Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai PDF

Title
Laszlo E. Hudec and modern architecture in Shanghai
Author(s)
Liu, Bingkun;
Citation
Issue Date
2005
URL
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/40274
Rights
The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.
Abstract of thesis entitled
Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Submitted by
Liu Bingkun
for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in July 2005
Laszlo E. Hudec (1893-1958) was a Hungarian architect eminent for his design of the significant buildings in pre-World War II Shanghai. In the study of Shanghai His most significant
architecture, most of his works were classified as masterpieces.
works are the Park Hotel, which was at the time the largest skyscraper from Tokyo to London, and kept its record as the tallest building in the Far East for thirty years until the mid-1960s, the Grand Theatre as once the first cinema in the Far East, and the D. V. Wood Residence, which was reputed to be one of the largest and richest residences in the whole of the Far East. In the history of Shanghai architecture, he
was recognized as a master of Modernism, a pioneer of the new styles, or an architect avant-garde. This thesis examines the character of Hudecs practice and his work against a broad context involving five aspects: social, political, architectural and technological, economical, and cultural, and interprets the meaning of the recognitions he registered.
Primary sources were found in the architectural journals published in the 1930s. Second hand materials were collected from the relevant publications and theses. The
study concludes that the modernity of his work lies not in the simulation of the Western contemporary architecture, but in his keeping up with the change of the Chinese society in modern times. For his practice and the works he produced in
Shanghai identified with the nature of the settings; his innovative design in form and bold employment of advanced technology established a model for modernization that stimulated his Chinese counterparts to ponder and to experiment a new way in defining a new Chinese architecture. The study of Hudecs career and his work continues to testify today, when the city of Shanghai is to rebuild a complex of economy and culture as it was in Hudecs time, to the mode of modernization of Chinese architecture. A better understanding of
Hudecs success offered a key for appreciation the growth of Shanghai in the present day, when large numbers of foreign architects again flock to the city, producing the tallest buildings in the world.

by
Liu Bingkun ( )
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in July 2005
Laszlo E. Hudec (1893-1958) (Johnston 1993: 83)
Acknowledgements
My acknowledgements to many people for debts incurred during my two-year study in Hong Kong, and especially during the writing of this thesis, are heartfelt and necessary. I must first thank Mr. Y. S. Lo, who generously offered me the
scholarship on which I lived a memorable time of two years on the campus of the University of Hong Kong, learning, reading, and writing free from care. My special gratitude is due to my supervisors, Professor David Lung and Doctor Lynne DiStefano, for their stimulating and generous direction, their confidence in my work, and their unfailing support. I would like to thank especially for their patience
with my work that gave me great encouragement and help. I would also like to record here my gratitude to Dr. Monica Hill from the English Centre of the University of Hong Kong, and Mr. and Mrs. Frewer, who have helped me in different ways in correcting the errors in my writing and polishing the texts. My thanks are due to my fellow students and friends whose warm friendship will always stay with me. I am grateful to all above, but no one other than myself is responsible for the weakness or waywardness in the paper.
ii
Contents
Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iii List of Figuresv List of Tables ix List of Charts x Introduction1
0.1. Prologue 1 0.2. Theoretical Basis5 0.3. Hypothesis 8 0.4. Literature Review 11 0.5. Methodology15 0.6. Thesis Design 17 0.7. Contribution and Limitation 17
Chapter I.
Foreign Architects in Shanghai before World War II 18
1.1. Shanghai before the Coming of Foreign Architects 18 1.2. The Advent and Growth of Foreign Architects in Shanghai23 Summary 36 Plates for Chapter I 38
Chapter II.
Laszlo Hudec and His Practice in Shanghai42
2.1. From Harbin to Shanghai 42 2.2. Hudecs Practice in Shanghai46 Summary 51 Plates for Chapter II 53
Chapter III. Hudec and Architecture in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s55
3.1. The Evolution of Architecture in Shanghai in Modern Times 55
iii
3.2. Hudecs Work in Shanghai63 3.3. The Significance of Hudec as a Modern Architect 67 Summary 79 Plates for Chapter III 81
Chapter IV.
Hudecs Legacy115
4.1. The Park Hotel as a Metaphor for the Chinese Identity of the Shanghai Foreign Settlements 116 4.2. Hudecs Work as an Emblem for Shanghais Cosmopolitan Nature 124 Summary126 Plates for Chapter IV 128
Conclusion 130 Bibliography 132 Appendix 139
iv
Figures
Chapter I
Fig. 1-1. Shanghai in the late Ming Period (seventeenth century. Balfour & Zheng 2002: 36). Fig. 1-2. Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricc (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 90). Fig. 1-3. The Xujiahui Cathedral (Xiong ed. Vol. 2, 1999: 244). Fig. 1-4. The Notre Dame, Xujiahui (Xiong ed. Vol. 2, 1999: 246). Fig. 1-5. A church in the walled city (Xiong ed. Vol. 2, 1999: 249). Fig. 1-6. Shanghai in the nineteenth century (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 40). Fig. 1-7. The foreign settlements in Shanghai (Liu 1985). Fig. 1-8. Map of the Central District of Shanghai (from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/).
Chapter II
Fig. 2-1. Map of Slovakia (available from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/). Fig. 2-2. Map of China (available from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/). Fig. 2-3. Street view of Harbin, early twentieth century (Johnston 1996: 14). Fig. 2-4. A church in Harbin (Johnston 1996: 13).
Chapter III
Fig. 3-1. Wuzhen, canal and embankment (available from http://www.jsdj.com/jnsx.htm). Fig. 3-2. Wuzhen, street view (available from http://www.jsdj.com/jnsx.htm). Fig. 3-3. The British Consulate in Shanghai, 1850s (from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-4. The Bund, Shanghai, 1850s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-5. The Chinese Maritime Customs, Shanghai, 1857s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-6. The Mixed Court, Nanjing Road, Shanghai, 1870s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-7. The Chinese Maritime Customs, Tudor style, 1890s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-8. The Chinese Maritime Customs, eclectic, 1930s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
Fig. 3-9. Hongde Tang Church (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 92). Fig. 3-10. The YMCA Building, Shanghai, 1929 (from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-11. The Mayors Building (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-12. Daxin Company, 1936 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-13. The American Club (by author). Fig. 3-14. The International Savings Society Building (by author). Fig. 3-15. The Catholic Country Church (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-16. The Country Hospital (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-17. The Estrella Apartments (by author). Fig. 3-18. The Estrella Apartments, faade (by author). Fig. 3-19. The Estrella Apartments, faade and cornice (by author). Fig. 3-20. The Estrella Apartments, gate (by author). Fig. 3-21. The Estrella Apartments, doorway (by author). Fig. 3-22. The Joint Savings Society Building, #261, Sichuan Road, Middle (by author). Fig. 3-23. The Zhabei Power Station (Zhabei Power Station archives). Fig. 3-24. The Columbia Circle (by author). Fig. 3-25. The Columbia Circle (by author). Fig. 3-26. The Columbia Circle (by author). Fig. 3-27. The Columbia Circle (by author). Fig. 3-28. The Columbia Circle (by author). Fig. 3-29. The Columbia Circle (by author). Fig. 3-30. The Columbia Circle (by author). Fig. 3-31. Hudec Residence of 1929 (the Sun Esq. Residence, Yang 1999: 252). Fig. 3-32. The Moore Memorial Church, 1929 (from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-33. Zhejiang Cinema (by author). Fig. 3-34. The Christian Literature Society Building (by author). Fig. 3-35. China Baptist Publication Society Building (by author). Fig. 3-36. China Baptist Publication Society Building, detail (by author). Fig. 3-37. Peter Behrens: the Hoechst Dyeworks, 1924 (Tietz 1999: 23). Fig. 3-38. The Avenue Apartments (by author).
vi
Fig. 3-39. Hudec Residence, #127, Panyu Road (by author). Fig. 3-40. Hudec Residence, #127, Panyu Road (by author). Fig. 3-41. The Engineering Building, Jiaotong University, 1931 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-42. The New German Evangelic Church, 1931 (Zheng 1999: 132). Fig. 3-43. The New German Evangelic Church, interior, 1931 (Zheng 1999: 132). Fig. 3-44. The Grand Theatre (by author). Fig. 3-45. The Grand Theatre, vestibule (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-46. The Grand Theatre, auditorium (Luo ed. 1995: 193). Fig. 3-47. The Park Hotel (by author). Fig. 3-48. The Park Hotel, entrance (by author). Fig. 3-49. The Park Hotel, treatment of faade (by author). Fig. 3-50. The Park Hotel, upper storeys (by author). Fig. 3-51. The Park Hotel, the ground floor plan (The Builder, Vol.1, No.5). Fig. 3-52. The Park Hotel, floor plan 5 - 10 (The Builder, Vol.1, No.5). Fig. 3-53. The Park Hotel, section (The Builder, Vol.1, No.5). Fig. 3-54. Park Hotel under construction, 1933 (The Builder, Vol. 1, No.2). Fig. 3-55. Park Hotel under construction, 1933 (The Builder Vol. 1, No.04). Fig. 3-56. The American Radiator Building, New York, 1924 (Watkin 2000: 580). Fig. 3-57. The Union Brewery Ltd., 1933 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-58. Hubertus Court (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 3-59. D. V. Wood Residence (by author). Fig. 3-60. D. V. Wood Residence, the grand curved staircase (by author). Fig. 3-61. Sassoon House (Zheng 1999: 266). Fig. 3-62. Sassoon House (Johnston 1996: 98). Fig. 3-63. Sassoon House, lobby (Johnston 1996: 99). Fig. 3-64. Sassoon House, English suite (Johnston 1996: 100). Fig. 3-65. Sassoon House, Indian suite (Johnston 1996: 101). Fig. 3-66. Students work from the Central University (Chinese Architecture, Vol.3, No.4). Fig. 3-67. Students work from the Central University (Chinese Architecture, Vol.3, No.4).
vii
Chapter IV
Fig. 4-1. The project of the Bank of China on the Bund, Shanghai, 1934 (Zheng 1999: 248). Fig. 4-2. The Bank of China and the Sassoon House (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). Fig. 4-3. A birds eye view of the Park Hotel and its physical setting (Deng 1992).
viii
Tables
Chapter I
Table 1-1. Foreign population of Shanghai, 1843-1937 (drawn from Zou 1980: 141) Table 1-2. Population of Shanghai, 1852-1937 (drawn from Zou 1980: 90)
Chapter III
Table 3-1. The style of Hudecs Work in Shanghai (drawn from Hua 2000: 54-137).
ix
Charts
Introduction
Chart 0-1. Theoretical Framework (drawn on Xin 1996: 19-35).
Introduction
0.1. Prologue 0.2. Theoretical Basis 0.3. Hypothesis 0.4. Literature Review 0.5. Methodology 0.6. Thesis Design 0.7. Contribution and Limitation 0.1. PROLOGUE
The 1920s and 30s saw Shanghai striding into a golden era. In the two decades before war broke out in 1937, the city boomed as the primary economic complex in Asia, and attained a premier position as the locus of Chinas most influential political and intellectual activity (Luo 1996: 5 and MacPherson 1990). Demographically,
Shanghai by the 1920s ranked the sixth largest city in the world, only slightly behind the worlds largest metropolises such as New York, London and Paris (All about Shanghai: 33 and MacPherson 1990). Its trade and shipping reached to all parts of the globe, and controlled at a very conservative estimate 90 percent of the imports and exports between China and foreign countries (Feetham Vol.1, 1931: 306). Subsequently, its status as a manufacturing complex put it among the leading urban industrial centers of the world (Murphey 1953: 1). In the meantime, Shanghai also Its dominance in exchange
ranked as one of the worlds leading financial centers.
rate and gold transaction in the whole of the Far East far exceeded Hong Kong and Bombay (Xiong ed. Vol.8, 1999: 136). Shanghai concentrated 81 percent of the
foreign and nationwide financial headquarters in China, serving the Chinese government and the economic life of the city, as well as the citys commercial
1
hinterland of half of China and all the other Chinese ports (Zhang ed. 1990: 311 and Murphey 1953: 2). In the face of a startling urban expansion and rise to prominence, the building industry and architecture in Shanghai reached a booming era. Architects of different nations flocked to the city and played substantial roles that brought out the distinct monuments which later became the emblems for the citys identity. Among the Shanghai architects, Laszlo E. Hudec (1893-1958), a Hungarian-based architect, became prominent for his design of the eminent buildings. In the 1930s, he ranked one of the two most influential foreign architects in Shanghai.1 Hudecs most important period in Shanghai largely paralleled the citys golden era. During the thirty years from 1918-1947, he enrolled in at least 62 projects (Hua Most of them were designed before 19372. The style of his work varied
2000: 1).
from European Historicism3 to Art Deco and International, which were collectively known as Modern style in Shanghai at the time (Hou in Pan ed. 2001: 388). Tess
Johnston described Hudec as innovative (1993: 86), but in the study of Shanghai architecture, more often, Hudec was recognized as a master of Modernism (Xin 1996: 403), a pioneer of the new styles (Wu 1997: 138), or an architect
The two most influential architects in Shanghai as well as in China before 1949 were the Palmer & Turner and Laszlo E. Hudec. See Pan Guxi ed. Zhongguo Jianzhu Shi [A History of Chinese Architecture], 4th ed. Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe (China Architecture and Building Press), 2001. This is inferred from Hua Xiahong's survey and chronological study on Hudec's work in Shanghai, which was incorporated in the appendix of her Master's thesis, Wudake Zai Shanghai Zuopin de Fingxi [An Analysis and Commentary of Hudec's Works in Shanghai]. Historicism, a generic term for types of architecture that relate back to earlier styles, such as Classicism, the neo-Renaissance, neo-Baroque, neo-Romanesque, and neo-Classicism. The style was especially predominant in the West between 1860 and 1910. See Jueren Tietz, The Story of Architecture of the 20th Century, Koenemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1999, p.114. 2
3 2
avant-garde (Hua 2000: 27).
Such recognition Hudec was bestowed on attributed to
his three most significant works: the Park Hotel, which was once the tallest building in the Far East as well as the tallest skyscraper on four continents (Hietkamp 1998: 1), the Grand Theatre as the first cinema in the Far East at the time (Luo 1996: 105), and the D. V. Wood Residence, which was reputed to be one of the largest and richest residences in the whole of the Far East (Johnston 1993: 87).4 The recognitions suggested Hudec was a Modern architect, who advocated and demonstrated reform in architecture, while the works for which he was bestowed by such recognition bore the character of Modernism and contributed to the modernization of architecture in Shanghai. However, in the relevant studies these recognitions were largely drawn on the similarity in forms between his three most significant works and their contemporaries in the West, though sometimes advanced technology Hudec introduced in engineering was mentioned. Merely by similarity in forms and advanced technology, can it be inferred that Hudec was a modernist architect as his Western contemporaries, like Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924), or Adolf Loos (1870-1933), or Le Corbusier (1887-1965), who put forward new principles and slogans for reform in architecture and boldly practiced along those principles? Further, merely by similarity in forms and advanced technology, can Hudecs practice in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s be regarded as a ramification of the movement of Modern architecture in the West? These questions were not yet answered in the
relevant studies of Shanghai architecture.

