https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2471-0798
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ABSTRACT
As a strategic adjustment to China’s national defence, economic and construction policy for military purposes, the ‘Third Front’ construction programme (1964–1980) had a profound impact on the country’s industrial layout and urban-rural relation. The built environment of this era represents the spatial orientation and strategy of China’s ‘road to socialism’ during the Cold War. Through a historical review and field investigation, this study summarises the characteristics of Third Front construction with reference to the ‘new socialist industrial mining bases’ that emerged from the paradigm shift in China’s urban planning. By analyzing spatial patterns and the language of spatial design from a historical perspective, this study sheds light on China’s socialist architectural and planning discourse and supplements the existing scholarship on Cold War architectural historiography.
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Notes
1 US$1 equals RMB 6 according to the 2019 exchange rate. In 1993, US$1 was equal to RMB8.3. As China was in a closed state in the 1960s, there are no published figures for the exchange rate during those years.
2 Naughton, “The Third Front: Defense Industrialization in the Chinese Interior,” 351; See also, Chen, Third Front Construction, 2.
3 Huang, Li and Sun, “Planning and Development for Third-Front Cities at the Critical Point of Paradigm,” 97–103.
4 Hou, “Urbanization in the First Thirty Years of PRC: A Historical Re-examination,” 70–8.
5 For more background and impact of the ‘not undertaking urban planning for three years’, see Editorial, Contemporary China, 56–7.
6 Zheng and Zhang, The City of Panzhihua During the Period of Third Front Construction and Western Development.
7 This principle was first proposed by Zhou Enlai. On January 31, 1964, Zhou Enlai's report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong proposed that the strategic layout of China's nuclear industry should be adjusted as soon as possible for the sake of national defence security.
8 Zou et al., History of modern Chinese architecture, 3.
9 Åman, Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe During the Stalin Era.
10 Lu, Third World Modernism; King, Spaces of Global Cultures; Crinson, Modern Architecture and the End of Empire; F. Guillén, “Modernism without Modernity,” 6–34; J. Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity, 88.
11 Stanek, Architecture in Global Socialism; Stanek, “Introduction”; Wharton, Building the Cold War.
12 Urban, Tower and Slab; Pugh, “From ‘National Style’ to ‘Rationalized Construction’,” 87–108.
13 Castillo, Cold War on the Home Front; Rice, The Emergence of the Interior; Alekseyeva, Everyday Soviet Utopias.
14 Chang, A Genealogy of Tropical Architecture.
15 Meyskens. Mao’s Third Front.
16 Chen, Third Front Construction.
17 Chen, Third Front Construction - Western Development in the War Preparedness Period.
18 The Literature Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, ed. Selected Important Documents since the Founding of the People's Republic. Vol. 20, 360.
19 Li. Research on Third Front Construction, 31–3.
20 Xu. Soviet Experience and the Formation of Chinese Modern Urban Planning, 161.
21 Hou. Building for Oil, 133.
22 Tan, Gao, and Xu. ‘Research on the Third Front construction heritage based on industrial archaeology’.
23 Zhou. ‘Third Front Construction and Urbanization in Hubei Province’. See also Wan, Research on the Spatial Morphology of the Industrial Remains of the Third Front Construction in the Northwest of Hubei Province.
24 Sun, A Study on the Development and Planning of Chinese Third Front City.
25 The other three newly built Third Front cities are: Panzhihua (Dukou), Liupanshui and Jinchang.
26 Xu. A study on the Soviet experience and the formation of modern urban planning in China (1949-1965).
27 Committee of Local Chronicles of Shiyan. Local Chronicles of Shiyan (1866-2008). See also Zhu, Luo, and He, “From Supporting to Guiding,” 86–93.
28 Sun, “Review of Shiyan Urban Planning and Construction,” 351.
29 Mok, China’s Motor Cities.
30 On 1 July 1958, Mao Zedong's idea of establishing a communist commune was publicly disclosed by Chen Boda in a speech entitled ‘Under the Banner of Comrade Mao Zedong’ at Peking University.
31 Chen, Toleration.
32 Castillo, et al., “Stalinist Modern.”.
33 Jacoby and Cheng, “Collective form in China,” 5–11.
34 Clarence, The Neighbourhood Unit, 607–19.
35 Maksimovair, “Russian Monotowns” http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=7374168&fileOId=7374174.
36 Xiao, Liu, and Chai, “Institutional Spatial Prototype of China’s Danwei System.”
37 Ding and Xue, “China’s Architectural Aid.”
38 Zhu, History of Chinese Modern Industry. See also Li, Peng, and Li, “A Study on the History of City Planning,” 84–92.
39 Dong and Wu, The Industrial Cornerstone of New China, 211.
40 Xue and Ding, A History of Design Institutes in China.
41 Lefebvre, The Production of Space.
42 On 23 January 1965, Mao Zedong stated at an enlarged meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee ‘We must focus on building the Third Front. It is a fight for time against American Imperialism. It is a fight for time against Soviet Revisionism.’
43 Ji, “The Importation of Soviet Socialist Realist Architectural Theory,” 66–71.
44 Qin, “From Decentralisation to Gathering,” 351.
45 Editorial, “A New Mining Base Integrating Workers and Peasants.”
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Notes on contributors
Gangyi Tan
Prof. Gangyi Tan is the professor and the vice dean at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and the Deputy Editor-in-chief of the New Architecture. He has published above 5 Monographs, pressed about 60 periodical papers and academic conference papers, taken charge 3 research items supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China and 1 research items supported by British Academy (as Chinese Director). He won the Honourable Mention prize of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation, 2003 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation, third place award of the International Residential Design Competition (1994, Japanese Shinkenchiku) and other prizes. His research interests include vernacular architecture and rural practice, modern city and architecture and the conservation of culture heritage.
Yizhuo Gao
Yizhuo Gao is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong. He has a keen interest in Chinese modern architecture and planning practices during the Cold War period.
Charlie Q. L. Xue
Dr. Charlie Xue has taught architecture at Shanghai Jiaotong University and City University of Hong Kong. An award-winning architect and writer, he has published 14 books, including Building a Revolution: Chinese Architecture since 1980 (HKU Press, 2006), Hong Kong Architecture 1945-2015: From Colonial to Global (Springer, 2016), A History of Design Institutes in China: from Mao to Market (Routledge, 2018) and Grand Theater Urbanism: Chinese cities in the 21st century (Springer, 2019). He has published more than 100 research papers in professional and international refereed journals. His book on Hong Kong was awarded by the International Committee of Architectural Critics (CICA) in 2017. Xue's research interests are in modern architecture of Greater China and high-density design.
Liquan Xu
Dr. Liquan Xu is a lecturer of School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. His main research fields are cultural landscape heritage, history of Third Front construction planning and construction, and Digital Urban Design.