Chin-Chin: The Chinaman at Home
9781465672070
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
I remember reading in Mr. Paleologue’s clever book, “L’Art Chinois,” the statement “that China never had but one single style of architecture, throughout all the periods of its history, for her public and private, civic, or ecclesiastical buildings.” Now, a close observer will notice in our buildings a great variety of styles, the fineness of which naturally is lost upon those who do not take the trouble to examine them carefully. It is just like a passer-by looking at some of the new streets in Paris, where all the houses are built by one and the same building company, and resemble one another externally; or at the grand avenues in New York City, or the longstrassen in Karlsruhe, spread out round a central square in the shape of a fan. At first sight one cannot help the exclamation that these buildings produce a desperately monotonous impression. But should you pay the architect a visit and examine the plans of these various constructions, you cannot fail to notice that not one interior resembles another. The difference is as slight as the physiognomies of different people, who have the same features but have different faces. It is true that long ago there was little variety in our architectural styles, but in spite of that it can be asserted that each of our cities has a special character, and presents, as far as its buildings are concerned, distinctive features. There are many reasons for this want of variety. In the first place, those foreign elements, which so often so profoundly modified European architecture, have been almost completely wanting in China. Then it must be remembered that official prescriptions regulate the style of houses for different functionaries, a custom which must necessarily limit architectural originality and fancy; and then there is tradition, which is so powerful in our country, and which did not allow of any modification of the pure Chinese style, which had been consecrated by the use of centuries.