The significance of these three is commonly acknowledged in the monographic study by Hua Xiahong as well as in the relevant studies by Wu Jiang, Zheng Shiling, Hou Youbin, and so on. 3
4
Modern as a general term normally denotes the quality of a contemporary era, and modernization describes the process of rapid change in human affairs since the scientific revolution. In Western history modern was first used to distinguish Shakespeare invariably used In the eighteenth
between contemporary and ancient writers and themes.
this term for commonplace and trite in a derogatory sense.
centuries, English writers disparagingly referred to French revolutionary leaders as modernizers. In a more objective sense, in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, European historians began to refer to ancient, medieval, and modern periods when they gradually abandoned the accepted periodization based on the Christian era (Black 1967: 5). In architecture, modern was also employed variably.
The Art Nouveau in France, or Jugendstil in Germany, or Stile Liberty in Italy, was named as Modern style in England, and Modernismo in Spain (Tietz 1999: 11). In the 1920s in Europe, Functionism and Rationalism were collectively So what was modern in Hudecs
called Modernism (Waiguo Jinxiandai: 65).
works after all? If similarity in forms is modern, then simulation in any time and place of a modern form can be denoted by such a term. If modern simply
indicates that Hudec was an architect of the 1920s and 30s, then all his contemporaries, whether in the West or in Shanghai, will be modern, and their practice will certainly be a movement of modernization in architecture. Without
an in-depth probe, the recognitions of Hudec will remain ambiguous by the generality of the terms, and the significance of Hudec and his work will be degenerated to mere literal sense. By such weakness, Hudecs position in the history of Shanghai
architecture remains vague.
In that light, an exploration for the meaning of
modern, modernity, or modernization for Hudec and his work becomes the fundamental issue in the quest for a better understanding of this Hungarian architect and his settings. What was modern or new in contrast to traditional or old for Hudec and his setting? Was Hudec as avant-garde as his European contemporaries who were
concerned more about architectural reform than immediate profit in practice, or was he modern merely in Shanghai in that specific era? Not until such questions are This thesis addresses
properly answered can Hudecs work be better appreciated. such concerns.
0.2. THEORETICAL BASIS
Modern history in the West began with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, or the discovery of the continent of America in 1492, and is now more commonly recognized as to about 1500 (Black 1967: 5 and Stavrianos 1975: 3). Since the
modern era began, modernity has come to be employed to describe the characteristics common to countries that are most advanced in technological, political, economic, and social development, and modernization to describe the process by which those countries acquired these characteristics (Black 1967: 6). But for the history of China, the beginning of the modern era is commonly regarded as from 1840, the year when the troops of the Qing Dynasty were defeated by the British expedition in the Opium War, and since when the country was forced to open to the world by a series of treaties signed by the Qing government and Western powers.
5
Since then, in
China, firstly in the five primary treaty ports as Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen5 , Ningbo, and Shanghai, Chinese agrarian civilization was challenged by the Western Industrial civilization. along Western lines. For such process, Europeanization ( ) and Westernization ( ) are employed particularly to describe the impact of the Western civilization on the Chinese. Yet, Europeanization or Westernization is only a part of that process, Either of these two terms would become Consequently, these ports were forced to change rapidly
although it is a very important one.
inadequate when the reaction of Chinese civilization, a factor that also impacted in that process of change, has to be taken into account. Within Western civilization,
industrialization is also used in describing such process. But industrialization stresses the economic aspect alone (Black 1967: 6) -- the immediate consequences of the technological revolution -- hence it fails to convey the complexity and all-pervading character of the process. Insofar as to describe the process of change
in China, modernization seems the most appropriate term. Black in his The Dynamics of Modernization defined modernization as the process by which historically evolved institutions are adapted to the rapidly changing functions that reflect the unprecedented increase in mans knowledge, permitting control over his environment that accompanied the scientific revolution (1967: 7). A holistic definition is better suited to the complexity and interrelatedness of all
Normally, Pinyin romanization will be used throughout this text for the names of places, people, and organizations, unless the name has become a commonly accepted proper noun in Western literature, such as Hong Kong, Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, and Kuomintang, and so on. 6
aspects of the process, as Black considered, however, it is less practicable to be applied to the present topic, which is a specific subject relatively limited in a certain context. For there is a lack of direct association between the abstract concepts in the
definition and the substantial matters in the present topic. Nevertheless, if Hudec and his work were put in a broader context, such as the development of Chinese architecture in the past few centuries, then Blacks definition could better serve as a sound theoretical basis. In bringing the holistic definition down to the context of China, two patterns for modernization were put forward in The History of Chinese Modernization (Xu & Chen ed. 1995): primary internal and secondary external. By primary internal
Xu and Chen refer to the pattern of development in England, the United States, and France, the countries where the most advanced technological, political, economic, and social transformation initially occurred as a continuation of their own history (Vol.1, 1995: 2). Secondary external as was used in Xu and Chens study refers to the later-modernizing societies, to which Germany, Russia, Japan, and China belonged. In the later-modernizing societies, the dynamic of change was largely the external challenge and modeling effect from the early advanced societies (Ibid.). Black
considered in the later-modernizing societies the challenge was more rapid and abrupt (1967: 8). Hou Youbin ( ) applied this theory in the analysis of
Chinese architecture in modern times (in Pan ed. 2001: 299), and Xin Ping () considered the pattern of modernization in Shanghai fit well to this category (1996). For a more practicable purpose, Xin Ping further proposed such categories in the
7
study of Shanghai modern: enhancement of full open and global interdependence, great leap forward in forces of production, large-scale employment of non-vital energy sources, sustained economical growth, specialization in technology and social organizations, collapse of the hereditary system and ousting of hierarchy in social relations by administration, popularization of high culture, popularization of education in all social levels, decline in both birth rate and death rate, urbanization of populace, free participation in political affairs, the dynamic of reform changes from external to internal, secularization and unification in values, and replacement of the traditional way of life by the new (Xin 1996: 22-23). These categories in Xin Pings work were specifically applied to the analysis of the development of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, the time of Hudec and his works. By treating architecture as a unit of his historical holography, in the same work,6 Xin Ping extended his theory to Shanghai architecture. The present study
will follow this approach to interpret the meaning of modernity in Hudecs work. But his categories will be integrated into five aspects for the sake of convenience: economic, technological, political, social, and cultural.
0.3. HYPOTHESIS
The meaning of modernity in Hudecs work in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s is not adequately articulated in the study of Shanghai architecture in modern times. Through a deeper biographic investigation of Laszlo Hudec and his work in Shanghai
6
Xin Ping. Cong Shanghai Faxian Lishi -- Xiandaihua Jincheng Zhong de Shanghairen Jiqi Shehui Shenghuo [History Discovered from Shanghai -- Shanghainese and Their Social Life in the Course of Modernization], 1927-1937. Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai People's Publishing House), 1996. 8
by incorporating the broader socio-economic and socio-political circumstances of the time, the present study will achieve a more integrated, consistent, and effective understanding of Hudec and his work in Shanghai, and will enlighten fresh views on the significant modern forms in his work. How Hudecs work responded, contributed to, or reflected the setting of Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s, is charted below (Chart 0-1). The thesis argues that the sustained economic growth in Shanghai offered opportunities for Hudec to expose his talent in business and professional skill in practice. By introducing the advanced technology from the West, he greatly
challenged and later stimulated the improvement of building technology in Shanghai. His Park Hotel not only presented the latest advancement of Western material civilization, but also symbolized the rise of Chinese bourgeoisie and their self-consciousness in Nationalism. Although he was immune to the Chinese Revival,
an architectural movement advocating the incorporation of traditional Chinese form and Western technology, that could have limited his business, he still surpassed his rivals by virtue of his significant trend in Modernism. The variety of style in his
work accounted for the cosmopolitan nature of Shanghai. His recognition by the city reflects the addiction to Western fashion in the citys pop culture. Finally, Hudecs
modernity lies not only in the similarity in his work to the Western contemporary styles, but in the adaptation and response to the rapid and abrupt change in his settings.
Hudec Shanghai, 1920s-30s modernity
pattern of modernization: secondary-external challenge / modeling
economy
sustained growth growth in productivity
technology
non-vital energy source
politics
administration participation in politics internal reform
society
open and interdependence
culture
popularization secular values
specialization living standard population growth new way of life
unification foreign impact
Shanghai, 1920s-30s
industry - foreign / national, trade, real estate
mechanization, new facilities
municipality, rise of nationalism and Chinese bourgeoisie
cosmopolis, settlements, guilds
pop culture, Western fashion
Shanghai architecture
building material / technology / facility
the Greater Plan, Chinese Revival
architects different nations, new types of building
Western styles
Chart 0-1. Theoretical Framework (drawn on Xin 1996: 19-35).
10
0.4. LITERATURE REVIEW
In the study of Shanghai architecture in modern times, it is only recently that Laszlo Hudec and his work were exclusively addressed. So far, there have been two
masters theses paying special interest to Hudec and his work in Shanghai. One is The Park Hotel, Shanghai (1931-1934) and Its Architect, Laszlo Hudec (1893-1958): Tallest Building in the Far East as Metaphor for the Pre-Communist Shanghai by Lenore Hietkamp from the University of Victoria in 1998, Canada. The other is
Wudake Zai Shanghai Zuopin de Fingxi [An Analysis and Commentary of Hudecs Works in Shanghai] by Hua Xiahong () from Tongji University in 2000. Both
are unpublished. These two works paved the way to a further in-depth study on the subject, however, it must be said that their discussion was either confined in a limited scope or still placed on the physical and technical aspects. What is critically lacking is an insight into that particular context, involving trade, finance, culture, and specifically the interaction between the Chinese and foreigners in that context. Lenore Hietkamp claimed she incorporated insights into the historical, sociological, and cultural implications of the co-existence of the Westerners and Chinese in her Park Hotel (1998: 8), however, Chinese bourgeoisies political motive as was implied in their intimacy with the Nationalist government was ignored. In her four-chapter thesis, Lenore Hietkamp examined the whole process of how the Park Hotel came to exist. The background of the hotel was introduced in
Chapter 1, where the author revealed the stories of the owner and the architect respectively, which offered a valuable clue for reconstructing the setting of the
11
architect and his life.
For the hotel proper, Hietkamp synthesized in one chapter (in The presentation of the general
Chapter 2) all the relevant material she collected.
considerations and major aspects in project design, such as the site, the technology, the condition of geology and climate, as well as the bidding and competition for the project, achieves a successful case study. The symbolism and significance of the
Park Hotel were discussed (in Chapter 4) after she extended the hotel to its international sources (in Chapter 3), which comprises both American and European. The author concluded that the hotel is a metaphor for the citys pre-Communist period that paralleled the citys own growth. However, if the conclusion is to be further examined with the study of the synchronic architectural phenomena, such as the Shanghai lane houses, then the significance of the Park Hotel as paralleled the citys growth as the author concluded seems to have been generalized. For the lane houses came through a long period from the 1860s to 1940s, whereas the Park Hotel was merely an outcome of a specific time, the so-called golden era, from that period. The primary source of Hietkamps work was the Hudec Collection in the University of Victoria, which was originally the archive comprising photographs and scrapbooks built by the architect himself. Hietkamp stated the limitation of her thesis as lack of direct evidence on the Chinese owners perception towards the hotel. The limitation suggested that the Chinese sources be incorporated with the Western sources if a more comprehensive study is to be carried out. For the study on the
architectural phenomena in China, the Chinese language is in most cases the dominant medium and the firsthand source that paralleled the Western ones.
12
Ms. Hua Xiahong achieved a broader study on the subject in her masters thesis An Analysis and Commentary of Hudecs Works in Shanghai in 2000. In this
Chinese thesis, Hua formulated a full list of Hudecs work in Shanghai that amounts to at least 62 pieces, comprising project designs and those that were built. She
outlined Hudecs career in Shanghai into four distinct periods by the dominant styles in his work as (1) Joining the R. A. Curry (1918-1925), Strict and Aesthetic Classic Revival, (2) Early Days of Independence (1925-1930), the Classic Continues, (3) Transition (1930-1933), Recurring between the New and the Old, and (4) Reaching the Zenith (1933-1947), An Architect Avant-garde. For each of the periods, Hua
selected one or two works she considered representative, and gave each a detailed depiction and commentary. The division of the periods remains logically vague, (for
the inconsistency of the criterion as by the styles stated), however the depiction and commentary, with the figures attached, deliver a visualized impression of the diversity and the professional skill of their designer. The most significant contribution of Huas work might be Appendix II of the thesis, where she presented her formatted investigation of 46 of Hudecs works in Shanghai, involving title (original and present), address, original owner, engineers, constructor, date of design and construction, area of the site, storey and building area, type of piling and structure, material on faade, the dominant style, amount of investment, and present condition. Her primary source was largely from the
Shanghai Municipal Archives of Urban Construction () and the Chinese architectural journals of the 1930s, such as The Builder and The Chinese
13
Architecture, which is a Chinese complement to the source of Hietkamps work -- the Hudec Collection in the University of Victoria. However, quite a few of Huas
investigations remained unfulfilled (or probably will remain unknown), and these inspire a deeper excavation for the facts and stories that lie behind them. Hudecs key works have become the inevitable illustration in the study of modern architecture in Shanghai as well as in China. Besides Hietkamp and Huas studies,
Hudecs key works were presented in most of the recent publications of the relevant field, such as A History of Chinese Architecture (Pan ed. 2001), The Evolution of Shanghai Architecture in Modern Times (Zheng 1999), Shanghai, the Stories of Classic Houses (Yang 1999), The History of Shanghai Architecture, 1840-1949 (Wu 1997), and A Last Look, Western Architecture in Old Shanghai (Johnston 1993). His stories were also seen in the recent studies, such as German Architecture in Shanghai (Warner 1993). But in these publications, Laszlo Hudec and his work were merely So far, no one has
penetrated from one or two perspectives, or treated as examples.
made a comprehensive study of this Hungarian Shanghai architect that involves all the necessary aspects as his business and clients, his ideals in architectural design and so on, in a broader context, and that incorporates all the sources available, either of Chinese or of Western, either primary or secondhand. On the topic of Hudec, there are still more events to be examined and evidence to be searched. But only when the evidence is analytically put in a certain context, can a proper and objective appraisal of Laszlo Hudec and his work in the modern history of Shanghai architecture be achieved.
14
0.5. METHODOLOGY
The research method for the present study falls in the qualitative approach, in which deduction and comparative study will be the major methods to be applied. Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893) in his Philosophie de lArt posed a rule for the study art. He considered that for understanding a piece of work of art, an artist, a group of artists, it must represent with exactitude the general state of the spirit and manners of the time to which they have belonged (1948: 7).7 methodology in three tiers. He elaborated his
Firstly, a piece of work of art is not isolated. It belongs
to an ensemble, which is the total work of the artist who is the author of it (Ibid.: 2).8 Secondly, the artist himself, with the total of his work, is not isolated either. There is
also an ensemble in which he was comprised. It is an ensemble bigger than the artist, which is the school or family of artists that belongs to his nation and time (Ibid.: 3).9 Thirdly, the family of artists itself is comprised in an ensemble even bigger, which is the social setting whose taste conformed with that of the family of artists (Ibid.: 4).10 Taine did not touch the base of the social setting -- its economic life -- in his study, however, the principles he proposed offered a basis for the research method for the present study. The research method follows Taines approach but will extend it to a
"Nous arrivons donc a poser cette regle que, pour comprendre une oeuvre d'art, un artiste, un groupe d'artistes, il faut se representer avec exactitude l'etat generale de l'esprit et des moeurs du temps auquel ils appartenaient. La se trouve l'explication derniere; la reside la cause primitive qui determine le reste."
8 "Le premier pas n'est point difficile. D'abord et visiblement, une oeuvre d'art, un tableau, une tragedie, une statue, appartient a un ensemble, je veux dire a l'oeuvre totale de l'artiste qui en est l'auteur." 9
"Voici le second. Cet artiste lui-meme, considere avec l'oeuvre totale qu'il a produite, n'est pas isole. Il y a aussi un ensemble dans lequel il est compri, ensemble plus grand que lui-meme, et qui est l'ecole ou famille d'artistes du meme pays et du meme temps a laquelle il appartient."
10 "Il en reste un troisieme a faire. Cette famille d'artiste elle-meme est comprise dans un ensemble plus vaste, qui est le monde qui l'entoure et dont le gout est conforme au sien."
15
deeper level.
Firstly, each of Hudecs work, no matter prominent or less well-known, Hudec himself, with the total of
will be observed in the full collection of his work.
the work he produced, will be interpreted in the group of architects of the time and place that he belongs to. Around Hudec, there were Western architects or
architectural firms like Palmer and Turner, Lester, Johnson and Morris, Elliott Hazzard and Phlillp, C. H. Gonda, another Hungarian architect in Shanghai, A. Leonard, P. Veysseyre and M. Guillet, Atkinson and Dallas, the Davis and Brooke, Moorehead and Halse, and so on. These people and their work will be incorporated in the comparison and analysis. Finally, why Hudec and his work were accepted by
the city and its people will be interpreted in the social and cultural context. In general, the interpretation of Hudec and his work in Shanghai falls in three tiers in the present study: (1) Hudec and the architects in the social and economical context of Shanghai, (2) Hudecs work in Shanghai architecture, and (3) Hudec and his contemporaries in the political and cultural context of Shanghai. First hand materials are collected from the old journals -- The Builder and The Chinese Architecture, both published in the 1930s, where the material for the architectural context and the debut of Hudecs works can be found, and by field trip in Shanghai -- for the investigation and record of the site, the faade, the interior, the design of the details, and their present condition. The materials from the Hudec
Collection are quoted from the Park Hotel, and data and description of the buildings inaccessible or no longer standing are from Huas work and other publications.
16
0.6. THESIS DESIGN
This study is concerned with the appraisal of modernity in Hudecs work in Shanghai. The present chapter defines the characteristics of modernity and the
categories of modernization based on the theories in the social study of Chinese modernization. Chapter I deals with the context from the economic aspect to present the opportunities for architects. Chapter II presents Hudces practice in Shanghai
and analysis the character of his practice from the business aspect. Chapter III focuses on architectural styles and building technology that Hudec used to challenge his counterparts in Shanghai. The fourth chapter reveals the political symbolism in
the Park Hotel, and discusses how Hudecs work reflected Shanghais cosmopolitan nature. The conclusion, finally, interprets the modernity of Hudec and his work and
their significance in the modern history of Shanghai architecture.
0.7. CONTRIBUTION AND LIMITATION
The thesis will approach a more integrated profile of Hudecs career in Shanghai, characterize his role in Shanghais architectural development in modern times (1920s and 30s), and give sound interpretations of the meaning of his modern style. The
effectiveness of the conclusion will partly be limited by the lack of direct evidence.
17
Chapter I.
Foreign Architects in Shanghai before World War II
1.1. Shanghai before the Coming of Foreign Architects 1.2. The Advent and Growth of Foreign Architects in Shanghai Summary Plates for Chapter I
In the architectural context of China as well as of Shanghai before mid-nineteenth century, there was a lack of a profession of an architect as understood in the West. The advent of foreign professional architects and their practice in Shanghai in the late 1840s therefore was no less significant than the citys compulsory opening to foreign trade that affected the direction of its growth. Although Shanghai had witnessed
foreign presence in its own context in the seventeenth century, it was with the growth in economy since the 1860s, particularly with the boom of the realty market, that foreign architects became involved in the growth of the city. The economic
circumstances offered opportunities for foreign architects to fulfill their dream of making a fortune, and it is in this regard that Laszlo Hudec -- his life and work -represented such self-made figures.
1.1. SHANGHAI BEFORE THE COMING OF FOREIGN ARCHITECTS
In the study of Shanghai architecture, it has been generally accepted that the advent of foreign architects in Shanghai was after the citys opening to foreign trade in 1843. Less commonly known was the fact that before the coming of foreign
architects, Shanghai was already a thriving market place significant in the Chinese context, and it had also seen the presence of Western culture, including the elements of Western architecture in its own context for two centuries. A review of the early
history of Shanghai since it became prominent as a port of trade will help to reveal the
18
dynamic behind the coming of the foreign architects, and will further contribute to a better understanding of Hudecs practice in Shanghai among his contemporaries. Shanghai emerged as a market place of some significance in the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127 AD), as marked by the establishment of an office of diverse trades and taxation11 in 1077. During the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279 AD), the
market place developed into an important center of trade (Wei 1987: 8). In 1267, an office for overseas trade and taxation12 was established on the western bank of the Huangpu River, by which Shanghai received its official designation as a market town13. When the market town further grew into a center of commerce in land as
well as coastal and maritime trade in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368 AD), in 1292, it was elevated to the status of county (Xiong ed. Vol.2, 1999: 78). In this period, the
introduction of cotton, with the concomitant emergence of a cottage industry of cotton textiles in the region, propelled Shanghai from a marsh periphery into national prominence as one of the most prosperous and progressive districts of the Empire (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 30-31). However, the county was not yet significant
enough to attract Marco Polo on his seventeen-year travel through China from 1275 to 1292.
An office of Jiuwu () had been established in Shanghai by the tenth year of Xining () reign (1077 AD). See Xiong Yuezhi ed. Shanghai Tongshi [A Panorama of Shanghai History], Vol. 2, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai People's Publishing House), 1999, p.73. An office for overseas trade and taxation -- Shibosi () -- was established in the third year of the Xianchun () reign (1267 AD). See Xiong Yuezhi ed. Shanghai Tongshi [A Panorama of Shanghai History], Vol. 2, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai People's Publishing House), 1999, p.75. And Ye Yalian & Xia Lingen ed. Shanghai de Faduan [The Origin of Shanghai], Shanghai Fanyi Chuban Gongsi [Shanghai Translation and Publishing Corporation], 1992, p.1.
13 12
11
Zhen () was the administration seat for an official market town at the time in the Chinese context. Balfour & Zheng Shiling, Shanghai, Wiley-Academy, 2002, p.29. 19
See Alan
During the Ming period (1368-1644 AD), of the total national annual grain tax, 10 percent came from the district of Suzhou and Shanghai alone, indicating the productivity of the region and the volume of shipping passing through it. In the
fifteenth century, the dredging of a channel to join the Rivers of Wusong14 and Huangpu to flow north to the Yangtze linked Shanghai permanently to all the important internal and external shipping routes. With the concentration of business 1554 AD saw the
activities, certain sections of the county became decidedly urban.
construction of the city wall -- the most significant construction in the citys history before the arrival of the British in the nineteenth century. The city wall was a direct
result of the Wokou15 raids, however, since it was built to protect the urbanized area of the city rather than to signify the administrative status, and since it was sponsored by the local gentry, who as a class was composed in the tradition of officialdom, it represented the maturity of Shanghai as a typical Chinese community (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 32-36 and Wei 1987: 10. Fig. 1-1). A high official
The same period saw foreign presence in the citys own context.
of the Ming court, Xu Guangqi (, 1562-1633), who was then the General Secretary of the Board of Rites -- Libu Shangshu () -- established a Catholic mission in the characteristic Jesuit style outside the north gate of the city (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 35). Xu was one of several officials of the Ming court who were
14 The Wusong River was later known as the Suzhou Creek. During the negotiation between the British consul Rutherford Alcock (1809-1897) and the Shanghai Intendant for the first expansion of the British Settlement, Alcock first named the River as the Suzhou Creek, as he considered the River led to the city of Suzhou. See Ye Yalian & Xia Lingen ed. Shanghai de Faduan [The Origin of Shanghai], Shanghai Fanyi Chuban Gongsi [Shanghai Translation and Publishing Corporation], 1992, p.76.
Pirates presumed to have been Chinese sailors from Fujian province in cooperation with the Japanese merchant adventurers who operated from islands fringing the Chinese coast at the end of the Yuan and throughout the Min dynasties. "Wo" literally means "short" or "dwarf", and "kou" -- "invader" or "bandit". 20
15
converted to Roman Catholicism by Jesuit missionaries. is still known in the West as Paul Xu (Ibid.
He was renamed Paul, and He invited Jesuit
Fig. 1-2).
missionaries to start a Roman Catholic congregation in Shanghai, and built a church within the city in 1608, while his granddaughter, Candida (1607-1680) was reputed as the sponsor of the more than one hundred chapels in the Shanghai area (Wei 1987: 16). The Nine-room Building -- Jiujianlou (), now still standing on Guangqi Road, Huangpu District of Shanghai, was one of Xus residences in the city and later the mission site of Lazare Cattaneo (1560-1640)16. Drawings of a later time illustrate
the characteristics of Western architecture in these churches and chapels (Figs. 1-3, 1-4, & 1-5), however, no record indicates any foreign architects were ever involved in the construction of these mission sites. The late Ming era in China paralleled the Age of Discovery in Europe. Sea powers of the time, the Portuguese, the Spaniards, and the Dutch were then active in Asia, as seen in the colonization of Macao of the Portuguese in 1553 and the occupation of Taiwan by the Dutch in 1624.17 Following the explorers and traders,
Christian missionaries, especially the Jesuits, wanted to bring Roman Catholicism to China (Wei 1987: 15). But no evidence indicates any European architects were then attempting to expand the influence of European architecture into China. After the city was brought within Manchu ruler under the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 AD), it retained its growth in modest confidence and prosperity. During
16 17
An Italian Jesuit, known as Guo Jujing () or Guo Yangfeng () in Chinese sources. This was the origin of the name "Formosa" for Taiwan. 21
the eighteenth century, the Shanghai district was among the richest regions of the Empire, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, port, trade, and manufacturing had become dominant in the citys economic life. Trade routes for
long-distance freight transportation were expanded; an astonishing variety of products was exported to and imported from inland districts and other coastal ports as well as from Japan and the countries of the Southern Seas. At the time, the volume of
Chinese shipping through the port of Shanghai was twice that of Guangzhou, although an imperial decree prohibited all international trade in the former and confined it to the latter. In 1835, one of the Christian missionaries described the port of Shanghai as a forest of innumerable masts (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 36-40. Fig. 1-6). It was at this time that foreigners, firstly the British, began to plan their development of trade with China and to take a special interest in Shanghai. In the 1830s, there had been several British vessels charting the water at the estuary of the Yangtze.18 When
the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing was concluded in 1842, Shanghai was listed as one of the five ports to be opened to foreign trade. The provisions of the 1842 Treaty allowed foreign residence in the treaty ports19. A later supplementary agreement, the Treaty of the Bogue, concluded between the
As early as 1756, the East India Company had proposed thin Shanghai be opened to British trade. In 1832, the ship Lord Amherst sailed from Macao to Shanghai under the charge of Hugh Hamilton Lindsay (1802-1881) of the East India company, with Charles Gutzlaff (1803-1851) as interpreter, to seek a new port for trade. Two years later, in 1843, Linsay and Gutzlaff made another attempt to trade in Shanghai. But both failed due to the foreign trade decree of the Qing government. See Betty Peh-T'i Wei, Shanghai, Crucible of Modern China, Oxford University Press, 1987, p.17-18. Article II, The Treaty of Nanking [Nanjing], August 1842: "His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees that British Subjects, with their families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their commercial pursuits, without molestation or restraint at the Cities and Towns of Canton [Guangzhou]], Amoy [Xiamen], Foochow-fu [Fuzhou], Ningpo [Ningbo], and Shanghai, and Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, and so on, will appoint Superintendents or Consular Officers, to reside at each of the above-named Cities or Towns, to be the medium of communication between the Chinese Authorities and the said Merchants, and to see that the just Duties and other Dues of the Chinese Government as hereafter provided for, are duly discharged by Her Britannic Majesty's Subjects." 22
