Beyond France University Seminar (Buell Center co-sponsored)
The Return: US-educated Chinese Architects in Shanghai, 1914-1949
October 16, 2026, 12-2pm
300S Buell Hall
Esther Da Costa Meyer (Princeton)
Respondent: Cary Liu (Princeton University Art Museum)
This paper is part of a broader project concerning the impact of colonialism on architectural history. It explores the professional, cultural, and psychological tensions faced by the first generations of US-trained Chinese architects who returned to work in Shanghai, the most important treaty port opened to Western powers following the First Opium War (1839-42). Despite their credentials, they were usually relegated to subaltern positions in foreign architectural offices and met with pervasive forms of racial discrimination. The consolidation of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Guomindang in 1928 ushered in a period of momentous change. Chinese architectural firms proliferated, securing commissions from both the nationalist government and the private sector. Yet the young architects’ liminal position between the transnational networks forged as students abroad and their allegiance to a new, independent China had profound implications for their architecture and their personal lives.
Coffee and snacks will be served at noon, followed by the start of the seminar discussion at 12:30pm. RSVP by filling out this form, or replying to [email protected] by Oct 14. Esther Da Costa Meyer's paper “The Return: US-educated Chinese Architects in Shanghai, 1914-1949” will be emailed a week prior to the seminar to those who RSVP.