Chinese President Xi Jinping: 'No More Weird Architecture'
Speaking at a literary symposium in Beijing last week, Xi's two-hour speech took shot at Chinese architects and artists who have designed avant-garde style buildings.
Instead, he said that art should "be like sunshine from the blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste, and clean up undesirable work styles."
In other words, the speech was a call for more traditional Chinese art that is patriotic, socialist, and nationalistic at its core.
REUTERS/Alex Lee
Xi's speech comes at a time when China is being noticed and appreciated for its architecture. In 2012, Wang Shu, an Hangzhou architect, became the first man who was born and working in China to win the Pritzker Prize, the architect's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, according to the Wall Street Journal.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Xi also touched on the fact that China is known for copying buildings from the rest of the world, saying that problems like plagiarism and unoriginality were not helping the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.
In the past, Chinese architects have copied famous architect Zaha Hadid as well as created replicas of famous world monuments. They even built a miniature version of Italy.The speech addressed the rampant corruption in Chinese architecture that Xi is trying to curb as well. The Chinese president said that artists should not be "slaves" to the market and the work itself should not have "the stench of money."
David Gray/REUTERS
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