Chinese Archimage Phenomena

When I walked around the new district of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, I found a series of interesting ad for a new residential development. I don’t really care about the concept at all, but just the text. If you are an architect, and you can read a little bit English, you will be surprised to see this. “If there were only one form, there would not be  Le Debuxixie .” Actually, the Chinese counterpart is “ Le Corbusier ”. This happens everywhere in China when the Chinese try to imitate something they don’t really understand but they thought they do. But as Baudrillard says, “The whole system becomes weightless, it is no longer anything but a gigantic simulacrum – not unreal, but a simulacrum, never again exchanging for what is real, but exchanging in itself, in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference.”By Fei Wang (please click and read the English part, if you are an architect.)

BBQ On the Ronchamp original site, 2008 There was a Ronchamp in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, my hometown, in the West Economy Development District. I have post it a while ago, here . On the same street, there are different simulacra from many other cultures, including Greek Temple (posted here ), St Marco in Venice, Dutch style, American Style, etc. When I went back this year, I found out the fake Ronchamp has disappeared and turned into a BBQ restaurant, which is the only one on the street. However, Corbusier's sculpture is kept inside the wall. Many other buildings have transformed into other programs, such as Gas company, Kindergarten, University, Fine Arts school, seemingly private house, besides original programs of entertainment centers (sauna, Kara OK, hotel, etc.). But there are still many buildings empty and abandoned. [CAIP owes the copyright of all images] Ronchamp, Zhengzhou, 2004

Villa Savoye at Helan Shan 贺兰山, Ningxia Province This project is done by Song Yongping, along with other 11 artists designing 12 houses at Helan Shan, which is called Helan Shanfang贺兰山房, organized by Lv Peng, a "uropian artisitic critic". Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye , France (1929) [via wikipedia & neverhere & Zhuor ]

reference: Notre Dame du Haut , Ronchamp, France, 1950-1954 (left) Ronchamp, Zhenghzou, 1994 (right) Jean Baudrillard should be happy to see this...