UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Writing Modernity: Constructing a History of Chinese Architecture, 1920-1949 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sg0n862 Author Yan, Wencheng Yan Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Writing Modernity: Constructing a History of Chinese Architecture, 1920 – 1949 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art & Architecture by Yan Wencheng Committee in charge: Professor Swati Chattopadhyay, Chair Professor Richard Wittman Professor Xiaowei Zheng March 2016 The dissertation of Yan Wencheng is approved. _____________________________________________ Richard Wittman _____________________________________________ Xiaowei Zheng _____________________________________________ Swati Chattopadhyay, Committee Chair March 2016 Writing Modernity: Constructing a History of Chinese Architecture, 1920 – 1949 Copyright © 2016 by Yan Wencheng iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has taken longer than I had imagined at the beginning of my graduate career. It would not have been possible without the help of many along the way. I wish to thank my home department of the History of Art & Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for providing academic and financial support for my studies. I thank the professors who have given support and assistance whenever I needed it, making the department my home for almost a decade. In particular, my thanks go to Professors E. Bruce Robertson, Peter Sturman, Jeremy White, Volker M. Welter and Ann Jensen Adams. I thank the staff at the C.V. Starr East Asian Library of the University of California, Berkeley, where I conducted preliminary research during the spring of 2012. Special thanks are due to the Librarian for Chinese Collections, Jianye He, who was welcoming, courteous, and always ready to help with locating materials. For the academic years 2012–2014, I relocated my family to China to conduct archival research for my dissertation, and I thank the archivists and staff at the Beijing Municipal Archives for their help. I am also grateful for the financial support from the Claudia D. Weitlanner Fellowship which helped defray travel costs. My sincere gratitude goes to the professors in China and elsewhere who have gone out of their way to meet with me, discuss my project, and/or answer my questions without hesitation. These include Nancy Steinhardt of the University of Pennsylvania, Zhao Chen of Nanjing University, Wang Guixiang and Luo Deyin of Tsinghua University, Delin Lai of the University of Louisville, Xu Subin of Tianjin University, Zhu Tao of the University of Hong Kong, Li Hua and Zhuge Jing of Southeast University, Zhu Yimin of the South China University of Technology, Zhu Jianfei of the University of Melbourne, and Lu Duanfang of the University of Sydney. I am fortunate to have received generous help from Professor Emeritus Ron Egan, Professors Mayfair Yang and Michael Berry of the East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at UCSB with my project in its initial stage. I have also benefited tremendously from friendship with and assistance from my colleagues, especially Katherine Papineau, Shalini Kakar, Mira Rai Waits, George Flaherty, Seokwon Choi, Noa Turel, Mary McGuire, Mallorie Chase, Rachel Johnson, and Briana Simmons. Last but not least, I thank my Doctoral Committee members for their unfailing support, belief, and guidance with every aspect of my intellectual and personal growth over the years. Professor Richard Wittman spent hours writing extremely helpful comments, from the first term paper I wrote in his seminar to this dissertation; from theoretical issues to careful editing. Professor Xiaowei Zheng of the History Department was a crucial and timely addition to my committee when she first joined the university in 2009. Her expertise in the history of modern China has proven invaluable to my research. My advisor and committee Chair, Professor Swati Chattopadhyay, has been the driving force of this project. She has provided guidance not only for the conceptual development of the project through the long years, but also bibliographical references and research strategies, not to mention the numerous meetings we have had, the many revisions she has suggested, and the meticulous editing of my dissertation over and over again until it took its current form. I dedicate this work to my family, both in China and in the United States. To my mother and father in China, to Chad who has endured every minute of the marathon, and iv to my babies Callidora and Vincent, I love you. v VITA OF YAN WENCHENG March 2016 Education • Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, doctorate expected Winter 2016. i) Major Field: History of Architecture in Modern China. Dissertation title: Writing Modernity: Constructing a History of Chinese Architecture, 1920 – 1949. Committee: Swati Chattopadhyay (Chair), Richard Wittman, Xiaowei Zheng. ii) Minor Field: Studies in Vernacular Architecture. Minor Committee: Swati Chattopadhyay, Volker Welter. • Master of Arts, History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 2009. Master’s Thesis: Spectacle and “Nature” on Tiananmen Square. • Bachelor of Arts in English, School of Foreign Languages, Hubei University, June 1999. Academic Interest • History and historiography of Chinese art and architecture • Vernacular architecture • Cultural and comparative studies Work Experience • Teaching Associate, Department of History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, Fall Quarter 2015. • Teaching and Research Assistant, Department of History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007 – 2011, 2014 – 2015. • Teaching Assistant, Department of Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, Spring Quarter 2009. • Language Instructor and Lecturer, Berlitz Beijing Center, China Agricultural University, Sea-Rich Foreign Languages School and other institutions in China, 1999 – 2005. • Translator and Interpreter, Beijing, 2001 – 2002. Publications • Liang Sicheng, “Why study Chinese architecture,” trans. Yan Wencheng, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians vol.73, no.1 (March 2014): 8 – 11. • “Modernizing the vernacular: house reform in Republican-era publications,” South Architecture no.1 (2014): 11 – 17. Fellowships and Awards • Claudia D. Weitlanner Fellowship, Fall Quarter 2013. • ABD Research Award, History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2011 – 2012. vi • Pre-ABD Research Award, History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, summer 2010. • Awarded Fellowship for the UCSB-Leiden Exchange Program, Fall Quarter 2007 (relinquished). • Department Special Fellow, History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2006 – 2007. Language Skills • Mandarin Chinese (native speaker) • English (fluent speaking, reading and writing) • German (reading with references) vii ABSTRACT Writing Modernity: Constructing a History of Chinese Architecture, 1920 – 1949 by Yan Wencheng This dissertation joins the contemporary debate on rewriting the history of Chinese architecture by critically (re-)examining the initial stage of discourse formation during the Republican period. Focusing on the ordinary house in the city, I excavate the popular voice on Chinese architecture from the newspapers and magazines, examine the municipal government’s effort in modernizing the city and life, as well as the professional community’s attempt to establish the authoritative figure of the modern architect to replace that of the traditional craftsman. I show that these different constituencies of Chinese architecture articulated and presented a more vibrant and complex scene of discourse and practice than we have recognized until now. Although each held different forms of power, and focused on different issues, these early interpreters of Chinese architecture nevertheless converged on their understanding of reforming the Chinese house and Chinese architecture. The municipal government’s modernizing projects in the city served to bolster the professional community’s claim to expertise that culminated in writing a new history of Chinese architecture. This history subsequently became the standard historiography, suppressing and subsuming the popular voice and relegating it to history’s dustbin for decades. By retrieving the popular discourse of Chinese architecture from this period, we not only gain a fuller understanding of the formative stage of Chinese architectural historiography, but are also provided with helpful indications pointing to a possible route to rewrite the history of Chinese architecture. viii Key words: architectural history, Chinese architecture, historiography, popular discourse, modernity in China, modern China ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Retrieving the Popular in Chinese Architectural History of the Republican Period ……………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: The Popular Discourse......................................................................... 22 Chapter Two: The Vision of the State ....................................................................... 88 Chapter Three: The Voice of the Professionals ......................................................