Description
Book SynopsisThis book provides a bidirectional investigation of Asia’s spatiotemporality by asking how Asia is located and how localities are Asianized. Historical and theoretical inquiries into architecture and urbanism in order to trace a notional “common divisor” are integrated with readings of this Asian imagery. Such a common divisor is conditioned to Asia’s phenomenal postcolonial subjectivation and showcases Asia’s unique character. This book contends that the postcolonial condition of architecture in Asia suggests a potential and critical bridge to better understanding of the region. Theoretically, “display-ness” is a strategic and allegoric carrier that is in the focus of this book in order to emphasize the quality of display in a broader sense of time and space. Asia’s architectural and urban spectacle thus is meaningly magnified and intensified with this notion of display-ness to ground the cohesive abstraction among ideological discourse production, innovative theorizations, and empirical phenomena in contemporary scholarship.
Table of ContentsList of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: “Display-ness” as an Intersubjective Container
Part I: The Located Asia
1. The Muséal Display: Sir, Do Not Touch the Glass
2. The Philosophy of History: Asia’s Formalistic Quotation
3. Built Heritage Conservation Theories: From Sleeping Beauty to Men in Black
Part II: The Asian Location
4. Colony Architecture Revisited: Who Does Who and Who Is Who?
5. Un-Writing Asian Urbanism: Unexpectedness and Under-Theorization Reversed
6. Musealization of the Asian Built Environment: Contained Iconology and Iconomy
Conclusion: Decontextualisation and Recontextualisation of Asian Architectural Theory
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
