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Habitat International 47 (2015) 136e147

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Habitat International

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China's architectural aid: Exporting a transformational modernism

Guanghui Ding*, Charlie Q.L. Xue 1

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Available online

Keywords:Chinese architectureArchitectural aidArchitectural exportTransformational modernism

* Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: guanding@cityu.edu.hk (G.

(C.Q.L. Xue).1 Tel.: þ852 3442 7434.2 In this article, the term ‘architectural export’ is

tectural aid’, as the state dominated such architectupation of independent individual Chinese architectmarket was still extremely rare.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.01.0190197-3975/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

a b s t r a c t

China's architectural exports to less-developed countries, such as conference halls, government offices,hospitals, institutional headquarters, schools, stadia and theatres, have played a special role in the state'sforeign aid and diplomatic strategy. Beginning in the late 1950s, such exported architectural projectswere presented by the Chinese Communist Party-led government as gifts to many Asian and Africannations in exchange for their ideological, political and diplomatic support. In the post-Mao era, thesearchitectural exports were combined with economic assistance, debt relief and expanding market access,suggesting economic cooperation, political engagement and cultural communication. In this study, arange of typical buildings are woven with their particular historical and socio-political backgrounds intoa cohesive narrative. This is the first attempt to examine and theorise the development and trans-formation of this distinctive phenomenon, using architectural aid as a lens through which to unpack thestate's motivation for and the institutions/individuals' commitment to constructing China's global in-fluence. It is argued that the exported architectural projects e profoundly marked by the state's inter-vention e demonstrated what we term a ‘transformational modernism’ that was both a product of socialtransformation in China and a positive engagement with the recipient nations' local conditions.

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction

In her 2011 book, The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China inAfrica, Deborah Brautigam investigated China's past and current aidactivities in Africa, arguing that China's engagement with thecontinent was a practical investment and promise of mutual benefit(Brautigam, 2011). Brautigam's argument was supported by athorough and authoritative account of Chinese activities in fieldssuch as agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications and in-dustry, but she paid scant attention to architecture. As one of themost significant aspects of China's aid to less-developed countries,the architectural exports from the 1950s to the present day haveepitomised this long-term, sophisticated commitment.2 Comparedwith other countries' architectural exports to the so-called ThirdWorld, China's architectural aid has maintained the following key

Ding), bscqx@cityu.edu.hk

interchangeable with ‘archi-ral activities and the partici-s in the global architectural

features: state and state-owned design institutes' intervention;access to projects mainly through official aid programmes ratherthan by international competition and commission; a mix ofarchitectural exports and other forms of political, economic andcultural engagement; architectural diversity; breadth of the recip-ient states involved; and continuity of architectural aid delivered.

In this study, how China used architectural aid to achieve itspolitical, economic and cultural purposes is analysed, along withhow Chinese architects were committed to cultivating a distinctivearchitectural culture by combining global influence, domesticexperience and local circumstances. Like other countries, Chinaused transnational architectural activities not only to support therecipient nations' development, but also to foster trade, seek eco-nomic interest and expand cultural influence. Beyond this overtintention, this article argues that China used architectural aid as aninstrument of government policy to consolidate the ruling ChineseCommunist Party's legitimacy both domestically and internation-ally. Within the framework of architectural export, Chinese archi-tects endeavoured to deliver a ‘transformational modernism’ thatintegrated efficiency, affordability, accessibility and creativity. Thisprogressive modern project was both a product of social trans-formation in China and a positive engagement with the recipientnations' local conditions.

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Architectural aid in exchange for political support

China's architectural aid can be described as a social relationshipwith three key components e the donor, the recipients and thecontext in which they interacted. In the early 1950s, the newlyestablished communist regime in the People's Republic of Chinaencountered the political and military tension between the powersin the Western and the Eastern blocs. To consolidate its power inthis hostile international climate, China aligned itself with the So-viet Union, from which it accepted economic aid (Dong & Wu,2004). In 1955, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai escaped an assassina-tion attempt while on route to the Bandung Conference held inIndonesia, a meeting of mostly newly independent Asian and Af-rican states. Zhou participated despite the close call, and hismoderate and conciliatory attitude, particularly his promotion ofthe Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, helped formulate aconcluding declaration that allayed the doubts and fears of someanti-communist delegates over China's intentions (Barnett, 1955).Shortly after the conference, China established diplomatic relationswith more than 20 Asian and African countries and began tostrengthen trade activity and expand foreign aid.