19 18
Qing court and Britain in December 1843, stipulated an area in each of the treaty ports to be set aside for foreigners to build constructions on land to be purchased from Chinese owners. On 17 November 1843, George Balfour (1809-1894), the first
British consul in Shanghai, announced the formal opening of Shanghai to foreign trade (Xiong ed. Vol.3, 1999: 17). In one year, the city of Shanghai had seen the commencement of foreign trade at its port.
1.2. THE ADVENT AND GROWTH OF FOREIGN ARCHITECTS IN SHANGHAI
When foreign merchants first set their foot on the shore, a matter of urgency was to obtain a tract of land outside the walled city with its own facilities of all kinds for foreign use. For Shanghai inside the city wall was already overcrowded, and
physical conditions had so badly deteriorated that few foreigners could have remained there any longer. In addition, the Chinese officials wanted to keep the foreigners
outside the city to gain an upper hand in dealing with the devils. On the other hand, the foreigners preferred a community separate from the Chinese because of the traditional European attitude towards people who were not of the same hue and religion. In 1842, the British finally selected a tract of land of about 830 mu20 to the This was the beginning of the
north of the walled city to be set aside for their use.
foreign settlements in Shanghai. Within this area, foreigners who intended to work and live in Shanghai began to apply to the British consul for permission to acquire land and to build houses and facilities (Wei 1987: 34-38). Following the British, the Americans and the French also gained the right for
20
Ca. 138 acres (1 mu = 0.165 acre). 23
their nationals to trade and reside in the treaty ports by signing treaties with the Qing court.21 In 1849, between the walled city and the British Settlement, the French By 1850, an American community had
established their first Shanghai concession.
been taking shape in Hongkou area along the north bank of the Suzhou Creek and the Huangpu River22 (Ye & Xia 1992: 30. Fig. 1-7).
However, the condition of the lands that the foreigners obtained in Shanghai was even far worse that in the walled city. The 830-mu tract for the British Settlement
was then a sparsely populated marshy land; the ground was covered with mulberry tress, cotton bushes, and ancestral graves (Wei 1987: 37). Physical facilities for business, such as warehouses, offices, and piers therefore became an immediate problem. To house and entertain the foreigners who rooted their business in The foreigners also wanted
Shanghai, residences, hotels, and clubs were in demand.
the facilities to be characterized by form and space in which they would feel comfortable (Cody 1989: 68). However, in China as well as in Shanghai at the time,
there was no profession comparable to an architect in the West that would offer such a service, but only builders, normally carpenters and bricklayers, who dealt with constructions in the Chinese way. The foreigners had to draw up the plans by
themselves and let the Chinese builders have them modified to fit local materials and techniques (Murphey 1953: 68). Western architects in Shanghai.
21 In July 1844, the Treaty of Wangxia was concluded between the Chinese and the Americans, followed by the Sino-French agreement, the Treaty of Huangpu, in October of the same year. 22
Such circumstances finally invited the presence of
The American Settlement in Shanghai was never defined or legally established till the end in 1863 when it amalgamated with the British Settlement. The merged area became known as the International Settlement of Shanghai. 24
According to an official record of the Shanghai foreigners23, by 1850, there had been a professional architect in practice, a Briton named George Strachan. His firm,
the Geo Strachan Company 24 existed from 1849 until some time before 1866 (Delande 1998, Wu 1997: 44, and Cody 1989: 69). Strachan seems to be the only architect in business during the early years after 1843, as there were no more foreign architects on record until the mid-1860s. This was probably because at the time foreign business was just beginning to expand, and the population of foreign residents was small in size -- if compared to that in the later years. By the end of 1843, there
were only 11 foreign trading firms in business in Shanghai; most of them were branches of the British and American hongs originally established in Guangzhou. During 1844, a total of 44 foreign ships anchored and cleared in Shanghai port. By
1855, the figure of foreign ships surged to 437, indicating a significant increase in trade (Murphey 1953: 64). comparable scale. But the number of foreign residents did not rise in a
At the end of 1843, there were only 26 foreigners, including After the establishment of the
officials and missionaries, living in the walled city.
settlements, in 1849, the number of foreign residents in both the British and the American Settlements was 175, while in the French Concession it was only 10. Table 1-1 shows that until 1860, the number of foreign residents in the International Settlement 25 , although increasing steadily, never exceeded 569.
23
Figures for the
The Diamond Jubilee of the International Settlement of Shanghai. See Natalie Delande, Gongchengshi Zhanzai Jianzhu Duiwu de Qianlie [Engineers in the Van of the Builders], published in Wang Tan & Zhang Fuhe ed., Di Wu Ci Zhongguo Jindai Jianzhushi Yanjiu Taolun Hui Lunwen Ji [A Collection of the Fifth Symposium of Modern History of Chinese Architecture], Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe (China Architecture & Building Press), 1998.
24 25
Known as Tailong Yanghang () in Chinese sources. The British and American settlements became incorporated into the International Settlement in 1863, while the 25
French Concession are scant, but the context of the column conveys an impression that the foreign population in the French Concession at the time was even smaller than that in the International Settlement. On the other hand, the Land Regulations
negotiated in the 1840s between the Shanghai intendant and the foreign consuls for land acquisition and use forbade Chinese residence within the foreign settlements, except domestic servants and those who worked directly for foreign residents. spring of 1853, there were only 500 Chinese in the British Settlement. In the
A developing
society may offer great opportunities for the building industry, but it could hardly anticipate such opportunities from a community with a population of merely hundreds. However, in the next decade, enormous disturbances affected the direction of the citys growth, which consequently brought on the increase of foreign architects in Shanghai.
Year Chinese districts 1843 1844 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1876 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 26 International Settlement 50 90 210 243 569 2,297 1,666 1,673 2.197 3,673 3,821 4,684 6,774 11,497 13,536 French Concession 10 460 307 444 430 622 831 1,476 26 50 90 220 2,757 2,504 4,265 5,114 7,396 12,328 15,012 Total
French Concession remained independent of the others throughout its history. 26
1915 1920 1925 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937
9,795 12,200 9,347 9,331 11,084 11,615 10,400 10,125
18,519 23,307 29,997 36,471 37,834 44,240 46,392 48,325 48,325 39,142 39,750
2,405 3,562 8,811 12,341 15,146 15,462 17,781 18,899 18,899 23,398 23,398
20,924 26,869 37,808 58,607 65,180 69,049 73,504 78,308 78,308 72,940 73,273
Table 1-1. Foreign population of Shanghai, 1843-1937 (drawn from Zou 1980: 141).
Since January 1851, the rebellion of the Taiping Tianguo () had begun to sweep across the southern part of China. In March 1853, the Taiping rebels captured
Nanjing and set the city as the capital for their kingdom. Inspired by the success of the Taiping rebels, the Small Knife Society ( ) in Shanghai 26 declared its uprising against the government. On 5 September 1853, the rebels did away with the
Qing government in Shanghai and occupied the walled city. Almost overnight, some 20,000 refugees had entered the foreign settlements from the city. From 1860 to 1862, when the Taiping forces spread down the Yangtze and captured the cities of Changzhou, Suzhou, and Jiaxing, more refugees escaped from the war zones into Shanghai. Settlement. By 1862, there were an estimated 50,000 Chinese in the British In 1864, while there were some 80,000 Chinese living in the French
Concession, the number of refugees in the International Settlement swelled to 90,587 (Wei 1987: 66). When all the disturbances were over in 1865, the population in the
26 There were two distinct Small Knife Societies in the history of China. (1) A faction of the Heaven and Earth Society. First organized in Xiamen in 1849, and spread to Shanghai in 1851. Like the Heaven and Earth Society, the Small Knife Society was also an anti-establishment secret brotherhood that held the tenet of against Qing and reviving Chinese rule under the former Ming dynasty. (2) A faction of the White Lotus, active in Shandong and Zhejiang provinces in the close of the nineteenth century. See Ci Hai: Lishi Fence: Zhongguo Jindaishi [Encyclopedia: History: Modern China], Shanghai Cishu Chubanshe [The Shanghai Publishing House of Dictionaries], 1982, p.17.
27
whole of Shanghai had reached approximately to 700,000, a net increase of 150,000 from 544,413 in 1852 (Table 1-2).
Year Chinese districts 1852 1853 1855 1865 1870 1876 1879 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 544,413 543,110 671,866 1,173,653 1,503,922 1,516,090 1,620,187 1,702,130 1,836,189 1,580,463 1,795,593 1,925,778 2,044,014 2,155,717 2,155,717 International Settlement 500 20,243 92,884 76,731 97,335 110,009 129,338 171,950 245,679 352,050 464,213 501,541 683,920 783,146 840,226 840,226 1,007,868 1,025,131 1,074,794 1,111,946 1,148,821 1,159,775 1,180,969 1,218,630 French Concession 55,925 33,660 41,616 52,188 92,268 90,963 115,946 149,000 170,229 297,072 297,072 358,453 434,807 456,012 478,552 496,536 498,193 498,193 477,629 477,629 544,413 691,919 1,289,353 2,006,573 2,641,220 3,144,805 3,317,432 3,133,782 3,404,435 3,572,792 3,701,982 3,814,315 3,851,976 Total
Table 1-2. Population of Shanghai, 1852-1937 (drawn from Zou 1980: 90).
The sharp increase of population in the settlements resulted in an immediate demand in mass housing, which unexpectedly offered a great opportunity to the foreign traders. They rushed to build tenements and charge exorbitant rents from
those refugees who could afford to pay (Wei 1987: 66). From September 1853 to
28
July 1854, more than 800 timber houses emerged in the districts of Guandong Road and Fuzhou Road in the British Settlement, purely to make a profit from renting to Chinese refugees. This initial mass construction proved to be profitable. The
three-to five-months rent of a house would be sufficient to build a new one.
By the
early 1860s, timber houses filled large areas of land from Guangdong Road and Fuzhou Road to Hankou Road and Jiujiang Road, even to the north of Nanjing Road (Fig. 1-8). The number of houses had reached 8,740, while the rental profit attained 30% to 40%. In the meantime, the cost of land in the settlements soared. The price
for each mu27 of land increased from 20 taels to over 500 taels28. In the area of the Bund, it reached over 1,000 taels. By 1865, the average price for each mu of land in the International Settlement was 1,318 taels, and by 1890, it had surged to 3,871. The total value of land in the settlements increased from 5 million to 44 million in tael. Speculation in house and land transactions thereby became a business more profitable, reliable, and faster in return than overseas trading. Foreign companies who used to
embark on opium and piece goods now transferred their business to real estate (Zhu 1990: 11). It was at this time that the number of foreign architects in Shanghai began to grow. In a directory of 186629, there were three men listed as architects: N. Birkenstadt, F. H. Knevitt, and J. H. Wignall, and two others as builders: N. Stibolt and the firm
27 28
1/15 of a hectare, or 1/6 of an acre.
The tael was a unit weight of pure silver which remained fairly constant from 1800 to 1860 at the equivalent of seven shillings. See Rhoads Murphey, Shanghai, Key to Modern China, Harvard University Press, 1953, p.64.
29
The Chronicle and Directory for China, Japan and the Phillipines for 1866. Murphy, An American Architect in China, 1914-1935, 1989, p.76. 29
See Jeffrey W. Cody, Henry K.
of Muller & Jacobs. But by 1875, none of them had remained in practice (Cody 1989: 76). In the same year there emerged another three: William Kidner, Henry Lester, and Thomas Kingsmill. Kidner remained in business until around 1880. Lester started his career as a surveyor in the Shanghai Municipal Council in 1867, later became an architect and land agent until he retired in 1916. Kingsmill, who
was considered the second-longest tenure of all foreign architects in Shanghai, worked as a civil engineer and architect for 36 years until 1910 (Cody 1989: 76-77 and Shen 1990: 132-133). In 1880, there were only four architectural practices,
while in 1885, when Gabriel J. Morrison and Fred M. Grantton formed their partnership30, the number rose to six, and in 1893, it reached seven (Cody 1989: 77). The fluctuation in the number of architectural practices during the 1860s and 80s may probably be due to the fluctuation of the land and building market. After the Taiping rebellion was subjugated in 1865, many Chinese left the foreign settlements and returned to their homes. Statistics show that in 1870 the population in the The
International Settlement was almost one fifth less than in 1865 (Table 1-2).
departure of the Chinese left the speculators in the lurch. Buildings that had been generating income for their owners became vacant. The anticipation of an increasing Banks that had
demand in the construction of homes and facilities perished.
financed real estate and construction projects suffered great losses, which caused near financial panic (Wei 1987: 67). The fluctuation between 1865 and 1880 of the foreign population that included the foreign architects also suggested an unfavourable
30
Known as Malixun Yanghang () in Chinese sources. 30
economic condition (Table 1-1). As time passed, the wealthier Chinese, mainly compradors, elite officials, landlords, and merchants from the walled city or the neighbouring provinces, were able to obtain better housing in the foreign settlements. After the 1870s, the
settlement authorities adopted measures to encourage Chinese who had money to move into the settlements. Consequently, within the next few decades, new
immigrants replaced the large number of refugees who left Shanghai after the end of the Taiping rebellion. Chinese entrepreneurs and labourers flocked to Shanghai to seek opportunities in investment and employment. As the last decade of the
nineteenth century progressed, the Chinese population in Shanghais foreign settlements was approaching half a million (Table 1-2). After the 1880s, foreigners also came in increasingly large numbers to take advantage of various modernization programmes in Shanghai. All the elements of
modern urban infrastructure were passed on to Shanghai as soon as they were established in the West. By 1881, a Danish telegraph company had begun to offer a In the same year, the British founded the first
telephone service in the settlements.
water works in Shanghai, which in 1883 began to supply running water in the Settlement. 1882 saw the replacement of gas street lamps by electric lights. In
1905 and 1908, trams and trolley buses were introduced to the public transport system in the two settlements (Zhang 1990: 483-488). In the meantime, more nationals
opened banks in Shanghai to finance their trade in China. In 1889, the Germans established the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank; in 1892, the Japanese opened the Yokohama
31
Specie Bank on the Bund and in 1911 a branch of the Bank of Taiwan; in 1895 the Russians founded the Russo-Chinese Bank, and in 1899, the French brought the Banque de lIndo-chine over to Shanghai (Wei 1987: 159). The concentration of business both domestic and foreign produced an increasing demand for living and working space in the settlements. As early as in 1848, the
settlement authorities had been seeking every excuse and by every means to expand their territories. By the end of the nineteenth century, through negotiation and
constructing the external roads31, the foreign settlements had expanded to cover an area four times bigger than the original walled Shanghai city (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 65. Fig. 1-7). The concentration of diverse businesses and the expansion of territory of the settlements brought at the turn of the century a marked increase in the number of Shanghai building and real estate companies, many of which employed foreign architects. 1888 saw the incorporation of the noted Shanghai Land Investment By 1910, there
Company 32 , followed by the China Realty Company in 1906.
emerged another three: the New Building and Construction Company, the Shanghai Building Company, and the Shanghai Building and Investment Company. By the
First World War, there had been more than 30 foreign real estate companies operating in Shanghai (Cody 1989: 78 and Xiong ed. Vol.8, 1999: 268). The proliferation of
real estate enterprise not only demonstrated the intensity and vitality of the Shanghai
31
Roads built by the settlement authorities into the Chinese territories that involved an extension of the services of public utilities such as pipelines for water and gas, cables for telecommunication, and so on, followed by an extension of policing of the protection for both the utilities and their customers. Known as the Yeguang Dichan Gongsi () in Chinese sources. 32
32
building market as the new century began, but also suggested a concomitant increase in the number of foreign architectural practices. Between 1896 and 1910, seven more architectural practices came into operation: Daves & Brooke, Becker & Baedeker, Atkinson & Dallas, Denham & Rose, Brandt & Rogers, J. J. Chollot, and Albert E. Algar (Cody 1989: 81-82 and Xiong ed. Vol.8, 1999: 314). In 1901, when fifty-two professionals from the building community organized the Shanghai Society of Engineers and Architects, at least nine of them were architects: A. E. Algar, B. Atkinson, J. J. Chollot, A. Dallas, J. E. Denham, T. W. Kingsmill, R. B. Moorhead, J. Smedley, and J. D. Smedley. architects had reached fourteen (Cody 1989: 79-80). The First World War in 1914 diverted part of the foreign interest from the citys affairs. During the years from 1912 to 1919, no newly established foreign real estate The retreat of the foreigners, most By 1910, the number of
companies survived (Xiong ed. Vol.8, 1999: 271).
of whom were British and French, offered an opportunity for the Chinese entrepreneurs to expand their influence in the market. In the meantime, while the
British and French influence was declining, the Americans and Japanese enhanced their activity in the citys economic life. Consequently, when after the War, the British and the French attempted to retrieve their dominance in the city by intensifying investment, Shanghai, under the composition of the forces, began to boom. In 1931, the direct British investment in Shanghai reached 74 million US
dollars, amounting to 326 percent of the British investment in the whole of China including Hong Kong in that year, and accounting for 76.5 percent of the total direct
33
British investment in China.
By the 1930s, foreign trade in Shanghai increased by Its annual gross value reached a high of 65 In 1933, the financial
11 times compared with the 1870s.
percent and the lowest 44 percent of that of the whole nation.
capital of Chinese banks in Shanghai accounted for an 89 percent of that of the whole country. By 1937, while there were 29 foreign banks operating in China, 27 of them
had established their braches in Shanghai. During the thirty-eight years before the War, there were only 153 factories in Shanghai, whereas during the fifteen years from 1914 to 1928, there emerged another 1,229, covering a wide area from textiles, chemicals, foodstuff, printing, to machine building, commodities, and so on. (Zhang 1990: 47-70). Meanwhile, the land price and realty business in Shanghai swelled. During the first three decades of the twentieth century, the land price in the Central district increased by 10 times, the cost of the most expensive tract even multiplied 993 times (Wu 1997: 107). While there were 30 real estate companies in 1914, by 1930,
there had been 200 registered in the real estate guild, 140 of which were foreign entities (Xiong ed. Vol.8, 1999: 268). Again, there was a concomitant rise in the By 1928, there were
number of foreign architects engaged in the building market. 28 foreign architectural practices in Shanghai (Lou 1991: 108).
Through the review of the citys economic growth and the rise of the resident foreign architects, one might expect the motive that drew the foreign architects to become involved in the citys growth. A thriving traditional Chinese market town They seemed to
seemed not interesting to foreign architects in terms of practice.
lack a wish to spread the idea of Western architecture or to establish a new scene for
34
architecture in China, as was held by the Christian missionaries to preach the Gospels, or as held by the Western merchant adventurers, who had been seeking chances to expand trade and to establish colonies in Asia. Neither would most of them have any interest in cultural affairs, nor would they want to help in the modernization programmes in China. It is notable that only after the establishment of the foreign As foreign
settlements, did foreign architects become immerged in the citys affairs.
merchants prospered and expanded their commercial areas, particularly as the business of real estate proliferated, there was always a concomitant increase in the number resident foreign architects, and when there was a depression in the economy and the real estate business was at a loss, the number of foreign architects decreased. The relationship between the economic condition and the activities of the foreign architects suggested that it was the business interest that drew the foreign architectural practice in the citys construction. In a word, the coming of the foreign architects in Shanghai was for the purpose of making a fortune. supports the conclusion. Jeffrey Cody considered that these foreign architects presumably worked hand in glove with landowners, who often were their clients, to maximize investment returns, and, in order to increase chances for success, many of the architects diversified their business by combining their architectural work with an allied professional practice, such as engineering, surveying, or real estate management, although there were some architects continuing to seek their fortune by practicing independently (1989: 76-79). The case of Henry Lester, one of the major land agents in Shanghai, illustrated these
35
The character of their operation
characters. He came to Shanghai in 1867, and first served as a surveyor in the Municipal Council for three years. During this period, he helped in the publication of the first map of the French Concession in Shanghai. After his contract with the Municipal Council expired, he joined the Shanghai Real Estate Agency, whose business embraced architectural design and real estate speculation. When the firms
runner Smith died, Lester took over the management, and in 1913, he invited G. A. Johnson and Gordon Morris to form a new company33 practicing in the same area. Lester, Johnson and Morris were involved quite a few notable projects, such as the North China Daily News Building (#17, the Bund), the Nishin Navigation Company (#20, Guangdong Road), and the Sincere Company on Nanjing Road (#690). But
compared to his architectural achievements, Lesters career was more successful in the realty market. In 1881, he bought the land for the Sincere Company from Smith at a price of 800 taels per mu. By 1933, the price of this tract of land had surged to 2,250,000 taels per mu, as estimated by the Municipal Council. From 1896 to 1899,
Lesters property on Nanjing Road, Shanghais the most bustling street, ranked the third largest, whereas from 1924 to 1933, his place moved up to the second largest, and surpassed that of the Sassoon Family (Shen 1990: 133).
SUMMARY
The examination of the relationship between Shanghais economic growth and the rise of the resident foreign architects reveals the motive behind the coming of the foreign architects in Shanghai.
33
There is a usual mode recognizable from the context:
Known as Dehe Yanghang () in Chinese sources. 36
as foreign merchants prospered and expanded their commercial areas, particularly as the business of real estate proliferated, there was always a concomitant increase in the number of resident foreign architects, and when there was a depression in the economy and the real estate business was at a loss, the number of foreign architects decreased. This mode coincides with Jeffrey Codys conclusion of his study on the foreign architects in China. It suggests that it was the business interest that drew the The coming of the
foreign architects to become involved in the citys growth.
foreign architects in Shanghai was for the purpose of making a fortune.
37
Plates for Chapter I
Fig. 1-1. Shanghai in the late Ming Period (17th century. Balfour & Zheng 2002: 36). wall represented the maturity of Shanghai as a typical Chinese community.
The city
Fig. 1-2. Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricc (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 90). Xu was one of several officials of the Ming court who were converted to Roman Catholicism by Jesuit missionaries. He invited Jesuit missionaries to start a Roman Catholic congregation in Shanghai.
38
Fig. 1-3. The Xujiahui Cathedral (Xiong ed. Vol.2, 1999: 244). The churches and chapels established by the Xu family in Shanghai bore the characteristics of Western architecture.
Fig. 1-4. The Notre Dame of Xujiahui, Shanghai (Xiong ed. Vol.2, 1999: 246).
39
Fig. 1-5. A church in the walled city (Xiong ed. Vol.2, 1999: 249).
Fig. 1-6. Shanghai in the nineteenth century (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 40). In 1835, one of the Christian missionaries described the port of Shanghai as a forest of innumerable masts.
40
Fig. 1-7. The foreign settlements in Shanghai (Liu 1985). (1) The initial British Settlement, (2) The first expansion of the British Settlement in 1848, (3) The initial French Concession, (4) The first expansion of the French Concession in 1861, (5) The American Settlement defined in 1863, (6) The expansion of the American Settlement in 1893, (7) The second expansion of the International Settlement in 1899, (8) The second expansion of the French Concession in 1900, (9) The third and the final expansion of the French Concession in 1914.
Fig. 1-8. Map of the Central District of Shanghai (available from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/). By the early 1860s, timber houses filled the area from Guangdong Road to Hankou Road.
41
Chapter II.
Laszlo Hudec and His Practice in Shanghai
2.1. From Harbin to Shanghai 2.2. Hudecs Practice in Shanghai Summary Plates for Chapter II
Lesters career demonstrated that speculation in the realty market was one of the reasons for the expansion of foreign architectural firms, who were drawn to the commissions like bees to honey (Cody 1989: 84). Laszlo Hudec became involved in Shanghais building market directly after the First World War, when Shanghai was just entering it golden era. Was he just another bee that was drawn to the honey?
2.1. FROM HARBIN TO SHANGHAI
Compared with his predecessors and contemporaries in Shanghai, Hudec was distinct from the outset. His nationality and his experience before his coming to
Shanghai distinguished him from his counterparts and rivals in the Shanghai building circle. He was born in 1893 in Besztercebanya34, a town in northern Hungary, which
was, at the time, under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Fig. 2-1). He graduated from the Royal Technical University of Budapest in 1914, and was elected to the Royal Institute of Hungarian Architects in 1916. In the same year, he joined
the Austro-Hungarian army then engaged in the First World War, fighting on Hungarys northern front. There he was captured and held in a prisoner of war camp But in 1918, he escaped captivity by
in Khabarovsk, Siberia, by the Russians.
jumping from a prison transport train and managed to find his way to Harbin in
Besztercebanya is now Banska Bystrica in the Slovak Republic. "Besztercebanya" is the Magyar (Hungarian) version of the Slovakian "Banska Bystrica". The place is also called Bratislava in Polish. Besztercebanya (Banska Bystrica, or Bratislava) is considered one of the most beautiful cities of the Highlands. 42
34
Northern China.
From Harbin he worked his way down a railway then under
construction, and finally arrived in Shanghai (Fig. 2-2). Since then, he lived and worked in the city for thirty years until 1947, when he migrated to Switzerland with his family (Hietkamp 1998: 22 and Johnston 1993: 86).35 Due to the lack of detailed documentation, how Hudec managed to reach Harbin after escape, and what inspired him to move from Harbin to Shanghai remained unclear. However, from the historical context, there is a suggestion that he followed the escape route of the Russian refugees from Siberia to Harbin, and that the uncomfortable atmosphere in Harbin propelled him to leave, whereas the fame of Shanghai, which was known at the time as a place of foreign settlements, drew him to move there. Harbin was a city which had its origins in the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway36, as a consequence of the increasing Russo-Japanese rivalry for their interest in China. The treaties of 1896 and 1898 concluded between the Qing government and Russia ceded the railway to Russia, and designated the Russo-Chinese Bank37 as
Chronology of Hudec's early year remained vague due to the lack of evidence. Wu Jiang said Hudec graduated from school in 1914 and was elected member of the Royal Institute of Hungarian Architects in 1916 (1997: 138), whereas according to Hudec's resume published in Jianzhu Yuekan (The Builder), Vol. 1, No. 5 (March 1933), Hudec became member of the Institute in 1914, was captured during the War in 1915, and released in 1918. Lenore Hietkamp said Hudec joined the army "around 1914" (1998: 22), while Hua Xiahong (2000: 1) and Tess Johnston (1993: 86) said it was 1916. These three all asserted that Hudec escaped from a train rather than was released. The list of Hudec's known commissions compiled by Lenore Hietkamp from the Hudec Collection in the University of Victoria shows that around 1914 Hudec was still in practice (1998: Appendix A). Hence, it is more acceptable that Hudec joined the army in 1916. Known as Zhong Dong Tielu () or Dong Sheng Tielu () in Chinese sources. As an extension of the Trans-Siberian line across Manchuria, the railway shortened the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok by several days. Ninety-nine percent of direct investment for the construction came from the Russian side. The primary Chinese investment to the line was land donations. See James H. Carter, Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932, Cornell University Press, 2002, p.14, and http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/Vladivostok/Text11.htm. Soon renamed the Russo-Asiatic Bank. Sergei Witte, the Russian Minister of Finance, founded this bank in December 1895 with its headquarter at St. Petersburg. Five-eighths of the capital belonged to French citizens active in China, but the Russian government controlled the management of the bank. The Bank became a 43
37 36 35
the developer of the railway zone.
The Russians chose Harbin as the base for the
railway construction as well as the biggest station along the line. Thereafter, Harbin became the construction center for railways under Russian dominance (Carter 2002: 12 and Pan 2001: 308). The Chinese Eastern Railway Company established by the Russo-Chinese Bank was a colonial administration in addition to being a commercial enterprise. It
transferred Harbin from a Chinese fishing village to a virtual Russian colony, and ruled Harbin until 1917, when the October Revolution began to sweep across Russia. Russian authorities empowered the chief engineer of the railway to settle criminal and civil cases arising both out of and at the construction site. They introduced Russian troops, called railway guards, to police Harbin and the line. In addition, they also installed civilian administration and developed a court system to handle cases involving both Russians and Chinese in the railway zone (Carter 2002: 11-15). A document from the U. S. consul reported, Neither Chinese soldiers nor police were permitted on the streets of any Russian settlement except unarmed. Chinese officials
were permitted no voice in any matter which arose within the zone unless directly affecting the interests of a Chinese citizen (Ibid.: 30). Photographs displayed the
foreign character of Harbin, where churches and offices, homes and business were all of European design. An American National Geographic correspondent acclaimed
