The Architectural Influence of the United States in Mao’s China (1949–1976)

Abstract

This paper aims to reveal and highlight an architectural influence of the United States in Mao’s China. It does so by studying three cases arranged chronologically from the 1960s to 1970s. In post-war years, architectural communication between China and the United States was much restricted in a cold war confrontation of opposing political ideologies. Yet the architecture of the United States remained influential amongst leading architects in China since the 1960s, albeit in an inconspicuous way. In particular, in a dramatic political change of the early 1970s, new architecture showing an American influence emerged in Guangzhou and Beijing. Soon after, aspects of contemporary American architecture were increasingly referenced by architects in China to re-interpret native traditions in a modernist language. Adopting a tripartite framework connecting “politics,” “knowledge” and “form”, this paper examines these interrelations as found in China in the 1960s and 1970s. It argues that knowledge of the architecture of the United States was absorbed and adapted by architects in China for the creation of a Chinese modernism, for the political purpose of representing a national identity of China in a contemporary formal language.

Notes

1. For example, Jefferey Cody has systematically studied the global export of American architecture from 1870 to 2000, and one chapter of his book is dedicated to the post-war years from 1945 to 1975. Jeffrey W. Cody, Exporting American Architecture, 1870–2000 (London: Routledge, 2003), 122–155.

2. Jane C. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998); Ron Theodore Robin, Enclaves of America: The Rhetoric of American Political Architecture Abroad, 1900–1965 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014); and Annabel Jane Wharton, Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001).

3. American influence in Britain has been systematically studied. See Murray Fraser and Joe Kerr, Architecture and the “Special Relationship”: The American Influence on Post-War British Architecture (London: Routledge, 2007). In Australia, several related topics could be found. For example, Paul Hogben, “‘Architecture and Arts’ and the Mediation of American Architecture in Post-War Australia,” Fabrications 22, no. 1 (2012): 30–57; Peter Vernon, “Shopping Towns Australia,” Fabrications 22, no. 1 (2012): 102–121; and Philip Goad, “Constructing Pedigree: Robin Boyd’s ‘California-Victoria-New Empiricism’ Axis,” Fabrications 22, no. 1 (2012): 4–29. On Germany and Japan, see Peter Krieger, “Learning from America: Postwar Urban Recovery in West Germany” and Botond Bognar, “Surface above All? American Influence on Japanese,” both in Transactions, Transgressions, Transformations: American Culture in Western Europe and Japan, ed. Heide Fehrenbach and Uta G. Poiger (New York, NY: Berghahn, 2000), 187–207 and 45–78, respectively.

4. For example, Anoma Pieris, “‘Tropical’ Cosmopolitanism? The Untoward Legacy of the American Style in Postindependence Ceylon/Sri Lanka,” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 32, no. 3 (2011): 332–349.

5. For example, the influence of Western perspective drawing on the formation of the National Style in the 1950s and the emergence of the “socialist modernism” following the Sino-American rapprochement in the 1970s were studied. See Jianfei Zhu, Architecture of Modern China: A Historical Critique (London: Routledge, 2009), 75–104, 231–244.

6. Architectural development in Mao’s China has been systematically studied by several scholars. See Zou Denong, Zhongguo Xiandai Jianzhu Shi [A History of Modern Chinese Architecture] (Tianjin: Tianjin Kexue Jishu Chubanshe, 2001); Peter G. Rowe and Seng Kuan, Architectural Encounters with Essence and Form in Modern China (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002); and Zhu, Architecture of Modern China.

7. It is also necessary to differentiate the influence of the United States from a broader concept of Western influence in China. Indeed, many post-war American architects were European émigrés, such as Mies and Gropius, and American post-war architecture was definitely a continuation of prewar modernism. But American identity was trenchantly incorporated in the buildings such as American embassies and Hilton hotels, irrespective of the architects’ nationalities.

8. Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1972), 3–17.

9. More specifically, these architects were trained in the University of Pennsylvania. Wang Guixiang, “Jianzhuxue Zhuanye Zoaqi Zhongguo Liumeisheng Yu Binxifaniya Daxue Jianzhu Jiaoyu” [First Chinese Students in the United States and Education in the School of Fine Art in University of Pennsylvania], Jianzhushi [History of Architecture] 2 (2003): 218–238.

10. Zhu, Architecture of Modern China, 75–104.

11. It had the largest architectural library in Maoist China including 100,000 volumes and more than 400 journals in which 60% were in foreign languages. Editorial Committee, Zhongguo Jianzhu Shejiyuan Chengli Wushi Zhounian Jinian Congshu: Licheng Pian [China Architecture Design & Research Group 50th Anniversary Collection: The History Volume] (Beijing: China Architecture Design & Research Group, 2002), 133–140.

