Page 123 - JCAU-6-2

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
From finance to legacy: Exploring Bank of China’s

modern buildings as serial cultural heritage

1,2
Jun Wang 1 , Mengyuan Zhou * , Xiaofan Du 1
1 Department of Cultural Heritage and Museology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
2 Department of Art and Design Theory and History, School of Art, Soochow University, Suzhou,
Jiangsu, China
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Conservation and Revitalization of Architectural Heritage)

Abstract

In the early 20 century, China underwent profound societal transformations across
th
cultural, political, economic, and military domains, culminating in the birth of its
first national bank, the Bank of China. Enduring for over a century, the Bank of China
stands as a testament to the emergence and evolution of a modern nation-state. The
edifices housing this paramount institution, as well as their geographical locations and
architectural designs, serve as prime examples for studying modern Chinese architecture
and social history. This article, rooted in field surveys, traces the development history
and current conservation status of the 26 existing Bank of China buildings. It analyzes
their locations, construction backgrounds, architectural features, and functional uses.
Through an assessment of the historical, artistic, scientific, and socio-cultural values of
*Corresponding author:
Mengyuan Zhou these bank buildings, this study employs the perspective of “serial cultural heritage” to
(myzhou@suda.edu.cn) propose a value-based thematic interpretation aimed at revitalization. In particular, it
Citation: Wang, J., Zhou, M. & Du, X. accentuates that analyses and interpretation of values are fundamental prerequisites
(2024). From finance to legacy: for rebuilding and displaying the cultural identity of these buildings.
Exploring Bank of China’s modern
buildings as serial cultural heritage.
Journal of Chinese Architecture and Keywords: Bank of China; Bank branches; Conservation and revitalization; Heritage value
Urbanism, 6(2), 2166.
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2166 studies; Modern bank buildings; Modern history; Serial cultural heritage; Value-based
thematic interpretation
Received: November 3, 2023
Accepted: January 24, 2024
Published Online: May 13, 2024
1. Introduction
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an open-access article A bank functions as a pivotal financial institution that facilitates credit intermediation
distributed under the terms of the through various services such as deposits, loans, remittances, and savings (Riuoire &
Creative Commons Attribution- Chen, 1997). Modern bank buildings symbolize an architectural legacy stemming from
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all the modernization of the financial industry, serving as spatial embodiments of banking
non-commercial use, distribution, philosophies and recognized as a distinctive architectural category (Jacobi, 2019). The
and reproduction in any medium, development of bank buildings is closely related to the trade of goods and the growth of
provided the original work is
properly cited. economies (Heathcote, 2003; Jansson, 2021). Thus, bank architecture, evident in shifts in
form and space, closely parallels economic development, societal contexts, and cultural
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with patterns across different epochs since the Middle Ages (Pang, 2006; Wei, 2006).
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional The banking industry played a major role in facilitating the 18th-century Industrial
affiliations. Revolution, a seminal milestone in human history (Andrei, 2012), marking an era of

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2166