Russo-Chinese joint venture when its branch in Shanghai became in operation in 1896. The establishment of the Shanghai branch was considered the beginning of foreign-Chinese joint banking service in the history of China. The Bank enjoyed the most influential Russian organization in China that paralleled the predominance of the British Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank, and the French Banque de l'Indo-chine. See Wang Zhicheng, Shanghai Eqiao Shi (A History of the Russian migr Community in Shanghai), Shanghai Sanlian Shudian (The Joint Publishing Shanghai), 1993, p.11, James H. Carter, Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932, Cornell University Press, 2002, p.14, and http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/Vladivostok/Text11.htm. 44
the city as Moscow of the Far East. By the early twentieth century, Harbin had become a virtual Russian colony in China (Figs. 2-3 & 2-4).38 During the 1917 October Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War, there was a large number of White Russians flowing from Siberia into Harbin. The city therefore became the biggest centre of Russian migrs within China (Shi et al. 2003: 71). Whilst foreigners in the Shanghai settlements remained a minority surrounded
by the Chinese, the White Russians in Harbin, populated by people with roots in European Russia were in the majority (Carter 2002: 11-15).39 Russian predominance as such must have brought about an uncomfortable atmosphere for Hungarians, who were, at the time, citizens of an enemy state of Russia; especially for Hudec, who was a Hungarian prisoner of war newly escaped from a camp. In Harbin, Hudec lied about his origins (Hietkamp 1998: 23).
While Harbin was becoming the biggest sanctuary in China for the White Russians, in Shanghai too, there was a rapid growth in the number of Russian residents. Before the First World War, the Russians in Shanghai were truly a
minority among the foreigners. In 1890, although there were 3,821 foreign residents in the International Settlement, there were among them only 7 Russians. Even by
1900, when Russia had opened its Shanghai consulate and established the Shanghai
Even in the 1960s, the Kharbintsy (Russian residents of Harbin) still saw Harbin as a Russian city. See James H. Carter, Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932, Cornell University Press, 2002, p.12. In 1923, when the Russian Civil War was over, the number of Russian residents in Harbin mounted to 200,000, and surpassed the population of the Chinese. See Shi Fang, Liu Shuang, & Gao Ling, Haerbin Eqiao Shi [A History of the Russian migr Community in Harbin], Heilongjiang Renmin Chubanshe [Heilongjiang People's Publishing House], 2003, p.71. 45
39
38
branch of the Russo-Chinese Bank in 1896, the Russian population in Shanghai was merely 47, a small proportion of the 6,744 foreign residents in the International Settlement (Wang 1993: 7 and Zou 1980: 145). However, in 1918, only from
January to April, there were 1,000 Russian refugees entering Shanghai; most of them were from Vladivostok40 and Harbin. With a continual flow of the White Russians,
by 1920, Russian population in the Shanghai International Settlement had increased to 1,266, and by 1936, the number had swelled to 21,000 (Wang 1993: 15-34 and Waiqiao Bian Zong 1998: 129). It was about at this time when Hudec came to Shanghai from the same region. How he earned his living on his way to Shanghai remained a mystery. But one may conjecture that he probably heard from the
Russians about the situation in Shanghai, which was known at the time as a commercial utopia with minimal control or direction from the Chinese or from foreign governments (Wei 1987: 64), and that he followed the stream of Russian refugees in order to reach Shanghai. Hudecs portfolio, which comprised a Russian school in
Shanghai, also suggested his connection with the Russians.
2.2. HUDECS PRACTICE IN SHANGHAI
However, in Shanghai, Hudecs Hungarian nationality remained an issue.
The
predominance of the British and the British allied foreigners in Shanghai also made the circumstances uncomfortable for the nationals of the Central Powers. There was strong feeling against German allies throughout the years from immediately after the War to the late 1930s, when the Second World War was approaching. Anyone with
40
Known as Haishenwei () in Chinese sources. 46
a good word for Germans was considered a traitor (Hietkamp 1998: 24).
In the
meantime, while most of the foreigners in Shanghai were enjoying the privilege of extraterritoriality,41 Hudecs Hungarian nationality failed to earn him and his family42 the status of favoured nations43. For the Chinese government had cancelled its concessions to German, Austria, and Hungary since its declaration of war on the Central Powers in 191744. The lack of legal protection through extraterritoriality, in
addition to the unfriendly atmosphere in the British-dominated foreign community towards the citizens of the former Central Powers, made Hudec cautious. He
maintained the lie about his origins. In order to explain his unfamiliar language to foreigners he encountered, he claimed that he was from Latvia. He even forbade his
wife to drive after she got her license for fear of an accident that would bring them to some legal action in Chinese courts, in which no consulate could intervene (Hietkamp 1998: 23). The status as an escaped prisoner of war and the situation of cautiousness, fear,
41 In the context of China, extraterritoriality dated from the Treaty of Nanking [Nanjing] in 1842, when British consular officials were authorized to arbitrate and settle the differences of their nationals with Chinese. In legalese the term means a treaty arrangement whereby a nation acquires exclusive jurisdiction, in both civil and criminal matters, over its recognized citizens residing in a foreign country. For example, if a Chinese sues an American in Shanghai, he must do so in the United States Court. If an American sues a British, he must apply to the British court. The two major courts were His Britannic Majesty's Supreme Court, and the United States Court for China. See All about Shanghai and Environs: A Standard Guidebook, Oxford University Press, Edition 1934-35, p.21-22. 42
Mrs. Hudec, whom Hudec married in 1921, was partly German. See Lenore Hietkamp, The Park Hotel, Shanghai (1931-1934) and Its Architect, Laszlo Hudec (1893-1958), 1989, p.23.
43 There were fourteen foreign nations who, by signing "favoured nations" treaties with China, got and exercised extraterritorial privileges and rights in Shanghai. They are Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Surprisingly, Russia had no such rights. See All about Shanghai and Environs: A Standard Guidebook, Oxford University Press, Edition 1934-35, p.21-22.
On 14 March 1917, the Chinese Beiyang government declared its break-off of diplomatic relations with Germany, and withdrew all German privileges in China. On 14 August 1917, it declared war on Germany and Austria, and announced its abrogation of all treaties signed with the two nations. See Fei Chengkang, Zhongguo Zujie Shi [The History of Foreign Settlements in China], Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Chubanshe [Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press], 1991, p.398-399. 47
44
and hated for the enemies contributed to the significance of Hudecs practice in Shanghais building circle. community of the British. He practiced somewhat in isolation from the dominant Throughout his thirty-year career in Shanghai, he did not Upon first arriving in
practice his profession in British companies (Warner 1993).
Shanghai, he did not establish his own firm -- probably due to the lack of initial source for establishing such an enterprise, nor did he try to combine with an allied professional like many of his colleagues did, rather, he worked for someone who had been in business. He did not participate in the practices of the British but joined an
American architectural firm, R. A. Curry, which was almost nameless in Shanghais architectural context, except for its later commissions designed by Hudec. For this
firm, Hudec designed, among others, a couple of projects, such as the American Club, the McTyeire School, the International Savings Societys head office and so on. He stayed with this firm for seven years until 1925, when he opened his own office (Johnston 1993: 86). The uncomfortable situation must have limited his social contact in the Shanghai foreign community to some extent, and hence have limited his source of commissions. When in the 1920s huge architecture was replacing the old mansions on the Bund, Hudec did not participate in the work on any of the projects. But on the other hand,
that situation contributed to his appeal to a larger area not explored by many foreign architects. Whilst most of the foreign architects exercised their practice in relation to their national patrons, Hudecs clients embraced both foreign -- except British -- and Chinese. Besides, in contrast to his counterparts whose work by and large
48
concentrated upon certain types of buildings, Hudecs portfolio covered a wide range of ten categories including residences, cinemas, hospitals, banks, churches, office buildings, hotels, schools, and clubs (Hua 2000: 1-2). However, in terms of business, Hudec was similar to his counterparts, as he was operating on the same turf. Chinese literature remarked that Hudec had talent for In the
social contact and business management (Lou 1991 and Pan ed. 2001: 365).
Shanghai foreign communities, Hudec clients embraced the Americans, the French, the Spaniards, the Jews, the Norwegian, the Russian, and the German. Particularly,
through his national connections and his wifes side, he established close associations with the Germans in Shanghai.45 He was member of the German Club.46 While
there were only second-rate German architects available in Shanghai in the postwar years, the Germans in Shanghai commissioned their projects from Hudec (Warner 1993). In the Chinese community, Hudecs contacts included not only the
bourgeoisies, who were then active in the citys economic life, but also the cultural and political celebrities, such as Ma Xiangbo ( ), 47 the founder of Fudan University, and Sun Ke (),48 Sun Yat-sens eldest son who was then a high official of the Kuomintang government. In 1933, Hudecs resume was introduced in
45 46 47
Hungary was Germany's ally during the First World War. Also known as the Concordia Club.
For Ma, Hudec designed the Catholic Country Church (Zhabei Funerary Chapel), which was completed in 1925. See Hua Xiahong, Wudake Zai Shanghai Zuopin de Fingxi [An Analysis and Commentary of Hudec's Works in Shanghai], 2000, p.63. In the late 1920s, Hudec constructed a house on Great Western Road (now #1262, Yan'an Road W.) for his own residence. But he never lived in this house. He made it over to Sun at a considerable low price as an expression of appreciation of Sun's help when he got some trouble during the construction of the Moore Memorial Church. See Yang Jiayou, Shanghai Lao Fangzi de Gushi (Shanghai, the Stories of Classic Houses), Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai People's Publishing House), 1999, p.253. 49
48
The Builder, one of the two most influential Chinese architectural journals at the time.49 How Hudec obtained his commissions remains unclear; however, a scrutiny of his work in Shanghai gives some clue for the appreciation of his talent in business. It is notable that there were a number of projects that were commissioned from the same patron. These included building #261 on Sichuan Road, Middle (1926) and the Park Hotel (#170, Nanjing Road, West, 1934) from the Joint Savings Society, and the McTyeire School on Xizang Road, Middle (1922), together with the new campus of the same school on Jiangsu Road (#155, 1935), and the Moore Memorial Church (#361, Xizang Road, 1929), which three buildings were all commissioned by the Methodist Missionary in Shanghai. The close association with the same patron not
only displayed Hudecs talent in social contact, but also suggested the quality of services he offered to his patron. Besides, the date of the projects revealed the fact that Hudec brought the business connections attributed to Curry to his own practice.50 In addition to his association with clients, it is recognizable from his 62 works that there is a trio of buildings locating in the neighbouring plots: the trio of the Carlton Theatre (1932), the Grand Theatre (1933), and the Park Hotel (1934) around the cross of Nanjing Road W. and Huanghe Road. One may conjecture that while Hudec was
The Builder () was one of the two most influential Chinese architectural journal published by the Shanghai Builder's Association () from November 1932 to January 1937. Hudec was one of the two foreign architects whose resumes were introduced in this journal. The other one was Henry K. Murphy, who was considered the initiator of the architectural movement of Chinese Renaissance. Hudec contributed most of the work of the McTyeire School (1922), which was attributed to Curry. See Jeffrey W. Cody, Henry K. Murphy, An American Architect in China, 1914-1935, 1989, p.156. But the Moore Memorial Church (1929) and the new campus of the School (1935) were the commissions Hudec obtained after he established his own firm in 1925. 50
50
49
working on a project, he had probably been watching and speculating in the projects on the neighbouring tracts of land. In 1925, when the city was progressing in the golden era, Hudec opened his own office, and his career began to flourish. In 1931, he designed and built his third residence in Shanghai (#57, Panyu Road).51 By this time, he may have begun to After the Park Hotel
extend his business from architectural practice to real estate.
was complete in 1934, merely by the money he earned from the project and the surplus materials from the construction, he built the Hubertus Court Apartments (#914, Yanan Road W., 1935, Gu in Dongfang Bali 1991: 94).52 This ten-storey building
which is still standing on the site marked the business success of Hudec as a commercial architect.
SUMMARY
Hudec came to Shanghai in 1918, when the city was going through its golden economic era. From the outset, Hudecs early experience and Hungarian nationality
distinguished him from his counterparts and rivals in the Shanghai building circle. The predominance of the British and the British allied foreigners in Shanghai made the circumstances uncomfortable for the nationals of the Central Powers. Hudecs
Hungarian nationality failed to earn him and his family the status of favoured nations. The uncomfortable atmosphere in the Shanghai foreign community on the
51
According to Hua Xiahong's formulation of Hudec's work in Shanghai, as early as in 1922, Hudec had built his own residence on Lucerne Road (#17). The house on Great Western Road which Hudec sold to Sun Ke was considered the second residence he built for himself. See Hua Xiahong, Wudake Zai Shanghai Zuopin de Fingxi [An Analysis and Commentary of Hudec's Works in Shanghai], 2000, Appendix B. Now the Dahua Hotel, #914 Yan'an Road W. 51
52
one hand limited his sources of commissions, but on the other hand contributed to his appeal to a wider clientele for practice of his profession. He established broader contacts in the building circle; he undertook all types of commissions conceivable to do as much business as possible; and he also invested in real estate. But he left in 1947, when social and economical unrest approached. Hudecs career in Shanghai reflected the commercially-oriented fashion of the city at the time.
52
Plates for Chapter II
Fig. 2-1. Map of Slovakia (available from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/).
Hudecs hometown.
Fig. 2-2. Map of China (available from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/, edited by the author). From Khabarovsk to Shanghai.
53
Fig. 2-3. Street view of Harbin, early twentieth century (Johnston 1996: 14). Churches, offices, homes, and business in Harbin of the early twentieth century were all of European design.
Fig. 2-4. A church in Harbin (Johnston 1996: 13). Harbin, known as Moscow of the Far East, by the early twentieth century had become a virtual Russian colony in China.
54
Chapter III.
Hudec and Architecture in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s
3.1. The Evolution of Architecture in Shanghai in Modern Times 3.2. Hudecs Work in Shanghai 3.3. The Significance of Hudec as a Modern Architect Summary Plates for Chapter III
Hudecs talent for social contact and business management brought him success in business. However, it was his work, particularly the recognized Modern trio of
buildings: the Grand Theatre, the Park Hotel, and the D. V. Wood Residence, that contributed to his recognition as a pioneer of the new styles in Shanghais building circle and later in history. In 1933, Hudecs resume was introduced in The Builder,
accompanied by a series of drawings, models, and photos of the Park Hotel then under construction.53 He was considered one of the two most influential foreign architects However, how Hudec influenced the
in Shanghai throughout the 1920s and 30s.54
direction of the evolution of architecture in Shanghai remains vague. What was his contribution to the modernization of urban architecture in Shanghai? position of his work in Shanghai architecture in modern times? What is the
An examination of
the character of his work in the architectural context of Shanghai will contribute to a better understanding of the recognition bestowed on him.
3.1. THE EVOLUTION OF ARCHITECTURE IN SHANGHAI IN MODERN TIMES
Although Western culture had come to Shanghai as early as the late Ming period
53 54
See Jianzhu Yuekan (The Builder), Vol. 1, No. 5 (March 1933).
The two most influential foreign architects in Shanghai as well as in China in the 1920s and 30s were Palmer & Turner and Laszlo E. Hudec. See Pan Guxi ed., Zhongguo Jianzhu Shi [A History of Chinese Architecture], Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe (China Architecture and Building Press), 2001, p. 365. 55
(seventh century) as the result of Christian dissemination, before Shanghai was opened as one of the five treaty ports in November 1843, the urban texture of the city was mostly a continuation of traditional Chinese architecture in Jiangnan (, lower Yangtze). Like all trading towns in the region, there were canals flowing through the city, intersecting with curving streets teeming with street traders, peddlers, and fortunetellers running towards the urban centre. Winding lanes and paths laced
through the dense residences behind the streets, leading the secluded houses to the streets and bridges across the canals. width of two to four metres. Streets were narrow, remaining a familiar
Pavements of flag or crushed stone, and edging of Stores, snack bars,
broken brick and roof tiles featured in the street surface.
teahouses, and workshops in two-storey structures lined the streets and embankments, punctuated occasionally by commemorative arches, merchant houses, or a grand courtyard house. Handsome gates named after the dominant families marked the
entrance to many of the lanes. Set amongst the dense urban fabric, temples, official buildings, and market plaza were the most significant places, where meeting with family, speeches and sermons, sacred festivals, theatrical and operatic performances both secular and sacred, all took place. Housing varied as widely as the distance
between poor and rich. The norm for the poor was the shop house, in which the business was accommodated in a single room at street level, while the family lived right above in the upper storey. Residences for the rich were the big family
compounds comprising a string of courtyards that separately enclosed by detached structures or roofed corridors with high walls behind them (Balfour & Zheng 2002:
56
32-36).
Sometimes, there was a garden laid out by the side.
Town life produced the familiar, almost universal building patterns that formed the architectural scene of the nineteenth century Shanghai, involving only a small number of building forms and a limited palette of materials. Most structures were
built of wood frames filled with brick walls; the wall surface was plastered and painted white, with dressed wood frames for windows, balconies, and doors, normally painted dark brown or black. Dull red paint and a continuous line of windows on the upper storey marked the streets of shop houses. The roof tiles were mostly grey but occasionally, on major public constructions such as temples, commemorative arches, and official buildings, they were brightly glazed in reds and greens. Such simplicity
and elegance of architecture conveyed an impression of satisfying balance and equity, the quality of life of the Ming and Qing periods that is still possible to experience even today in small waterfront towns, such as Zhujiajiao (), Luzhi (), Xitang (), and Wuzhen () to the west of the metropolis Shanghai (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 36-41. Figs. 3-1 & 3-2).
This architectural scene of Shanghai as a typical Jiangnan market town remained unchanged into the late nineteenth century. But from the mid-1840s, with the
coming of foreign merchants, elements of foreign architecture began to take root in the citys urban architecture; first in the buildings and facilities of the foreigners, and finally in all types of structures built both for foreign and Chinese use. The first foreign merchants trading in Shanghai came from their colonies in India and Southeast Asia. They adapted their knowledge of European architecture to the
57
tropical climate, and thus developed the so-called British colonial style.
This
architectural style features a full-length porch or galerie (what the English called the verandah), encircling the main body of a two-storey structure ventilated by tall French windows. There is a hipped roof, which extends over and beyond the walls to shield
the building and its occupants from the sun and to provide a cool and dry outdoor space (Wu 1997: 19). When these foreigners came to Shanghai, they brought with They preferred
them both the building form and the methods that created the form.
the constructions and facilities characterized by familiar forms and spaces in which they would feel comfortable. This had become a tradition since Christian
missionaries first settled in China during the late sixteenth century, as illustrated by the early churches established by the Xu family in Shanghai, and it continue to be the case throughout most of the nineteenth century, when either missionaries, contractors, surveyors, civil engineers, or architects had a hand in creating plans and buildings that unequivocally felt and looked European (Cody 1989: 68). The first foreign buildings were mainly godowns and consulates, often combined with residences in one large compound, as seen in #33, the Bund (Fig. 3-3).55 As
there were no foreign architects available, the foreign merchants, who were to be the users of these buildings, had to take on the architectural work. They drew up the
plans, and had the native builders adapt the plans to local materials and techniques. The structures were therefore in the simplest form: one to two storeys in height and
#33, the Bund, was the compound belonged originally to the British Consulate in Shanghai. The first consulate building was built on the site in 1852, and destroyed by fire in 1870. A new construction, which now still stands on the original site, was completed two years later. See Luo Xiaowei ed., Shanghai Jianzhu Zhinan (A Guide to Shanghai Architecture), Shanghai Renmin Meishu Chubanshe (The People's Fine-Arts Publishing House of Shanghai), 1996, p.38. 58
55
square in plan, containing bedrooms, mess halls, and offices.
In order to shut out
the summer sun and keep the inside as cool as possible, the stamped earth or native sun-dried brick walls were at least three feet thick and plastered or stuccoed in while on the outside, while an open verandah with wide arches ran around the outside of the first two stories. Overhanging roofs shielded the two or three upper stories. At the
rear of the compound were usually four or five godowns, dwellings for the Chinese assistants, the residence and office of the compradore, and the stable (Murphey 1953: 68). In Shanghai, and in all the nineteenth-century treaty ports China, this
architectural form was labelled the Compradoric for its blend of Chinese with foreign methods (Ibid.: 69). By the 1850s, a foreign complexion composed of the
Compradoric style characterized the foreign settlements in Shanghai (Fig. 3-4). With the coming of foreign professional architects after the late 1840s, European classical elements began to appear in the foreign buildings. Foreigners in Asian
colonies or semi-colonies like the settlements in Shanghai employed these elements to denote foreign occupation. In 1875, William Kidner 56 , at a meeting of the
Ratepayers Association, proposed that construction of Chinese buildings be prohibited to the east of Barrier Road57, where the settlement was confined (Shen 1990: 130). In the second half of the nineteenth century, European columns,
pilasters, porticos, and pediments stylistically derived from Greek and Roman traditions became emblems for foreign traders. Strachan58 introduced the so-called
56 57 58
One of the 1875 trio.
See Chapter I.
It is now Henan Road, Middle. George Stachan, who practiced in Shanghai from 1849 until some time before 1866. 59 See Chapter I.
Greek style, which was then fashionable in England.
Under his instruction, the art of
building made considerable progress. None of Strachans work is known to have survived however (Cody 1989: 68). During the same period, Chinese architecture in
Shanghai remained in isolation from the constructions in the foreign settlements, and thus kept its traditional form among the foreign buildings or in the settlements (Figs. 3-5 & 3-6). From the late nineteenth century onwards, while Shanghai was growing into the biggest city in the Far East, it became a stage for international architects. In the
foreign settlements, while the British Shanghai Municipal Council and the French Conseil Municipal were controlling the urban construction, foreign architectural firms monopolized the design market. They tried to shape their settlements into a classical city according to the Western pattern, so that they would enjoy all modern facilities that had been established in their home countries, and replace Chinese values with European and American ones (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 92). Since the mid-1850s, the settlement authorities as well as the foreign merchants in Shanghai had systematically introduced in the settlements most of the facilities of modern urban life newly established in the West: Western-style roads (1856), gaslight (1865), electricity (1882), telephones (1881), running water (1884), automobiles (1901), and trams for public transport (1905). building types also came to Shanghai. To house these facilities, relevant
As a result, Shanghais modern buildings
embraced nearly every conceivable building type, including apartments, villa (Western style), department stores, office buildings, banks, schools, hospitals,
60
recreation grounds, cinemas, railway stations, post offices, hotels, libraries, museums, clubs, stadiums, churches, factories, public utilities, and urban parks. Thus, by the
beginning of the 20th century, the foreign settlements in Shanghai already boasted the infrastructure of a modern city by Western standards (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 90). Meanwhile, Western architectural idea and methodology became dominant in the citys construction. In 1891, a Tudor style building designed by a British architect replaced the timber Chinese structure of the Chinese Maritime Customs on the Bund (Fig. 3-7). But in
1927, a new building in the Eclectic style, designed by Palmer and Turner, again replaced the Tudor style one (Fig. 3-8). During the last decade of the nineteenth
century, Atkinson and Dallas, Ltd., Civil Engineers and Architects designed many masonry structures in the Queen Anne style, but in the 1910s, they shifted to Neoclassicism. By 1920s, the Shanghai foreign settlements had almost become a replica of a European classical city. There was the Neoclassical style, represented by Sheng Xuanhuai Residence (1900), the Residence of the Director of la Compagnie Francaise des Tramways et dEclairage Electrique de Shanghai (1905), the Banque de lIndo-chine (1910), China Mutual Life Insurance Company (1910), the Municipal Council Building (1913), China and South Sea Bank (1917), the Shanghai Post Office Building (1924), Kincheng Bank (1925), and Nanking Theatre (1929); the Gothic Revival, as exemplified by the Commercial Bank of China (1893) and St. Ignatius Cathedral (1910); and Eclecticism, demonstrated by the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China (1913), Wang Boqun Residence (1934), and Moller House (1936).
61
After the 1920s, Chinese architects educated in the West became involved in the construction of the city, cooperating or competing with their foreign counterparts. In 1927, they founded the Shanghai Builders Association ( ), which became the Architects Institute of China () in the following year. Since then, with the rise of the Chinese Nationalism, leading architects in Shanghai made great efforts to promote the revival of traditional Chinese architecture. They
initiated the Chinese Revival (Hou in Pan ed. 2001: 373), aiming to recreate traditional Chinese form and space by utilizing Western architectural methodology and building technology. The result was a number of grand buildings constructed in modern structural, often with concrete framing, but clad with traditional Chinese form or decorated by Chinese motifs. The noted buildings such as the Hongde Tang
Church (, 1928. Fig. 3-9), the Y. M. C. A. Building (1929. Fig.3-10), the Mayors Building of the Shanghai Special Municipality (1931. Fig. 3-11), and some
commercial buildings are the representatives of their achievements. When entering the 1930s, with the increase of foreign trade and the subsequent introduction of Western fashion, Art Deco and European Modern styles became popular in the city, and soon replaced the influence of the various fashions of the European Classic Revival. Deco architecture.59 In the 1930s, Shanghai was one of major centres of Art
The representative works of Art Deco, to name just a few,
include Sassoon House (1929), Cathay Mansions (1929), Shanghai Power Company
Tess Johnston noted that: "Shanghai has the largest array of Art Deco edifices of any city in the world." See Tess Johnston & Deke Erh, A Last Look, Western Architecture in Old Shanghai, Old China Hand Press, 1993, p.70. 62
59
(1931), Astrid Apartments (1933), Cosmopolitan Apartments (1934), Grosvenor House (1934), and Park Hotel (1934. Figs. 3-47). Following Art Deco, within half The Grand Theatre
a decade, European Modern style rose to become a fashion. (1933.
Figs. 3-44, 3-45, & 3-46), Broadway Mansions (1934), Picardie Apartments Figs. 3-59), and Ecole Remi (1936) are all
(1934), the D. V. Wood Residence (1935. typical buildings in this style.
When the first half of the twentieth century was
complete, buildings constructed in Shanghai in the centuries gone by, coexisted with a wide range of twentieth century styles. By the end of the nineteenth century, Shanghai had also become the centre of construction technology in the Far East (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 95). New materials,
new building technology, and fashionable equipment began to be widely employed in new constructions. The application of composite and reinforced concrete, steel
structure, concrete frame, and elevator, led to the appearance of high-rise buildings in the 1930s. By the end of the 1930s, there were 38 buildings of more than ten floors in Shanghai, more than there were in any other cities in Asia (Zheng & Xue 1990: 206). The 1930s high-rises, demonstrating an advanced construction technology, the
appearance of new building types, and the application of new building materials and technology, represented the highest achievements of modern architecture in Shanghai. It was during this period, that Hudec became prominent in Shanghais building circle.
3.2. HUDECS WORK IN SHANGHAI
The progression of Hudecs work indicates four distinct phases in his Shanghai career (Hietkamp 1998 and Hua 2000). The first phase was the period when Hudec
63
worked for the American architect R. A. Curry. Beaux-Art influence is evident in his work from this period, as seen in the American Club (1925. Fig. 3-13) in the
American Georgian style, and the International Savings Society Building60 (1924. Fig. 3-14) in the Parisian Renaissance mode (Luo ed. 1996: 155). The opening of his own practice in 1925 marked the beginning of the second phase. In this period from 1925 to 1930, European Classicism continued in his key
works, although some fragments of his works suggest that he had started to explore the freedom of his new practice, and to find his own style by incorporating some elements that evoked memories of his homeland (Hietkamp 1998: 26). Meanwhile, the elements of Modern style began to emerge in the minor works. The Country Hospital designed in 1925 was in Italian Renaissance style (Fig. 3-16). The Catholic
Country Church (1925) was composed of a Byzantine roof and Gothic pointed arches on the body of the building (Fig. 3-15). The Moore Memorial Church of 1929
combined the tradition of the richer cathedrals of the old world with a definite attachment to the scientific architectural principles of the West (Fig. 3-32).61 The
Joint Savings Society Building (1928. Fig. 3-22) was Eclectic. The brown facing tiles on the exterior of the building and white marble on the bottom and top sections, were associated closely with his treatment of the Georgian style American Club, whereas its tower was said to have emerged from memories of the rural renaissance of Upper Hungary (Ibid.). The Zhabei Power Station of 1928 carried some This phase was considered a
characteristics of a kind of Modern style (Fig. 3-23).

