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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Modern Chinese architecture adaptations

opposed them; and skeptics, who were “willing to wait and located in the Jiangwan area of Shanghai. He received this
see whether these new ideas were passing fads or whether commission from Shanghai’s City Planning Commission
they were going to last. In their compromising stance, upon his return to China from the United States in 1928.
they practiced various forms of eclecticism.” (Denison Dong’s master plan for the Greater Shanghai Civic Center
& Guang, 2008, p. 314). The author cited Eliel Saarinen consists of two intersecting axes, with open programs such
(1873 – 1950) but added this third group, describing as the library, concert hall, and museum arranged along
them as practicing various forms of eclecticism in their the north–south axis, and closed programs along the
compromise. It is, therefore, evident that architectural east–west axis. The design exhibits elements of Beaux-Arts
discussions in China during the 1920s and 1930s critically architecture, characterized by a monumental approach and
reviewed the “modern trends” of the day, while reflecting architectural balance.
on past traditions and struggling to find a balance between An interesting ambivalence appears in Dong Dayou’s
the two. The following section illustrates an example of a architectural designs during the 1930s. His struggle
foreign-educated Chinese architect who struggled with his between Beaux-Arts and modernism is evident,
architectural designs during the 1930s. particularly as Beaux-Arts architecture in China, as in
In 1936, Dong Dayou (董大酉, 1899 – 1973), a first- Europe at the time, was associated with the state. In
generation Western-trained Chinese architect, echoed contrast, Dong’s own design for his residence differed
Bergamini’s view from a decade earlier by advocating for a markedly from his monumental buildings in the Jiangwan
“modification” in Chinese architecture. Dong Dayou (also area of Shanghai. His residence featured an asymmetrical
known as Doon Dayou) received his architectural training form with a white exterior, a flat roof, and longitudinal
at the University of Minnesota, before further studies at window arrangements, indicating familiarity with the
Columbia University, returning to China thereafter (Kuan, work of contemporary European modernists at the time.
2011). As a former employee in Henry Murphy’s office, In the late 1930s, Dong also built two additional private
Dong acknowledged Murphy’s influence on Chinese residences in similar modernist styles.
architecture: “Although the new movement owes its Although first-generation Chinese architects such as
development to the pioneering spirit of a few foreign- Dong predominantly received traditional architectural
educated [Chinese] architects, its origin must be traced to training in the Beaux Arts tradition, they were nonetheless
the earlier work of the missionaries who adapted Chinese aware of evolving changes in international discourse in
style for their buildings” (Dong, 1936, p. 358). In the same architectural design during the 1930s. In an article he
article, written for a monthly periodical, Dong described published in 1936, Dong was highly critical of his era
this movement as an awakening of Chinese architecture: and his peers, concluding that “Chinese architecture is
A group of young students went to America and going through a fundamental change. Chinese architects
Europe to study the fundamentals of architecture. are producing buildings of an experimental nature [and]
They came back to China, filled with ambition to will result in a definite new style of Chinese architecture”
create something new and worthwhile […] to do (Dong, 1936, p. 361).
away with poor imitations of Western architecture
and to make Chinese architecture truly national. This 4. Discussion
movement is often referred to as the Renaissance of 4.1. A transition in modern Chinese art and
Chinese Architecture (Dong, 1936, p. 359).
architecture
Similar to Gabriel Van Wylick of Crédit Foncier
d’Extrême-Orient, Dong advocated adapting Chinese After the 1930s, an “Art Deco modern and a pure modernist
or international style” (Zhu, 2009, p. 71) emerged in

features for modern purposes in architecture. He described China, with certain European firms introducing Art Deco
his recently completed buildings for the Greater Shanghai designs with modern inclinations in Chinese cities such
Plan, including the Municipal Government Building and the as Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. This transition
City Stadium, referring to them as modern buildings that coincided with the prevailing modernist manifestos from
demonstrated the spirit of the new movement. He noted that the West becoming accessible in China during the 1930s.
the “otherwise monotonous roof is raised in the middle to As these modernist architectural trends entered China,
give importance to the middle portion of the building […] architects largely regarded them as a modern product of
showing the possibilities of adapting Chinese decorative eclecticism, resulting in a revival style unique to modern
features to modern structures” (Dong, 1936, p. 361). Chinese architecture and decoration. In Shanghai, the
The buildings mentioned above are, in fact, Dong’s own Czechoslovakian architect László Ede Hudec (1893 – 1958)
projects for the Greater Shanghai Civic Center in the 1930s, made a drastic change toward an Art Deco and modern

Volume 7 Issue 1 (2025) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3710