While the Soviet experts helped China establish a comprehen-sive industrial system, the assistance China afforded economicallyundeveloped countries enhanced its international image andprestige. China's use of economic aid as a tool to underpin itsstrategic, economic and diplomatic aimswas initially demonstratedin 1958 in an official document written by the Central Committee ofthe Chinese Communist Party on the ‘Request for Instructions onStrengthening the Foreign Economic, Technical Assistance WorkLeadership’. The report emphasised that the similarities in theideologies and historical experiences of China and the recipient

Fig. 1. Gong Deshun/The Beijing Industrial Design Institute, the Bogd Khan MountainHotel, 1959, Ulan Bator, Mongolia.Source: Zhongguo jianzhu sheji yanjiuyuan chengli wushi zhounian jinian congshu:licheng pian.

states played a critical role in determining the direction of Chineseaid (Zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi, 1992). Among those recipients,Mongolia, one of the earliest countries to recognise Beijing'scommunist rule, received a substantial amount of goods and fundsin the late 1950s. This economic and technical assistance primarilyincluded the design and construction of civil projects and industrialfactories and support in such forms as labour, materials, technol-ogies and complete sets of equipment. As the central governmentacknowledged that foreign assistance was a complex and arduousproject, a few special institutions, including the Central ForeignAffairs Group, the State Planning Commission and the Ministry ofFinance, were responsible for organisation and coordination(Dangdai zhongguo congshu bianweihui, 1989). The Ministry ofBuilding and Engineering, like other industrial ministries, was oneof the principle sectors of delivery.

In terms of architectural aid in Mongolia, the Beijing IndustrialDesign Institute, a state-owned institute affiliatedwith theMinistryof Building and Engineering was credited for its efficient designperformance in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Led by the architectGong Deshun, the design team realised one international hotel, twoluxury villas and one department store in the city of Ulan Bator(Figs. 1 and 2). In these buildings, Gong was preoccupied with thecombination of modern principles and local conditions. He rejectedthe predominantly eclectic approaches clearly embodied in hisMinistry of Building and Engineering project completed in Beijingin 1957.

Although the discourse characterising Beijing's architecturalfield in the 1950s was national in form and socialist in content(socialist realism), and the application of abstract formal languageswas constrained profoundly by conservative ideologies, architec-tural aid nevertheless provided a rare opportunity for Chinese ar-chitects to explore modernist architecture in a different context. Asthe architectural historian Zou Denong noted, compared with thedomestic sophisticated circumstance, the lowered limits of aidallowed architects to experiment with a critical modernistapproach (Zou, 2001). Among the architecture exported duringMao's time, a comparable project that demonstrated Chinese ar-chitects' skill at integrating modern vocabularies with local

Fig. 2. Gong Deshun/The Beijing Industrial Design Institute, the Bogd Khan MountainGuesthouse, 1960, Ulan Bator, Mongolia.Source: Zhongguo jianzhu sheji yanjiuyuan chengli wushi zhounian jinian congshu:licheng pian.

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tradition and climate is Dai Nianci's Bandaranaike Memorial In-ternational Conference Hall, located in Colombo, Sri Lanka (previ-ously Ceylon).

In 1964, Chinese Premier Zhou visited Sri Lanka, where theworld's first female Prime Minister, Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike,requested China's aid in a project in memory of her husband, theassassinated former Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike. Tobetter understand this architectural export, two significant back-grounds should be mentioned. First, due to the two countries'shared historical experience (Sri Lanka became an independentnation from British colonialism in 1948) and consistent ideology ofnon-intervention, bilateral relations have maintained an upwardtrajectory since the first Rubber-Rice pact was signed in 1952. SriLanka's strategic location in the Indian Ocean was cruciallyimportant for China's commerce and competition with India. Sec-ond is that just a few weeks before Zhou's visit to Colombo, he hadproposed China's eight principles of economic and technicalassistance, emphasising equality and mutual benefit and detachingpolitical conditions from aid (Zhonghua renmin gongheguowaijiaobu & Zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi, 1990).

The birth of the Bandaranaike Conference Hall was the result ofthis historical condition. Immediately after Zhou agreed to hiscounterpart's request, the Ministry of Building and Engineeringdesignated, once again, the Beijing Industrial Design Institute tooffer design solutions. In August, a project team consisting of theHead of the Institute, Yuan Jingshen, Chief Architect Dai Nianci,architect Yang Yun, structural engineer You Baoxian and other as-sistants flew to Colombo. Before their journey, the group discussedthe project and put forward three principles: 1) the scale of thebuilding should be appropriate to the recipient's requirement andnot be toomassive; 2) the form should consider the tropical climateand local style and by no means be copied from China, particularlythe architectural style of northern China; and 3) the interior shouldinclude state-of-the-art technologies and facilities (Yuan, Liu,

Fig. 3. Dai Nianci/The Beijing Industrial Design Institute, the Bandaranaike MemorialInternational Conference Hall, 1973, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Source: Zhongguo jianzhu sheji yanjiuyuan chengli wushi zhounian jinian congshu:licheng pian.

