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Grand Theater Urbanism

Chinese Cities in the 21st century

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Editors:
  1. Charlie Qiuli Xue

    1. City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

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  • Investigates selected cities and shares first-hand reports on urban construction in China

  • Details cities’ growth and explores how cultural buildings have contributed to quality of life

  • Focuses on the theaters’ relationship with cities instead of going deeper into theatrical and technical design

  • Provides building plans and associated descriptions, making it unique and highly readable

  • Relevant to UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 --Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxv
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  2. Development of Theaters and the City in Beijing: The 1950s and Post-1980s

    • Xiangdong Lu
    Pages 1-30

  3. To Be Cultural Capital: Grand Theaters in Shanghai

    • Charlie Qiuli Xue
    Pages 31-54

  4. Guangzhou Opera House: Building a Gated Public Space

    • Guanghui Ding
    Pages 55-74

  5. City and Cultural Center Shift—Performance Space in Shenzhen

    • Cong Sun
    Pages 75-103

  6. Growth with the City: Theatrical Buildings in Chongqing

    • Dongzhu Chu, Kai Xue
    Pages 105-126

  7. The Henan Art Center: From Dilemma to Ambition

    • Lujia Zhang
    Pages 127-148

  8. The Shanxi Grand Theater: The “Renaissance” of Chinese Drama Land

    • Yingbo Xiao, Min Ni
    Pages 149-178

  9. A Butterfly by the Lake—Wuxi Grand Theater

    • Lin Li
    Pages 179-207

  10. The National Taichung Theater: Experimenting Publicity of Metropolitan Urbanism

    • Jing Xiao
    Pages 209-229

  11. From Colonial to Global—Performing Art Space in Hong Kong

    • Charlie Qiuli Xue
    Pages 231-252

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 253-277
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Keywords

About this book

This volume explores the phenomenon and trend of cultural buildings by investigating 10 typical cities in China from the first, second, and third tiers, and from the Chinese diaspora. Each grand theater design was the result of a high-profile international competition and created by global architects in collaboration with Chinese design institutes. The national and international significance of these iconic projects lies in the fact that they not only reflect the dynamics of global design ideas, but also represent a particular historical moment in China’s modernization process. The development, histories, and purposes of constructing cultural buildings are carefully outlined and colorfully presented. Given China’s tremendous population, the development trajectory of its urban construction will provide insights for other regions that hope to embark on the high-speed track in the 21st century.




“In 'Grand Theater Urbanism',  Professor Charlie Xue and his team document China’s current shift towards a culture of consumption and leisure, symbolized by the construction of multi-use Grand Theaters in major cities. 'Grand Theater Urbanism' reveals the unexpected variety and complexity of this contemporary cultural drive in a series of exemplary chapters with highly detailed, local, case studies.”


                    --Professor David Grahame Shane, Columbia University, New York 


"Jane Jacobs likened city life to a performance. This book goes a stage further and analyses the actual performance spaces within cities in China. In doing so it makes a valuable connection between urban design and the cultural life in cities. This is an important and often forgotten dimension of urbanism and I heartily commend this book to readers.'"


                    --Professor Matthew Carmona, The Bartlett, University College London

Editors and Affiliations

  • City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Charlie Qiuli Xue

About the editor

Dr. Charlie Q. L. Xue has taught architecture at Shanghai Jiaotong University; the University of Texas, USA; and City University of Hong Kong. An award-winning architect and writer, he has published 12 books, including Building a Revolution: Chinese Architecture since 1980 (HKU Press, 2006), Hong Kong Architecture 1945-2015: From Colonial to Global (Springer, 2016), and A History of Design Institutes in China (with Guanghui Ding, Routledge, 2018), and research papers in international refereed journals such as The Journal of Architecture, Urban Design International, Habitat International, and Cities. Xue’s research focuses on modern architecture in China and design strategies for high-density environments.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Grand Theater Urbanism

  • Book Subtitle: Chinese Cities in the 21st century

  • Editors: Charlie Qiuli Xue

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7868-3

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-7867-6Published: 16 July 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-7870-6Published: 14 August 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-7868-3Published: 04 July 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXXV, 277

  • Number of Illustrations: 22 b/w illustrations, 190 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Human Geography, Architectural History and Theory, Urbanism

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