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Fine Art as the Construction of the Urban Meaning and Discourse: the Representation of the City in Shanghai in Paintings

This paper aims at investigating the representation of the city by contemporary art; how Shanghai and its newly built form can be represented by mainstream artwork to produce particular meanings and messages to deliver the discourse of the state. Within the representation, what subject matters and elements do these works have, and what type of expressions/rhetoric are applied? What kinds of messages are delivered through these works, and what meanings and ideologies are revealed? The argument starts with a discussion on representation and rhetoric in relation to the production of the meaning of the built environment. This is then followed by a series of works Shanghai in Paintings by mainstream artists that depict the new Shanghai's cityscape and urban life. By reviewing the government’s attempt of applying artwork for political agenda in significant historical moments, the set of Shanghai in Painting works should be examined within this context. The conclusion leads the argument to the deciphered messages of the series, and the mainstream representation of the city reveal its political mission and social effect.

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Chinese planning culture in the context of Critical Modernization

In the last few decades, the Chinese urban development was evolving in a unique mode of transformation. On the one hand, it demonstrated the general characteristics of how the stagnation of modernization was resurging in Asia under the stimulation of globalization, which are not unique to China. On the other hand, many developments appeared to be distinctive in the Chinese case, because of the long history of self-imposed isolation and the evidence that it had propelled itself so quickly within the past four decades from a third world country toward becoming a first rank world power, while making a transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. In this framework, spatial planning plays an important role to mitigate the transformation. The discourse between the effects of layered development on the system, including the social, political and economic reforms and on the approaches of spatial planning in China requires a better understanding of its particular cultural context. Based on the idea of ＂planning culture＂, this article argues planning evolution is not just a technical mechanism. It is by nature part of the political, economic and social decisions that are made interactively. This process of transition is a part of the unfinished modernization that China is still undergoing, a continuing process of ＂cultural turn＂ in which external and internal forces are inevitably interacting which had been embedded into the term of ＂critical modernization＂ that is elaborated in this article.

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Post-war Modernity as Embodied in the Chung-Hsing New Village, Taiwan

Set alongside a post-colonial stance, this paper is aimed to unfold various manifestations of modernity that had been exhibited in the post-war architecture and planning, namely the Chung-Hsing New Village (CHNV) ＂ the ＂one and only Garden City＂ or ＂the first New Town＂ in Taiwan. Beginning with a quest into the use of the term ＂modern＂ and the particularity of ＂post-war modernity＂ in Asia, the paper seeks to understand the emulation of Western planning and architectural models in the historical context of post-war Taiwan, through a brief review on the socio-political circumstance and the professional planning milieu that facilitated such emulation. The following examination of the chronological development of the CHNV provides a fundamental understanding of its formal composition and spatial configuration as perceived today, whereby its potential historic significance to contemporary society can be evaluated. The paper argues that, despite its apparent resemblance to Western planning and architectural paradigms, the CHNV exhibited various forms of local responses to the infiltration of Western modernism as well as different local interpretation of modernism, with one current of thought prevailing after another, though occasionally coexisting in parallel, all striving for the forge of a distinctive modern identity of the newly independent state.

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Interpreting the Death of the Pavilion Republic of China

To respond the questions of modern architecture in the postwar Taiwan, this paper is based on the research of history. The reflexive approach is reconstructed to review the concept of ＂architecture is the product of specific society＂. In this paper, the arguments on the design of ＂the Pavilion Republic of China＂ in the Osaka Expo in 1970 would be reviewed under the conjugation of the nation-state and the society. From the beginning with macro-narrate, such as description of the condition ＂Before and After 1970＂, ＂The China Pavilion on Fire＂, comparing ＂The Chinese Palace Style＂ and ＂Garden Style＂, to the political conclusion of ＂One was Made by the Chinese is A Representation of China＂, and ＂More Troubles Brewing: China Day＂, the means is to open the multiple visions of history. These paragraphs reconstruct the context of history to visualize the transparency of the building. Through it, we are able to see the connections of the nation-state building, the nations' political economic negotiations, and the young students' national identity in the campaign sovereignty of Diaoyu Islands. This kind of modern architecture looks like a physical space with modern form, and in fact is a flowing space. In the conclusion of this paper, author emphasizes that the contemporary architectural profession should re-construct epistemological approach of seeing the possible initiative and transforming within ＂modern-architecture-history＂ to re-understand architectural modernity in postwar Taiwan

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The Socio-spatial Logic of Traditional Dwellings in the Taiwan Context: Case Studies of Wai Pu Farmers' Houses

Taiwanese traditional dwellings have been mostly explored and identified with fundamental principles of Chinese courtyard houses based on social norms and cosmological ideology in that the central axis defining the symmetrical development of spatial layout and architectural form and layers of courtyards as well as the visual focus of the major altar hall, etc. are notable in physical form. However, the above perceptions of the socio-spatial function of traditional dwellings both for the Taiwanese and Chinese contexts only reflect the top-down ideologies of ＂discursive spatial structure based on physical order＂ derived from the Chinese architectural paradigm. This research proposes to re-interpret the socio-spatial logic of those traditional dwellings in the Taiwan context through the analysis of non-discursive knowledge, which may help to provide a better understanding on the ＂embedded spatial structure regardless of physical order＂ from the bottom-up viewpoint. For disentangling the non-discursive attributes of the generic functions of traditional dwellings, this research deploys the Space Syntax approach to study a settlement characterised by traditional Chinese courtyard farm houses in central Taiwan. Results of this research show that distinctive non-discursive spatial properties can be identified from various types of traditonal dwellings in terms of degrees of ＂accessibility＂ that effectively underpin the mechanism of social interactions in daily life. The exterior arcade turns out to be highly accessible both for global and local levels within the spatial structure of the ＂One Dragon Row＂ type, which correlates to the frequent use of this space for social interactions either among all family members or a group of family members. However, the central courtyard is globally more highly accessible for strategic functions of integrating all members of multi-families, whereas the kitchendining has turned out to be locally important for the domestic group of family members when the spatial structure develops to form the L-shape of the ＂Single Outstretched Arm＂ type. The tendency of the splitting of the globally strategic central courtyard against the locally sub-centred unit of the kitchen-dining space has turned out to be more pronounced when traditional dwellings develop into the U-shape of the ＂Three-side Courtyard＂ type. Moreover, the visually focused altar hall on the central axis is mostly situated on the less accessible location within the spatial system exhibiting the nature of the space to be an intangible function of social norm reminder rather than the common shared physical use of a tangible function.