Wang, & Liu, 2002). Clearly, these guidelines were in consonancewith the eight principles previously declared by the Chinese gov-ernment. Based on these shared principles and site observations,Dai sketched two preliminary proposals and presented them to theSri Lankan clients. The biggest difference between the two optionslay in the shape of the main conference hall: one was octagonal andthe other was circular. Mrs Bandaranaike selected the first option.Occupying a prominent 13-acre site, the proposed building that hada gross floor area of about 30,000 m2; was divided into two visuallyseparated and yet interconnected parts, the main conference hallable to accommodate 1500 people and an L-shaped building withtwo courtyards housing small conference rooms, offices, diningrooms and other programme facilities (Yuan et al., 2002).

Some of the proposed structure's remarkable characteristicsincluded a 28 m-tall hall behind a formal reflecting pool that restedatop a podium and was surrounded by an expansive marblecolonnade of 40 columns (Fig. 3). A centrally located ceremonialstaircase led directly to the main entrance. White columns deco-rated with golden patterns supported the gently pitched steel roof,which cantilevered from the structure to provide shade for theglass envelope (Fig. 4). In designing the building, Dai and his col-leagues used local construction details, showcasing their intentionto integrate traditional Sri Lankan architectural decoration with amodern concept (Fig. 5). In many aspects, his approach to incor-porate monumentality, decoration, environmental concern andhistorical reference was reminiscent of American architect EdwardDurell Stone's 1959 project of US Embassy in New Delhi, India, aremarkable diplomatic building conveying American ideologiesand values (Hunting, 2013; Loeffler, 2011). Although Dai had nevervisited the embassy in person, he could have encountered withStone's work by reading architectural publications such as Archi-tectural Record where the project was covered (Dai, 1981).

It should be noted, however, that the approach of Dai's designhere differentiated itself strikingly from his previously eclecticprojects. Take, for instance, the National Art Museum of China,originally conceived as one of the Ten Great Buildings produced tocelebrate the 10th anniversary of the People's Republic in 1959,which was not erected until 1962 due to material scarcity in theperiod of the Great Leap Forward (Dai, 1962). Dai's experimentationwith elements of modernist architecture and local tradition alsoexhibited his repudiation of the Soviet dogmatic style of architec-tural export in China. We are particularly alluding to the BeijingExhibition Centre project, an extravagant building constructed byChina in 1954 to exhibit the Soviet Union's industrial, agricultural,cultural and economic achievements. As one of local architects inBeijing, Dai was associated with his Soviet counterpart, SergeiAndreyev, who insisted on adopting a typical ‘socialist realist’approach to show classic Russian architectural motifs (Lu, 2007).Dai's Beaux-Arts background and his inclination to modernismenabled him to wittingly mediate tradition and modernity invarious contexts. Thanks to the autonomy of architectural aid, hispro-modernism ideas materialised better in Sri Lanka than in any ofhis other projects in China.

The technical design of the Bandaranaike Conference Hall wassuspended when Mrs Bandaranaike ended her first term as PrimeMinister in 1965, but after winning the 1970 election and regainingpower she requested that China continue the project. At that time,however, China was embroiled in the turbulence of the CulturalRevolution (1966e76). In the same year, the architects and engi-neers for this project, who had been sent to labour camps to reformtheir ‘bourgeois’ ideologies were summoned back to Beijing torestart the work. From late 1970 to early 1973, around 450 Chinesetechnicians and builders and 900 Sri Lankans were involved inconstruction, and the majority of materials and facilities weredonated from China (You, 2007). The erection of the convention

Fig. 4. Dai Nianci/The Beijing Industrial Design Institute, the section of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, 1973, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Source: Dangdai zhongguo jianzhu dashi: Dai Nianci.

Fig. 5. Dai Nianci/The Beijing Industrial Design Institute, the exterior and interior view of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, 1973, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Source: Zhongguo jianzhu sheji yanjiuyuan chengli wushi zhounian jinian congshu: licheng pian.

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centre using Chinese and Sri Lankan skills and knowledge wasdescribed by Sri Lankan authorities as symbolic of the robustrelationship between the two nations (You, 2007).

China's architectural aid to less-developed countries in theMaoist era was by no means limited to the abovementionedbuildings. From the late 1950s to the late 1970s, a number of civilprojects erected in Albania, Guinea, Mauritania and Somalia, amongothers, in addition to the noticeable TanzaniaeZambia Railway,were generously sponsored by China and efficiently delivered bystate-owned design institutes, even though the Chinese economyand society suffered significantly from austerity and poverty at thattime. In a situation in which Sino-Soviet relations were deterio-rating and Sino-US relations were not normalised, China's

architectural exports as economic and technical assistance helpedboost trade, trust and, most significantly, political support. In 1971,the People's Republic of China replaced Taiwan (the Republic ofChina) as one of the five elected permanent member states of theUN Security Council, acquiring a greater voice in the internationalcommunity due to the endorsement of many African and Asianstates.

