"This handbook, representing the collaboration of 41 scholars, provides a multi-faceted exploration of roughly 6,000 years of Chinese architecture, from ancient times to the present. Thanks to its broad spectrum approach this volume formulates a thematic framework for investigating Chinese architecture, integrating previously fragmented topics and combining the scholarship of all major periods of Chinese history. By organizing its approach into five parts this handbook: - Traces the practices and traditions of ancient China from imperial authority to folk culture. - Unveils a rich picture of early modern and republican China, revealing that modernization was already beginning to emerge. - Describes the social, intellectual, ideological, and formal enterprises of socialist architecture. - Frames a window on a complex and changing contemporary China by focusing on autonomy, state practices, and geopolitics of design, ultimately identifying its still evolving position on the world stage. - Examines the existing cultural and political theories to highlight potential avenues for future transformations in Chinese architecture which also retain Chinese identity. Providing a pioneering combination of ancient and modern Chinese architecture into one coherent study. This book is a must-read for scholars, students, and educators of Chinese Architecture, Architectural History and Theory and the Architecture of Asia"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.