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Old Posted Apr 11, 2015, 3:15 PM
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Copycat Architecture Is Still Booming in China

Copycat Architecture Is Still Booming in China


Apr 9, 2015

By LAURA BLISS

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/0...-china/390138/

Quote:
It's hard not to be curious about the Chinese predilection for copycat architecture. As the country's economy skyrockets faster than any other's, China's suburbs are sprouting up replicas of iconic landmarks from mostly European cities.

There's a miniature Paris, complete with Eiffel Tower, in the outskirts of Hangzhou. There's a British-inspired "Thames Town" outside of Shanghai. Shijiazhuang has a Great Sphinx, complete (incomplete?) with a missing nose. The White House is one of the most copied buildings throughout the country. People live and work inside these structures.

To outsiders, China's passion for derivative architecture might seem bizarre. Why make your country into a theme park? Is creativity so lacking among Chinese architects that they're left to mimic a Western, romanticized past? --- These questions miss the point, according to Bianca Bosker, author of 2013's Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China. In the first thorough account of Chinese "copycat" architecture, Bosker makes the case that these buildings offer insight into the complicated aspirations of the Chinese middle class.

"Clearly there's an acknowledgement that there's something great about Paris," Bosker told CityLab in 2013. "But it's also: 'We can do it ourselves.'" --- Indeed, a miniature Paris isn't really an homage to the French greats of architecture; it's more of a statement of power and control. "Rather, it's a monument to China, which has become so rich and so mighty it can figuratively 'own' its own City of Lights—or Manhattan, or Venice, or White House," Bosker told The Atlantic.

And it's important to know that a Western-duplicate exterior often belies the interior. An American-style suburban dream-home in China might also contain a traditional Chinese tearoom, or courtyard, or subtle feng-shui principles. Plus, as Bosker points out, many Chinese mimic-architects believe they will develop mastery, and eventually better ideas, through this form of rote learning. --- "Though Chinese architects may be replicating now, all this copying could quickly give way to creativity," Bosker told The Atlantic. "As a resident of Shanghai's Thames Town noted, 'The hardware may be English, but the software is all Chinese.'"

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Old Posted Apr 11, 2015, 4:17 PM
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Why dont they preserve their own history and stop tearing all of it down in their major cities instead of building replicas of other countries historic landmarks?
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Old Posted Apr 12, 2015, 12:38 PM
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China is taking the worst parts of kitsch American culture and running with it. At least we keep most of the faux crap to theme parks and strip mall restaurants, not monumental scale architecture.*

*For the most part.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2015, 7:11 PM
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This should be illegal. im disgusted by this.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2015, 8:29 PM
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Could be worse. In time, China will have the money to buy the originals and transport them there, brick by brick, if they feel like it.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2015, 8:29 PM
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That one picture makes me happy that the trend of designing one high rise apartment and copying it a million times never really took off in the States. We do it with 2 and 3 story apartment buildings, but with the exception of some projects (most of which have been torn down) I cant think of many examples of this with taller buildings here. Maybe a few older developments in NYC.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2015, 9:32 PM
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Legoland does the same thing.

Darn you Legoland!!!

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Old Posted Apr 14, 2015, 11:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith View Post
Why dont they preserve their own history and stop tearing all of it down in their major cities instead of building replicas of other countries historic landmarks?
It Looks to me like the Chinese are doing something similar to what many Europeans (and noneuropeans) did as immigrants in the US in the 1800's.

Forgot about/ignored/hid their prior culture and heritage. But instead of going to the countries they dream of and trying to blend in, they are building replicas right in China.

Its like emigrating without emigrating.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2015, 5:13 AM
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It's of little consolation when the rest of your town looks like suburban Stalingrad.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2015, 5:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork View Post
This should be illegal. im disgusted by this.
It is strange... I guess China is starting to think it is the world.
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