The shift towards Pragmatism

The end of Mao's dictatorship in 1976 and the subsequent rise ofDeng Xiaoping and his reforms profoundly transformed China'seconomic and diplomatic development. Although China's

Fig. 6. Cheng Taining/The Hangzhou institute of architectural design, the national theatre of Ghana, 1992, Accra, Ghana.Source: Courtesy of Cheng Taining.

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architectural exports still existed and even continued to expanddramatically, the consistence of ideology was no longer the priorityof foreign aid. China's economic and technical assistance becamemuch more sophisticated, partially due to the changes in the in-ternational environment and partially due to the transformation ofthe domestic agenda from class struggle to economic growth. Theassistance was extended to include multi-form and mutually-beneficial cooperation and emphasise mutual benefits, partner-ships and trade (Zhang, 2012). This changing position was literallyembodied in the so-called four principles of foreign aid, whichincluded equality and mutual benefit, an emphasis on practicalresults and diversity of form and common development, asdeclared by Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang on his 1983 African tour.This straightforward and economically focused approach to foreignaid largely resonated with Deng's pragmatic attitude towards socialand economic development.3

Among the architecture exported to African states during thisperiod, the National Theatre of Ghana deserves more detailed dis-cussion. In 1985, the Chinese government decided to provide Ghanawith a national performing centre. The Ministry of Foreign Tradeand Economic Cooperation in China, as a domestic institution, wasin charge of organising design and construction activities while theGhanaian government was involved in design and constructionexamination (Cheng, 1996). The exported architecture was there-fore subject to domestic institutions and to the agents of the re-cipients. In 1986, the architect Cheng Taining and his collaboratorsfrom the Hangzhou Institute of Architectural Design won the na-tional competition for this project. In many ways, their proposalwas an ‘abstract’ concept design in the sense that the CompetitionCommittee did not provide any information about the project's siteexcept for details of its scale. When the location was later deter-mined, the architects were allowed to propose a new design. Chengand his colleagues used this opportunity to travel in Ghana, gainingfirst-hand information about this geographically remote nation and

3 In Deng's reform agenda, he encouraged people to take brave steps and to stripideological constraints, stating that ‘It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, solong as it catches mice’.

deepening their understanding of local climate, history, culture, art,economic condition and technology.

After the site visit, the architects thoroughly revised the previ-ous scheme. In the new proposal, a series of triangular volumeswere combined, responding sensitively to the triangular block.However, Cheng was concerned that this rational proposal stilllacked an expressive quality or a sense of emotion, something thatwas as straightforward, mythical and sophisticated as Africandance, sculpture or art (Cheng, Ye, & Jiang, 1990). His solution wasthree rectangular volumes that occupied the site's three corners,connected by courtyards to form a solid platform, above whichthree iconic structures appeared to float (Figs. 6 and 7). The threevolumes would house, respectively, the main theatre, exhibitionand rehearsal halls. This design immediately presented an articu-lated appearance with great simplicity, creating spaces for specu-lation over the implication of its form. Rhetoric linking architecturalform to local culture to persuade both officials and local people toaccept certain ideas was not uncommon in transnational archi-tectural activities. For instance, Bulgarian architects interpretedtheir National Theatre project in Lagos, Nigeria, as being reminis-cent of the rhythms of black music (Doytchinov, 2012). The archi-tects' intention to incorporate local tradition in the Ghana projectwas also manifested in the wide adoption of artistic interior dec-orations (Fig. 8).

Led by Cheng, the Hangzhou Institute as a municipal design firm(less influential among China's state-owned design institutes)realised another significant project in 1994; that is, the ConferenceBuilding in Bamako, Mali, establishing the institute's reputation inarchitectural export. This project also identified the increasinglydiverse players participating in China's architectural aid during thereform and opening-up period. The design institute affiliated withthe Ministry of Construction did not dominate the production ofarchitectural exports, and other institutes from Beijing, Shanghaiand Chengdu also delivered a number of important projects in the1980s and 1990s. At the same time, the mechanism of selectingarchitect for aid project through national architectural competitiongradually replaced the previous designation of architect, that is, theauthorities designated design institute and the institute leadersdesignated architect. However, this was still strikingly different

Fig. 7. Cheng Taining/The Hangzhou Institute of Architectural Design, the ground plan of the National Theatre of Ghana, 1992, Accra, Ghana.Source: Courtesy of Cheng Taining.

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from other countries' transnational architectural activities - forexample, during the Cold War, architects from Eastern Europe wonprojects either by participating international design competition orby receiving commission from local clients. Nonetheless, the do-mestic transformation from a centrally planned economy to a so-cialist market economy was the most crucial factor influencing thechanges in China's foreign aid policy (Coase & Wang, 2012).

