Description
Book SynopsisA 108-meter high Eiffel Tower rises above Champs ElysÃes Square in Hangzhou. A Chengdu residential complex for 200,000 recreates Dorchester, England. An ersatz Queenâs Guard patrols Shanghaiâs 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 Chinaâs 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 un