12. Graham Towers and Bernard Zumthor, “China Today,” Architects’ Journal 158, no. 51 (1973): 1514–1547; Robin Thompson, Richard Kirkby and Nick Jeffrey, “China,” Architectural Design 49, no. 3 (1974): 138–157; Joseph T. A. Lee and Michael Mealey, “The New China,” Architectural Record 154, no. 4 (1973): 127–134; and Walter Wagner, “A Report on Life and Architecture in China,” Architectural Record 156, no. 9 (1974): 111–124.

13. Malcolm Stuart, “China’s Achievements on Show,” Guardian, September 30, 1971.

14. “Architects from China Tour U. S. Quietly,” Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1975.

15. Duanfang Lu, “Introduction: Architecture, Modernity and Identity in the Third World,” in Third World Modernism: Architecture, Development and Identity, ed. Duanfang Lu (New York, NY: Routledge, 2011), 1–28.

16. According to Cui Kai, who succeeded Dai Nianci as the chief architect of the China Architecture Design & Research Group (former Beijing Industrial Design Institute), Dai’s admiration and reference to the American Embassy was obvious and well-known among the architect’s circle despite no credible publication. Interview with Cui Kai by Ke Song, January 4, 2015.

17. You Baoxian, Zhujian Zhongsi Youyi Zhi Mingzhu [Build the Friendship of China and Sri Lanka] (Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe, 2012), 9.

18. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy, 195.

19. Loeffler, The Architecture of Diplomacy, 194, 195.

20. You, Zhujian Zhongsi Youyi Zhi Mingzhu, 10.

21. Interview with Cui Kai.

22. Editorial Committee, Waiguo Jinxiandai Jianzhu Shi [Modern History of Foreign Architecture] (Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe, 1982), 224–299, esp. 250–256.

23. Gu Qiyuan, “Ziben Zhuyi Guojia Xiandai Jianzhu De Ruogan Wenti” [Several Issues on Modern Architecture in Capitalist Countries], Jianzhu Xuebao [Architectural Journal] 11 (1962): 18–20.

24. Both Stone’s and Dai’s works showed an inheritance of the Beaux-Arts traditions in their symmetrical composition and modernist taste for abstraction. Such an agglomeration in Dai’s work was also related to the influence of Soviet Stalinist architecture and the legacy of the first-generation Chinese architects who were educated in Beaux-Arts tradition. Dai himself trained at Tsinghua University under Liang Sicheng.

25. Lee and Mealey, “The New China,” 127–134; and Wagner, “A Report,” 111–124.

26. Lee and Mealey, “The New China,” 127–134.

27. Cai Dedao, “Wenge Zhong De Guangzhou Waimao Gongcheng (1972–1976)” [Guangzhou Foreign Trade Project in Cultural Revolution], Yangcheng Jingu [History of Guangzhou] 2 (2006): 23–28.

28. Lee and Mealey, “The New China,” 134; and Wagner, “A Report,” 115–118.

29. Deborah Desilets, Morris Lapidus: The Architecture of Joy (New York, NY: Rizzoli, 2010), 11–17.

30. She Junan, She Junnan Xuanji [Selected Works of She Junnan] (Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe 1997), 388–391. Interview with Feng Jiang by Ke Song, February 5, 2015.

31. She, She Junnan Xuanji, 26–35.

32. She Junan, “Jianzhu: Dui Ren De Yanjiu: Tan Jianzhu Chuangzuo Jibengong Ji Jianzhushi De Suzhi” [Architecture: The Research on People: On the Basic Skills of Architectural Creation and the Quality of Architects], Jianzhu Xuebao [Architectural Journal] 10 (1985): 2–4.

33. Cai, “Wenge Zhong”, 23–28.

34. Interview with Wu Guanzhang by Ke Song, January 8, 2015.

35. Zhang Bo, Wo De Jianzhu Chuangzuo Daolu [My Architectural Creation Path] (Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe, 2001), 274, 277.

36. Interview with Wu Guanzhang.

37. Wang Tan, “Wang Tan Jiaoshou Tan Xifang Jianzhu De Shineiwai Kongjian Chuli” [Prof. Wang Tan on the Interior Spatial Design of Western Architecture], Jianzhu Xuebao 7 (1962), 24.

38. Zhang Bo, Wo De, 257; and Lee, and Mealey, “The New China”, 134.

39. Conrad N. Hilton, Be My Guest (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1957), 267, quoted in Wharton, Building the Cold War, 8.

40. Alex Campbell, “Hilton and Mao: Cheek by Jowl,” New Republic 160, no. 18 (1969): 11–13.

41. Wharton, Building the Cold War, 4–5.

42. Cai, “Wenge Zhong”, 23–28.

43. In 1963, their research resulted in the manuscript Lingnan Tingyuan, but it was published decades later. Lingnan Tingyuan [Lingnan Gardens], eds. Xia Changshi, Mo Bozhi, and Zeng Zhaofen (Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe, 2008). Xia came back from Germany and once worked in Yingzao Xueshe [the Society for the Research of Chinese Architecture] under the leadership of Liang Sicheng.