Fig. 8. Cheng Taining/The Hangzhou Institute of Architectural Design, the interior of the thSource: Courtesy of Cheng Taining.

Over the past two decades, seeking economic interests becameof key significance for various state-owned enterprises and privatecorporations involved in the global market. The ‘going out strategy’(zouchuqu zhanlue) proposed by the central government in 1999strongly encouraged Chinese firms to invest in theworld. Accordingto Gao Hucheng, the Minister of the Commerce Ministry, forexample, Chinese direct investment in Africa amounted to US$25

eatre, 1992, Accra, Ghana.

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billion by the end of 2013, with more than 2500 Chinese companiesoperating in Africa in the fields of finance, telecommunications,energy, manufacturing and agriculture, and creating more than100,000 local jobs (Gao, 2014). A large number of cheap, Chinese-made products were sourced and shipped by Africans. Chinesecompanies also bought crude oil and other raw materials such ascopper, iron and soybeans from the continent. The dynamic eco-nomic relationship between China and Africa instilled hope insome and anxiety in others. For instance, due to its negative con-sequences, China's approach was often criticised as a form of neo-colonialism (Anonymous, 2006; Krause-Jackson, 2011). However,other scholars argued convincingly that China's engagement in thecontinent based on the liberal market principles that wereencouraged by the West was a process of globalisation (Taylor,2010).

Initiated in 2000 in Beijing, the Forum on ChinaeAfrica Coop-eration became, as stated in China's Foreign Aid White Paper (2011),an important platform for dialogue between China and Africancountries and an effective mechanism for pragmatic cooperationunder the new circumstances (Anonymous, 2011). To strengthenbilateral relations, during the Beijing Summit of the Forum onChinaeAfrica Cooperation in 2006, the Chinese governmentdecided to build a new headquarters for the African Union. Theconstruction of the project on a plot of land donated by Ethiopiawas China's largest aid project since the ZambiaeTanzania railwaybuilt in the 1970s, and it showcased the burgeoning relationshipbetween China and the continent. Shortly after the announcement,the Ministry of Commerce organised a national design competitionand, together with the African Union, selected the proposal pro-duced by the architect Ren Lizhi and his colleagues from TongjiUniversity Architectural Design Institute (Ren, Zhang, & Wu, 2012).

The new building occupies a site between the dilapidated resi-dential areas and the previous African Union headquarters. Previ-ously occupied by the former Addis Ababa Central Prison, built inthe 1930s by Italians and demolished later by local authorities, thisuneven and irregularly shaped site has a 20-m level difference. The50,000 m2; complex consists of a horizontal part for conferencefacilities and a 99.9-m-tall vertical element (Fig. 9). The vertical

Fig. 9. Ren Lizhi/Tongji University architectural design institute, the African Union,2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Source: Courtesy of Ren Lizhi.

tower and horizontal base are characterised by a series of fluid linesthroughout the facade. The monumental tower containing bothoffices and a number of two-storey sky halls gives the project aniconic identity, celebrating the prospect of ChinaeAfrica relations.In terms of the lower part, the large conference hall seats 2550 andis located in the centre and surrounded by a spiral volume housinga medium conference hall with 650 seats, an array of small officesand rooms for other functions (Figs. 10 and 11). The serpentineatrium between the main hall and the surrounding offices forms amagnificent public space for social interaction, and its bright andsimple theme reveals the architects' attempt to introduce morenatural light to illuminate the space. Needless to say, the mostdramatic feature of the building is the convention centre. Thiselegantly designed circular space at the heart of the building rep-resents a new standard of Chinese architectural export.

The lavish compound cost RMB800 million (around US$133million) and was fully funded by the Chinese government,including the furniture and technical facilities. The China StateConstruction Engineering Corporation used both Chinese andEthiopian workers during the construction process, creating jobopportunities and simultaneously training local builders andtechnicians. Whereas African leaders praised the project for itsreflection of a new continent, local critics also criticised that thedark history of the site as the former Addis Ababa Central Prisonassociated with death, torture, violence and despair was sadlyerased during the process of construction (Mezgebu, 2013). Thenew brownmarble and glass monolith was described by a FinancialTimes journalist as being like ‘a giant spaceship dominating theskyline in Addis Ababa, a symbol of modernity’ (Wallis, 2012). Thismodernity was embodied explicitly, above all, in the project's

Fig. 10. Ren Lizhi/Tongji University Architectural Design Institute, the atrium of theAfrican Union, 2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Source: Courtesy of Ren Lizhi.

Fig. 11. Ren Lizhi/Tongji University Architectural Design Institute, the main conference hall of the African Union, 2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Source: Courtesy of Ren Lizhi.

