MCLC: Architectural Mimicry book announcement

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Ron Knapp <knappr at hawkmail.newpaltz.edu>
Subject: Architectural Mimicry book announcement
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New Book in the Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia's Architecture
series

Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China by Bianca
Bosker

A 108-meter high Eiffel Tower rises above Champs Elysées Square in
Hangzhou. A Chengdu residential complex for 200,000 recreates Dorchester,
England. An ersatz Queen¹s Guard patrols Shanghai¹s Thames Town, where
pubs and statues of Winston Churchill abound. Gleaming replicas of the
White House dot Chinese cities from Fuyang to Shenzhen. These examples are
but a sampling of China¹s most popular and startling architectural
movement: the construction of monumental themed communities that replicate
towns and cities in the West.

Original Copies presents the first definitive chronicle of this remarkable
phenomenon in which entire townships appear to have been airlifted from
their historic and geographic foundations in Europe and the Americas, and
spot-welded to Chinese cities. These copycat constructions are not theme
parks but thriving communities where Chinese families raise children, cook
dinners, and simulate the experiences of a pseudo-Orange County or Oxford.

In recounting the untold and evolving story of China¹s predilection for
replicating the greatest architectural hits of the West, Bianca Bosker
explores what this unprecedented experiment in ³duplitecture² implies for
the social, political, architectural, and commercial landscape of
contemporary China. With her lively, authoritative narrative, the author
shows us how, in subtle but important ways, these homes and public spaces
shape the behavior of their residents, as they reflect the achievements,
dreams, and anxieties of those who inhabit them, as well as those of their
developers and designers.

>From Chinese philosophical perspectives on copying to twenty-first century
market forces, Bosker details the factors giving rise to China¹s new breed
of building. Her analysis draws on insights from the world¹s leading
architects, critics and city planners, and on interviews with the
residents of these developments.

For more information about the book:
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-8759-9780824836061.aspx

For other titles and more information about the series, which is edited by
Ronald G. Knapp and Xing Ruan, for the University of Hawaii Press:
http://uhpress.wordpress.com/books-in-series/spatial-habitus-making-and-mea
ning-in-asia%E2%80%99s-architecture/