60 61
Also known as Normandie Apartments. Hudec Collection #771, quoted in Hietkamp 1998: 26. 64
transition from a young, inexperienced architect to a well-known, creative professional (Ibid. and Hua 2000). Hudecs third phase is recognizable for the emergence of American Art Deco and European Modern in his work with an occasional regression to the Classic (Hua 2000: 20). The buildings of the Christian Literature Society and the China Baptist
Publication Society, both of 1930 (Figs. 3-34, 3-35, & 3-36), the Engineering Building for the Jiangtong University (1931. (1931. Fig. 3-41), the New German Evangelic Church Figs. 3-44, 3-45, & 3-46), and
Fig. 3-42 & 3-43), the Grand Theatre (1933.
the Park Hotel (1934. Figs. 3-47) are examples from this period displaying his interest in vertical motifs, which were prevalent in Art Deco. of 1929 was almost European Modern (Fig. 3-33). In the fourth and final phase, Hudec continued to show interest in expressive shapes and surface by utilizing simplified, geometric, functional forms, as in the Union Brewery Ltd. (1933. Fig. 3-57), D. V. Wood Residence (1935. 3-60) and the Hubertus Court Apartments (1935. Fig. 3-58). Fig. 3-59 & But Zhejiang Cinema
From this progression
of phases, Hudec should be seen as occupying a position among modern architects of the time (Hietkamp 1998: 27).
Name (original)
Year of Design / Completion Classicism / European regional style
Style Art Deco / Modern
McTyeire School (Hankou Road) Hudec Residence American Club
1922 1922 / 1926 1923 / 1925