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flowing spatial organisation, elegant style, fine details, cosy atmo-sphere and sustainable solutions. This transplanted modernity waslargely echoedwithin theMinistry of Commerce's requirement thatthe building should represent China's highest standard in design,construction, project management and technology on the globalstage (F. Huang, 2012).

Aside from the single and iconic edifices donated by China torecipient states, new types of architectural activities characterisedby large-scale and rapid urban expansion have been intensivelydelivered by various Chinese state-owned and private companies inrecent years. Whereas the former have aimed to strengthen bilat-eral relations symbolically by creating a spectacular image andphysical landmark, the latter have mainly targeted potential mar-kets and sought capital accumulation. One of the most formidableprojects built by the Chinese in recent years in Africa is the AngolaSocial Housing Project located in Kilamba Kiaxi, 30 kms southwestof the capital city, Luanda. As Angola's biggest national recon-struction initiative after the end of the Angolan Civil War(1975e2002), the project was used by President Jos�e Eduardo dosSantos as concrete evidence of his administration's commitment toproviding affordable houses for its citizens. After the global finan-cial crisis in 2008, the country's biggest oil company, Sonagol,replaced the National Reconstruction Committee as the project'sclient and the China International Trust and Investment Corpora-tion became the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC)contractor (Z. Huang, 2014).

Although Angola, as China's second-largest source of crude oilafter Saudi Arabia, played a crucial role in maintaining China'soverseas energy security, China's advantage in the architecture andinfrastructure construction also met the Angolan government'srequirements for national reconstruction. The so-called winewinpartnership laid a foundation for Chinese architectural exports inthe region. Under the framework of the EPC contractor, the Over-seas Design Institute from the Beijing Urban Construction Designand Development Group was responsible for project design, costcontrol and quality control. Occupying 1000 ha, the project (phaseone) comprises 710 buildings (providing 20,000 apartments foraverage-income, low-income and high-end residents), 17 schoolswith sports facilities, 24 kindergartens, one hospital, 240 ground-floor shops, several churches, gardens and other facilities (Fig. 12).

Using a three-level road system e fast road (60 m in width),main road (40 m in width) and street (20 m in width) e the ar-chitects and planners divided the barren site into 24 blocks.4 What

4 The authors are indebted to the architects Hou Yigang and Xiong Jun from thedesign institute for providing useful information.

is remarkable in the project's overall layout is that a main landscapeaxis forms a large-scale town centre, consisting of an array of publicbuildings including offices, hotels and shopping malls. The five-storey residential buildings occupy every block's perimeter with anumber of shops arranged on the ground floor to create diversestreet life (Fig. 13). The nine-storey, ten-storey and thirteen-storeyapartments with lifts are arranged in the centre of every block toprovide every apartment with a better garden view. Given that themajority of families living here have private cars, the architectsdesigned sufficient spaces for parking and landscaped parking lotswith plants. In terms of the plan of every apartment, the issues ofnatural ventilation, lighting, insulation and convenient room layoutwere carefully addressed. The integration of a wide range of pro-grammes reflected the architects and planners' intention to useChinese know-how to develop a well-equipped residential com-munity in the face of local economically less-developed circum-stances (Z. Huang, 2014).

The Kilamba Kiaxi social housing project is one of the largest-scale residential communities built by Chinese firms in Angolaand wider Africa. Although the long-term ramifications of this typeof urban expansion influenced by Chinese urbanism and charac-terised by speed, efficiency and relatively low cost are far fromclear, it has improved the living conditions of numerous people.Kilamba Kiaxi, once described as a ‘ghost’ town by some journalists,has become prosperous (Redvers, 2012). This prosperity has alsobenefited because the construction of architecture paralleled thatof infrastructure and supporting facilities.5 The significance of thiscoordination is that when residents move into their new apart-ments, they immediately enjoy a liveable urban environment of-fering education, medical care, religion, shopping, community andpublic order services. This thoughtful arrangement is cruciallyimportant for new town development, in that residents are thepriority for planning, design, construction and operation. Thisjoint-venture was a testimony to the positive nature of thecollaboration between the Angolan government and Chinesearchitectural firms.

Architectural export as a tool to cultivate cultural soft power

The term ‘soft power’ was first coined by Joseph S. Nye of Har-vard University in his 1990 book Bound to Lead: The Changing Natureof American Power, and further developed in his 2004 book SoftPower: The Means to Success in World Politics. For Nye, soft power is

5 The supporting facilities include electricity, telecommunications, water supply,drainage and water reclaiming system, etc.

Fig. 12. The Overseas Design Institute of Beijing Urban Construction Design and Development Group, the site plan of the Angola Social Housing Project, Phase I, 2013, Kilamba Kiaxi,Luanda, Angola.Source: Google Earth.

