News & Events

On December 21, the School of Design held its eighth Academic Salon in Room 208 of the Yifu Keji Building. The topic of the talk was “Misconceptions in Elite Western Universities about Chinese History and Built Space.”

 Visiting Scholar Abraham Zamcheck presented the main address, with professor of the architecture department Wang Haoyu serving as the event’s moderator.

Abraham stated that to understand the Chinese lineage in historical context it was essential to grasp the evolution of the lineage and related family forms both in China and in other societies around the world. He then detailed the lack of this perspective in the west. He described the historical background of western scholarship of Chinese history, bookended and limited by incursions by western imperialism in the past century, and by a sharp turn towards postmodernism in the present one. He detailed three major contending schools of thought in China during the 1920s and 1930s about the nature of Chinese society and economy, commenting that the debate then still has important implications for scholarship at present.  He talked about the diverse uses of lineage based ancestral halls and related courtyard spaces. These included serving as highly organized often all-inclusive community functions, such as mass banquets, as well as sites for the consolidation of landlord power in past centuries, and as housing for collective education following the 1940s. The diversity of such uses are reflective of the contradictory nature lineage society in a given historical period. He noted that social development and related architecture should not be seen as a one-way path towards a focus on individual private rooms and functions, citing the large-scale development of architecture for collective living in Daqing China。

The program was very lively, with many comments from the seated students and faculty, who touched upon subjects as diverse as the particular architectural styles in vogue in present day Hangzhou housing construction, as well as in other places in China. People also cited the relevance of their personal experience to the ideas described in the lecture. In all the talk allowed people to understand Chinese history and architecture from multiple perspectives. The overseas students who attended in particular expressed a deepened enthusiasm for, the study of Chinese history as the event concluded.

Text by  Ke Chenjuan

Photos by Xu Chang 

Edits by Peng Shulian 

Translation by Abraham Zamcheck