Diyuxing : Resistance and Regionalism in Modern Chinese Architecture, 1940s–2020s

Abstract This article examines how the Chinese term diyuxing (regionality/regionalism) has been used in different periods in modern Chinese architectural discourse from the 1940s to the present. It argues that each manifestation of this concept should be viewed as a conscious act of critical resistance to specific, political, social, economic, cultural, and professional challenges faced by architectural scholars, officials, and practitioners at different highly charged periods in Chinese history. The notion of diyuxing thus may be interpreted as a strategy of criticism or resistance that has manifested differently in distinct contexts and times: As vernacular architecture, it criticized monument-dominated historical study; as the study of local geography, it resisted the International Style; as regional styles, it combated the monopoly of the state discourse; as “native design” or “land-based rationalism,” it countered the hegemony of globalized architectural practice; and as culturally oriented regionalism, it strove for self-justification in the competition for national expression.