65
2 3
International Savings Society Apartments Foncim Building Catholic Country Church (Chaipei Funerary Chapel) Country Hospital Paulun Hospital Estrella Apartments Joint Savings Society Building (Sichuan Road) Margaret Hospital Williamson
1924 1924 / 1926 1925 1925 / 1926 1925 / 1926 1926 / 1927 1926 / 1928 1926 / 1928 1927 / 1928 1928 / 1932 1929 / 1931 1929 / 1931 1929 / 1930 1930 / 1932 1930 / 1932 1931 / 1932 1931 / 1932 1931 1931 1931 1931 / 1932 1931 / 1933 1931 / 1934 1932 1932 / 1933 1933 / 1934 1935
5 6
7 8 9 10
11
12 13 14 15 16 17
Zhabei Power Station Columbia Circle Sun Esq. Residence Moore Memorial Church Zhejiang Cinema Christian Literature Society Building China Baptist Publication Building Avenue Apartments P. C. Woo Residence Hudec Residence (Panyu Road) Luxury Apartments Ambassador at
18
19 20 21
22
23
Engineering Building Jiaotong University New German Church Grand Theatre Park Hotel Carlton Theatre Lafayette Cinema Union Brewery Ltd.
24
Evangelic
25 26 27 28 29 30
McGregon Hall in McTyeire School for Girls (Jiangsu Road) Hubertus Court D. V. Wood Residence Sacred Heart Vocational College for Girls
31 32 33
1935 / 1937 1935 / 1938 1936
66
34 35
Columbia Country Club Chinese School of the Convent of the Sacred Heart Russian Catholic School Hostel for Boys
1936 1938
35
1941
Table 3-1. The style of Hudecs Work in Shanghai (drawn from Hua 2000: 54-137). 3.3. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HUDEC AS A MODERN ARCHITECT
It is evident that Hudecs progression of phases coincides with the change of architectural fashion in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s. When European Classic
Revival was prevalent, his work embraced a vast area of Western traditional styles including American Georgian (the American Club, the J. S. S. Building), Renaissance Revival (the I. S. S. Apartments, the Country Hospital), Gothic Revival (the Catholic Country Church, the Moore Memorial Church, and so on), and the European regional styles, as seen in the Estrella Apartments (1927), which was considered a Hungarian rendition of Baroque (Hua 2000: 69. Figs. 3-17, 3-18, 3-19, 3-20, & 3-21), his own
house of 1929 (later the Sun Esq. Residence) in Spanish Revival (Fig. 3-31), his 1931 residence in English country style (Figs. 3-39 & 3-40), and particularly the Columbia Circle (1928), a housing estate of ten two-storey houses associated with thirteen European and American country styles (Ibid.: 75. 3-29, & 3-30). Figs. 3-24, 3-25, 3-26, 3-27, 3-28,
While Western Modern styles became the fashion in the 1930s, he Figs. 3-44, 3-45, & 3-46 ), Fig. 3-58), and the D.
shifted to them and designed the Grand Theatre (1933.
the Park Hotel (1934. Figs. 3-47), the Hubertus Court (1937.
V. Wood Residence (1938, Figs. 3-59 & 3-60), and so on, in the Art Deco and International styles.
67
In that context, it seems that Hudec was drifting with the tide rather than in the lead. He was not the one who first introduced Modern to Shanghai. The work that
marked the advent of Art Deco style in Shanghai was Palmer and Turners Sassoon House,62 which was completed in 1929 (Wu 1997: 183). The one for which Hudec
became known as an architect of the fashion was the Grand Theatre (Ibid.: 138). Completed in 1933, the Theatre indicates that Modern came to Hudec nearly half a decade later than Palmer and Turner. Then, why he was recognized as a pioneer?
A scrutiny of the characteristics of his Modern in comparison with that of his contemporaries may contribute to the answer. Since the completion of Palmer and Turners Sassoon House in 1929, Art Deco had actually become keynote of the fashion for new constructions in Shanghai (Ibid.: 183-184). Palmer and Turners rendition of Art Deco featured rich material and motifs, such as heavy wooden beams, dark paneling, mirrors and stained glass, and coffered ceilings (Figs. 3-62 & 3-63). In the case of the Sassoon House, although it
employed geometric mould and iron work rather than Classic motifs in decoration, and on top of the building, a lofty pyramid had replaced pediment or dome (Fig. 3-63), the elements of a typical Classic faade, its fame as a luxurious hotel still owed to its having suites furnished in periodic styles, such as Chinese, French, Spanish, Indian, and Arabian styles (Figs. 3-64 & 3-65). The manner that Palmer and Turner
employed to entertain the public was a new interpretation of traditional associations with luxury (Hietkamp 1998: 34).
62
Such manner proved to be a success, as it later
Also known as Cathay Hotel, now the north wing of the Peace Hotel. The Hotel was part of this nine-storey mansion. The top floors were private residential apartment for the Sassoon family. 68
became the most fashionable in Shanghai (Luo ed. 1996: 44). Hudec did not replicate this effect of old-fashioned extravagance. His Modern
seems drawn more directly on Western manner and idea of Modern architecture. The faades of the Christian Literature Society and China Baptist Publication buildings was almost a replica of Peter Behrens Hoechst Dyeworks (Figs. 3-34, 3-35, 3-36, & 3-37). His design of the Grand Theatre focused on comfortability of the
interior settings, fine acoustics and clear sight, while on the faade, he articulated Cubist effect of vertical and horizontal linear composition. In the D. V. Wood
Residence, the grand curved staircase and the curved and straight horizontal lines laced on the faades associated the design with the Streamline style (Figs. 3-59 & 3-60). The Hubertus Court, stressed horizontal lines and big open verandas, had
almost become International (Fig. 3-58). His Park Hotel, which boasted the latest efficient service, such as the fastest elevators, American dishwashers, floor coverings of inlaid rubber, and especially a novel height, was actually a simulation of a contemporary American skyscraper (Hietkamp 1998: 10). More significantly, the
planning in form and space of this novel hotel conformed to the formula of high-rise buildings proposed by Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924), the chief representative of the Chicago School. Sullivan suggested five principles for the design of a high-rise: the basement should be allocated for power and heat supplies; the ground floor ought to be designated to shops, banking service, and other facilities alike, and for such contents, the entrance hall should accordingly be special and accessible for pedestrian; the first
69
two floors should be connected directly by stairs so that the upper floor could function as an extension of the lower one; the floors above that should form a uniform shaft; while the attic accommodate equipments such as water tanks and elevator machines (Waiguo Jinxiandai: 46). Based on these principals, Sullivan further suggested a
prototypical faade for a modern tall building: it should be composed of three sections, the first two floors form the base for the upper sections; above the base, the middle section should be a uniform shaft with a strict grid-like articulation of windows and piers; the attic should be smaller in scale but may free in form (ibid.: 47). Hudec
may not be a disciple of Sullivans theory form follows function, but evidently, the treatment of the Park Hotel fit well with that model: the basement was retained for the vaults of the Joint Savings Society, the owner of the hotel; the lower floors were set aside for banking service and the owners offices (Fig. 3-51); the hotel occupied the upper floors, which formed a uniform shaft (Fig. 3-52); while the top floors, from the twentieth to the twenty-second, accommodated water tanks, air-conditioning, elevator equipment, and served as an observatory (Fig. 3-53); on the faade, a horizontal repetition of windows and piers formed in vertical a grid-like shaft, and atop, the attic recessed floor by floor (Gu 1991: 98-102 and Hietkamp 1998: 31-32. Figs. 3-47, 3-48, 3-49, & 3-50). Compared to the Sassoon House, Hudecs treatment of the Park
Hotel was apparently much closer to the idea of a Modern high-rise. Architectural historian Wu Jiang noted that if Palmer and Turners new style were labeled Classic Art Deco, then Hudecs Art Deco would be Modern (1997: 184). When Classic was still popular to the Shanghai public, Hudecs articulation of
70
Western Modern suggests that besides business interest, a search for new architectural form was also his concern. His educational background and experience support this
conjecture. By the time Hudec underwent his training in Budapest, the influence of Art Nouveau from Belgium and Jugendstil from Germany had brought on the emergence of the Vienna School in Austria. In 1897, Otto Wagners (1841-1918) vision on new architectural form resulted in the forming of the Vienna Secession, which claimed itself breaking with familiar tradition. At the turn of the century, it
became dominant in art and design in the Austro-Hungarian capital. Meanwhile, Adolf Loos had been searching for pure architecture and campaigned for a rejection of decorative elements. In the first decade of the new century, Wagner designed the
Austrian Post Office Savings Bank (1906), and Loos erected his Steiner House (1910). They became emblems for the battle against decorative architecture (Waiguo Jinxiandai: 38-42 and Tietz 1999: 13-15). Hudec, who graduated from school in the same era (1914), could not be isolated from these influences. During his golden age in the late 1920s and 30s, Hudec travelled widely. He made a tour in Spain and the United States in 1927 and 28, and in 1928 he went to Munich to study brewery design. In 1930, he sojourned in Germany for half a year
to study the latest developments in engineering and architecture (Hietkamp 1998: 49). These experiences must have contributed to his knowledge about the state of the art in the West, and helped to shape his idea about modern architecture, as his works in the 1930s clearly reflected the influence of Western Modern idea. It is worth noticing that none of Hudecs buildings are in Chinese appearance.
71
His portfolio covered a large area of architectural styles however; Chinese elements seemed not an option on his menu of styles. His work carried neither the tincture of
the lower Yangtze Chinese architecture characterized by the composition of white wash walls with dark framing and grey roof tiles, nor the Chinese palatial mode stylized by red columns and boards under a heavy up-tilted roof which often glazed brightly in yellows and greens. While Henry K. Murphy and the leading Chinese architects were trying to define a new Chinese architecture by incorporating Chinese form and Western modern technology, Hudec made no such effort. He seemed This
immune to this vigorous movement favoured by the Kuomintang government.
is rather significant seeing that Chinese clientele and contractors were important amongst his social contacts. The only Chinese character that he had to incorporate
into his design of the Chinese residences was a remarkable number of bedrooms decorated with some Chinese motifs for the owners wife and concubines.63 immune of Chinese influence may probably due to his view on Chinese culture. His For,
at the time Westerners were apt to see Chinese things in an orientalist way: Chinese culture was less advanced, interesting, worthy of attention but not of true understanding; Chinese religious practices were mongrel revelries; and the habits of the Chinese childish, exotic, or just strange (Hietkamp 1998: 2). Hudec by his European background was presumably one of such orientalists. But on the other
hand, his disregard for the Chinese Revival (Hou in Pan ed. 2001: 373) also
This is inferred from Hua Xiahong's formulation of Hudec's portfolio in the Appendix II of her thesis Wudake Zai Shanghai Zuopin de Fingxi [An Analysis and Commentary of Hudec's Works in Shanghai], 2000, from p.54 to p.137, and from Lenore Hietkamp's personal interview with Martin, Hudec's son, she noted in her The Park Hotel, Shanghai (1931-1934) and Its Architect, Laszlo Hudec (1893-1958), 1989, p.22. 72
63
suggests that his idea about modern architecture might not agree with such efforts, which was essentially a Chinese version of the European Eclecticism. In designing modern constructions, Hudec was as significant in introducing the world advancement of building technology as his use of Modern forms. Through
cooperating with his Chinese patrons and contractors, and by employing the most recent technology from around the world, he greatly challenged the capability of the Chinese builders, and established a model for the ideal of modernization to the Shanghai public. The Park Hotel illustrated such achievements.
22 storeys above ground, 83.8 metres in height, the Park Hotel reputed at the time the largest skyscraper from Tokyo to London, and kept its record as the tallest building in the Far East for thirty years until the mid-1960s (Hietkamp 1998: 1 and Luo 1996: 104). Prior to the construction of the Park Hotel, the height of the main
structure of tall buildings in Shanghai ranged only from 11 to 14 storeys, as seen in the Sassoon House (1929, 13 storeys), the Cathay Mansions (1929, 14 storeys), the Beara Apartment (1930, 10 storeys), the Hamilton House (1933, 14 storeys), and the Embankment Building (1933, 10 storeys), and so on, Wu Jiang, an architectural historian in Shanghai reported (Wu 1997: 116). attempted of the height of the Park. By the time, no building had been
The technological factor that impeded the
growth of tall buildings in height was Shanghais soil condition. Shanghai rests on an unconsolidated alluvium. An average vertical section of
the geologic structure shows that the depth of silt is about 6 metres from the surface, sand to 91 metres, and gravel mixed with sand and silt to about 305 metres, where the
73
stratum of consolidated conglomerate is reached (Murphey 1953: 30).
The
load-bearing capacity of the subsoil was from 8,000 to 14,000 kilograms per square metre (Shen ed. 1993: 3). A British study on deep-water harbours undertaken at the
beginning of the twentieth century concluded that the subsoil of Shanghai could only stand six floors, London sixty, New York and Hong Kong any number (Wei 1987: 83). In 1875, when foreigners started to build a bridge across the mouth of the
Suzhou Creek, they were discouraged to find that just one blow from the small pile driver, the pile was buried out of sight in the silt (Muphey 1953: 30). By 1920,
during the design of the Yangtze Insurance Company Building, Palmer and Turner developed a piling system specifically for Shanghais soil conditions, but in 1930, one of its architects reported that pile foundation could not prevent settlement. From 1920 to 1923, during the renovation of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation on the Bund, Palmer and Turner introduced raft foundation for the new structure. The concrete raft overcame the problem of unequal settling however, by 1930, a settlement of about 6 inches still occurred to new constructions in Shanghai. By the time, there were no reliable engineering handbooks addressing Shanghais soil conditions, the problem of settlement therefore continued to plague architects and civil engineers who were practicing in Shanghai (Hietkamp 1998: 42). However, the
Park Hotel resolved some of the key problems about constructing high-rise buildings on Shanghais jelly-like soil. In order to achieve a satisfactory vertical stability, the foundation work of the Park Hotel combined pile and raft systems, and extended the embedment to a depth
74
much greater than any of its predecessors (Ibid.: 43).
The piling work drove 400
piles of Douglas fir of an average diameter of 0.35 metres and an average length of 61 metres into the soil, and topped the piles by a concrete raft of 1.5 metres deep. The longest pile reached a depth of 39.8 metres, almost half of the height of the tower above ground (Ibid. and Gu 1991: 95). The earthwork removed 20,000,000
kilograms of mud and water, so that the bearing capacity of the soil beneath the building would reach 10,000,000 kilograms. In order to reduce the total weight of
the building as far as possible, Hudec employed steel frame for its super structure (Figs. 3-54 & 3-55). While doing so, again through his German contacts, Hudec commissioned Siemens to design the framework, for which he ordered from Siemens special steel, which was light but of high strength -- as three times high as ordinary steel in strength (Gu 1991: 95).64 In addition, the partition walls applied aerated
concrete block, which was then an exclusive product of a resident foreign company, and whose unit weight was 1,000 kilograms per cubic metre (Ibid.: 98). Due to such efforts, the Park Hotel achieved the tallest building with minimum installment in Shanghai (Ibid.: 96). Seeing that the whole building distributed more weight over a smaller area (279 square metres) than the broad expanse (circa 5,580 square metres) of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Cooperation on the Bund (Hietkamp 1998: 43), such an achievement was more significant. The contractor of the foundation work of the Park Hotel was A. Corrit, a resident
64
Lenore Hietkamp said the material for the frame was the lightest chromium-copper alloy known as "Union Steel", which was developed by a German company called the Vereinigte Stahlwerke Aktiengeselleschaft. See The Park Hotel, Shanghai (1931-1934) and Its Architect, Laszlo Hudec (1893-1958), 1989, p.45. 75
Danish company specialized in this area.65
While the construction was progressing,
A. Corrit, through his special connection with Hudec, recommended to the client foreign builders to contract to the construction of the superstructure, and abased the technical skill of the Chinese builders who were then bidding for the same work. The foreign builders, believing Chinese builders were lacking the technological capability for such an immense structure, boasted and priced themselves out of the market (Gu 1991: 96). However, the project manager from the clients side, who reputed a very shrewd business man, reasoned that since the Chinese builders had experienced in building a thirteen-storey structure, they must be capable in constructing a structure of ten more floors (Ibid.). Consequently, the Chinese Vow
Kee () Company won the overall contract for the construction, and the Chinese Shihuiji () Company gained the subcontract for the hoisting of the steel frame (Wu 1997: 112). Hudec was rather unpleasant to the fact that the Chinese grabbed the contract. He insisted that the hoisting work be carried out under the supervision of German experts from Siemens. progress. But somehow the arrival of the Germans lagged behind the
Under the endorsement of the client, the Chinese builders started the When the Siemens experts later
construction of the steel frame by themselves.
arrived at the site, they were astonished to find that the steel frame had reached the eleventh floor, far ahead of the schedule, and the quality was perfectly satisfactory (Gu 1991: 97).
65
A. Corrit was the predecessor of the present Shanghai Foundation Work Company. 76
Besides the Chinese builders, the Park Hotel also challenged the Chinese material suppliers who were involved in the project. Prior to the Park Hotel, facing materials employed in the tall buildings in Shanghai were all imported from abroad. The Park
was the sole that adopted domestic granite and marble for both its exterior and interior wall face. The black granite for the faade of the lower storeys was from Qingdao, and the light yellow and green marbles for the floor and pillars of the entrance hall were from Shandong. Both the quality and processing of the material proved to be
as satisfactory as the imported ones yet economical in expense (Ibid.: 98). While the Parks client was making a best use of Chinese resources, Hudec continued to summon the most recent technology and facilities from around the world for his idea about the building. Five elevators were Otis, the same used in the Empire State Building in New York, and the fastest in Shanghai (Hietkamp 1998: 41). They provided easy access to the higher floors. Sanitary equipments were Kohler
from the United States. In the installation of telephone, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, plumbing, and fire systems, there were American and German companies involved. Diebold State and Lock Company from America provided the doors for the vaults in the basement, for which the Parks basement reputed the most secure and luxurious strong room in East Asia (Gu 1991: 99-103). A more significant event of the Park Hotel could be its fire system. For the sake
of fire fighting, the International Settlements by-law restricted building heights to one-and-a-half times the width of the street the building fronted. For the Park Hotel,
77
the two streets -- Bubbling Well Road66 and Huanghe Road -- that it was to front were at the time not more than 30 metres wide, whereas the buildings height was to reach 84 metres, a scale far exceeding the permission. The construction of the
building therefore was a great concern of the British Shanghai Municipal Council. However, by introducing automatic sprinklers and fire alarm system, Hudec challenged the British authority. The 1,100 sprinklers associated with the automatic
alarm system distributed on each floor, in addition to normal hose reels, convinced the Council that the hotel would be fire-safe, and thus earned its height of 83.8 metres (Hietkamp 1998: 49 and Gu 1991: 101). Through the novel height and the state of the art equipments, Hudec brought his Park Hotel to a modeling effect of modernization on the Chinese. In 1935, Chinese
Architect (Vol.3, No.4) introduced two students work from the Department of Architecture of the Central University in Nanjing. big mansion in a certain metropolis. The assignment was to design a
It required an office building of 18,580 square
metres in total area attached with a department store on the second floor specifically for Chinese goods. Such an assignment suggested that the mansion was to be built
in a Chinese city and for Chinese use although it did not designate any specific style for the building. Interestingly, neither of the students work published in this
Chinese journal bore any Chinese character, but in the mode of a Modern skyscraper with some Art Deco feature (Figs. 3-65 & 3-66). The 1930s was the time when Chinese Nationalism was running high, and the architectural movement of the
66
Now Nanjing Road West. 78
Chinese Revival, cheered by the Kuomintang government, was rising. In Shanghai, as well as in Nangjing at the time, quite a few of remarkable new constructions, whether official or commercial, were designed in a traditional Chinese appearance or at least decorated with some Chinese motifs, as seen in the major buildings of the Greater Shanghai Plan (1930-1935), the Shanghai Y. M. C. A. Building (1928. Fig.
3-10), and the Daxin Company on Nanjing Road (1936. Fig. 3-12). The students work were from 1934, the same year when the Park Hotel was completed. Chinese
Architect, which was then one of the two most influential architectural journals in China, published these non-Chinese works in the next year.67 It reflected that the
idea of Western Modern architecture seemed more favourable than the Chinese Revival to both the young students and the publisher. In this context, the impact of Hudes Park Hotel as an emblem for modernization on the circle of Chinese architects is perceivable.
SUMMARY
Hudecs architectural style covered a vast area including Neoclassicism, Western country and Modern styles. The shift of the styles from Classic Revival to Modern In
in his work coincides with the change of the architectural fashion in Shanghai. this respect, he was no different from his counterparts.
He was not the one who first
introduced Modern styles from the West however; his articulation of Modern ideal in form and space, and his determination in introducing the most recent technology from
67
The other architectural journal of the same significance was Jianzhu Yuekan (The Builder ), published by the Shanghaishi Jianzhu Xiehui (The Shanghai Builder's Association ) from 1932 to 1937. 79
around the world indicate that he was in the lead of the trend of Modernism in Shanghai. His Hungarian background and his national connections contribute to his sensitiveness to the world trend of architectural reform and his knowledge about the state of the art in the West. He may not have a mind to help the modernization of
Chinese architecture, but in effect, his innovative design in form and employment of advanced technology stimulated his Chinese counterparts to experiment a new way in defining a new Chinese architecture.
80
Plates for Chapter III
Fig. 3-1. Wuzhen, canal and embankment (available from http://www.jsdj.com/jnsx.htm). The simplicity and elegance of architecture conveyed an impression of satisfying balance and equity. Such quality of life of the Ming and Qing periods is still possible to experience even today in the small waterfront towns in lower Yangtze.
Fig. 3-2. Wuzhen, street view (available from http://www.jsdj.com/jnsx.htm).
81
Fig. 3-3. The British Consulate in Shanghai, 1850s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). The first foreign buildings were mainly godowns and consulates, often combined with residences in one large compound.
Fig. 3-4. The Bund, Shanghai, 1850s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). By the 1850s, a foreign complexion composed of the Compradoric style had characterized the Bund.
82
Fig. 3-5. The Chinese Maritime Customs, Shanghai, 1857s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). By the 1850s, Chinese construction in Shanghai remained traditional among the foreign buildings.
Fig. 3-6. The Mixed Court, Nanjing Road, Shanghai, 1870s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
83
Fig. 3-7. The Chinese Maritime Customs, Tudor style, 1890s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
Fig. 3-8. The Chinese Maritime Customs, eclectic, 1930s (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
84
Fig. 3-9. Hongde Tang Church (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 92), the Chinese Revival.
Fig. 3-10. The YMCA Building, Shanghai, 1929 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
85
Fig. 3-11. The Mayors Building (from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm), the Chinese Revival.
Fig. 3-12. Daxin Company, 1936 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
86
Fig. 3-13. The American Club, which shows Beaux-Arts influence in Hudecs work (by author).
Fig. 3-14. The International Savings Society Building (by author).
87
Fig. 3-15. The Catholic Country Church (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
Fig. 3-16. The Country Hospital (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm) was in Italian Renaissance.
88
Fig. 3-17. The Estrella Apartments was considered a Hungarian rendition of Baroque (by author).
Fig. 3-18. The Estrella Apartments, faade (by author).
89
Fig. 3-19. The Estrella Apartments, faade and cornice (by author).
Fig. 3-20. The Estrella Apartments, gate (by author).
90
Fig. 3-21. The Estrella Apartments, doorway (by author).
Fig. 3-22. The Joint Savings Society Building, #261, Sichuan Road, Middle (by author).
91
Fig. 3-23. The Zhabei Power Station, completed in 1928, had carried some characteristics of a kind of Modern style (Zhabei Power Station archives).
Fig. 3-24. The Columbia Circle, a housing estate of ten two-storey houses associated with thirteen European and American country styles (by author).
92
Fig. 3-25. The Columbia Circle (by author).
93
94
95
Fig. 3-31. Hudec Residence of 1929, later the Sun Esq. Residence, was in Spanish Revival (Yang 1999: 252).
Fig. 3-32. The Moore Memorial Church, 1929 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
96
Fig. 3-33. Zhejiang Cinema (by author).
Fig. 3-34. The Christian Literature Society Building (by author).
97
Fig. 3-35. China Baptist Publication Society Building (by author).
Fig. 3-36. China Baptist Publication Society Building, detail (by author).
98
Fig. 3-37. Peter Behrens: the Hoechst Dyeworks, 1924 (Tietz 1999: 23).
Fig. 3-38. The Avenue Apartments (by author).
99
Fig. 3-39. Hudec Residence, #127, Panyu Road (by author).
Fig. 3-40. Hudec Residence, #127, Panyu Road (by author).
100
Fig. 3-41. The Engineering Building, Jiaotong University, 1931 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
Fig. 3-42. The New German Evangelic Church, 1931 (Zheng 1999: 132).
101
Fig. 3-43. The New German Evangelic Church, interior, 1931 (Zheng 1999: 132).
Fig. 3-44. The Grand Theatre (by author).
102
Fig. 3-45. The Grand Theatre, vestibule (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
Fig. 3-46. The Grand Theatre, auditorium (Luo ed. 1995: 193).
103
Fig. 3-47. The Park Hotel (by author).
Fig. 3-48. The Park Hotel, entrance (by author).
104
Fig. 3-49. The Park Hotel, treatment of faade (by author).
Fig. 3-50. The Park Hotel, the upper storeys (by author).
105
Fig. 3-51. The Park Hotel -- the ground floor plan was set aside for banking services and the owners offices (The Builder, Vol.1, No.5).
Fig. 3-52. The Park Hotel, floor plan 5 - 10 (The Builder, Vol.1, No.5). upper floors, which formed a uniform shaft.
The hotel occupied the
106
Fig. 3-53. The Park Hotel, section (The Builder, Vol.1, No.5). The hotel occupied the upper floors, which formed a uniform shaft. The top floors accommodated water tanks, air-conditioning, elevator equipment, and housed an observatory.
107
Fig. 3-54. Park Hotel under construction, 1933 (The Builder, Vol.1, No.2). In order to reduce the total weight of the building as far as possible, Hudec employed steel frame for the structure.
Fig. 3-55. Park Hotel under construction, 1933 (The Builder Vol.1, No.4).
108
Fig. 3-56. The American Radiator Building, New York, 1924 (Watkin 2000: 580).
Fig. 3-57. The Union Brewery Ltd., 1933 (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
109
Fig. 3-58. Hubertus Court (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm).
Fig. 3-59. D. V. Wood Residence. The grand curved staircase and the curved and straight horizontal lines laced on the faades associated the design with the Streamline style (by author).
110
Fig. 3-60. D. V. Wood Residence, the grand curved staircase (by author).
Fig. 3-61. Sassoon House (Zheng 1999: 266). A lofty pyramid replaced pediment or dome, the elements of a typical Classic faade.
111
Fig. 3-62. Sassoon House (Johnston 1996: 98). Palmer and Turners rendition of Art Deco featured rich material and motifs, such as heavy wooden beams, dark paneling, mirrors and stained glass, and coffered ceilings.
Fig. 3-63. Sassoon House, lobby (Johnston 1996: 99).
112
Fig. 3-64. Sassoon House, English suite (Johnston 1996: 100).
Fig. 3-65. Sassoon House, Indian suite (Johnston 1996: 101).
113
Fig. 3-66. Students work from the Department of Architecture of the Central University in Nanjing (The Chinese Architecture, Vol.3, No.4).
Fig. 3-67. Students work from the Department of Architecture of the Central University in Nanjing (The Chinese Architecture, Vol.3, No.4).
114
Chapter IV.
Hudecs Legacy
4.1. The Park Hotel as a Metaphor for the Chinese Identity of the Shanghai foreign settlements 4.2. Hudecs Work as an Emblem for Shanghais Cosmopolitan Nature Summary Plates for Chapter IV
Hudecs golden age in the 1920s and 30s paralleled Shanghais booming era. Since the first decade of the twentieth century, the city had grown to the primary economical complex in Asia, and attained a premier position as the locus of Chinas most influential political and intellectual activity (MacPherson 1990). The First
World War diverted foreign competition from the market, resulting in the Chinese bourgeoisie springing up into action. When Chinese nationalism surged after the
Republican Revolution of 1911, they participated in the Kuomintangs modernization programme, bringing on an intensified strife between the Chinese and the foreign settlement authorities for the dominance of the city. Building activity in Shanghai
from this period more or less reflected such urban strife. In the mean time, the decade-long coexistence of Chinese with various natives and the foreigners from all parts of the world cultivated a unique cosmopolitan nature of Shanghai. This nature, characterized in its ability to compromise and blend all cultures, was also epitomized in the contemporary architecture. In such a setting that mingled with political strife and cultural fusion, Hudecs practice, which rooted in the foreign settlements but embraces both foreign and Chinese clients, held its significance beyond architecture.
115
4.1. THE PARK HOTEL AS A METAPHOR FOR THE CHINESE IDENTITY OF THE SHANGHAI FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS
A scrutiny of Hudecs portfolio reveals the character of his practice from the socio-economic aspect. His work covered nearly all kinds of perceivable types of buildings, yet his commissions were largely obtained from a small social fringe: churches, merchants and compradors, industrialists, and bankers. For example, the
schools and hospitals were church commissions; the residences were all for the urban notables including D. V. Wood, a successful pigment merchant, and himself, who had ranked among the urban celebrities; the apartments were from the foreign real estate developers; the clubs were for the local American wealthy; the Grand Theatre was a Cantonese-American joint venture; and from the Joint Savings Society, which ranked one of the most influential Chinese financial institutes at the time, he obtained two commissions of their significant buildings, its headquarters on the corner of Sichuan Road and Hankou Road and the Park Hotel on Nanjing Road West. His clientele
embraces both foreign and Chinese, but they were all recruited from one class -- the urban notables. However, out of this cluster of urban notables, it was the Chinese bourgeoisie who commissioned him their grand projects that made him becoming well known as a leading architect of the fashion. Hence, from a reverse angle, Hudecs work on these commissions reflected the taste, motive, and power of the Chinese bourgeoisie as well as their influence in the settings of Shanghai. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, the Chinese bourgeoisie rose to a major force in the economic and political life of China.
116
The intervention of the Chinese bourgeoisie in the anti-American boycott in 1905 indicated their significance was similar to that of the traditional urban elite in social affairs (Bergere 1983: 727). During the Republican Revolution in 1911, the decline
of the central power and the decay of the regional and local governments led the urban gentry and merchants to undertake the running of their cities. In a short period after
the fall of the Manchu regime, in many cities, the organizations of the merchants, such as the chambers of commerce and the guilds, played an actual role as the municipal authority (Ibid.:735). These Chinese merchants rooted their enterprises in the foreign settlements. While the Chinese world was undergoing economic upheavals and social unrests, the foreign settlements were islands of relative security and order, hence becoming sanctuaries for both foreign and native business. The exceptional capacity of the
Chinese bourgeoisie in seizing and exploiting every opportunity for enrichment encouraged their collaboration with the foreigners. Through professional contacts, they acquired the modern techniques of management and production. In the foreign settlements, they were liable to taxation, yet were treated as second-class citizens, and were long denied all municipal responsibilities until 1921. At this time, as an
aftereffect of the May Fourth Movement, a Chinese consultative committee appeared in the British Municipal Council, and, in 1928, as an aftermath of the May Thirtieth Incident, a Chinese supervision committee became involved in the work of the annual budget of the British Settlement (Ibid.: 728 and Lu in Shanghai Shi Yanjiu 1988: 79-81). What was significant for the Chinese bourgeoisie in comparison with the
117
number of religious conversions was that they retained their national and social identity under such political circumstances, and through forming their own organizations like the regional guilds, the professional associations, and the chambers of commerce, they even strengthened this identity (Ibid.: 725). After the Revolution of 1911, the Chinese bourgeoisie of Shanghai adopted Sun Yat-sens nationalist ideology, and joined his striving for constructing a new China. While enjoying the relative security and order in the foreign settlements, they seized the opportunity offered by the revolution to carry out their political ambitions both locally and nationally, many of them deeply involved in the bureaucracy of the new government. The Chinese bourgeoisie wanted to take control of a vast hinterland of
the country, and transform it in the image of the coastal cities, where the foreign settlements had established a model for a modern society. The Shanghai merchants financed Sun Yat-sen seven million taels for the establishment of the Chinese Republic, which was proclaimed by Sun in Nanjing on 1 January 1912 (Ibid.: 738). After the defeat of the imperial garrison in 1911, the leading Chinese merchants from the International Settlement and the Chinese city did not hesitate to take part in General Chen Qimeis () military government. The directors of the General
Chamber of Commerce Yu Qiaqing () and Zhou Shunqing () became the advisers of General Chen, whereas the bankers such as Zhu Baosan () and Shen Manyun (), assisted by a comprador, Yu Pinghan (), conducted the financial affairs for the new government. Wang Yiting () who was a ship
owner handled business management, and the building contractor Li Zhongjue (

