Radisson Xingguo Hotel, Li Ballroom

In 1908 the British poet-scholar, Laurence Binyon, observed the Japanese ‘look to China as we look to Italy and Greece, for them it is the classic land.’ For China, Japan was a subaltern neighbour and cultural progeny. This ancient hierarchy was turned on its head in the early twentieth century, when Japan, a young upstart in international affairs, set its sights on empire. Over the course of half a century from 1895, Japan’s appetite for expansion created fertile grounds for modern architecture and progressive urban planning in China. These activities reached their apogee before the Second World War in Manchuria, northeast China. Recast in 1932 as Manchukuo, Japan’s puppet state became the site of feverish construction; the scale, speed and cause of which were often unprecedented and celebrated by the Japanese as ultra-modernism. This lecture will chart the rise (and ultimate fall) of Japan’s ultra-modernist fantasy from the perspective of architecture and urban planning, exploring the key plans and buildings that defined this extraordinary, yet too often overlooked, era.

Dr Edward Denison is an architectural historian, writer and photographer. He is a Research Associate and teaching fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. His latest book produced with the Royal Asiatic Society is titled ‘Ultra-Modernism in Manchuria’ (HKUP, 2015). Others include: ‘Luke Him Sau, Architect: China’s Missing Modern’ (Wiley 2014), ‘Modernism in China – Architectural Visions and Revolutions’ (Wiley, 2008), ‘Building Shanghai – The Story of China’s Gateway’ (Wiley, 2006), ‘The Life of the British Home – An Architectural History’ (Wiley, 2012) ‘McMorran & Whitby’ (RIBA, 2009) and ‘Asmara: Africa’s Secret Modernist City’ (Merrell, 2003).

RSVP: to RAS Bookings at: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

ENTRANCE:  70 RMB (members), 100 RMB (non-members)

Includes a glass of wine or soft drink

MEMBERSHIP applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.

WEBSITE:  www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn