Abstract
This chapter reviews the development of China's foreign aid and foreign aid architecture from the 1950s to the 1970s, focusing on the relationship between the aesthetics of foreign aid architecture and its political implications. It aims to interpret the connotation and meaning of the “Chinese model” in foreign aid through architectural lens. From the perspective of history of knowledge, it analyses the development and evolution of the design knowledge of China’s foreign aid architecture and the transnational knowledge flows, focusing on the influence of Western modernist architectural trends on Chinese foreign aid architecture from 1964 to 1976. Taking the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Terminus in Dar es Salaam as the primary example, it reveals the “Chineseness” of Chinese foreign aid architecture in the aspects of both aesthetics and politics, and discusses the contemporary value of Chinese foreign aid architecture of that period as an intellectual heritage.
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Notes
- 1.
Cultural Revolution, according to the CCP’s official periodization of political history approved in 1978, lasted ten years from 1966 to 1976. Nevertheless, the heights of the Cultural Revolution, the deepest turmoil, lasted from 1966 to 1969. Since 1969, Mao and state government began to cope with the economic disorder and the deterioration of international relations, by re-emphasizing economic development and restoring the relations with the West.
- 2.
For examples, in the 1960s, China provided military supports to Algeria, Mozambique and Congo for their “anti-imperialist movements”. See (Jiang, 2014: 75–77).
- 3.
The Second Asia-Afro Conference was scheduled in 1965 but lapsed due to the division among the countries.
- 4.
Most of the aid projects in the 1950s were designed by Beijing Industrial Design Institute under the Ministry of Construction (Zou, 2001: 285). This design institute as the precursor of China Architectural Design and Research Group (CAG) today, was one of the most important design institutes in the Mao era.
- 5.
Gong Deshun (1923–1994) graduated from Institut des Hautes Etudes et Commerciales in Tianjin in 1945. This university put more emphasis on technical and practical knowledge of architecture compared to other universities that promoted Beaux-Arts education. (Zhang, 2009: 8).
- 6.
Chen (1962).
- 7.
Zhou Enlai once indicated that the design of the BMICH in Sri Lanka should represent the local tradition and tropical climate. See (You, 2012: 6).
- 8.
At the height of the construction, 38,000 Tanzanian and Zambian workers and 13,500 Chinese technical and engineering personnel were on the construction site. Over 160 workers including 64 Chinese, died during the construction of the railway. For the project, China also helped to expand the port of Dar es Salaam and build schools to train local railway talents, and even helped to establish farms and provide medical service for the local communities along the railway. See "Our History,” TAZARA. Accessed Sep 4, 2016. http://tazarasite.com/?page_id=131.
- 9.
The concept of “pragmatic architecture” was firstly proposed by the German architect Hans Demeter in the 1960s who also worked in Dar es Salaam. See (Folkers, 2010: 183).
- 10.
The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) was aided by Western countries in the 1960s. The English firm Norman & Dawbarn, designed the master plan in line with pure modernist principles. Architects from West Germany were also involved in the design of this university. See (Folkers, 2010: 171–74).
- 11.
The leaking problem persisted and further caused a dispute between the faculty and the architect in 1985. The faculty accused the architect of using import-dependent components and materials, which made maintenance work difficult. See (Folkers, 2010: 184–86).
- 12.
An official reference book published in 1977, written by the TRSDI, with Nanjing Institute of Technology and Tianjin University, summarized the types and standards of railway stations including a bunch of examples in China built from the 1950s to the 1970s. Railway stations were categorized into four grades of size in relation to its “capacity” (the maximum number of people staying in the station): “super-large” for more than 4,000 people, “large” for 1,500–4,000, “middle” for 400–1,500, and “small” for less than 400 people.
- 13.
The actual dimensions of the three stations were similar: Beijing Station was 220 m for the main façade, Guangzhou was 185 m wide, and Dar es Salaam was 140 m excluding the two ramps.
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Song, K. (2022). Aesthetics and Politics of China's Foreign Aid Buildings from the 1950s to 1970s. In: Xue, C.Q., Ding, G. (eds) Exporting Chinese Architecture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2786-7_3
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