118
) and a grain merchant named Gu Xinyi ( ) charged the municipal
administration and public works of the Chinese Shanghai (Ibid.: 737). The First World War diverted the foreign competition from the citys affairs, and restored to the Chinese part of the domestic market that was deprived by the unequal treaties of the nineteenth century, and opened to them new markets outside the country. The decline of the European powers favoured the development of the It was also from this period, modern banks emerged in
Chinese national industries. the Chinese society.
From 1918 and 1919 alone, there were 96 new banks founded
(Ibid.: 816). Most of these banks, such as the Bank of China and the Bank of Communications (), maintained close ties with the Kuomintang government (Ibid.). Besides, there were numerous banks founders who were from the
government circles or held close relationships with higher officials (Ibid.: 749), some of them even joined the government. of such bankers. Wu Dingchang (, 1884-1950) was one He introduced
Wu began his career in the Bank of China in 1912.
a reform to reorganized the private banks on the American model.
It was due to his
efforts that the four modern Chinese private banks, Jincheng, Yanye, Continent, and China and South Sea, amalgamated to the Joint Savings Society, the owner of the Park Hotel, and Wu himself was on the board of this banking society. But in 1935, Wu
broke all links with private enterprise and became minister of industry of the Kuomintang government, and in 1937 took over the office of governor of Guizhou Privince (Ibid. and Hietkamp 1998: 11). Such cases illustrate the special relationship between the Chinese bourgeois class
119
and the Chinese nationalist government, and reveal the fact that they were on the common front of striving for a modern and united China. Hence, the activities of the Chinese bourgeoisie, although pragmatic in terms of business, responded to and reflected the will of the National Peoples Party -- Kuomintang, when they were viewed from a political perspective. During the period of Northern Expedition ()68, especially in 1927 when this military campaign lead by Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang had largely reached its goal of unifying the whole of China, Chinese nationalism waved to the upsurge. Earlier,
Sun Yat-sen when asserting his vigorous nationalism had insisted that the foreign settlements be destroyed (MacPherson 1990). Many of Suns followers, some of
them principal members of the Kuomintang, adhered to this position through the 1920s and 1930s. Chinese ideologues, journalists, and scholars reproached the
aggressiveness and arrogance of the Westerners and their imperialist nature; Chinese reformists advocated campaigns of self-strengthening. At the end of 1927, the surge
of the Chinese nationalism had finally become a substantial threat to the foreign settlements. In the spring of 1927, Britain gave up its concessions in Hankou and
Jiujiang when the allied forced of nationalist and communist occupied them. Following Britain, other Western powers opted for a policy of compromise: 20 concessions out of 33 were handed back to the Nanjing government. In Shanghai,
the foreign concession continued to exist, but the foreigners had had to return the
Also known as the First Civil War of Revolution () or the Great Revolution () in Chinese literature. It was a military campaign launched by the Kuomintang party in 1924 aiming to overthrow the warlord-backed Beijing government and to establish a new government at Nanjing. The campaign was allied with the Communist party and was receiving aid from the Soviet Union. Kuomintang took the city of Beijing in June, 1928, and moved the national government to Nanjing. 120
68
Mixed Court to the Chinese.
The Chinese residents of the International Settlement
won the fight to have three representatives in the Municipal Council; in May 1930, the number of Chinese representatives rose to five (Bergere 1983: 813). In 1927, when Kuomintang established Chinas first special municipality and the first Chinese municipal government in Shanghai, it immediately promulgated a project for urban development in the Shanghai Chinese territories. The project, known as the Greater Shanghai Plan, called for in its pragmatic objective the development of the port areas along the Huangpu River, as well as the creation of a new urban center. But from the political perspective, its aim was to unite all the Chinese areas comprising Shanghai into one unified administrative whole, encompassing and eventually absorbing the foreign settlements. Founded on
decades of intense efforts to create a Chinese municipality that would parallel the achievements of the foreign settlements, this plan was an irrefutable statement of the determination of the Chinese to challenge in practice the legitimacy of the foreign concessions created by the unequal treaties, and to exceed their urban standards and prosperity (MacPherson 1990). Vigorous and ambitious were the Chinese however, in many aspects, foreigners were still the dominant power in the citys affairs. Their gunboats anchored on the
Huangpu River or cruising up and down the Yangtze, which were enough to preserve the peaces of their states within the state (Bergere 1983: 728). The grandiose
Western architecture on the Bund, which made the city at the time the third high-rise market in the world behind Chicago and New York (Tang 2004), well proclaimed to
121
the general public the foreign predominance. One the other hand, Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang as well as many of its followers, by their own experience in civil wars, understood to the hilt how sorely they needed the foreigners and their Chinese partners that represented a source of official and unofficial revenues for them. In
politics, they also realized that the foreign settlements could well serve both as a sounding board for their programmes and propaganda, and as a buffer between them and foreign governments, to which they could appeal for mediation while they were distracted and weakened in the quarrels with other political factions (MacPherson 1990). Other Chinese, though also sensitive to Western inflicted humiliations and
hostile to the extraterritoriality, discovered that the foreign settlements, by their material as well as institutional advancement, was actually an embodiment of their imagination of modernization (Ibid.). Therefore, the strife for dominance of the city And that metaphor
finally reduced from open conflict to metaphorical expressions.
for dominance of Shanghai was well expressed in the pursuit of stirring effect in the citys new constructions. After the First World War, the Chinese government withdrew the site of the German Club Concordia, which was next to the Sassoon House on the Bund. The Bank of China bought the land, and in 1934, planned for it a 34-storey building for the Banks headquarters (Fig. 4-1). Song Ziwen (, 1894-1971)69, educated in the Song
West, and an advocate of economic modernization, proposed this novel height.
as well as the rising Chinese financial group commissioned the project to Lu
69
Better known as T. V. Soogn in Western literature. 122
Qianshou (), who was trained in England, and hoped that the building would replace the position of the British Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which boasted the finest edifice from Suez Canal to Bering Strait (Luo ed. 1996: 50), and stood only about a hundred metres away on the Bund. However, the foreigners
crushed the vision of the Chinese. Victor Sassoon, the owner of the neighbouring mansion and the most important ratepayer of the International Settlement, insisted that the height of the bank building be lower than the peak of his pyramid roof. Consequently, the British dominated Municipal Council, without any sound reason, refused the license for a 34-storey building. Song, despite the director of the Central Bank and commercial commissar in the Kuomintang government, had no alternative in the face of such obstruction but to accept the final compromise: a 13-storey building, which was only 30 centimetres lower than the 77-metre-high Sassoon House (Yang 1999: 64 and Tang 2004). In the political context of Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s, especially in contrast to the failure of the Bank of China in its political aim, the Park Hotel, which owned by the Chinese bankers but stood right at the center of the International Settlement with its unequaled height, expressed more than the professional achievement of its designer. But as a metaphor, it represented the decade-long endeavour of the Chinese elite to construct a modern Chinese society that would parallel and finally exceed Western advancement. Its application of world-advanced technology, clad with Western
Modern apparel was actually a modern rendition of the self-strengthening guideline
123
Learn the superior techniques of the barbarians to control the barbarians.70
In this
respect, Hudec was the unconscious tool of history in helping the Chinese to carry out their vision of modernization.
4.2. HUDECS WORK AS AN EMBLEM FOR SHANGHAIS COSMOPOLITAN NATURE
Shanghai in its golden era in the 1920s and 30s was Chinas most urbane conurbation that exhibited all different hues of humanity. At the time, no other
Asian city, not even Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Calcutta, could match its cosmopolitan sophistication (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 89 and Murphey 1953: 1). In addition to a
vortex of Chinas economic activity, the city also established itself as the center for new Chinese culture that has never been displaced by any other Chinese city. Xin
Ping concluded three characteristics for the Shanghai urban culture of the 1920s and 30s: commercialization, diversification, and popularization (1996: 431). work embodied these characteristics. Hudec was considered an innovative architect (Johnston 1993: 83), yet while his Western predecessors and contemporaries more or less experimented or explored a kind of new architecture in practice, he never did so. His Modern work was a direct simulation of the Western models. the latest fashion and technology. Hudec was devoted in introducing and employing But when the clients wanted, he would not The Hudecs
hesitate to give up Modern and pick up Classic Revival (Hua 2000: 38).
incentive behind Hudecs use of Modern form and new technology was primarily to establish a demonstration effect of modern for the urban notables, who addicted to
70
Proposed by Wei Yuan (, 1794-1857). 124
all fashions in the West, so that he would maintain a stable group of clients and garner more commissions them (Ibid.: 43). The alternation of the old and new in his portfolio displayed the commercial character of his practice. Tess Johnston noted,
There is no city in the world today with such a variety of architectural offerings, buildings which sand out in welcome contrast to their modern counterparts (1993: 9). Hudecs portfolio, which embraces a vast area of various architectural forms and building types, epitomized such diversity. public buildings. Palmer and Turner focused on the large
They clustered on the Bund and its vicinity, featured classic, grand,
monumental, and luxurious, hence were more or less isolated from daily life. Each street in Shanghai had its own colour and flavour. Nanjing Road was the chief
shopping district, Jiujiang Road was known as the Wall Street of Shanghai, Hankou Road was noted for its many publishers and bookshops selling all sorts of books and magazines catering to a variety interest and values, Bubbling Well Road was built to accommodate commercial establishments on the peripheral of the race court (Wei 1987: 85-90). Hudecs work, scattered nearly in all these popular districts, in
addition to their disparate styles and forms, were more accessible to the populace (Hua 2000: 44). From the self-strengthening movement of the nineteenth century, the founding of the Interpreters College by the Qing high officials and the subsequent translation of Western publications established Shanghai a centre of spreading Western civilizations. When in the 1920s, the city drew talents from all parts of the country; it became the birthplace of contemporary literature, movies, music, and fine arts.
125
The proliferation
of intellectual activities, in addition to the exhibition of the physical advancement of the foreign settlements, developed the citys addiction to Western fashions. Hudecs
pursuit for Western fashions, and his foreign apparel for the Chinese buildings well served this addiction. The addiction to Western fashions resulted in Shanghai becoming a quasi replica of Western civilization. The quasi replica contributed to a Shanghai culture that is simultaneously harmonious and dissonant (Balfour & Zheng 2002: 92). Hudec, a
Hungarian and a war refugee, maintained his independence throughout his career, whether in the face of the uncomfortable atmosphere or in collaboration with his Chinese patrons. Yet, he received his acceptance and recognition from the city. His
success well presented citys cosmopolitan nature.
SUMMARY
The time of Hudecs most important works paralleled the rise of the Chinese bourgeoisie and the surge of Chinese nationalism. The Chinese bourgeoisie accepted Kuomintangs nationalism and participated in its modernization programme. Building activities in Shanghai from this period reflected the strife between the Chinese and the foreign settlement authorities for the dominance of Shanghai. In the
political context, Hudec, who designed the Park Hotel, Shanghais tallest building, which was invested in and owned by the Chinese, became an unconscious tool of history in helping the Chinese to carry out their vision of modernization. Culturally, Hudecs style -- his use of European architectural forms and employment of the latest Western technology -- well served the addiction to Western fashions of the city.
126
Thereby, on the one hand, his work reflected and embodied the essence of Shanghai culture; on the other hand, he received his recognition from his Chinese clients and registered his due position as a Shanghai architect in the modern history of Shanghai architecture.
127
Plates for Chapter IV
Fig. 4-1. The project of the Bank of China on the Bund, Shanghai, 1934 (Zheng 1999: 248).
Fig. 4-2. The Bank of China and the Sassoon House (available from http://dl.eastday.com/index_1.htm). The Bank of China finally became a 13-storey building, only 0.30 metres lower than the 77-metre-high Sassoon House.
128
Fig. 4-3. A birds eye view of the Park Hotel and its physical setting (Deng 1992). The Park Hotel, which owned by Chinese bankers but stood right at the center of the International Settlement with its unequaled height, expressed more than the professional achievement of its designer. As a metaphor, it represented the decade-long endeavour of the Chinese elite to construct a modern Chinese society that would parallel and finally exceed Western advancement.
129
Conclusion
Through the examination of Hudecs practice and the character of his work against a social, economical, architectural (technological), political, and cultural setting, this thesis clarifies the modernity of Hudec and his work in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s. Shanghais economic growth from a market town to a world cosmopolis and the advent and rise of foreign architects in the city reveals that it was business interest that drew foreign architects to become involved in the citys construction. Hudec, with regard to his practice, was no different to his predecessors and counterparts in Shanghai. He was not as avant-garde as his European contemporaries who were concerned about reform in architectural design. Yet, by articulating the Modern style in form and space, and by utilizing world-advanced technology, he distinguished himself, and received his recognition as a leading architect of the fashion. Due to the lack of technological capacity and technological culture as found in the West, and the consequent lack of an essential and sound material basis for the development of a modern building industry, so-called Modern architecture in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s remained a superficial replica of Western forms and technology. It was more a simulation in forms than a pursuit for the essence of Hudecs practice
Modern architecture (Hua 2000: 47 and Hou in Pan ed. 2001: 391).
and the works of Modern style he produced in the setting of Shanghai reflect such character. The similarity in forms of his work and the Western contemporaries, and
130
his application of advanced technology are not sufficient to establish him as a Modernist architect like the Western Modernists who boldly practiced along the principles and slogans they put forward for architectural reform. Hence, his practice in Shanghai can hardly be seen as a reflection of the movement of Modern architecture in the West. He did not intentionally help the modernization of Chinese
architecture, but his innovative design in form and bold application of advanced technology established a model for modernization that stimulated his Chinese counterparts, such as Tong Jun () and his Allied Architects (), to ponder and to experiment in order to find a way to define a new Chinese architecture (Hou in Pan ed. 2001: 388). The modernity of Hudecs work lies not in simulation
of the Western contemporary architecture, but in his response to the changes in Chinese society that originated in the modernization programme of the Chinese. Hudec rooted his practice in Shanghai. embodied the citys cultural character. recognition as a Shanghai architect. Today, when Shanghai is to rebuild a complex of economy and culture as it used to be in the past, a better understanding of Hudecs work offers a key for understanding the growth of Shanghai in the present day, when large numbers of foreign architects once again flock to the banks of the Huangpu River, producing the tallest buildings in the world. His work reflected the citys growth and
In that sense, Laszlo Hudec well deserves the
131
Bibliography
1. All about Shanghai and Environs: A Standard Guidebook. Oxford University Press, Edition 1934-35. 2. Balfour, Alan & Zheng Shiling. 3. Bergere, Marie-Claire. Shanghai. Wiley-Academy, 2002.
The Chginese Bourgeoisie, 1911-37. In The Cambridge History Cambridge
of China, Vol.12, Republican China, 1912-1949, ed. John K. Fairbank. University Press, 1983. 4. Black, Cyril Edwin.
The Dynamics of Modernization: a Study in Comparative History.
New York: Harper & Row, 1967. 5. Carter, James Hugh. Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City,
1916-1932. Cornell University Press, 2002. 6. Chen, Congzhou & Zhang Ming , ed. Shanghai Jindai Jianzhu Shigao Shanghai Sanlian
[A History of Shanghai Architecture in Modern Times]. Shudian (The Joint Publishing, Shanghai), 1988.
7. Ci Hai: Lishi Fen Ce: Zhongguo Jindaishi : : [Encyclopedia: History: Modern China]. Shanghai Cishu Chubanshe [The Shanghai
Publishing House of Dictionaries], 1982. 8. Ci Hai: Lishi Fen Ce: Zhongguo Xiandaishi : : [Encyclopedia: History: Contemporary China]. Shanghai Cishu Chubanshe [The
Shanghai Publishing House of Dictionaries], 1984. 9. Cody, Jeffrey William. Henry K. Murphy, An American Architect in China, 1914-1935. Ph.
D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1989. 10. Delande, Natalie. Gongchengshi Zhanzai Jianzhu Duiwu de Qianlie -- Shanghai Jindai Jianzhu Lishishang Jishu Wenhua de Zhongyao Diwei
132
[Engineers in the Van of the Builders -- the Important Position of the Culture of Technology in the Modern History of Shanghai Architecture]. In Diwuci Zhongguo Jindai Jianzhushi Yanjiu Taolunhui Lunwenji
[A Collection of the Fifth Symposium of Modern History of Chinese Architecture] ed. Wang Tan & Zhang Fuhe . Zhongguo Jianzhu
Gongye Chubanshe (China Architecture & Building Press), 1998. 11. Feetham, Richard. Report of the Hon to the Shanghai Municipal Council. Shanghai:
North-China Daily News and Herald, 1931. 12. Fei, Chengkang . Settlements in China]. Zhongguo Zujie Shi [The History of Foreign
Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Chubanshe
[Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press], 1991. 13. Gu, Zhengyong . Yuandong Di Yi Gaolou [The Tallest Building in the Far East], in Dongfang Bali -- Jindai Shanghai Jianzhu Shihua [Paris of the East, the stories of Shanghai Architecture in Modern Times] ed. Shanghai Jianzhu Shigongzhi Bianweihui [Editorial Committee of the Annals of Shanghai Building Construction]. (Shanghai Culture Publishing House), 1991. 14. Hietkamp, Lenore. The Park Hotel, Shanghai (1931-1934) and Its Architect, Laszlo Hudec Shanghai Wenhua Chubanshe
(1893-1958): Tallest Building in the Far East as Metaphor for Pre-Communist Shanghai. M. A. thesis, the University of Victoria, 1998. 15. Hua, Xiahong . Wudake Zai Shanghai Zuopin de Fingxi [An Analysis and Commentary of Hudecs Works in Shanghai]. M. Arch. thesis, Tongji University, 2000. 16. Jianzhu Yuekan (The Builder). Shanghaishi Jianzhu Xiehui
(The Shanghai Builders Association), Vol.1, No.1 (1932.11) - Vol.4, No.10 (1937.1). 17. Johnston, Tess & Deke Erh. A Last Look, Western Architecture in Old Shanghai.
133
Old
China Hand Press, 1993. 18. Johnston, Tess & Deke Erh. Far from Home, Western Architecture in Chinas Northern
Treaty Ports. Old China Hand Press, 1996. 19. Lee, Leo Ou-fan. Shanghai Modern, the Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China,
1930-1945. Harvard University Press, 1999. 20. Leedy, Paul D. Practical Research, Planning and Design, 7th ed. 21. Lou, Chenghao . Modern Shanghai). Merrill Prentice Hall, 2001.
Jindai Shanghai de Jianzhushi (Architects in
In Dongfang Bali -- Jindai Shanghai Jianzhu Shihua
[Paris of the East, the stories of Shanghai Architecture in Modern Times] ed. Shanghai Jianzhu Shigongzhi Bianweihui [Editorial Committee of the Annals of Shanghai Building Construction]. (Shanghai Culture Publishing House), 1991. 22. Lu, Hanchao . Shanghai Zujie Huaren Canzheng Yundong Shulun Shanghai Wenhua Chubanshe
(A Review of the Chinese Participation in Political Affairs of the Foreign Settlements in Shanghai). In Shanghai Shi Yanjiu (Vol.2) (). Xuelin
Publishing House , 1988. 23. Luo, Xiaowei ed. Shanghai Jianzhu Zhinan (A Guide to Shanghai Architecture). Shanghai Renmin Meishu Chubanshe (The Peoples
Fine-Arts Publishing House of Shanghai), 1996. 24. Luo, Yungui ed. Architectural Decoration). Shanghai Jianzhu Zhuangshi (Shanghai Shanghai Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Shanghai
Education Publishing House), 1995. 25. MacPherson, Kerrie L. Designing Chinas Urban Future: the Greater Shanghai Plan,
1927-1937. In Planning Perspectives, 5 (1990) 39-62. 26. Murphey, Rhoads. Shanghai, Key to Modern China. Harvard University Press, 1953.
134
27. Pan, Guxi ed. Architecture], 4th ed.
Zhongguo Jianzhu Shi [A History of Chinese
Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe (China
Architecture and Building Press), 2001. 28. Pang, Zhuoheng ed. Shixue Gailun [An Introduction to Historiography]. Gaodeng Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Higher Education Press), 1995. 29. Shanghai Tushuguan [Shanghai Municipal Library] ed. Lao Shanghai Fengqing Lu (Wu): Waiqiao Bian Zong Juan () [The Customs and Practices of Old Shanghai (5): Tracing the Foreigners]. (Shanghai Culture Publishing House), 1998. 30. Shen, Chenxian . Shanghai Zaoqi de Ji Ge Waiguo Fangdichanshang (Foreign Land Agents in the Early Days of Shanghai). In Jiu Shanghai Shanghai Wenhua Chubanshe
de Fangdichan Jingying [Management of the Real Estate Business in Old Shanghai] ed. Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhixieshanghuiyi Shanghaishi Weiyuanhui Wenshi Ziliao Weiyuanhui (The Literature and History Committee of the Shanghai Committee of the C.P.P.C.C.). Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai Peoples Publishing House), 1990. 31. Shen, Hua ed. Shanghai Lilong Minju [Shanghai Lane House]. Shanghai
Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe (China Architecture & Building Press), 1993. 32. Shi, Fang , Liu Shuang , & Gao Ling . [A History of the Russian migr Community in Harbin]. Haerbin Eqiao Shi Heilongjiang Renmin Chubanshe
[Heilongjiang Peoples Publishing House], 2003. 33. Stavrianos, Leften Stavros. Prentice-Hall, 1970. 34. Tang, Weikang. Bund of Shanghai. In Eatern Air Connections, No.135 (2004-1). The World to 1500 : a Global History. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
135
35. Tietz, Juergen.
The Story of Architecture of the 20th Century.
Koenemann
Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1999. 36. The Universities of Tongji, Tsinhua, Tianjin, and The Engineering College of Nanjing ed. Waiguo Jinxiandai Jianzhu Shi [The Modern History of World Architecture]. Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe (China
Architecture & Building Press), 1982. 37. Wang, Shaozhou . Shanghai Jindai Chengshi Jianzhu
[Shanghai Urban Architecture in Modern Times]. Jiangsu Kexuejishu Chubanshe (Jiangsu Science and Technology Publishing House), 1989. 38. Wang, Zhicheng . Shanghai Eqiao Shi (A History of the Russian Shanghai Sanlian Shudian (The Joint
migr Community in Shanghai). Publishing, Shanghai), 1993. 39. Warner, Torsten. Shanghai].
Shanghai de Deguo Jianzhu [German Architecture in
In Disici Zhongguo Jindai Jianzhushi Yanjiu Taolunhui Lunwenji
[A Collection of the Fourth Symposium of Modern History of Chinese Architecture] ed. Wang Tan & Zhang Fuhe . Zhongguo Jianzhu
Gongye Chubanshe (China Architecture & Building Press), 1993. 40. Wei, Betty Peh-Ti. 41. Wu, Jiang . Shanghai, Crucible of Modern China. Oxford University Press, 1987.
Shanghai Bai Nian Jianzhu Shi (The History of Tongji Daxue Chubanshe (Tongji
Shanghai Architecture), 1840-1949. University Press), 1997. 42. Wu, Jiang .
Shanghai Jindai Jianzhu Fengge [The Style Shanghai In Dongfang Bali -- Jindai Shanghai Jianzhu Shihua
Architecture in Modern Times].
[Paris of the East, the stories of Shanghai Architecture in Modern Times] ed. Shanghai Jianzhu Shigongzhi Bianweihui [Editorial Committee of the Annals of Shanghai Building Construction].
136
Shanghai Wenhua
Chubanshe (Shanghai Culture Publishing House), 1991. 43. Xin, Ping . Cong Shanghai Faxian Lishi -- Xiandaihua Jincheng Zhong de Shanghairen Jiqi Shehui Shenghuo [History Discovered from Shanghai -- Shanghainese and Their Social Life in the Course of Modernization], 1927-1937. Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai
Peoples Publishing House), 1996. 44. Xiong, Yuezhi ed. Shanghai Tongshi [A Panorama of Shanghai History], Vols.1, 7, 8, 9, 10, & 15. Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai
Peoples Publishing House), 1999. 45. Xu, Jinlin & Chen Dakai ed. [The History of the Modernization of China]. (The Joint Publishing Shanghai), 1995. 46. Yang, Jiayou . Shanghai Lao Fangzi de Gushi (Shanghai, the Zhongguo Xiandaihua Shi Shanghai Sanlian Shudian
Stories of Classic Houses), Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai Peoples Publishing House), 1999. 47. Ye, Yalian & Xia Lingen ed. Shanghai de Faduan [The
Origin of Shanghai], Shanghai Fanyi Chuban Gongsi [Shanghai Translation and Publishing Corporation], 1992. 48. Zhang, Zhongli ed. Jindai Shanghai Chengshi Yanjiu (The Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe
Urban Study of Shanghai in Modern Times).
(Shanghai Peoples Publishing House), 1990. 49. Zheng, Longqing & Xue Yongli . Jiefangqian Shanghai de Gaoceng In
Jianzhu (The High-rise Buildings in Pre-liberation Shanghai).
Jiu Shanghai de Fangdichan Jingying [Management of the Real Estate Business in Old Shanghai] ed. Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhixieshanghuiyi Shanghaishi Weiyuanhui Wenshi Ziliao Weiyuanhui
137
(The Literature and History Committee of the Shanghai Committee of the C.P.P.C.C.). Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe (Shanghai Peoples Publishing House), 1990. 50. Zheng, Shiling . Shanghai Jindai Jianzhu Fengge (The Shanghai Jiaoyu Chubanshe
Evolution of Shanghai Architecture in Modern Times).
(Shanghai Education Publishing House), 1999. 51. Zhongguo Jianzhu (The Chinese Architecture), Zhongguo Jianzhushi Xuehui (the Architects Institute of China), Vol.2, No.8 (1934.8) - Vol.3, No.5 (1935.11), No.24 (1936.2) - 29 (1937.4). 52. Zhu, Jiancheng . Jiu Shanghai Fangdichanye de Xingqi In Jiu Shanghai de Fangdichan
(The Rise of the Real Estate Industry in Old Shanghai).
Jingying [Management of the Real Estate Industry in Old Shanghai] ed. Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhixieshanghuiyi Shanghaishi Weiyuanhui Wenshi Ziliao Weiyuanhui (The Literature and History Committee of the Shanghai Committee of the C.P.P.C.C.). Shanghai Renmin
Chubanshe (Shanghai Peoples Publishing House), 1990. 53. Zou, Yiren . Jiu Shanghai Renkou Bianqian de Yanjiu [A Shanghai Renmin
Demographic Study on the Flux of Population in Old Shanghai].
Chubanshe (Shanghai Peoples Publishing House), 1980.
138
Appendix
HUDEC CHRONOLOGY
Laszlo E. Hudec (1893-1958) (Hietkamp 1998)
1. 1893, born in Besztercebanya, Austria-Hungary; 2. 1914, year 21, graduated from The Royal Joseph University; 3. 1916, year 23, elected to The Royal Institute of Hungarian Architects, joined the army, taken P.O.W. and sent to Khabarovsk in Siberia; 4. 1918, year 25, escaped to Harbin then arrived in Shanghai, and joined the R. A. Curry; 5. 1925, year 32, opened his own office; 6. 1927-28, year 34-35, a tour of Spain and the United States; 7. 1928, year 35, studying brewery design in Munich, Germany; 8. 1930, year 37, studying the latest developments in engineering and architecture in Germany; 9. 1933, year 40, became famous for the Grand Theatre and the Park Hotel; 10. 1947, year 54, left Shanghai migrated to Switzerland; 11. 1958, year 65, died.
139

