The Intensification of Modernist Trends in Chinese Architecture of the Pre-Socialist Period

Abstract

The article studies the processes through which modernism was penetrating static Chinese architecture from the second half of the 19th century to the mid-20th century. The process is viewed as a phenomenon foreshadowing the unprecedented economic and cultural leap of the PRC observed in the late 20th century. The study examines two stages of the intensification of modernist trends, which acquired new qualities of development during the socialist period. The first stage (from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century) is characterized by adopting historicism, eclecticism, and Art Nouveau. These styles were used, on the one hand, to address the urgent problems of early urbanization and, on the other, to synchronize China with the pace of world history. It turned out that images of bygone eras, embodied in the forms of foreign architecture, helped to make sense of China's own present and stimulated the modeling of a promising future.

The second step — the Republican stage (1913–1949) — corresponds to the advancement of the Chinese vector of Eastern Art Deco, driven by both local and foreign architects. Chinese society's conviction in the perfection and completeness of its own architectural art ensured the vital necessity of its systematic renewal. In academic circles, as well as among professionals and general public, the awareness grew of the advisability of introducing Western experience into architectural practice, and the possibility of synthesizing this experience with the unique legacy of authentic Chinese architecture.

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