Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgments.- Introduction: City Branding and Cultural Facilities—boosting Chinese cities .- Development of Theaters and the City in Beijing: the 1950s and After the 1980s.- To Be Cultural Capital—grand theaters in Shanghai.- Guangzhou Opera House: Building a Gated Public Space.- City Center Shifting and Cultural Facilities - Performance Space in Shenzhen.- Growing with the City: Theatrical Buildings in Chongqing.- The Henan Art Center: From Dilemma to Ambition.- The Shanxi Grand Theater: “Renaissance” of Chinese Drama Land.- A Butterfly by the Lake – Wuxi Grand Theater.- The National Taichung Theater: experimenting publicity of metropolitan urbanism.- From Colonial to Global—performance space in Hong Kong.- Appendix.- Bibliography.- Index.

About the Author

Dr. Charlie Q. L. Xue has taught architecture at Shanghai Jiaotong University; the University of Texas, USA; and City University of Hong Kong. An award-winning architect and writer, he has published 12 books, including Building a Revolution: Chinese Architecture since 1980 (HKU Press, 2006), Hong Kong Architecture 1945-2015: From Colonial to Global (Springer, 2016), and A History of Design Institutes in China (with Guanghui Ding, Routledge, 2018), and research papers in international refereed journals such as The Journal of Architecture, Urban Design International, Habitat International, and Cities. Xue’s research focuses on modern architecture in China and design strategies for high-density environments.