Constructing 'Asia' and the 'West': discourses of orientalism and occidentalism in Early 20th Century Building Journals

Abstract

The past two decades has seen a significant growth of academic and popular publications on architecture of Asia. In tandem with this development is the continual broadening of the scope of architectural history education, wherein selective “non-Western” urban forms and building traditions have now become standardized components of many textbooks and survey courses. These changes have been shaped in part by the increased engagement of architectural scholars with critical approaches borrowed from the humanities and socials sciences, particularly postcolonial and poststructuralist theories, which have helped unsettle longstanding Eurocentric narratives in conventional art and architectural historiographies. At the same time, the growing interest in architecture in Asia is propelled by more widespread enthusiasms in “Asian” civilizations and achievements amidst the anticipated arrival of the “Asian century.” Meanwhile, the uneven development within the Asian region itself, most notably between the wealthier nations in East and Southeast Asia and their poorer, less “modernized” counterparts elsewhere, has led to self-conscious efforts to associate with or differentiate one region from another, as well as scripting of new narratives of “Asian modernities” that rival or bypass the “West.”