When Europe tried to build Chinese Architecture
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- Опубліковано 2 тра 2024
- In the 18th century, Chinese houses, pavilions and palaces were erected across Europe as part of a fascination with all things oriental. However, Europeans still had a very limited understanding of what China was like, and mixed eye witness accounts and motifs found on imported goods with their own imagination and taste. The result is called Chinoiserie, and in this video I show some noteworthy examples of the buildings this movement created.
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I think British India is the ultimate place for the fusion of architectural styles especially the so called "Saracenic style" which combines Islamic styles with Gothic -one of the most notable examples being the central rail station in Mumbai but there are also loads of rajah's palaces combining Indian styles with baroque and classical.
Sicily had a mix of Latin, greek and muslim architecture styles. It is also very fascinating!
@@kesorangutan6170 The mother of the Bourbon king who had the Palazzina cinese built in Palermo was from the Saxony royal family -famous for the Meissen porcelain -she was responsible for the similar Capodimonte porcelain factory in Naples - there is definitely a link with chinoiserie there!
Almost every Asian country that was colonized or influenced by the West had some architecture that combined those from the East with those from the West
Ah, thank you! That explains why I've seen some buildings in South Asia and Middle East that looked like as if a Gothic Church like the Notre Dame and Islamic Mosque had been fused together.
@@_Just_Another_GuyI set the Gothic Church down, i play Islamic mosque, i play fusion!
I find it interesting when civilizations build in the style of others. Would be cool to see a video on China building European architecture.
It happened and happens. The Chinese equivalent of Chinoiserie is ‘Europenserie’. Two examples of this are the Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan, and more recently Tianducheng. There are multiple replicas of European buildings in China built in recent years too.
@@libebcnofne9835We become París in China lol
Hong Kong
@@libebcnofne9835 Are there any images of Yuanmingyuan in it's former glory? I only see pictures of ruins.
@@edwardkravchuk5659There are drawings and some 3d recreations.
There are many great examples of Chinoiserie buildings in Vietnam, where French architecture was elegantly fused with Asian aesthetics, such as the National History Museum in Hanoi, the City Hall of Saigon, and of course churches all over that country.
Same with the Philippines too. Spanish architecture & Chinese architecture & the native architecture blended together a lot.
Bahay na Bato, the traditional house during the colonial period, is a great example of these three architectural styles blending together. (You see a lot of them in pre-WW2 footage)
The pre-1880 gate of fort Santiago is also a great example. As is many churches across the country. Especially the parts where there were a lot of Chinese settlers.
Yes, and the so called "baroque earthquake" churches
I think the style from Vietnam ended up being its own subgenre, “Indochine” style. I appreciate its aesthetics but know little about its history.
Architectures in Vietnam are not Chinoiserie. Those are styles mixed between French and Vietnamese, not Chinese.
That’s colonial architecture. This is something else.
Conversely Koreans built a Western-style palace called Seokjojeon Palace, Japanese called Akasaka Palace and Chinese called Xiyang Lou at the Old Summer Palace
While they are interesting in their own right, I would say that they're a bit of a different phenomenon. They were all designed by architects and artists trained in the Western tradition. Seokjojeon was designed by a British architect, Akasaka Palace was designed by the protégé of a British architect who also studied design in England and America, and the Xiyang Lou buildings were designed and engineered by European Jesuit scholars. So, I would say that these are creative applications of Western-style architecture in an Eastern setting rather than being imaginative interpretations of Western design in the same way that Chinoiserie was historically an imaginative interpretation of Eastern design.
Well that's because it's called xiyang lou.
