Beyond the visuality of Western architecture. The Chinese home from inward haven to outward representation

Abstract

This paper aims at discussing the recent evolutions experienced by housing in Contemporary China through the study of the living habits of wealthy families in the fringes of Shanghai and Chongqing. The copycat phenomenon widespread across Chinese cities is one example, on the one hand, of the transformations of social uses of the house which gains a dimension of visibility; and, on the other hand, of an object that so far has been studied only through Western-centred conceptions of visuality and materiality. This research offers a different perspective, one of the inhabitants of neighbourhoods with exotic atmospheres. The analysis of the discourse of the residents as well as their daily practices of space appropriation and home decoration reveals that the house plays a new role in social interactions. As a social mean of representing the status of its occupants, the outside part of the building, its surroundings and some of the interior are assigned a visual dimension destined to the outside viewers and guests of the family, transforming the relationships between the public and private spheres which duality do not match the one of what is visible and what is invisible. Contrariwise to general views about the Western style neighbourhoods, what is offered to the view does not convey a process of westernisation or acculturation of the daily life, but expresses the will for a liberation from certain social constraints experienced in the former place of residency. The Chinese contemporary home is then, among this wealthier part of the population where domestic space is a valuable resource, the place of production of a new urbanity where different forms of sociality and representations coexist.