599 Travel Seminar – Field Studies in China

Coordinator/Instructor:            Paul Tang

Emblematic Landscape and Urbanism of China

One of the most important aspects of field research is the opportunity to gain insight into the relationships between culture, society, and politics, and place— urbanism.  In this regard, the main objective of the Field Studies Travel Seminar will be to examine the emblematic nature of Chinese urbanism, architecture, and landscape architecture.  As we travel across four different cities, we will examine the urban morphology of each city and pay particular attention to the symbolic nature of place and space both historically and contemporarily.  We will attempt to document and analyze our findings through specific cultural and social lens with the objective to create an illustrated lexicon of Chinese urbanism and place as the final deliverable for the course.

While it is easy for us to understand buildings as urban icons and therefore its emblematic nature, I propose that this phenomenon extends itself to gardens as well as urban spaces and places.  The power of the symbolic nature of things cannot be underestimated in China.  The importance of “saving face” within the Chinese society is an excellent indication of this possible interpretation.  The Chinese resistance to alphabetizing its written language is another.  It is not the physical reality or fact that is important, perception and representation prevails and permeates through all aspect of Chinese society and culture.  This said, our act to document this phenomenon will take us beyond the traditional recordation of architecture and place to include documentation of people, culture, art, and human activities.

Within this larger pedagogical objective are then the sub-topics of focus for each location:

Guangzhou

– Architectural Excess – a city steeped in history better known to the West as Canton is in the process of renewal.  As the new urban fabric threads its way through the remnants of the existing one, Guangzhou is constructing a new city axis and public attractor weighted heavily with what LA architecture critic, Frances Anderton, raises as urbanism of “architectural excess” – emblem of excess.

Chengdu

– Tian Fu Zhi Guo – the Land of Abundance for its agricultural wealth – is known for its spicy Sichuan cuisine and the spirit of its people.  Ranked China’s fourth most livable city, culturally-rich with temples and other historical relics dotting the landscape, the capital of the Sichuan province is not averse to embracing modern developments in its skyline.  Shopping malls, hotels and offices have sprouted as emblems of its status as China’s political and economic centre of Western China.

Yan’an – Symbol of Chinese Revolution – Yan’an is located on the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi Province.  The town was of great strategic importance in ancient wars, and is steeped in revolutionary traditions. It was here that the Chinese Worker’s and Peasants’ Red Army, after completing the 12,500 kilometers Long March, established a revolutionary base.  Yan’an was the seat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).  Celebrate as the birthplace of the Chinese communist revolution; Yan’an is an urban emblem of Chinese Communism in the process of a capitalist revolution through the discovery of rich natural resources.

Shanghai

– Curatorial Urbanism – an urbanism that is based on the idea of individualized urban experience that is necessarily temporal and experiential with many possible different and ephemeral narratives defined by the hybrid momentary urbanism of the emblematic during the 2010 Shanghai International Exposition – an artificially produced urbanism that could singularly manifest its own urban paradigm.

Schedule

Academic Credit
Registered USC students will receive 4 units of Professional Elective Credit for participation in the Travel Workshop (Arch 599 – China Travel Workshop).