Original copies
Subtitle: architectural mimicry in contemporary China
By: Bianca Bosker ; with a foreword by Jerome Silbergeld
Series: Spatial habitus; Spatial habitus (Series)
Publisher: University of Hawaiʻi Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Honolulu
Language: eng
Number of pages: 176
ISBN-13: 9780824836061
Subjects: Themes, motives; Western influences; Architecture; History
Description: Original Copies presents the first definitive chronicle of this remarkable phenomenon in which entire townships appear to have been airlifted from their historic and geographic foundations in Europe and the Americas, and spot-welded to Chinese cities. These copycat constructions are not theme parks but thriving communities where Chinese families raise children, cook dinners, and simulate the experiences of a pseudo-Orange County or Oxford. In recounting the untold and evolving story of China's predilection for replicating the greatest architectural hits of the West, Bianca Bosker explores what this unprecedented experiment in "(Bduplitecture" implies for the social, political, architectural, and commercial landscape of contemporary China. With her lively, authoritative narrative, the author shows us how, in subtle but important ways, these homes and public spaces shape the behavior of their residents, as they reflect the achievements, dreams, and anxieties of those who inhabit them, as well as those of their developers and designers. From Chinese philosophical perspectives on copying to twenty-first century market forces, Bosker details the factors giving rise to China's new breed of building. Her analysis draws on insights from the world's leading architects, critics and city planners, and on interviews with the residents of these developments.
Notes: "Published in China by Hong Kong University Press."

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Into "the land of courtly enjoyments" : an introduction to China's architectural mimicry; title: The fascination with faux : philosophical and theoretical drivers of architectural reproduction in China; title: Manifestations of westernization : the anatomy of China's simulacrascapes; title: Simulacra and the Sino-psyche : understanding the Chinese motivation for replicating the alien; title: Residential revolution : inside the twenty-first century Chinese dream.