@@mikan1546China occupied a fantasy place in Europe's imagination and reports by the Jesuits only embellished it even more, since the Jesuits were trying hard to make a new name for themselves after being so much blamed for the loss of Japan's Christianization (although it was never actually expressive by Japanese standards). Furthermore, China's confucianism was received by European intellectual circles as an authoritative form of despotism so successful that it continued to thrive after thousands of years, the sort of narrative that pleased both absolute regimes in power at the time in Europe and the rising Noblesse de robe (the European equivalents to Chinese scholar-officials)
@@mikan1546and it is interesting to realize the European nations that enjoyed most everyday contact with Chinese people at that time were Portugal, Spain and Netherlands. They didn't initiate the chinoiserie mania and proved to be largely uninterested in the trend after going fashionable in other European nations, which ones were places like France, UK, Italy and Holy Roman Empire, people with little to none contact with the real Chinese. It goes to show China as a fantasy land worked finely for the ones that didn't come to easily meet or know the Chinese. Spain, Portugal and Netherlands were so familiar with the Chinese to the point of launching massacres, Batavia massacre and Sangley Rebellion. China as a barbarous land became more acceptable in Europe's overall consciousness during the course of the 19th century after the 1842 Treaty of Nanking was signed, opening the true face of China to the outside world. Until then, Europeans were exposed to China only through the Canton system, extremely confined to a small piece of land that housed wealthy chinese merchants (Cohong) and confucian men of letters serving Chinese Bureaucracy, showing off the best of chinese glamour and etiquette that could meet European standards, yeah they were aware of them and serving their Nation, for example Chinese export silver imitated European silverwork. This was unlike Macau (Portugal), Batavia and Malacca (Dutch) or Manila (Spain) where the average, miserable and 'Barbarous' Chinese could be readily found, migrants unprepared for dealing with Europe's ego and prone to moral judgment
ua-cam.com/video/WtcwICWzhgE/v-deo.html
Chinoiserie was a fun convergence in the 1700s of the same attitude in the West AND East. In China, the Qianlong Emperor had invited some Jesuit priests to remain long-term at his court. These Jesuits introduced all sorts of European architectural, interior decorating and painting techniques to the Chinese imperial court. So the use of European perspective and realism was incorporated in traditional Chinese paintings, to interesting effect. Then there were European-style pavilions at the Old Summer Palace outside Beijing. The Qianlong Emperor commanded the Jesuits to build for him a pleasure palace in the European manner. So the Jesuits incorporated some Chinese elements into a European rococo building. It was very similar in dimensions and some of its style to the Sans-Souci pleasure palace in Postdam, Germany (then Prussia). Too bad the British and French then went on to burn down this fusion edifice in 1860, during the Second Opium War.
As part of the Jesuit mission to China (which almost succeeded in converting the emperor to Christianity) the Jesuits brought a group of western musicians to China playing what is now called baroque music - the emperor was so enthralled by this music that he couldn't get enough of it an ordered his own musicians to imitate that style.I find it very interesting now, as a lover of western classical music, that east Asians including Chinese,Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Singaporeans and others are at the forefront of playing western classical music and some of the major virtuosos in this genre are Asians like Lang Lang, Sumi Jo, and many many others and that in the Peoples Republic of China itself great cultural centers have been built that have western style orchestras and play western classical music as well as traditional Asian styles. Same thing didn't happen in India and south Asian areas.
Yes was just about to comment this. I visited the HK palace museum and was surprised to see quite a bit of European designs and items, especially clocks and mirrors.
@@kaloarepo288 Very interesting information. Thank you very much!
Thank you very much for this information. Do you know of any books on this subject? I mean the cultural exchanges between Europe and the Chinese empire.
As always a great and very interesting video, I am surprised however that you failed to mention the grandest and most lavish chinoiserie palace of them all, Pillnitz Palace near Dresden. Not just is it an outstanding example of that style, but as you might also know, Dresden/Saxony played an especially important role in the development of the chinoiserie style, since it was there that they first managed to perfectly recreate Chinese porcelain in Europe, which revolutionized porcelain and pottery on the continent.
You're right, I should have included Pillnitz. It was on my list of considered buildings but I forgot about it somewhere along the line! Sorry about that.
@@kingsandthings Mistakes are human. We still love your videos. :)
Like Harry Dresdin?
