{"id":141581,"date":"2012-08-12T23:10:46","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T06:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=141581"},"modified":"2012-08-13T07:38:32","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T14:38:32","slug":"an-architects-vision-bare-elegance-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/08\/an-architects-vision-bare-elegance-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"An Architect\u2019s Vision: Bare Elegance in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/12\/arts\/design\/wang-shu-of-china-advocates-sustainable-architecture.html?_r=2\"><strong>Jane Perlez profiles architect Wang Shu<\/strong><\/a>, whose <a href=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/02\/chinese-architect-wang-shu-wins-pritzker-prize\/\">selection as China&#8217;s first Pritzker Prize winner<\/a> in February received\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/03\/netizens-react-to-pritzker-announcement\/\">a somewhat mixed reaction from some of his countrymen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In awarding this year\u2019s Pritzker Prize to Mr. Wang, 48, in February, the jury catapulted to center stage an architect who profoundly disagrees with China\u2019s rush to urbanization and has found a way to criticize it through his own style of work. Mr. Wang, who grew up in China\u2019s far western reaches in Xinjiang province, is an outlier in his profession here. He has designed only one apartment building, a series of 14-story blocks with deep verandas, in Hangzhou. His museums, academies, homes, and a garden of ancient tiles are all touched by old China. [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>It is the rush to emulate the West and the insistence on trashing what makes China so distinctive that upsets Mr. Wang. Why should China become something it\u2019s not, he asks. \u201cWe want to copy Manhattan,\u201d he said over lunch near his studio. \u201cI love Manhattan. It\u2019s a very interesting place. But if you want to copy something that was accomplished in 200 years, it\u2019s very difficult. New York was not designed by architects, it was designed by time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part of his criticism is driven by a recognition that a nexus of government officials and crony investors have made enormous amounts of money clearing land of old dwellings and broken roads to build highways, airports, rail stations and housing. \u201cSixty percent of government income comes not from normal tax but from the sale of land,\u201d he said. Some reports put the percentage of take from land sales even higher. Phoenix New Media, a company in Hong Kong that is sympathetic to the Chinese government, recently quoted a report from the Ministry of Land and Resources that said that 74.1 percent of government revenues in 2010 came from land sales, up from virtually zero in 1989.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These sales frequently involve <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/china\/land-grabs\/\">land grabs<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/china\/forced-demolition\/\">forced demolitions<\/a>, with some desperate evictees resorting to <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2011\/05\/three-dead-in-chinese-bombings\/\">bombing<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/05\/suicide-bomber-kills-two-in-housing-dispute\/\">attacks<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2011\/05\/unable-to-stop-land-grab-chinese-farmer-set-self-afire\/\">self-immolation<\/a>. China Daily reported last year that <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2011\/06\/demolitions-cause-most-social-unrest\/\">forced demolitions were the country&#8217;s leading cause of social unrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/china\/architecture\/\">architecture<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/china\/urban-development\/\">urban development<\/a>\u00a0in China via CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times&#8217; Jane Perlez profiles architect Wang Shu, whose selection as China&#8217;s first Pritzker Prize winner in February received\u00a0a somewhat mixed reaction from some of his countrymen. In awarding this year\u2019s Pritzker Prize to Mr. Wang, 48, in February, the jury catapulted to center stage an architect who profoundly disagrees with China\u2019s rush [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":962,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,2,14744,14745,14746,5],"tags":[326,3890,3851,6890,14861,2589,15138,5921],"class_list":["post-141581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-economy","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-society","tag-architecture","tag-hangzhou","tag-land-grabs","tag-new-york-city","tag-pritzker-prize","tag-urban-development","tag-wang-shu","tag-xinjiang","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An Architect\u2019s Vision: Bare Elegance in China<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/08\/an-architects-vision-bare-elegance-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Architect\u2019s Vision: Bare Elegance in China\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times&#8217; Jane Perlez profiles architect Wang Shu, whose selection as China&#8217;s first Pritzker Prize winner in February received\u00a0a somewhat mixed reaction from some of his countrymen. In awarding this year\u2019s Pritzker Prize to Mr. Wang, 48, in February, the jury catapulted to center stage an architect who profoundly disagrees with China\u2019s rush [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/08\/an-architects-vision-bare-elegance-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-13T06:10:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-13T14:38:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"177\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samuel Wade\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Samuel Wade\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/08\/an-architects-vision-bare-elegance-in-china\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/08\/an-architects-vision-bare-elegance-in-china\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Samuel Wade\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/4b33a6e88a49d3a6787f02f798de0d8e\"},\"headline\":\"An Architect\u2019s Vision: Bare Elegance in China\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-13T06:10:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-08-13T14:38:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/08\/an-architects-vision-bare-elegance-in-china\/\"},\"wordCount\":375,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"architecture\",\"Hangzhou\",\"land grabs\",\"new york city\",\"pritzker prize\",\"urban development\",\"wang shu\",\"Xinjiang\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture &amp; 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