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Title

Laszlo E. Hudec and modern architecture in Shanghai

Abstract of thesis entitled

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

architecture, most of his works were classified as masterpieces.

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Laszlo E. Hudec (1893-1958) (Johnston 1993: 83)

Foreign Architects in Shanghai before World War II 18

Laszlo Hudec and His Practice in Shanghai42

Conclusion 130 Bibliography 132 Appendix 139

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

ranked as one of the worlds leading financial centers.

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

avant-garde (Hua 2000: 27).

Such recognition Hudec was bestowed on attributed to

relevant studies of Shanghai architecture.

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

between contemporary and ancient writers and themes.

this term for commonplace and trite in a derogatory sense.

called Modernism (Waiguo Jinxiandai: 65).

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

architecture remains vague.

In that light, an exploration for the meaning of

properly answered can Hudecs work be better appreciated. such concerns.

0.2. THEORETICAL BASIS

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

although it is a very important one.

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Hudec Shanghai, 1920s-30s modernity

pattern of modernization: secondary-external challenge / modeling

specialization living standard population growth new way of life

unification foreign impact

industry - foreign / national, trade, real estate

mechanization, new facilities

municipality, rise of nationalism and Chinese bourgeoisie

cosmopolis, settlements, guilds

pop culture, Western fashion

building material / technology / facility

the Greater Plan, Chinese Revival

architects different nations, new types of building

Chart 0-1. Theoretical Framework (drawn on Xin 1996: 19-35).

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

0.4. LITERATURE REVIEW

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

architect and his life.

Chapter 2) all the relevant material she collected.

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

penetrated from one or two perspectives, or treated as examples.

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

Firstly, a piece of work of art is not isolated. It belongs

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

will be observed in the full collection of his work.

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937

0.6. THESIS DESIGN

their significance in the modern history of Shanghai architecture.

0.7. CONTRIBUTION AND LIMITATION

Laszlo E. Hudec and Modern Architecture in Shanghai, 1918-1937