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Bianca Bosker
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Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China (Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia's Architecture) Paperback – Illustrated, January 31, 2013

by Bianca Bosker (Author), Ronald G. Knapp (Series Editor), Xing Ruan (Series Editor)
3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
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A 108-meter high Eiffel Tower rises above Champs Elysées Square in Hangzhou. A Chengdu residential complex for 200,000 recreates Dorchester, England. An ersatz Queen’s Guard patrols Shanghai’s Thames Town, where pubs and statues of Winston Churchill abound. Gleaming replicas of the White House dot Chinese cities from Fuyang to Shenzhen. These examples are but a sampling of China’s most popular and startling architectural movement: the construction of monumental themed communities that replicate towns and cities in the West.

Original Copies presents the first definitive chronicle of this remarkable phenomenon in which entire townships appear to have been airlifted from their historic and geographic foundations in Europe and the Americas, and spot-welded to Chinese cities. These copycat constructions are not theme parks but thriving communities where Chinese families raise children, cook dinners, and simulate the experiences of a pseudo-Orange County or Oxford.

In recounting the untold and evolving story of China’s predilection for replicating the greatest architectural hits of the West, Bianca Bosker explores what this unprecedented experiment in “duplitecture” implies for the social, political, architectural, and commercial landscape of contemporary China. With her lively, authoritative narrative, the author shows us how, in subtle but important ways, these homes and public spaces shape the behavior of their residents, as they reflect the achievements, dreams, and anxieties of those who inhabit them, as well as those of their developers and designers.

From Chinese philosophical perspectives on copying to twenty-first century market forces, Bosker details the factors giving rise to China’s new breed of building. Her analysis draws on insights from the world’s leading architects, critics and city planners, and on interviews with the residents of these developments.

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  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Hawaii Press
  4. Publication date
    January 31, 2013
  5. Dimensions
    7.37 x 0.37 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780824836061
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0824836061
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The analysis draws on a wide range of sources from architects, critics, builders, city planners, and residents of the replicated landmarks. Well written and organized, this book contains plenty of vivid photos from real estate brochures, websites, and the author's own camera. It is a valuable read for students who are interested in the cultural and social aspects of architecture in contemporary China. ― Choice

With her lively, authoritative narrative, the author shows us how, in subtle but important ways, these homes and public spaces shape the behavior of their residents, as they reflect the achievements, dreams, and anxieties of those who inhabit them, as well as those of their developers and designers. ― www.goodreads.com

In her fascinating new book . . . Bosker focuses on the suburbs for the upper class that began to be built in the late 1990s, following the privatization of real estate. These are not just individual buildings but entire streetscapes, with cobblestone alleys, faux churches (often used as concert halls), towers, and landscaping designed to reproduce the feel of European and North American cities. . . . Original Copies is filled with analysis about why these developments flourish. ― NYR Blog

The topic is multifaceted, to be sure; Bosker’s account handles it comprehensively, presenting the various angles with patience and care. ― Publishers Weekly

Review

If the theme-park atmosphere here seems faux and superficial, Bianca Bosker’s study of this urban phenomenon most decidedly is not. She explicates the motivation behind it and details the reality of it through careful architectural and anthropological investigation, in both image and word. . . . Viewers who would be astonished by the sight of these new towns (Thames Town here, Fontainebleu Villas there, Bauhaus architecture somewhere just up the freeway) will be even more astonished when they read what this book has to say about them, as Ms. Bosker opens the gates and takes us inside. -- Jerome Silbergeld, P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Professor in Chinese Art, professor of art and archaeology, Princeton University

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0824836065
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Hawaii Press; Illustrated edition (January 31, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780824836061
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0824836061
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.02 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.37 x 0.37 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 12 ratings

About the author

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Bianca Bosker

Bianca Bosker

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Bianca Bosker is an award-winning journalist and the author of Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste.

She's the former executive tech editor of the Huffington Post, where she explored technology’s influence on culture through subjects such as teen Vine stars, people who date video games, and the creators of Siri. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, T (the New York Times style magazine), Food & Wine, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and The New Republic, as well as The New Yorker online. She is the author of the acclaimed academic book Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China. She lives in New York City.

Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
12 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Fred Croton
5.0 out of 5 stars A surprising look at the China of Today
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2014
Verified Purchase
First the cover: Realizing the photo of a distant Eiffel Tower is not from Paris, but China does not prepare for the surprise and amusement awaiting while leafing through photographs of The Amsterdam Railroad Station, A massive French Chateau, a Dutch residential street, an English village all done in perfect imitation and ALL in China.