If you want to go smaller you can also visit the Fasanenschlösschen in Moritzburg. Overall our Kings tried to imitate France a bit at the time.
I love the Italian building just for the sheer weirdness of it.
I have been fascinated by all these examples of mutual cultural fascination between the East and the West. There are so many examples both in the different epochs of history and today. I always felt that it came from the fact that, both ends of the Old Continent feel that, in a way, they are looking into a very distorted mirror: we both see societies with very similar and very different characteristics to our own, and both societies feel deeply curious about what they see. Maybe atracted, maybe disgusted -I would say it depends on the historical moment-, but both sides cant seem to be able to look away.
The gaming japanese industry making games inspired in the European Middle Ages, the European impressionists taking heavy inspiration from the recently opened japanese culture, the Chinoiserie showed in this video and the Europeneserie that some people have mentioned in the comments... Its a topic that deserves a deeper investigation.
Edit: typos.
Perfectly worded… even in Southeast Asia there’s the Grand Palace in Bangkok which mixed European and Thai architecture. In the Philippines (Bahay na Bato) mixed Spanish and Indigenous architecture… Look up (Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar) on the web. The Spaniards also adopted local Philippine fashion and it spread throughout their empire and Europe as a whole. The pre-colonial women of the Philippines, especially those in Manila wore shawls called (Alampay)... the upper class women wore silk shawls which were highly embroidered with gold thread and beads. These shawls were adopted by the Spaniards and they referred to them as (Manton de Manila) or (Manila Shawls), this fashion spread to their American colonies and later to Spain itself, you’d actually see Spanish women dancing Flamenco with Manila Shawls.
@@dayangmarikit6860 Absolutely!! Im Spaniard myself and the mantones are a very priced, high quality product very much rooted in Spanish culture, wore in special occasions.
Dejima neighbourhood in Nagasaki, Japan comprises of buildings fusing both Japanese & Dutch culture (as Dutch traders lived there)
I’ve been to The Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm, Sweden. It’s location is at the far end of the garden so if you have mobility issues be aware you may need to rest half way. The palace is on the Public Transport line so very convenient for traveling from Stockholm. Definitely the palace overall (including the theatre) is worth the half day trip. If I were to go back I’d take the boat ride to get there.
Same. Went there this summer and felt like dying while walking there😂
But the place is quite beautiful and interesting, in particular the room construction in the upper floor
I wonder what the Chinese would think of it, both modern ones and ones from the past at the time these buildings were made.
A sign of the times. It's nice to think that it existed, unfortunately history gets darker from here on out.
As for the actual style, it's obvious that they were more focused on the trappings rather than the concepts, so perhaps translation was poor back in their time. Not to mention, Confucius receives a lot of attention but not Laozi, which is indicative of the relative influence of Confucian scholars probably misleading Europeans into thinking that Confucianism (and neo-Confucianism at that) was all that had to be studied. The naturalism inherent to Daoism and ergo the general understanding and compositing of architecture and nature is missing, especially since that should be most prominent in garden designs. Regardless, there is definitely a lot of love and attention in these Chinoiserie buildings, and it is probably on us that the information was so poor.
The final one, the Sicillian one, looks positively post-modern in it's massive clash of styles. It wouldn't look out of place in the Trafford Centre!
yea, it's the ugliest building in the video
This strange architecture fusion would make a great videogame or fantasy film setting.
This is fascinating! I notice that the color schemes and the overall aesthetics all look very similar to the ones favored but the Peranakan Chinese in the olden days. Peranakan Chinese are the descendants of Chinese men who married native Indonesian (and other countries in Southeast Asia) women who were Western educated, assimilated to the local culture, but maintained Chinese traditions.
True, I'm a Peranakan Baba myself. Our traditional houses are colourful and mixed with countless cultures together, most notably western with Chinese structures. In Malacca and Penang of Malaysia, there are Peranakan mansions still standing after decades and possibly more than a century. Some became hotels, some became museums. Sadly these mansions are no longer built anywhere in the world due to its difficult details and structures. The last places with these mansions are in 2 states of Malaysia which are Penang island and Malacca.
