Culture for Sale: Western Classical Architecture in China's Recent Building Boom

The widespread use of Western classical forms in China's recent building boom demonstrates that the process of formalizing and ennobling a locally and spontaneously created building form can also be inverted, wherein a high architecture is appropriated and vernacularized into a mainstream archi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of architectural education (1984) 2009-10, Vol.63 (1), p.64-74
Main Author: Fan, K. Sizheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Architectural control
Architectural design
Architectural styles
Architecture
Buildings
Chinese culture
Classical architecture
Commercial buildings
Government buildings
Residential buildings
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Summary:The widespread use of Western classical forms in China's recent building boom demonstrates that the process of formalizing and ennobling a locally and spontaneously created building form can also be inverted, wherein a high architecture is appropriated and vernacularized into a mainstream architecture in a different cultural setting. In this article, I examined the recent popularity of Western classical architecture in China and its historical, social, and cultural conditions. Focusing on the ideological implications of the style, I also investigated the dynamic application of the classical forms and their iconographical effects on China's constructed landscape.
ISSN:1046-4883
1531-314X
DOI:10.1111/j.1531-314X.2009.01029.x