pathway for transforming urban design education from static lecturing toward gamified, collaborative exploration.