Love this video! I was in the royal palace in Madrid a few years ago and I was so confused why a few rooms had depictions of what looked like Qing dynasty life on some of the ceilings. Now I have my answer!
Excellent video! I've been fascinated by Chinoiserie for years, but there's not as much content about it on UA-cam as I'd like
I really enjoy these videos. Very relaxing and escapist. They leave one with the same refreshed feeling as after having spent an hour or two in a great European museum or palace.
its always a treat when you upload!
At 13:52. Fun fact: there is a similar trompe l'oeil hall in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. The Qianlong Emperor was enamored with the Jesuits at his court, especially when they introduced European-style realism and perspective to Chinese painting. So he commanded these Jesuits to paint for him a huge hall with trompe l'oeil all over in the 1780s. It was to be part of the emperor's retirement quarters, as he was pretty old by then. It is a magnificent hall, filled with all sorts of European-style illusions but with Chinese symbolism incorporated throughout. It was renovated about 20 years ago, though I think it's still closed to the public. I think nowadays only distinguished foreign guests of the Chinese government are allowed to see it.
This is fascinating. As someone from a culture whose architecture is an amalmagation of European and Asian styles resulting into what people would call arquitectura mestizaje, seeing this gives me a sense of familiarity.
Suena a Filipinas. ¿de dónde eres?
@@enzocompanbadillo5365 Sí, Soy de las Filipinas . ¿Como supiste? 😂
@@hijodelsoldeoriente I mean, mestizaje is a word in Spanish (Language previously spoken in Philippines) and the most populous Spanish colony in Asia were the Philippines.
As a fellow from the same island group, I agree.
Marvelous video. The images, music, and narration are fabulous. Thank you for putting the time and effort into this topic.
Phenomenal video as always. I really appreciate your topics and how well researched they all are. Everything is presented so well. Absolutely love it!
Tivoli gardens have a few interesting Chinese and Indian inspired buildings too. The Nimb, the Pantomime theatre and the Chinese pagoda.
The Tivoli gardens in Copenhagen takes its name from the Villa de Este in Tivoli near Rome especially the hundreds of fountains in the gardens.
I was there three weeks ago, it's fantastic! 😄
You’re my favorite channel on YT! Love your content. Please don’t stop uploading anytime soon! :)
Not only Chinese, the French also tried to build Vietnamese architectures, when they colonised Vietnam, they found that many of the previous Lê dynasty buildings was destroyed by the Nguyễn dynasty when the Nguyễn took over Vietnam, many French architects tried to revise these old sites and want to build some back in France but ended up resulting in creating "Indochinese" architectures meaning a blend of Nguyễn dynasty Vietnamese + French + Late Qing Chinese architects
wow this is super interesting. I never even knew that much about this style. Also I once again just have to comment on how loveley and soothing your videos are, they are truly one of a kind
That was an exceptional collection, fantastic work, thank you
Excellent research reference, illustrations. and narration. Thank you for a high quality production.
Thank you for making this video. I been looking for this for long time.
Informative, interesting and relaxing narration, thank you. The subdued tone is very easy on my ears.
Congrats on your video! Super nicely done and full of accurate information
The intricate details, vibrant colors, and traditional elements can create a captivating and harmonious ambiance in your living spaces. Embracing this design can reflect your appreciation for rich cultural aesthetics and a sense of timeless elegance in your home.
Feel how useless this lazy shit is, random AI-written comments on an architectural video essay. ChatGPT was a mistake for UA-cam lmao
Great video as always!
i really appreciate your videos on architecture, it is really informative, i hope you make more
Fascinating! Thank you for a great video!
