Chinese Imperialism: “Exporting China”

China emerges as a new form of imperialism, suggesting the possibility that the 21st century is dominated by the PRC. The exporting of Chinese architecture and urbanism, in terms of practice, building types and culture, suggests the possibility of “urban Sinofication”. China becomes one of the largest global outsourcing flows of architectural and construction services. Numerous Chinese- manufactured building components are penetrating world market, especially in the prefabricated building construction section. For example, in Hong Kong nearly all new public housing now uses Chinese- prefabricated concrete panels for its construction and Chinese- prefabricated integrated glass units for curtain- walling. The China State Construction Engineering Corporation now ranked the 3rd largest in the world. African countries have adopted China’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ) model in both its financial and physical form. Large number of projects have been built, including farms, plantation, schools, hospitals, etc. In Vietnam, manufacturing facilities have shifted from China to new SEZ production hubs that are part of a changing Vietnamese market- oriented economy. Countries nearby are adopting the industrialisation model from China. The success of contemporary Chinese cities in terms of both speed and intensity, however, is seen as a developed production mode rather than producing a culture. Rem Koolhaas pointed out the way in which China disseminated an urban chaos to the world and doubted whether this is a fully replicable capitalist model in the mid- 1990s.

China is undergoing a process of unprecedented urbanisation, with cities being built from scratch in just 3-5 years. It is projected that 400 new cities will be built over the next 20 years. However, over the last decades, China is employing Western firms to design its national identity: CCTV, Galaxy SOHO, Linked Hybrid, etc. Stepping into cities like Hangzhou, Shanghai or Beijing, one might mistake neighborhoods for Venice, Paris or London.They even build McMansions for the new neighbourhood. China uses copycat architecture to modernise, define and celebrate itself. The construction of buildings has traditionally been an important element in nation-building. Buildings help establish national consciousness, and have played a role in both colonial and postcolonial eras. Design by a foreign agent would also be seen as a sign of modernism and developing- world governments use this as an instrument of nation- building in an attempt to buy the allegiance of new citizenry. Also, the map showing a taxonomy of contemporary Chinese cities and reveals the interrelationships between them in a form of network they weave within the Chinese context. However, it is not a geographical map but a knowledge tree. Centralism in government planning resulted in samples of new typology by their functionality, such as event cities, university cities, etc.

Utilising the strength of China as a building component exporter, it should look for a way to “export” Chinese architecture to build up its real national identity. Thinking in the way of adopting traditional material and symbolism to new tectonic, such as ceramics, bamboo, tile, etc. Challenging its fixity, adaption of material to weather, relationship with ground, deployment and lightness of new “Chinese” construction piece, it would make Chinese goods desirable and make people confident with the tag of “made in China”. Taking Buckminister Fuller’s Dymaxion House as an example, prefabricated products means a more efficient way of building is developed and brings people to cooperate for building construction.

Anthony Giddens’s view that globalization introduced new forms of world interdependences, ‘in which once again there were no “other”’. However, since capitalism thrives on the construction of difference, such economic universalism, under the confines of a world constituted of national units, can lead to further cultural division. Culture and tradition, then, become the globally authoritative paradigms for explaining differences.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Edited by Laurence Liauw, Sept/ Oct 2008, New urban china (architectural design), WILEY

2. Edited by Brendan McGetrick + Jiang Jun, 2009, Urban China- work in progress, Urban China Magazine

3. Carol Davidson Cragoe, 2010, How to read buildings- a crash course in architecture, Herbert Press