For each home, extensive captions, including back-ground information and historical context, accom-pany the photographs and plans. Introductory essays examine Chinese dwellings as an architect-ural type and provide an overview of the rich regional variety of Chinese dwelling forms and historical evolution of dwelling types still seen today. Richly illustrated with photographs, wood-block prints, historical images, and line drawings, Chinese Houses portrays an architectural tradition of amazing resilience.

Despite the relentless social, economic, and political turmoil of the past two centuries, fine examples of domestic architecture have survived in China, some in a complete form, others a vestigial echo of an earlier grand state. Scattered throughout the country are exquisite examples of traditional dwellings, Smaller numbers of once-dilapidated houses have been salvaged by being adaptively reused, beautifully renovated, and tastefully furnished in traditional style, thus reinvigorating them as modern residences.Chinese Houses focuses on twenty well-preserved traditional homes, presenting examples from various metropolitan areas throughout China as well as rural examples found in Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong,Henan, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, and Zhejiang.

For each home, extensive captions, including back-ground information and historical context, accom-pany the photographs and plans. Introductory essays examine Chinese dwellings as an architect-ural type and provide an overview of the rich regional variety of Chinese dwelling forms and historical evolution of dwelling types still seen today. Richly illustrated with photographs, wood-block prints, historical images, and line drawings, Chinese Houses portrays an architectural tradition of amazing resilience.

Foreword by lonathan Spence

Part One

THE ARCHITECTURE OF

THE CHINESE HOUSE

Part Two

THE CHINESE HOUSE

AS LIVING SPACE

Part Three

CHINA'S FINE

HERITAGE HOUSES

A Beijing Courtyard House

Mei Lanfang's Siheyuan

Beijing

Northern Mountain Houses

Chuandixia Village

Mentougou, Beijing

Jiangnan Canal Houses

Homes in Yangzi Delta Watertowns

Jiangnan

An Educator's Residence

Shen Family Home

Luzhi, Jiangsu Province

A Scholar's Study

Xu Wei's Green Vine Studio

Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province

A Millionaire's Home

Kang Family Manor

Henan Province

A Three-Story Ming Dynasty House

Wang Ganchen's "SwalloWs Wing Hall"

Chengkan, Anhui Province

A Merchant's Residence

Wang Dinggui's "Hall of Inheriting Ambition"

Anhui Province

The Five Phoenix Mansion

Lin Family's "Fortune in Abundance Tower"

Fujian Province

Round Fortress Ramparts in Fujian

"Inspiring Success Tower" and "Like a Sheng Tower

Fujian Province

Hakka Encircling Dragons

De Xing Tang and Ning'an Lu Weilongwu

Guangdong Province

A Mandarin's Mansion in Hong Kong

Man Chung-luen's Residence

Hong Kong, SAR

A Country Farmhouse

Mao Zedong's Boyhood Home

Hunan Province

A Landlord's Village Home

Liu Shaoqi's Boyhood Home

Hunan Province

Urban Dwellings in Northern Sichuan

Ma and Feng Family Residences

Langzhong, Sichuan Province

A U-Shaped Farmhouse

Deng Xiaoping's Boyhood Home

Sichuan Province

A Grand Qing Manor and a

Simple Ming Courtyard House

Qiao Family Manor and Ding Family Village

Shanxi Province

The Manor of a Bean Curd Maker

Wang Family Manor

Jingsheng, Shanxi Province

Walled City Residences

Fan Family Courtyard

Pingyao, Shanxi Province

Cave Dwellings of the North

Subterranean Adaptations

Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi Provinces

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments