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Architectures of China: General resources

Recommended resources on the architectures of China, historic to contemporary, and related topics, providing location info for print resources and links for digital resources

Recommended books

Recommended image resources

Search ArchNet collections for architectures of China

Search “China” in Detail Inspiration (use the "Location" drop-down menu)

Other resources

Artibus Asiae (English-language journal covering Asia art and design; JSTOR has issues 1925-2007)

Asian Historical Architecture 

China Online Museum

China Research Center (Based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA)

The Hong Kong Institute of Architects (Site features links to local and mainland institutions and associations)

Inner Asia Digital Archive (American Center for Mongolian Studies. Collections include research materials on Inner Mongolia and parts of China.)

Kissinger Institute on China and the United States (U.S.-China policy and relations)

National Art Museum of China (NAMOC)

Project Himalayan Art, an "interdisciplinary resource for learning about Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian art and cultures" (Rubin Museum of Art)

Time + Architecture / Shidai-jianzhu (Tongji University-based journal with text in Chinese and English. Kappe Library carries issues from 2014 to the present.)

Recommended for all architectural research

Architectural eras & related topics

Ancient Chinese architecture, SpringerWein, Oversize-NA1543.5.J813 (Multi-volume series covers palace architecture, defensive structures, gardens, Imperial mausoleums, vernacular architecture, Taoist and Islamic buildings, etc.)

Boyd, Andrew Charles Hugh, Chinese Architecture and Town Planning, 1500 B.C.-A.D. 1911, NA1540.B6812 1987

Cai, Yanxin, Chinese architecture, Cambridge University Press, NA1540 .C35313 2010

Cacchione, Orianna & Wei-Cheng Lin (editors), The allure of matter : materiality across Chinese art, University of Chicago, Center for the Art of East Asia, N7262 .A45 2021

China, People's Republic of; architecture,” Oxford Art Online

Chinese architecture web links (Ronald Knapp’s website: extensive images and links)

Fu, Xinian, Traditional Chinese architecture: twelve essays, Princeton University Press, NA1540 .F82513 2017

Fung, Stanislaus, et al. "Bracket system," Oxford Art Online (Traditional roof support systems in China, Korea & Japan)

Guo, Qinghua, A visual dictionary of Chinese architecture, Images Publishing, NA1540 .G86 2002

Guo, Qinghua, Chinese architecture and planning: ideas, methods, techniques, Edition Axel Menges, NA1540 .G857 2005

Statman, Alexander, A global enlightenmant: Western progress and Chinese science, B802 .S735 2023

Sullivan, Michael & Shelagh Vainker, The arts of China, University of California Press, N7340 .S92 2018

Watson, William, The arts of China after 1620, Yale University Press, N7343.W38 1995

Ancient Chinese architecture, SpringerWein, Oversize-NA1543.5.J813 (Multi-volume series covers palace architecture, defensive structures, gardens, Imperial mausoleums, vernacular architecture, Taoist and Islamic buildings, etc.)

Blaser, Werner, Chinese pavilion architecture, Architectural Book Publishing Company, NA8450 .B48 1974

“China, North,” Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, NA208.E53 1997 v.2, p.874

“China, South,” Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, NA208.E53 1997 v.2, p.891

Guo, Qinghua, “Tomb Architecture of Dynastic China: Old and New Questions,” Architectural History, 2004, p.1-24 (PDF via Jstor)

Hung, Wu, Art of the Yellow Springs: Understanding Chinese Tombs, Reaktion Books, 2011 (via Ebook Central)

Lee, Tunney F., “The Islamic and rural architectures of northern China: from Beijing to Kashi,” Mimar, #3, 1982, p.21-73 (Special issue on vernacular architecture in northern China)

Milburn, Olivia (translator, author of introduction), Urbanization in early and medieval China : gazetteers for the city of Suzhou, University of Washington Press, 2015 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Miller, Tracy G., “Water sprites and ancestor spirits: reading the architecture of Jinci,” Art Bulletin, March 2004, p.[6]-30

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “China’s earliest mosques,” JSAH, September 2008, p.[330]-361 (PDF via Jstor)

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, Chinese architecture: a history, Princeton University Press, NA1540 .S84 2019

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “The sixth century in East Asian architecture,” Ars Orientalis, Vol.41, 2011, p.27-71 (PDF via Jstor)

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “The Tang architectural icon and the politics of Chinese architectural history,” The Art Bulletin, June 2004, p.228-254 (PDF via Jstor)

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “Toward the definition of a Yuan dynasty hall,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, March 1988, p.57-73 (PDF via Jstor)

World Heritage Sites: China

The Chinese and the iron road: building the transcontinental railroad, edited by Gordon H. Chang and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, with Hildton Obenzinger and Roland Hsu, HD8039.R3152 C49 2019

“Colonial China,” Sir Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture, 20th ed., Architectural Press, NA200.F63 1998, p.1227

Liang, Samuel Y., Mapping modernity in Shanghai : space, gender, and visual culture in the sojourners' city, 1853-98, Routledge, 2010 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Liang, Samuel Y., “Where the courtyard meets the street: spatial culture of the Li neighborhoods, Shanghai, 1870-1900, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, December 2008, p.482-503 (PDF via Jstor)

Roskam, Cole, Improvised city : architecture and governance in Shanghai, 1843-1937, University of Washington Press, NA2543.S6 R65 2019

Victoir, Laura & Victor Zatsepine (editors), Harbin to Hanoi: the colonial built environment in Asia, 1840 to 1940, Hong Kong University Press, 2013 (via Ebook Central)

“20th c. China,” in Sir Banister Fletcher’s a History of Architecture, 20th ed., Dan Cruickshank (editor), Architectural Press, NA200.F63 1998, p.1550

Academy of Building Research, New China Builds, China Building Industry Press, DS711.C44723 1976

“China,” Architectural Design, 1974, Vol.44, #3, p.138-157; Vol.44, #4, p.218-226 (Two articles on architecture and planning)

Ding, Li-yang, “Horizontal and vertical emphasis: historic continuity embedded in Chinese architecture during the era of the first half of the 1970s to early 1980s,” Time & Architecture, May 2009, p.44-49

Jodidio, Philip, CN, architecture in China, Taschen, NA1545.6 .A73 2007

Kaltenbrunner, Robert, “Shanghai's architectural heritage: housing developments of the ‘20s and ‘30s,” Ekistics, January/April 1991, p.87-96

Koditek, Walter, Hong Kong modern : architecture of the 1950s-1970s, Apsara Books; DOM publishers, NA1547.H6 K63 2023

Kögel, Eduard & Ulf Meyer (editors), The Chinese city between tradition and modernity, Jovis, NA9265 .C45 2000

Kwon, Mi-ju, et al, “An aspect of contemporary Chinese architecture,” Space, November 2011, p.38-85

Lai, Delin, “Searching for a modern Chinese monument: the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, March 2005, p.22-55 (PDF via Jstor)

Li, Xiaodong, “The celebration of superficiality: Chinese architecture since 1979,” The Journal of Architecture, Winter 2000, p.391-409

Lu, Duan-fang, “Third world modernism: utopia, modernity, and the people’s commune in China,” Journal of Architectural Education, February 2007, p.40-48

Miao, Pu, “Design trends in contemporary Chinese architecture,” Architecture California, November 1995, p.29-34

“Museum for Chinese Art, Shanghai, China,” Progressive Architecture, February 1948, p.50-51

Roskam, Cole, Designing reform : architecture in the People's Republic of China, 1970-1992, Yale University Press, NA1545 .R67 2021

Rowe, Peter G. & Seng Kuan, Architectural encounters with essence and form in modern China, MIT Press, NA1545 .R68 2002

Shiqiao, Li, “Reconstituting Chinese building tradition: the Yingzao fashi in the early twentieth century,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, December 2003, p.470-489

Smith, Herbert L., “China,” Architectural Record, August 1981, p.80-87

Wagner, Walter F., “A report on life and architecture in China,” Architectural Record, September 1974, p.111-124

Xue, Charlie Q. L., Building a revolution: Chinese architecture since 1980, Hong Kong University Press, 2006 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Xue, Charlie Q. L., Hong Kong architecture 1945-2015 : from colonial to global, Springer Singapore, 2016 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

2000s

Chan, Bernard, New architecture in China, Merrell, NA1545.6 .C43 2005

Chung, Chuihua Judy, Rem Koolhaas, et al, Great leap forward,  Tashen & Harvard Design School, HT384.C6 G82 2001

Dawson, Layla, China’s new dawn: an architectural transformation, Prestel, NA1545.6 .D39 2005

“Future present: a new generation of Chinese architects,” Architectural Record, March 2004 (Multiple articles)

Jachna, Tim, “The info-urbanisation of China,” Architectural Design, March/April 2005, p.50-55

Leach, Neil & Xu Wei-Guo, Emerging Talents, Emerging Technologies: Architects; 2nd Architectural Biennial Beijing, China Architecture & Building Press, NA2460.C6 B445 2006

Mars, Neville, The Chinese dream: a society under construction, 010 Publishers, DS721 .M37 2008

Ong, Edmund, “Twenty-first century China,” Architectural Design, September/October 2005, p.70-77

Rowe, Peter G., Architectural encounters with essence and form in modern China, MIT Press, NA1545 .R68 2002

“Towards a new Chinese architecture,” Domus, November 2003 (Multiple articles)

“Ubiquitous China,” Volume, #8, 2006 (Theme issue)

Weidong, Ma, “The flowering of Chinese architecture,” A+U, December 2003 (Theme issue)

Xiangning, Li & Christian Dubrau (editors), Updating China: projects for a sustainable future, DOM Publishers, NA2542.36 .U63 2010

 

2010s

“Architects in China,” A+U: Architecture & Urbanism, March 2016 (Theme issue)

Kwon, Mi-ju, et al, “An aspect of contemporary Chinese architecture,” Space, November 2011, p.38-85

Li, Xiangning, “Chip off the old block,” Architectural Review, September 2012, p.66-73

Schittich, Christian, China's new architecture: returning to the context, Birkhauser, NA1545.6 .S3513 2019

Williams, Austin, New Chinese architecture : twenty women building the future, Thames & Hudson, NA1548 .W55 2019

 

2020s

Cummer, Katie & Lynne D. DiStefano (editors), Asian revitalization : adaptive reuse in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore, Hong Kong University Press, NA2793 .A87 2021

Moreno, Shonquis, Learning from China : a new era of retail design, Frame, NK2195.S89 M67 2021

Chinese aesthetics,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Critical directions in Chinese architectural history,” JSAH, March 2014 (Special issue)

Fernandez-Galiano, Luis, “Weird Architecture,” Log, Winter 2015, p.17-19 (PDF via Jstor)

Hanlon, Don L., “Architectural education in Post-Maoist China,” Journal of Architectural Education, Fall 1987

Ho, Tao, “The problem of a Chinese architectural spirit,” Ekistics, November 1965, p.288-292

Li, Xiaodong, “The aesthetic of the absent: the Chinese conception of space,” The Journal of Architecture, Spring 2002, p.87-101

Mao, Zedong, Mao Tse-tung on literature and art, Foreign Language PressN7345 .M28

Rinaldi, Bianca Maria (editor), Ideas of Chinese gardens : Western accounts, 1300-1860, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Ruan, Xing, “American beaux-arts in twentieth-century Chinese architectural education and practice,” JSAH, March 2002, p.30-47 (PDF via Jstor)

Shiqiao, Li, “Writing a modern Chinese architectural history,” Journal of Architectural Education, September 2002, p.34-45 (PDF via Jstor)

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “Chinese architectural history in the twenty-first century,” JSAH, March 2014, p.38-60 (PDF via Jstor)

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “The Tang architectural icon and the politics of Chinese architectural history,” Art Bulletin, June 2004, p.228-254 (On Foguang Monastery) (PDF via Jstor)

The Yingzau Fashi Project (Hong Kong U. project on 11th century design manual)

Zhu, Jianfei, "Criticality between China and the West,” The Journal of Architecture, September 2005, p.479-498

Zhu, Jianfei & Tao Zhu, “Critical dialogue: China and the West,” The Journal of Architecture, April 2007, p.199-207 (Response to “Criticality in between China and the West”)

Bracken, Gregory (editor), Aspects of urbanization in China: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Amsterdam University Press, 2012 (Ebook via Jstor)

Chen, Chia-Lin & Biao Wei, “High-speed rail and urban transformation in China,” Built Environment, 2013, Vol.39, #3, p.385-398 (PDF via Jstor)

Knapp, Ronald G., China's walled cities, Oxford University Press, NA497.C6 K59 2000

Mars, Neville & Adrian Hornsby, The Chinese dream: a society under construction, 010 Publishers, DS721 .M37 2008

Rabkin, April, “Building on empty: China’s ghost cities…,” Architect, June 2013, p.122, 124, 126, 128, 130, 132, 134 (On real estate development)

Rowe, Peter G., et al, China's urban communities : concepts, contexts, and well-being, Birkhäuser, HT169.C6 R69 2016

Ruan, Xing, Confucius’ Courtyard: Architecture, Philosophy and the Good Life in China, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022 (See Chapter 9: "The irresistible metropolis," and Chapter 10: "The assault on modernity") 

Ruan, Xing, "The Assault of Modernity," in Confucius’ Courtyard: Architecture, Philosophy and the Good Life in China, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022, p.245–278 (Book chapter discusses hutongs (alleyways), hutong neighborhoods, and courtyard architecture)

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “The Plan of Khubilai Khan's Imperial City,” Artibus Asiae, 1983, Vol.44, #2/3, p.137-158

Waldheim, Charles, et al, 50 species-towns, Office for Urbanization, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, HT169.C6 A16 2021

 

CITIES, BEIJING / PEKING

Antoniou, Jim, “The Forbidden City in Beijing,” Architectural Review, April 2001, p.70-75

Banti, Sara, “Beijing: the poetry of the hutong,” Abitare, December 2016, p.74-81

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (NGO)

Chang, Sen-dou, “Peking: the growing metropolis of Communist China,” Ekistics, November 1965, p.293-297

Greco, Claudio & Carlo Santoro, Beijing: the new city, Skira, NA1547.B45 G74 2008

Leanza, Beatrice, “Hutong, a testing ground for modernization,” Abitare, November 2017, p.61-70

Min, Kwiski, et al, “Beijing: polarized city, habitat in a dilemma,” Space, October 2015, p.102-119 (Three featured articles indexed separately)

Skinner, R. T. F., “Peking 1953,” Architectural Review, October 1953, p.255-258

Yamaguchi, Yukio, “Intermezzo of the 1930s: the art deco of Shanghai,” Space Design, March 1985, p.59-61

Zhu, Jianfei, Chinese spatial strategies: imperial Beijing, 1420-1911Routledge, 2004 (via Ebook Central)

 

CITIES, CHONGQING

“Chongqing [theme issue],” Bauwelt, March 24, 2006

Gluckman, Ron, “Chongqing: the Chicago of China?” Urban Land, February 2006, p.59-63

Harwell, Andrei, et al (editors), Rethinking Chongqing: mixed-use and super dense, Yale School of Architecture, NA9266.C46 R266 2014

 

CITIES, HONG KONG

Devabhaktuni, Sony, Curb-scale Hong Kong [SAR] : infrastructures of the street, Applied Research and Design Publishing, NA9053.S7 D49 2022

Fu, Poshek & David Desser, Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity, Cambridge University Press, PN1993.5.H6 C56 2000

Gu, Daqing, “The retention of collective memories…studies on the design achievements of Hong Kong Modern architecture in the 1940s to 1970s,” Time & Architecture, March 2015, p.118-123

Huang, Tsung-yi Michelle, Walking between slums and skyscrapers, Hong King University Press, HT169.C6 H83 2004

Lambot, Ian, “Self build and change: Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong,” Architectural Design, September/October 2017, p.122-129

Meyer, David R., Hong Kong as a Global MetropolisCambridge University Press, DS796.H757 M48 2000 (via Ebook Central)

Shapiro, Gideon Fink (editor), Re-living the city, Actar, HT178.C552 H664 2015

 

CITIES, SHANGHAI / XIAHAI / XIAGANG

Arkasaprasertkul, Non, “Urbanization and housing: socio-spatial conflicts over urban space in contemporary Shanghai,” in Aspects of Urbanization in China, Gregory Bracken (editor), Amsterdam University Press, 2012, p.139-164 (PDF via Jstor)

Byrne Bracken, G., The Shanghai alleyway house: a vanishing urban vernacular, Routledge, NA7520 .B97 2013

Datz, Christian & Christof Kullman (editors), Shanghai: architecture & design, Te Neues, NA1547 .S5 D38 2005

Denison, Edward, Building Shanghai: the story of China's gateway, Wiley-Academy, NA1547.S5 D46 2006

Gandelsonas, Mario, Shanghai reflections: architecture, urbanism, and the search for an alternative modernity, Princeton Architectural Press, NA1547.S5 G36 2002

Jacobson, Clare, “Along the Huangpu: the future of Shanghai,” Architectural Record, July 2014, p.25-26

Liu, Cary Y., “Encountering the dilemma of change in the architectural and urban history of Shanghai,” JSAH, March 2014, p.118-136 (PDF via Jstor)

Rizzardi, Pier Alessio & Liu Yuyang, “’Chinese planners always prefer a tablula [sic] rasa’,” Mark: Another Architecture, August/September 2014, p.68-75 (On urban development in Shanghai)

Zaiyuan, Zhang, “From west to Shanghai: architecture and urbanism in Shanghai from 1840-1940,” A+U, June 1993, p.69-100

Zhou, Ying, Urban loopholes: creative alliances of spatial production in Shanghai’s city center, Birkhauser, NA9266.S53 Z46 2017

 

CITIES, SHENZHEN

Chen, Ting, A state beyond the state : Shenzhen and the transformation of urban China, nai010 Publishers, HT178.C55 S54 2017

Vlassenrood, Linda (editor), Shenzhen : from factory of the world to world city, nai010, NA9053.U7 S54 2016

 

CITIES, SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES (SEZ)

Chen, Ting, A state beyond the state: Shenzhen and the transformation of urban China, nai010 publishers, HT178.C55 S54 2017

Cooper, Mark, “China’s Pearl River Delta: high-speed rail and other infrastructure are tying 11 cities in one megaregion,” Urban Land, September 2014, p.70-75

Hirsh, Max, “Design aesthetics of transborder infrastructure in the Pearl River Delta,” JSAH, March 2014, p.137-152 (PDF via Jstor)

Shapiro, Gideon Fink (editor), Re-living the city, Actar, HT178.C552 H664 2015

Vlassenrood, Linda (editor), Shenzhen: from factory of the world to world city, International New Town Institute, NA9053.U7 S54 2016

Zhang, Jun, “Rise and fall of the ‘Qilou’: metamorphosis of forms and meanings in the built environment of Guangzhou,” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Spring 2015, p.25-40 (PDF via Jstor)

 

CITIES, SUZHOU / SOOCHOW

Milburn, Olivia (translator, author of introduction), Urbanization in early and medieval China : gazetteers for the city of Suzhou, University of Washington Press, 2015 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Xu, Yinong, The Chinese city in space and time: the development of urban form in Suzhou, University of Hawaii Press, HT169.C62 S999 2000

Yu, Yali, Gardens in Suzhou, Edition Axel Menges, SB466.C532 S894 2003

Handler, Sarah, Austere luminosity of Chinese classical furniture, University of California Press, NK2668 .H36 2001

Hay, Jonathan, Sensuous surface: the decorative object in early modern China, University of Hawaii Press, 2010 (via Ebook Central)

Hobson, R. L., Chinese pottery and porcelain, Dover Publications, NK4165 .H7 1975

Medley, Margaret, The Chinese potter: a practical history of Chinese ceramics, Phaidon Press Limited, NK4165 .M39 1989

Moser, Jeffrey, Nominal things : bronzes in the making of medieval China, University of Chicago Press, NK7983 .M67 2023

Bonaiuto, Marino, “’Feng shui’ and environmental psychology: a critical comparison,” Journal of Architectural & Planning Research, Spring 2010, p.23-34

Bramble, Cate, The architect’s guide to feng shui: exploding the myth, Architectural Press, NA2542.4 .B73 2002

Lip, Evelyn, Feng Shui in Chinese Architecture, Marshall Cavendish Eds., 2009 (via Ebook Central)

Smith, Vincent, Feng Shui: a practical guide for architects and designers, Kaplan/AEC Education, BF1779.F4 S6 2006

Dirlik, Arif, Marxism in the Chinese revolution, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005 (via Ebook Central)

Needham, Joseph, Shorter Science and Civilization in China, Cambridge University Press, Q127.C5, volumes 1-4

Rojas, Carlos, The Great Wall: a cultural history, Harvard University Press, 2010 (Via Ebook Central)

Ropp, Paul S., China in world history, Oxford University Press, 2010 (via Ebook Central)

Roskam, Cole, Designing reform : architecture in the People's Republic of China, 1970-1992, Yale University Press, NA1545 .R67 2021

Smith, Bradley & Wan-go Weng, China: a history in art, Harper & Row, DS721.S664

Wang, Gungwu & John Wong, Interpreting China's Development, World Scientific, 2007 (via Ebook Central)

Wood, Frances, The Silk Road: two thousand years in the heart of Asia, University of California Press, DS33.1 .W59 2002

Bolchover, Joshua, “Manual for Mongolia,” Topos: European Landscape Magazine, #114, January 2021, p.94–101

Miller, Rick, “Unsettled meaning: memorializing lost mobility through a monument in Ordos, Inner Mongolia,” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Spring 2013, p.23-38 (via Jstor)

Ordos 100,” ArchDaily, retrieved 14 October 2019 (Drawings and plans of individual houses for the “Ordos 100” project, which aimed to produce 100 houses in 100 days.)

Williams, Austin, “The ghost town Ai Weiwei built,” The Architectural Review, 23 September 2013 (via architectural-review.com)

Bryant, Shelly, The classical gardens of Shanghai, Hong Kong University Press, 2016 (via Ebook Central)

Cheng, Liyao, Ancient Chinese Architecture: Imperial gardens, Oversize-NA1543.5.J813 1998

Chi, Cheng, The craft of gardens, SB457.55 .C4713 1988 (Yuan Ye’s 17th century manual)

Clunas, Craig, Fruitful sites: garden culture in Ming dynasty China, Reaktion Books, SB466.C5 C6 1996

Hands, Tatum L. (editor), Beautiful China: reflections on landscape architecture in contemporary China, ORO Editions, SB470.55.C6 B43 2020

Henderson, Ron, The gardens of Suzhou, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013 (via Ebook Central)

Henderson, Ron, “Reflecting Beijing’s ‘Fragrant Hills’,” Landscape Architecture, November 2008, p.26, 28-30, 32 (via Ebook Central)

Kehrer, Jutta (editor), New horizons: eight perspectives on Chinese landscape architecture today, Birkhauser, SB470.55.C6 N49 2020

Richard, Josepha, “Uncovering the garden of the richest man on earth in nineteenth-century Canton,” Winter 2015, p.168-181 (PDF via Jstor)

Siu, Victoria M., Gardens of a Chinese Emperor: Imperial creations of the Qianlong era, 1736-1796, Lehigh University Press, 2013 (via Ebook Central)

Yu, Yali, Gardens in Suzhou, Edition Axel Menges, SB466.C532 S894 2003

Chinese Classics” & “Chinese Philosophy,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Chinese Texts Project (Classic philosophical texts in Chinese and English)

Classical Chinese Literature (Original texts with English translation & notes)

Hardie, Alison & Duncan M. Campbell (editors), The Dumbarton Oaks anthology of Chinese garden literature, Dumbarton Oaks, SB318.34.C6 D86 2020

Modern Chinese Literature & Culture Resource Center (Ohio State)

Qian, Zhongshu, Patchwork : seven essays on art and literature, BRILL, 2014 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Renditions Chinese-English translation magazine

Wang, Zhongjiang, Daoism excavated : cosmos and humanity in early manuscripts, Three Pines Press, 2015 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Denton, Kirk A., Exhibiting the past: historical memory and the politics of museums in postsocialist China, University of Hawaii Press, 2014 (via Ebook Central)

Guo, Qinghua, “Tomb architecture of dynastic China: old and new questions,” Architectural History, 2004, p.[1]-24

Matten, Marc Andre, Places of memory in modern China: history, politics, and identity, Brill, 2012 (via Ebook Central)

Wang, Boyang, Ancient Chinese Architecture: Imperial mausoleums and tombs, SpringerWein, Oversize-NA1543.5.J813 1998 v.02

Wu, Hung, The art of the Yellow Springs: understanding Chinese tombs, Reaktion Books, 2010 (via Ebook Central)

Wu, Hung, Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and architecture, Stanford University Press, N7343.2.W8 1995

Chen, Changfen, The Great Wall of China: photographs by Chen Changfen, Yale University Press & The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, DS793.G67 C453 2007

Grasskamp, Walter, “Chinese walls: a specific form of political architecture,” Daidalos, #39, 1991, p.92-101

Qiao, Yun, Ancient Chinese Architecture: Defense structures, SpringerWein, Oversize-NA1543.5.J813 2001

Zheng, Jing, “The state army, the guerrillas, and the civilian militias: politics and the myth of the ‘tulou’, 1927-1949,” Spring 2013, p.51-64 (PDF via Jstor)

Qiao, Yun, Ancient Chinese Architecture: Taoist buildings, SpringerWein, Office-NA1543.5.J813 2001b

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, “China's Earliest Mosques,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, September 2008, p.330-361

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman, China's early mosques, Edinburgh University Press, NA6043 .S74 2018

Sun, Dazhang, Ancient Chinese Architecture: Islamic buildings, SpringerWein, Office-NA1543.5.J813 2003

Sun, Dazhang, Ancient Chinese Architecture: Ritual and ceremonious buildings, SpringerWein, Office-NA1543.5.J813 2002

Allen, Joseph Roe, Taipei: city of displacements, University of Washington Press, 2011 (via Ebook Central)

Architectural Institute of Taiwan (English version)

“Architecture in Taiwan,” A+U: Architecture & Urbanism, October 2018 (Theme issue)

Guo, Yingzhao, BI : biological intelligence : the origin of architectural creativity : design the way nature creates itself, ORO Editions, NA680 .G98 2020

Makovsky, Paul, “Made in Taipei,” Metropolis, December 2016, p.55-67

Park, Sung-ji, et al, “Asian cities, Asian architecture 08: home sweet home, Taipei,” Space, December 2007, p.[46]-81

Taiwan Green Building Council

Byrne Bracken, G., The Shanghai alleyway house: a vanishing urban vernacular, Routledge, NA7520 .B97 2013

Knapp, Ronald G., China's old dwellings, University of Hawaii Press, NA7448 .K567 2000

Knapp, Ronald G., Chinese houses: the architectural heritage of a nation, Tuttle, NA7448 .K637 2005     

Knapp, Ronald G. & Kai-Yin Lo, House, home, family: living and being Chinese, University of Hawaii Press & China Institute in America, NA7448 .H68 2005

Lin, John C., As found houses: experiments from self-builders in rural China, Applied Research and Design Publishing, NA7448 .L563 2020

Wang, Qijun, Ancient Chinese Architecture: Vernacular dwellings, SpringerWein, Oversize-NA1543.5.J813 2000

Why Factory, Towers of choices: Hong Kong housing beyond uniformity, nai010 publishers, NA1547.H6 W49 2019

Yin Yu Tang: a Chinese home (Peabody Essex Museum exhibit)

Abke, Alexander & Nannan Dong, “Rural nostalgia: new rural landscape design in Yantze Delta Region,” Topos, 2014, #88, p.74-79

“Diversified rural developments with architects’ engagement,” Time + Architecture, January 2019 (Theme issue)

“From rural to country: rural reconstruction in contemporary China,” Time + Architecture, May 2015 (Theme issue)

Kai, Xin, “Reinventing the Chinese countryside,” Planning, June 2017, p.32-39

Lange, Christiane, “New territories: deconstructing and constructing the countryside,” Architectural Design, July/August 2016, p.92-97 (Rural and urban Hong Kong)

Lin, John C., As found houses: experiments from self-builders in rural China, Applied Research and Design Publishing, NA7448 .L563 2020

Mollard, Manon, “Rural restoration,” Architectural Review, March 2019, p.80-89

Waldheim, Charles, et al, 50 species-towns, Office for Urbanization, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, HT169.C6 A16 2021

Williams, Austin, “The ghost town Ai Weiwei built,” The Architectural Review, 23 September 2013 (via architectural-review.com)

Alexander, Andre, The old city of Lhasa: report from a conservation project, NA109.C6 A43 1998

Barnett, Robert, Lhasa: streets with memories, Columbia University Press, 2006 (via Ebook Central)

Bossan, Enrico (editor), Tibet : made by Tibetans : contemporary artists from Tibet, Fabrica, N7346.T5 T534 2015

Ewing, Suzanne, “Traditions of appearance: adaptation and change in Eastern Tibetan dwellings,” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Fall 2003, p.73-84 (PDF via Jstor)