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used to get the outcomes onewants by attracting others rather thanmanipulating their material incentives; that is, it co-opts ratherthan coerces people (Nye, 2008). Nye claimed that soft power restsheavily on three basic resources, culture, political values andforeign policies (Nye, 2011). Although he used the term toconceptualise the changing power of the United States in post-ColdWar world politics, it has been increasingly used by many

Fig. 13. The Overseas Design Institute of Beijing Urban Construction Design and DevelopmeKiaxi, Luanda, Angola.Source: Courtesy of Hou Yigang.

politicians, academics and analysts beyond America to analyse anation's domestic development and diplomatic influence (Li, 2009).

It may be helpful to differentiate between the implications ofsoft power for the United States and for China. Nye used the term tohelp America consolidate its hegemony, dominance and materialsupremacy, whereas the Chinese government used this notion toexpand its influence and gain greater power status while avoiding a

nt Group, the street view of the Angola Social Housing Project, Phase I, 2013, Kilamba

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collision with the established great powers and the internationalstatus quo (Deng, 2009). As China's economic growth continues,the Chinese government has appeared dissatisfied with the currentsituation of exports dominated by cheaper commodities. It has alsoanticipated the exportation of cultural products, the influence ofwhich may both improve China's global attractiveness and softenthe so-called ‘threat’ described by some critics. Meanwhile, thisexported soft power may prove that the Communist Party cancontribute to cultural prosperity and establish what Chinese Pres-ident Xi Jinping advocates as ‘cultural self-confidence (wenhuazixin)’.

The proliferation of Confucius Institutes and China CulturalCentres in recent decades, sponsored by the Chinese government toteach its language and culture, has been regarded as a charmoffensive, so to speak, to enhance China's soft power (Kurlantzick,2007). Creating a place for cultural communication is an essentialmedium to house such activities, and architectural design in thisregard contributes to facilitating cultural exchanges. Althoughhundreds of Confucius Institutes and dozens of China CulturalCentres have been established around the world, very few suchprojects were purposely designed for those programmes: the ma-jority of such institutions have been located in existing buildings. Anewly erected project, the China Cultural Centre in Bangkok,Thailand, stood out against which onemay observe the going-out ofChinese culture and architecture.

The centre in Bangkok is by far the largest overseas China Cul-tural Centre built, and the only one in Asia. It was the result of a2007 arrangement between China and Thailand to establish a

Fig. 14. Cui Tong/The Architectural Design Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, thSource: Courtesy of Cui Tong.

cultural centre in each other's country. The 7900 m2; project wasdesigned by the architect Cui Tong and his colleagues within theArchitectural Design Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,together with landscape architect Fang Musheng/Famerson Archi-tects and the locally-based Plan Architect Co., Ltd. Although it islocated in the city centre, the building does not expose itself to thechaos of urban life. The project is composed of two parallel volumesconnected by a transparent foyer, exemplifying an attitude ofopenness. This Z-shaped layout enabled the architects to create twoexternal spaces: the front square paved in stone and incorporatinggrass, which welcomes, and the semi-open, tranquil backyard withpools and waterfalls, which creates an atmosphere reminiscent of atraditional Chinese garden (Fig. 14).

According to the architects, the building was conceived as aspecific diplomatic space both for communication and to respondto and transform the environment (Cui, Chen, & Wang, 2013). Dueto the building's politico-cultural nature, the architects wereinevitably concerned with the expression of the so-called Chi-neseness and local culture. For example, they tried to reinterpretthe tale of two architectural cultures by creating a steel multi-layer-eave (miyan, once appeared in pagodas) supported by a colonnadeof steel pillars that visually dominate the form (Fig. 15). Theremarkable horizontal and vertical elements are fundamentallyirrelevant to the real structure, and therefore appeared a-tectonic.However, they reflected the architects' environmental concernsand affinity with the transformation of traditional architecturallegacies. It is no coincidence that the cultural programmes exhibi-ted within the centre largely reflect ancient icons such as tai chi,

e ground plan of the China Cultural Centre, 2012, Bangkok, Thailand.

Fig. 15. Cui Tong/The architectural design institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China cultural centre, 2012, Bangkok, Thailand.Source: Courtesy of Cui Tong.

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kong fu, calligraphy, paper-cutting, art and drama, among others,given the scarcity of contemporary creative products. Similarly, there-interpretation of traditional culture remarkably denotes thecreation of contemporary architecture. While the promotion of andinspiration by tradition are indispensable, they also reveal the in-tellectual predicament of creating contemporary architecture andculture assumed to be globally attractive.

The China Cultural Centre in Bangkok is both a concrete spatialcontainer for cultural interactions and a symbolic cultural productdisplaying an official recognition of Chinese architects' creativity(here, the project's client was the Ministry of Culture of China). Itshould be emphasised that the government plays an essential rolein creating opportunities for Chinese architecture and culture byattempting to change the current cultural deficit. The Chinesegovernmental sectors - as the clients of many significant publicprojects - have vehemently embraced the seemingly avant-gardeyet sometimes inappropriate proposals produced by internation-ally celebrated architects while simultaneously encouraging theexport of cultural products in the global market. Under the aegis ofthe official, the erected architectural projects become critical ve-hicles demonstrating China's cultural soft power or the ‘socialistculture with Chinese characteristics’.

