East Meets West on the Construction Site. Churches in China, 1840s-1930s

The construction of missionary churches in China in the 1840s-1930s was in many cases the first encounter between two great and completely different building systems: the Chinese and European. Architectural transfers of forms and technical knowledge happened on the construction sites and resulted in a creative variety of more or less hybridised buildings and styles. This original contribution to the process of modernisation of architecture and construction in China is an important, yet still unrecognised, moment both in mission history and global architectural history. This article considers the construction site as a “laboratory” and focuses on the role of mediators (architects, missionary builders, Chinese middleman, contractors, craftsman, etc.) and the processes of hybridisation or translation of terminology, forms, techniques etc. Who were the missionary builders? What were their networks? How did they perceive Chinese workers? How were Western styles transplanted to China? What were the differences between construction works in foreign concession territories, big cities, small cities and the countryside? Furthermore, the article contextualises the three phases of the evolution of church building ––1840s–1900, 1900–1920, 1920s–1930s–– in relation to the transformation of the Chinese society on the path to modernity.

Publication year:2018

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

CSS-citation score:1

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open