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A Wrecking Ball for Beijing’s History – Peter Ford
The Christian Science Monitor writes about the families facing the demolition of their homes in Beijing’s historic Dongsi Batiao neighborhood: The conflicting interests of renters crammed into...
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CDT Bookshelf: The Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Meyer
Beijing-based writer Josh Chin contributed the following review of Michael Meyer’s “The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed,” to CDT: Western observers...
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CDT Bookshelf: The City of Heavenly Tranquility: Beijing in the History of China
Taipei Times gives a review of Jasper Becker’s new book,The City of Heavenly Tranquility: Beijing in the History of China. You might think that City of Heavenly Tranquility, with its subtitle “Beijing...
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In Beijing, a Brand-New Old Quarter (with photos)
In the New York Times, Richard Bernstein takes a walk through the new Dashalan pedestrian district: But while most of the old residential areas of Beijing that have been demolished were transformed...
View ArticleZhang Song: China’s Urban Disease (1)
China Dialogue translates an interview in Southern Metropolis Daily with urban preservation expert Zhang Song about the Shanghai Expo and its impact on the city: Zhang Chuanwen: For the first time, the...
View ArticleDisappearing Shanghai: The Roots of an Urban Tragedy, Pt. I
Shanghai Scrap has interviewed Amy L. Sommers, an American lawyer who tried to buy a pre-War home in Shanghai and became intimately familiar with the legal complexities of ownership claims on old...
View ArticleIn Shanghai, a Roomy Loft From a Small Apartment
The New York Times Great Homes and Destinations section has profiled a 425 square foot apartment in Shanghai rebuilt from a historic unit on a tree-lined street: …Hebe Ting, a property investor from...
View ArticleDevelopers Demolish Home of Revered Architects
Liang Sicheng is known as the “father of Chinese architecture.” He and his architect wife, Lin Huiyin, lived in an ancient courtyard home in Beijing from which they fought for the preservation of...
View ArticleRazing History
In the Atlantic, Jonathan Kaiman writes about the destruction of Beijing’s historic neighborhoods, including the hutongs surrounding Zhongnanhai, the central leadership compound, which were on a...
View ArticleOld Building Restoration Taking a Hold in China
Starting from the reinvention of Dashilar, a historical neighborhood in Beijing, innovative architects are racking their brains to balance city development and cultural preservation. From Clarissa...
View ArticleUncertain Future for Architectural Treasures
Breakneck development and urbanization campaigns often threaten the relics reflecting China’s ancient architectural tradition. An article from Caixin takes us to the northern province of Shanxi, a...
View ArticleSecret Historians Preserve the Past Amid State Amnesia
In effort to safeguard Party legitimacy, official history glosses over much of the brutality of the Cultural Revolution—much in the same way it chooses to ignore the events that occurred in the...
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