ABSTRACT
Focusing on the market logic and power relations in a formulaic Marxist critique, yet overlooking China’s history of national development, existing scholarship suffers from the lack of a historical and geopolitical perspective in explaining the arrival of iconic buildings in China amid globalization. To rectify the situation, this chapter uncovers relations between China’s new architectural icons, active engagement with international architecture practice, and national development from formal and historical perspectives. Informed by an observation of radical transitions that the country has been recently going through, this chapter aims for a “non-ideological” reading of the spectacle of iconic buildings of China.