Then the best part: Blanca Bosker's careful delineation of the tradition, taken from scroll painting of honest copying, imitation, adaptation, and perhaps, a bit of fraud that sometimes occurs. She extrapolates from this to an important discussion of the China of today. It's prosperity, enormous social change and upheaval, all through the lens of domestic architecture. Quite an achievement !!
3 people found this helpful
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Onyx Parrot
1.0 out of 5 stars Dull Book About a Fascinating Topic
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2015
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The Chinese building complete, detailed replicas of Western cities is a fascinating topic. No mere theme parks, these are real communities meant to be full-time homes to hundreds of people. Complete replicas of cities from Holland, Italy, France, even Southern California are being built as homes for upper-middle class Chinese who want a unique living experience without leaving home.

The story behind the creation and execution of these cities and the “duplitecture” behind them is undoubtedly a fascinating story. Unfortunately, this book isn’t it. If you look at all aspects of the story - the who, what, where, how and why, this book spends almost all of its text on the “why”, at the expense of covering all the other topics. Let’s meet the people who plan and build these cities. The people who live in them. See what their lives are like. But we get very little of this.

Instead, we have a book full of theories and history about what motivates the Chinese to build these cities. While that’s part of the picture, and is worth a few pages or maybe a chapter, it’s not the whole story. Worse, the book is written in turgid, academic prose. Quote: “...It will be demonstrated that while the forms in these simulascrascapes may be foreign, the desired functions are indigenous and driven by autochthonous demands, both functional and symbolic.” (Teacher! Look! I used all my vocab words!). This makes the book’s obsession with theory and historical topics all the more difficult to slog through.

The book is illustrated with many photographs, but even these are disappointing. Most are excerpts from sales brochures, or timid snapshots from a distance. Few of them take you inside these places and give you sense of what these cities are like.

I seriously hope a real journalist who knows how to write an engaging story writes a book on this subject. I’m eager to read it.
14 people found this helpful
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LFTravels
4.0 out of 5 stars Great information - but she LOVES to use more language ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2015
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Great information - but she LOVES to use more language than is required to make her point. Reads like she is trying to impress other authors...
3 people found this helpful
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Jiang yin
5.0 out of 5 stars nice book
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2014
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this is not something about how stupid of the things they have done。this is about why they did it and what would influence thier life in the future.
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takingadayoff
5.0 out of 5 stars Sincere Form of Flattery or Intellectual Property Theft?
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2013
Here's a book about a phenomenon I had no idea existed -- apparently, it's a trend in China to build large housing tracts that mimic other parts of the world, such as Tuscany and Paris and Manhattan. These aren't Disneylands, they are entire cities, or at least villages, that look like neighborhoods in Provence or Venice. On the outside the houses look like palazzos or Tudor-style homes, and the surrounding areas look like streets and buildings from the target city. It's a middle class and upper class trend, and it has been going on for a number of years now.

Bianca Bosker, the author of this fascinating book, has included numerous photos from real estate brochures and from her own camera. At first, the trend seems fun and kitschy, then on closer examination it starts to seem odd, like a quirk that is amusing at first, then seems out of control. Finally, it just seems like a different way of approaching things.

And it may help explain what seems to be a serious difference of opinion about what constitutes stealing and what's normal use of ideas in the ether. In the light of recent news about Chinese military hacking of American businesses, it's interesting to read in Original Copies Chinese housing development designers doing research in Western cities rubbed locals the wrong way by taking numerous photos and measurements, etc, while never mentioning that they planned to copy their cities in China. You can see that on one hand it's hardly stealing to copy Venetian canals in China, but that it might be considered impolite to not mention that's what you intend to do. You do have to wonder how it would be regarded in China if a carbon copy of the Birds Nest Stadium popped up in Dallas.

Lots to think about here, from a variety of angles -- architectural, philosophical, cultural, and political.
18 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Guillaume G
5.0 out of 5 stars Really interesting book. Please note that this is a ...
Reviewed in Canada on July 27, 2015
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Really interesting book. Please note that this is a thesis and goes really deep into explanations. If you want a light book you will not get what you want.
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francesco chiesa
5.0 out of 5 stars Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China
Reviewed in Italy on May 9, 2014
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Bianca Bosker fornisce un'analisi intelligente e affascinante di un aspetto fondamentale (e fondamentalmente travisato) della cultura cinese. A dispetto di quanto si può pensare, non è un libro (solo) per addetti ai lavori.
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Elliot Watson
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Buy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2014
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Extremely detailed and interesting but be warned, this book is for the serious academics. The research done here is to a meticulous standard and, even for enthusiasts like myself, it gets hard to read at times due to it's depth. Not a great deal of reasoning behind why people live in Chinese simulated environments is given by the author. But fair play, good job.
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idonotusescreennames
2.0 out of 5 stars Description and reality did not quite line up, just like the developments profiled in the book
Reviewed in Canada on May 2, 2014
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I bought this based on a strong review in a couple of magazines. Reality is this is a thesis turned into a book and thus is about as lively and engaging as one would expect, meaning not very.
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