TRANSGRESSION AND PROGRESS IN CHINA: WANG SHU AND HE LITERATI MINDS

摘要

The notion of progress in architecture has for centuries depended on decay. The relationship between progress and regress is one of the architectural norms of our age - the hallmark of the mainstream. It is inherent in the linear concept of time and forms one of the pillars of Western modernity. The old justifies the new, just as the rationale for the new depends on the old. In our unending quest for progress, we are perpetually bombarded with images of architectural newness, the vitality of which derives less from invention or innovation than its separation from, and juxtaposition with, what it has replaced. This phenomenon, the roots of which extend deep into Western antiquity, is starkest where change is most widespread and rapid: areas that are today beyond the conventional Western world and long considered peripheral - geographically, intellectually and even racially.