Contemporary Squares of China--Nanjing Case Study

In urban history books about Chinese cities, all the vivid descriptions of traditional urban life convey one message--as an important part of the city today, square seems to be absence in China’s past. Square was imported to China along with the establishment of concessions. When foreigners (Russian/German/Italian/, etc.) introduce square toChina along with constructing their concessions, they would never image that Chinese square will become something highly peculiar and unusual in many ways after 100 years. However, the form and function of Chinese square appear quite similar with European square in the very beginning, so what forms the peculiar characters of Chinese today? The answer to this question may start from China’s failure of ‘the first Sino-Japanese war, since then The foundation of Chinese ideology and philosophy--Confucianism was doubted and questioned. Meanwhile, Social Darwinism was influential and prevailed nationwide. the direct influence of these 2 transformations are western culture was considered as higher potential culture. This idea leading to the disappear of traditional public spaces like streets and appear of western public spaces like squares or parks. With the purpose to reform the public life and remake the public space, there are 3 stages for square design in China.All these ideological transformations and urban reform have 3 points influence square design of China, the first is the disappear of China's traditional street culture, the second is the residue of collectivism since Mao's era, the third is the influence of the Soviet Union and Beaux-Arts system. In this context, there are similar and peculiar characters in both form and function. In this study, Nanjing was selected as studying subject. Nanjing was the capital of China on many occasions. The name Nanjing literally means ‘the southern capital’ and its counterpart is Beijing—means ‘the northern capital’. Among them, the urban design of Ming Empire and Republic China contributes greatly to influence the urban structure of Nanjing today. All the five cases selected for study have close relationship with traces of republic china, 3 of them have relationship with remains of Ming Empire.