This book deals with crossroads of international modernism resulting from Sino-German architectural relations in the 20th century. On the one hand, the focal points are derived from German history: China – especially the internationally administered city of Shanghai – was an important place of emigration during the Nazi dictatorship in Germany and, on the other hand, the post-war development was characterised by the division of Germany and the incongruent relations between the two German states that have existed since 1949 and the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan. Conversely, Chinese development also determined this relationship: firstly, the orientation towards European, including German modernism, such as the Bauhaus, in national bourgeois China before and during the Second World War. – The founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949 after the liberation war against Japan and the subsequent People’s Liberation War, the temporary alliance with the Soviet Union in the 1950s, the «Great Leap Forward» (1958–1961) and the «Cultural Revolution» (1966–1976) mark the era of Mao Zedong, which was replaced by Deng Xiaoping’s policy of the «Four Modernisations» from 1978 onwards and has since ushered in China’s rise to become a world power. – This publication has made an important contribution to questions of exchange between East and West, between the two German states and the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan. It becomes clear that the hard boundaries between ideologies and forms of government were undermined in the exchange and mutual professional appreciation. The influence that the ideas of modernism andexplicitly of the Bauhaus gained in the 1940s had not yet been presented in this form and shows that there are still blind spots in the research landscape, which can now be explored in greater depth in further dialogues.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHINA: CROSSROADS OF MODERNISM – ROBERT K. HUBER, THOMAS FLIERL AND EDUARD KÖGEL 4
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION – EDUARD KÖGEL 6
THE BAUHAUS INFLUENCE ON CHINA’S NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT OF THE 1930s AND 1940s – ZOE ZHANG CHUNYAN 78
THE CHINESE WERKBUND IN GERMANY: INTERCULTURAL THINKING AND ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE – WANG WEN-CHI 102
PLANNING GREATER SHANGHAI AS A FUNCTIONAL CITY IN CHANGING TIMES – LI HOU 114
RETURNING HOME: HSIA CHANGSHI AND TROPICAL MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE IN CHINA – FENG JIANG 132
THE CHINESE IMPULSE. MARIANNE BRANDT IN BEIJING AND SHANGHAI, 1953 AND 1954 – WOLFGANG THÖNER 148
«GANBEI». A TRIP TO CHINA IN 1957 – EDUARD KÖGEL 160
CHINA CROSSROADS OF MODERNISM. EAST-WEST ENCOUNTERS IN 20TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE – INTERVIEW WITH ŁUKAS STANEK / QUESTIONS: THOMAS FLIERL AND ROBERT K. HUBER 176
ROLAND RAINER’S CHINA LESSONS – ANGELIKA SCHNELL 186
CONTRIBUTERS 198
