Chinese Vernacular Architecture

Writing the Yuan Palace_Part II

Wencheng Yan — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:42:49 +0000

Certainly Zhu Xie also included some photographs in his book, but it was the maps that were equally important, if not more so, than the textual verifications of the palace buildings, since he regarded the lack of maps thereof to be a common problem in early sources of palatial architecture. He based his maps on [...]

Writing the Yuan Palace_Part I

Wencheng Yan — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:41:01 +0000

Inside the southern Lizhengmen Gate is called A Thousand Steps Corridor, which is about 700 steps. [1] [There is] a Lingxingmen Gate with screen walls. [The walls are] about 20 li in circumference. The locals call them the Hongmen Lanma Wall. About dozens of (another version says twenty) steps inside the gate is a river. [...]

Bibliography_Part V: Other Sources

Wencheng Yan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:12:29 +0000

Bibliographies in Print 陈春生/ Chen Chunsheng. 中国古建筑文献指南 1900-1990/ Sources on Traditional Chinese Architecture 1900 – 1990. 北京: 科学出版社, 2000. Vance, Mary A. Gardens of China: books in English. Monticello, Ill.: Vance Bibliographies, 1980. —-, Chinoiseries: a bibliography. Monticello, Ill.: Vance Bibliographies, [1985] Doumato, Lamia. Chinese architecture: a bibliography. Monticello, Ill.: Vance Bibliographies, [1985] Online Sources 中国历史文化名城保护网/ [...]

“Ai Weiwei ‘Literally’ Smashes China’s Traditions in Art and Architecture” - Really?!

Wencheng Yan — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:58:48 +0000

Ai Weiwei, a contemporary Chinese artist, was widely reported to “literally” destroy China’s tradition in art in his 1995 act of dropping a Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) urn and breaking it. An article calls this performance “an iconoclastic act”. Ai was quoted as saying that this gesture is “powerful only because [...]

Bibliography_Part IV: Historic Preservation/ Heritage Conservation

Wencheng Yan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 03:07:54 +0000

Luo, Zhewen. Luo Zhewen lishi wenhua mingcheng yu gujianzhu baohu wenji/ 罗哲文历史文化名城与古建筑保护文集 [Essays on Preservation of Historic Cities and Ancient Architecture] Fang, Ke. Contemporary Redevelopment in the Inner City of Beijing: Survey, Analysis and Investigation, Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye chubanshe, 2000. Wu, Liangyong. Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing: a Project in the Ju’er Hutong Neighborhood, [...]

Bibliography_ Part III: Chinese Vernacular Architecture

Wencheng Yan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:10:12 +0000

中国美术分类全集•中国建筑艺术全集 (以下四册) [Complete Categories of Chinese Art • Art of Chinese Architecture] (with the following four volumes) 侯幼彬 . 宅第建筑（一）（北方汉族）北京：中国建筑工业出版社. 1999. ISBN: 7-112-03803-0 陆元鼎. 宅第建筑（二）（南方汉族）北京：中国建筑工业出版社. 1999. ISBN: 7-112-03804-9 杨谷生. 宅第建筑（三）（北方少数民族）北京：中国建筑工业出版社. 2003. ISBN: 7-112-04793-5 王翠兰. 宅第建筑（四）（南方少数民族）北京：中国建筑工业出版社. 1999. ISBN: 7-112-03805-7 中国美术全集•建筑艺术编（袖珍本）: 民居建筑 [Complete Works of Chinese Art• Art of Architecture: Vernacular Architecture (pocket edition)] 北京: 中国建筑工业出版社, 2004. ISBN: [...]

Bibliography_Part II: General Chinese Architecture

Wencheng Yan — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:49:13 +0000

Here is the second part of my bibliography: general Chinese architecture: 梁思成全集（共九卷，中国建筑工业出版社2001年4月版)[Complete Works of Liang Sicheng: Nine Volumes, Beijing: Zhongguo jian zhu gong ye chu ban she, 2001.] ISBN: 7112044251; 711204426X; 7112044278; 7112044286; 7112044294; 7112044308; 7112044316; 7112044324; 7112044332. Liang, Sicheng (Liang Ssu-ch’eng) (1901 – 1972). A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture: a Study of the Development [...]

“Zooming In” and “Zooming Out”: random thoughts on think patterns in Chinese and in English

Wencheng Yan — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:33:58 +0000

I could compare the two ways in which we think in Chinese and in English as “zooming in” and “zooming out” respectively. By these I mean the Chinese, myself as an example, are used to thinking in general terms, choosing a broad context to start our writing; whereas thinking in English resembles more closely a [...]

Bibliography_Part I: “Grammar Books” on Chinese Architecture, Dictionaries and more

Wencheng Yan — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:58:51 +0000

What follows is far from being a completed bibliography, content- or style-wise. But I’m getting increasingly anxious to share whatever I have gathered so far with everyone. Please forgive me for (especially) the sloppy style; I found most of these titles online, and they come in all sort of styles. As for the content, I [...]

Building a Chinese Vernacular Architecture Bibliography

Wencheng Yan — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:09:20 +0000

I’m currently putting together a bibliography on Chinese vernacular architecture, in Chinese and English, since I don’t read another language. While there seems to be a lot of books available in China about Chinese vernacular architecture: the ubiquitous travel guides about “famous” villages and towns, which have been isolated in geography and whose architecture [...]