Fisher, Robert E., The Art of Tibet, Thames & Hudson, N7346.T5F57 1997

Herrle, Peter & Anna Wozniak, Tibetan houses: vernacular architecture of the Himalayas and environs, Birkhäuser, 2017

Larsen, Knud, The Lhasa atlas: traditional Tibetan architecture and townscape, Shambhala, NA1547.L45 L37 2001

“Tibet,” Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, Cambridge University Press, NA208.E53 1997 v.2, p. 913

World Heritage Site: Potala Palace

Cacchione, Orianna & Wei-Cheng Lin, The allure of matter : materiality across Chinese art, University of Chicago, Center for the Art of East Asia, N7262 .A45 2021

China Film Archive (Note: audio-rich website)

Chiang, Yee, Chinese calligraphy: an introduction to its aesthetic and technique, Harvard University Press, NK3634.A2 C465 1973

Chinese Independent Film Archive

Fibicher, Bernhard (editor), Mahjong: contemporary Chinese art from the Sigg Collection, Hatje Cantz, N7345 .M26 2005

HKMDB (IMDB-like resource on Hong Kong cinema)

Hockney, David & Philip Haas, A day on the Grand Canal with the emperor of China [videorecording], Milestone Film & Video; DuArt Film and Video, Media shelf-ND1043.5 .D39 2000z

Lee, So Kam Ng, Brushstrokes: styles and techniques of Chinese painting, ND1457.C53 N47 1992

Project Himalayan Art, an "interdisciplinary resource for learning about Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian art and cultures" (Rubin Museum of Art)

The Quest for eternity: Chinese ceramic sculptures from the People's Republic of China, NK4165 .Q4 1987

Sullivan, Michael & Shelagh Vainker, The arts of China, University of California Press, N7340 .S92 2018

Yin, Simon & Jane Elliott, A history of Chinese art, Cambridge University Press, N7340.Z46515 2016

Chow, Renee Y., “In a field of party walls: drawing Shanghai’s Lilong,” JSAH, March 2014, p.16-27 (PDF via Jstor)

The Grand Canal,” UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Knapp, Ronald G., “Bridge on the River Xiao,” Archaeology, January / February 1988, p.48-54 (PDF via Jstor)

Liang, “Open spandrel bridges of ancient China. I-II,” Pencil Points, January 1938

“Villages and towns: Wuzhen, Zhejiang, China,” G.A. Houses, #79, 2004 (Canals)

Jacobson, Dawn, Chinoiserie, Phaidon Press, N7429 .J27 1993

Quimby, Ian M.G., “Oriental influence on American decorative arts,” JSAH, December 1976, p.300-308

Rinaldi, Bianca Maria (editor), Ideas of Chinese gardens : Western accounts, 1300-1860, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016 (via Proquest Ebook Central)

Roskam, Cole, “Situating Chinese architecture within ‘A Century of Progress’: the Chinese Pavilion, the Bendix Golden Temple, and the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair,” JSAH, September 2014, p.347-371 (PDF via Jstor)

Rowe, Peter G. & Seng Kuan, Architectural encounters with essence and form in modern China, MIT Press, NA1545 .R68 2002

Ruan, Xing, “Accidental affinities: American Beaux-Arts in twentieth-century Chinese architectural education and practice,” JSAH, 2002, Vol.61, #1, p.30-47

Siren, Osvald, China and gardens of Europe of the eighteenth century, Dumbarton Oaks, SB457.6 .S57 1990

Statman, Alexander, A global enlightenment : Western progress and Chinese science, University of Chicago Press, B802 .S735 2023

Please note

  • These guides are intended to provide initial orientation, and suggest a variety of different lines of investigation—not take the place of individual research.
  • All the resources cited here--print and digital--are available through the Kappe Library at SCI-Arc.Items not available at SCI-Arc are not included.
  • Surveys covering multiple projects are preferred over monographic studies focusing on specific works or individuals.
  • Resources on Los Angeles and Southern California are stressed.
  • Proprietary digital resources (Avery Index, Oxford Art Online, ArtStor, etc) can be accessed on-campus at SCI-ARC via any SCI-Arc internet provider. Off-campus they can be accessed 24/7 via the Kappe Library proxy server, and a valid SCI-Arc Network username and password.

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