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Chinese cities I (Modernity begins again.)
'Modernity
begins again'. In China (and increasingly throughout Asia) it is not just the
international showpieces like Shanghai and Beijing that show themselves to be
at the cutting edge of the promotion of the best in new building; many other
cities are becoming prosperous and rebuilding on a large, even monumental
scale. Provincial cities are also being transformed. Public buildings, shopping
centres, housing estates, all appear in the latest architectural styles, making
Chinese cities appear the most modern in the world; and not only buildings -
parks, gardens, riverside landscaping, all falls under the urban planner’s
untiring eye.
This reconstruction often involves the sweeping away of the
architectural forms which dominated the building of the previous generation,
most especially that of the 1950s and 1960s,
effectively the period of Stalinist modernism – a modernism ironically similar
to coeval developments in the West from which it is often indistinguishable.
City centres once re-built in the 1960s (together with new housing estates
constructed in this period) are yet again being remodelled (where they are not
being torn down) - but this time with an eye to the mistakes made. Indeed,
little from this period deserves to be preserved (much of the urban fabric of previous
history had already been lost, victim to war and fanaticism). What remains:
some modernised Hutongs, some colonial districts and
a few old towns and gardens. A survival often fuelled more by internal than
external tourism, and as much by tourist considerations as by aesthetic or
historical concerns. Perhaps the best way of preserving history is by helping
it become a focal point, a social centre, a place to eat, drink and unwind; the
old survives as a market for pleasure and relaxation, ancient grounds become a
new area of play for today’s population. Meanwhile, all around these few
fortunate survivors, the new new arises, modernity taking a fresh breath, making a fresh
start, starting again after nearly two centuries of collapse and destruction.
Modernity begins again.
Copyright
2005 Peter Nesteruk