Accidental affinities: American Beaux-Arts in twentieth-century Chinese architectural education and practice

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

Volumn 61, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 30-47

  Ruan, Xing ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33947500877     PISSN: 00379808     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/991810     Document Type: Review

References (38)

1. Edward Said, The World, the Text, and the Critic (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 227. The American Beaux-Arts in this essay simply refers to the French École des Beaux-Arts as taught and practiced in America in the early partof the twentieth century.
2. Nicholas Thomas, "Against Ethnography, " Cultural Anthropology6, no. 3 (1991): 306-322.
3. Nicholas Thomas, "The Case of the Misplaced Ponchos: Speculations Concerning the History of Cloth in Polynesia, " Journal of Material Culture4. no. 1 (1999): 5-20.
4. The only twentieth-century Chinese architect known to the West is, arguably, Liang Sicheng (also known as Liang Ssu-ch'eng in the West). However, Liang, a Penn graduate in 1927, made his name in the West through his researchand English publications on China's historical architecture; see Ssu-ch'eng Liang, A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture (Cambridge, Mass., 1984),
5. Wilma Fairbank, Liang and Lin: Partners in Exploring China's Architectural Past (Philadelphia, 1994).
6. Although predominantely an architectural historian, Liang, along with LeCorbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, and other eminent architects, was selected toparticipate in the design of the United Nations New York headquarters in 1947;see Ann L. Strong and George E. Thomas, eds., The Book of the School: 100 Years(Philadelphia, 1990), 31, 88.
7. Yang Tingbao, Yang Tingbao jianzhu sheji zuoping ji (Yang Tingbao, architectural works and projects) (Beijing, 1983).
8. Lai Delin, "Guanyu Zhongguo jindai jianzhu jiaoyushi de ruoganshiliao" (Historical notes on modern architectural education in China), Jianzhushi (The Architect), vol. 55.
9. Wu Jiang, Shanghai bainian jianzhu shi (The history of Shanghaiarchitecture: 1840-1949) (Shanghai, 1997), 152.
10. Wang Junxiong, "Zhongguo zaoqi liumei xuesheng jianzhu jiaoyuguocheng zhi yanjiu - Yi Bingzhou Daxue biyesheng weili" (A study of the American architectural education and the first-generation Chinese architectswith special reference to the graduates of the University of Pennsylvania), Taiwan guokebui zhuangti yanjiu, NSC88-2411-H-032-099, 1999.
11. Pan Guxi and Shang Yong, "Guangyu Suzhou Gongzhuang yu Zhongyang Daxue jiangzhu ke" (On the architectural courses of the National Suzhou Polytechnic and the Central University), unpublished article, 1996, courtesy ofthe authors.
12. Tong Jun, "Jianzhu jiaoyu" (Architectural education), unpublished article, 1944, courtesy China Architecture and Building Press.
13. see Li Shiqiao, "Liang Sicheng's A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture and Liang Qichao's 'New Learning, '" in Maryam Gusheh, ed., Double Frames (Sydney, 2000), 12.
14. See Wu Jiang, Shanghai bainian jianzhu shi, 166-167.
15. See also John Harbeson, The Study of Architectural Design: With Special Reference to the Program of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (New York, 1927), 179-181 and 295. Harbeson was an assistant professor in Architectural Design atthe School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania. At the time this book waspublished, Cret was a key figure in the teaching of architectural design at Penn. Some of Cret's works, from his student days at the École tocompetition works, built works, and even teaching sketches in America, areincluded in Harbeson's book.
16. Harbeson, Architectural Design, 179.
17. Lai Delin makes a similar observation in "Yang Tingbao yu Luyi Kang" (Yang Tingbao and Louis Kahn) in Pang Zuxiao and Yang Yongsheng, eds., Bijiao yu chaju (Comparison and gap) (Tianjin, 1997), 258-269.
18. Yang Tingbao, Yang Tingbao sumiao xuan (The sketches of Yang Tingbao)(Beijing, 1981),
19. Yang Tingbao, Yang Tingbao shuicai buaxuan (The watercolors of Yang Tingbao) (Beijing, 1980).
20. Paul Hirst, "Education and the Production of New Ideas, " AAFiles 29 (1995): 44-19.
21. John Musgrove, ed., Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture(London, 1987), 1233-1243.
22. See Paul Cret, "The École des Beaux Arts: What Its Architectural Teaching Means, " Architectural Record 23 (1908): 367-371.
23. Rykwert, "Louis Kahn: An Introduction, " 9.
24. It is interesting to note here that in the publication of Yang'sarchitectural work, there is no single section drawing included for over 100projects; see Yang Tingbao, Yang Tingbao jianzhu sheji zuoping ji (see n. 6).
25. Arthur Drexler, "Engineer's Architecture: Truth and Its Consequences, " in A. Drexler, ed., The Architecture of the École des Beaux-Arts (New York, 1977), 40.
26. Wang Wenqin and Wu Jiahua, "Tan jianzhu sheji jichu jiaoyu" (Onthe teaching of architectural design basics), Jianzhu xuebao (Journal ofarchitecture) 7 (1984): 38-41.
27. Gu Daqing, "Sheji jichu jiaoxue de xinlu lichen" (The reformprocess of architectural design teaching), " in G. Pan, ed., Dongnan Daxuejianzhu xi chenli qishi zhounian jinian zhuanj, 216 (see n. 28).
28. Alberto Pérez-Gómez, "Architecture as Drawing, "Journal of Architectural Education 36, no. 2 (1982): 4.
29. see Li Yunmo, Huaxia yijiang (Cathay's idea: design theory of Chineseclassical architecture) (Hong Kong, 1982), 414.
30. For a full discussion of merchant gardens, see King Chi Wong, "The Influence of Merchant Patronage on Yangzhou Gardens in the Qing Dynasty, "in Sean Pickersgill and Peter Scriver, eds., On What Grounds? (Adelaide, 1997), 271-276.
31. Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture: Selected Writings1894-1940 (New York, 1941), 226-227.
32. Lao Tze (Zi), The Way of Life: According to Lao Tzu, trans. Witter Bynner(New York, 1962), 30-31.
33. Zhang Zugang, ed., Yang Tingbao jianzhu yanlun xuanji (Selectedarchitectural writings of Yang Tingbao) (Beijing, 1989), 56-60.
34. Musgrove, Fletcher's History, 1233 (see n. 27).
35. For a discussion on the tiyong ideas in Liang Sicheng's scholarship onhistorical Chinese architecture, see Li, "Pictorial History and 'New Learning, '" 1-13 (see n. 16).
36. This half-knowing action can be explained appropriately by Pierre Bourdieu's notion of "habitus." Habitus is practice-based. Bourdieuargues that the agents of culture (architects in the context of this article)use habitus to reproduce existing structures without being fully aware of howthese structures are in turn affected. In generating practices, habitusreproduces the conditions that gave rise to them initially; thus, habitus isboth product and producer of history. An architect's practice falls in thissituation. Habitus is a moment of action between consciousness andunconsciousness; therefore, people (or agents, in Bourdieu's words) always choseto act half-knowingly in the social world as well as in the spatial world.Bourdieu explains: "Action is not mere carrying out of a rule, or obedienceto a rule. Social agents, in archaic societies as well as in ours, are notautomata regulated like clocks, in accordance with laws which they do notunderstand." Thus, habitus "can be understood as a way of escapingfrom the choice between a structuralism without a subject and the philosophy ofthe subject"; see Bourdieu, In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology (Cambridge, 1990), 9.
37. Also see Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge and New York, 1977).
38. Thomas, "Misplaced Ponchos, " 7 (see n. 4).