It should be noted that the majority of China's architecturalexports pertain to the state's intervention, which over time has lentimpetus to the propagation of China's emerging creative industries.Currently, many if not all of the most prestigious architectural firmsin China have concentrated their attention on the domestic market,and only rarely have individuals participated in global competition.State investment has both facilitated the growth of architecturalcreation and cultural innovation and ‘harmonised’ (controlled orcensored) critical exploration that was regarded as politically un-acceptable (Keane, 2013). Compared with its neighbours, such asSouth Korea and Japan, and its rivals, such as the United States,China's cultural soft power remains weak, limited profoundly bydomestic cultural and political circumstances. Nevertheless, it ispossible that the burgeoning urbanisation and architectural prac-tices may help Chinese architects cultivate creative assets in theyears to come.

6 China's architectural aid also drew domestic criticism, particularly from socialmedia, which, by drawing comparisons with the undeveloped situation in remoteand backward places in China, often questioned the intention and legitimacy of aidprojects.

Conclusions

Over the past six decades, China's architectural aid to less-developed countries as a long-term commitment has been first

and foremost a political project, exhibiting multiple meaningsbeyond the aesthetic and synthesising a set of complicated re-lations. The political implications and limitations of this architec-tural export lie precisely in its mode of engagement, which hasattracted both acclaim and criticism. China's architectural exportshave proven beneficial to both the ruling elites, who view the re-sults as symbols of regime legitimacy and power, and to ordinarypeople, who gain more chances to change their everyday lives(Taylor, 2010). One of the typical examples is that many stadia builtby the Chinese in Africa as part of the so-called ‘stadium diplomacy’have become important venues for local authorities and people tocelebrate sport events (Anonymous, 2014). Although Chinese firmshave been urged by the Chinese government to scrupulously abideby local laws and regulations and to take responsibility, not allenterprises have strictly followed this guideline. Some companies'unlawful operations have damaged China's global reputation,harming the interests of local communities and the environment(Chen, 2010).6

China's architectural aid in the Maoist era provided a distinctiveopportunity for domestic architects to explore an individualexpression with greater autonomy, which was often restrained bysocial, political and ideological circumstances in their own country.In recent decades, China's architectural exports as part of thecountry's economic and technical assistance supported by the statehave expanded dramatically. Aside from the central governmentministries, provincial and municipal bureaucracies, various state-owned enterprises and private firms have been involved in theglobal market, prompting the emergence of unstable architecturalquality. While some companies have simply transferred an estab-lished architectural and urbanmodel from China to a newcontext, afew individuals and institutions have experimented characteristi-cally with new architectural and urban solutions to cultivate aproper form specifically related to the location, geography, climateand culture concerned, using appropriate technologies.

Most importantly, the Chinese architects' overall output inunder-developed nations has exhibited a ‘transformationalmodernism’ that integrates efficiency, affordability, accessibilityand creativity while maintaining a certain distance from ‘avant-

G. Ding, C.Q.L. Xue / Habitat International 47 (2015) 136e147 147

garde’ aesthetics (Zhu, 2008).7 Although the Chinese governmentexported communist revolutions to some undeveloped countries,the exported architecture hardly rendered revolutionary visions,inasmuch as Chinese architects neither saw themselves as part of arevolutionary culture nor had the ambition to use overseas con-struction as a blank paper to portray utopian thinking and exper-imental impulse. However, as a progressive and socially engagedmodern project, the exported architecture - assuming a strong civicappeal and playing the role of catalyst -was capable of substantiallytransforming the living conditions of local communities for thebetter.

As the outcomes of Chinese architectural exports have beenshaped by domestic ideology, politics, culture and economic andtechnological circumstances, this transformational modernism hasfundamentally been the result of the social transformation in China,marked by a subtle contradiction between tradition andmodernity.During this dynamic and evolving process of architecturalengagement, Chinese architects have played a mediating role incombining modern principles, Chinese experience and localcontext. Certainly, these modern projects characterised by profit-driven, large-scale and rapid urban development have struggledto tackle the serious problems facing many developing countries. Itis worth noting that they may offer an alternative approach toexperimenting with new knowledge and skills, the motivation tochallenge the status quo and a hope for social equality and politicalemancipation.

Acknowledgments

This paper is part of a study supported by the National NaturalScience Foundation of China, No. 51278438. The authors would liketo thank Dr Jing Xiao and the anonymous reviewers for theirvaluable comments and suggestions.

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