Organizer and Chair: James Millward, Georgetown University
Duanfang Lu, University of Sydney
This paper offer a multidisciplinary analysis of the cultural meanings of
China’s foreign aid programs through an investigation into the export
of Chinese architecture to the Third World as part of aid programs between
1956 and 1989.
Since the founding of the Third World coalition at Bandung, Indonesia, in
1955, China has consistently identified itself with the Third World and considered
strengthening cooperation with other Third World nations its basic foreign policy.
Extensive Chinese architectural export began in 1956 as part of overseas aid
programs within the Cold War context. In the decades that followed, Chinese
architects built construction projects ranging from major national buildings
to factories in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
This paper starts with an overview of the formulation of architectural aid
program as one way of translating China’s Third World policies into practices.
It then focuses on the case study of the Moi International Sports Centre in
Kasarani, Kenya. The construction of sports facilities is an important aspect
of China’s overseas aid programs in Africa. Featuring a blatant modernist
style, the Centre is among the largest in scale and has been a sign of national
progress since it was built in 1987. By looking into how the Centre was planned,
designed, negotiated, perceived, interpreted, and contested within transnational
contexts, the paper shows the power of architecture in elaborating a political
vision of the future between nations. It also foregrounds some aspects of the
Third World’s experiences with modernism and nationalism repressed by
dominating theoretical perspectives.
Jiren Feng, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
This paper investigates the cultural connotations reflected in the technical
relevance of the Song (960-1279) building manual Yingzao fashi (Building
Standards, 1103) and addresses the social and cultural factors in the construction
of architectural knowledge in pre-modern China. Technical terminology is an
active factor that would encounter culture. The Yingzao fashi terminology presents
a mixture of literary and vernacular language. Some terms use particular words
that make sense only when related to contemporary ci- (lyric-poem) practice
in which those words are used to distinguish the length of ci. Some terms borrow
the particular words for particular styles of art prevailing in contemporary
practice of painting and sculpture. Its nomenclature of bracketing presents
a powerful metaphorical system; bracketing elements are likened to flowers and
flowering trees, and such architectural conceptualization was shared by craftsmen
and literati. These indicate a great impact of literature and arts upon Song
craftsmanship and may suggest an ongoing interaction between craftsmen and the
learned society. I argue that Song craftsmen had more intellectual capacity
than “unlearned” and
that they themselves also employed their literary knowledge in the naming
of particular building matter. With the aid of other texts, my research suggests
that scholars and craftsmen were working towards shared architectural vocabularies
and knowledge since the Song period and that Ming-Qing scholars more actively
engaged in the making of building methods and they felt the need to teach
craftsmen. Scholars and craftsmen probably were two interplaying forces in the
domain of building knowledge in China.
Zuyan Zhou, Hofstra University
The shadows of Lei Feng, a communist paragon of the bygone era, are still
very much visible in contemporary Chinese films and TV series. Although his
personal image no longer appears on the screen, his words and actions are
often imitated and adapted to the contemporary settings. In popular media, Lei
Feng is often mentioned in comic lines as a reference marker to the altruistic
values that are out-moded. In scenes that depict the Cultural Revolution, references
to Lei Feng often subject this past hero to teasing, distortion, or even
mockery, along with the revolutionary model operas of the 1960s. On the other
hand, the official discourse has spared no efforts in idolizing this communist
hero in an endeavor to revive the altruistic spirit that he embodies, as seen
in biographical films, such as In the Days after Lei Feng Left Us, Jiao Yulu,
and Ren Changxia (A Model Policewoman). In the cinematic productions of more
independent filmmakers, such as Postmen in the Mountains, Road Home, and Shower,
Lei Feng’s name
is never mentioned, and yet the altruistic spirit of public devotion, characteristic
of the official designation of Lei Feng’s identity, is enthusiastically
celebrated. This presentation will explore the cultural/ideological implications
of these conflicting references to Lei Feng in Chinese visual arts. What do
they reveal about today’s Chinese intellectuals’ attitude to the
communist ideology? What are they searching for in creating new versions of
Lei Feng amid an ever deepening ambience of mercenary culture in China? What
is the difference between the new Lei Feng spirit as projected on the screen
of the 2000s and its original version as printed in the newspapers of 1960s.
In exploring these questions, the paper will focus its analysis on a recent
popular Chinese TV series, Romantic Life in a Bloody Age (xuese langman), where
two young soldiers, once abusing the Lei Feng spirit in a country-born comrade
by making him serve them like a slave, finally turn themselves into Lei Feng’s
true disciples; they contribute all their meager incomes to support the latter’s
impoverish family upon his martyred death.
Marcia R. Ristaino, Library of Congress
This paper will look at the remarkable efforts of the French Jesuit, Rev.
Robert Jacquinot de Besange, S.J., to organize a safe zone for Chinese refugees
in Shanghai during the months after the Japanese attack on the city on August
13, 1937. What became known as the "Jacquinot Zone", established on
November 9, 1937, required intense negotiations on the part of Father Jacquinot
and his refugee committee with both the warring Chinese and Japanese military
authorities. It also necessitated his involving the local Western powers,
Great Britain, the United States, and France, in charge of running the Shanghai
International Settlement and the French Concession, in the talks.
The successful establishment of the zone in the northern part of the old
Chinese City, located in southern Shanghai, the area known as Nanshi (Nantao),
resulted in the rescue and survival of at least 250,000 Chinese--some counts
go much higher--who otherwise most likely would have perished. His concept of
a safe zone later was copied in Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and elsewhere, and
led to the establishment of International Safety Zones which accounted for the
survival in Nanjing alone of an additional 200,000 Chinese, threatened by displacement
or annihilation. Altogether, it is estimated that his refugee zones saved more
than 500,000 Chinese lives. Recognition of its successes resulted in the Jacquinot
Zone becoming a part of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 where it is cited as
a successful example of a refugee safe zone for non-combatants during wartime
and recommended to other countries to follow.
Jaesok Kim, Stanford University
My paper analyzes the daily processes how the particular use of factory space
came to reinforce shop floor order in a multinational garment factory located
in Qingdao, China, using ethnographic data on the interactions among Han-Chinese
migrant workers, Korean-Chinese interpreters, and a Korean management. Spatial
organization often serves to constitute and maintain social order through
the assignment of people and activities to distinctive places (Bourdieu 1977).
In the factory, the spatial organizations and divisions induce specific power
effects to reinforce labor control. Interacting with regional and national cultural
discourses closely corresponding to the "global hierarchy of value”,
the spatial compartmentalization in the factory sustained and reinforced
the existing division between the Han-Chinese, the Korean-Chinese, and the Koreans.
My study also demonstrates how the discriminating mechanism of space essentializes
differences between the groups in the factory. In the spatial divisions where
Koreans occupy the central place of the factory complex, the Han-Chinese
workers, the overwhelming majority of the factory employees, live in the shabby
dormitories outside the complex. The Korean-Chinese interpreters, on the other
hand, live in a well-furnished residential building located inside the complex.
I show how the superior living conditions of the Korean-Chinese created their
notion of “clean” Korean-Chinese, contrasting sharply with their prejudiced
belief in “dirty” Han-Chinese. This paper further investigates how
the Korean-Chinese notion of ethnic cleanliness developed into their everyday
feeling of ethnic superiority over the Han-Chinese, which violates the common
notion of the ethnic division of labor, where ethnic minorities usually occupy
low-income, marginal jobs.
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