URBAN PRESERVATION IN CHINA

by Qi Zhang

This thesis is an intellectual history of the idea of urban preservation in China from its origins in the 1950s, through its survival despite political repression during the 1960s and 1970s, to its becoming official policy in the 1980s. This thesis addresses a history that has been overlooked, as the period between the 1950s and 1980s is generally skipped over in textbooks and articles about Chinese urban preservation. I unveil the social, academic, and professional histories that covertly nurtured and carried forward the idea of urban preservation. I tell the story of individuals who...