Man, it looks marvelous
Thank you KaT for showing us this beautiful style
I think these styles were much more common and widespread and deliberately dismantled to melt down the copper and gold or simply relocate artifacts to private residences during times of upheaval. Many barebone structures have strikingly obviously empty reliefs that clearly once held something. Its interesting to ponder whether or not the brick towers worldwide once had the typical chinese style canopies adorned on them
I love your voice and presentation of the topic.
At 0:32. Fascinating. I had never heard of a European pleasure palace built completely of porcelain. That was a very expensive undertaking back in the 1670s. Porcelain was worth its weight in gold. The Chinese did the same, building a giant porcelain tower in Nanjing in the early 1400s. Since the Chinese were way better with porcelain making, the tower stood the test of time and lasted centuries instead of seeing cracks within 10 year of construction. This porcelain tower so amazed European and Arab visitors that it became a true "wonder of the world" back before the mid-1800s, when it was destroyed during a Chinese civil war.
Great video :D
It was highly interesting to watch, especially because I went to many locations somehow connected with this topic: The Tivoli Theme Park in Copenhagen, the first European porcelain manufacturer in Meißen, the Zwinger in Dresden, as well as the Palace of Sanssouci.
Fun fact: Apparently, Frederick the Great was so jealous at the Meißner porcelain, that he stole lots of it during the Seven Years Wars, while fighting against Saxony.
Delightful! I appreciate your work - Thank You!
Really interesting mini documentary. And wonderful speaking voice. Well done and thank you.
And now the Chinese build European architecture, we've all come full circle bootlegging each other
Another great video that transports the viewer to another age.
Fun fact: there is a small town in southern Poland called Žywiec. There is a park with a Chinese style pavillion in a local park.
I remember watching German detective films in my childhood, that all pretended to be set in England but were actually shot in Germany with classic English style castles and manors.
Edgar Wallace …..don’t forget England and Germany are not too dissimilar
They're basically the equivalent of "McMansions" in the U.S.
"McMansions" are American fancy-pants houses that incorporate various European styles from different decades.
For example, there'd be a rounded bay wall windows from the Victorian era houses, then right beside it would be pillars and a little balcony over the front door from the Tudor era house style.
Wow! Never knew, very interesting & enlightening, thank you very much!
Most beautiful video, Bravo!
Thank you for the video!
I especially love the Chinoiserie garden follies built by the aristocracy during this time. Stunning and whimsical.
One of the best channels on UA-cam! The channel for the cultured man
Now do when China tries to build European architecture or Asia trying to build European architecture, there’s many examples of it. They even added Asian elements to the buildings when they built European architecture.
There's a government building in Cambodia that is French and Khmer inspired. I believe it's called the ministry of Urban planning.
For those interested Chinoiserie was also a very nice style in clock cases. Especially the grandfather clock variants can be spectacular.
Waiting for more videos from you
Your architecture videos are igniting a spark within me which I was not aware of:) a suggestion on my part, could you make an architecture video on Albert Speer?
I wish Catherine the Great's village could have been completed, the drawings are remarkably accurate to actual Chinese architecture of the time and I think it would have been incredible to see
Very interesting video with a pleasant narrative voice; the absence of the Prince Regent/Geroge IV's Brighton Pavilion should perhaps be noted.
It's not really Chinoiserie though? Rather more inspired by India. Not sure what that makes it other than an example of orientalism.
@@lucycooper9149 There is a Chinese room there, but yes, the palace in its day was known as 'Hindoo style'.
I am so fond of your channel bro
interesting history to learn thank you for this
Asian style architecture was a great influence in europe after the discovery of the maritine route to India and China because it allowed architects to more easily travel there and look at architectural traditions separated from the classical and medieval european tradition. Basically, it allowed their creativity flowrish because they weren't as tied down to the old ways as before. It also helped with the study of urbanism in indian and chinese cities where they followed a more "heavenly" way of urbanism, meaning their streets were dictated by religious and cultural practics instead of an economic and defensive system that europe developed
there is a religious tradition that existed in europe, religious and cultural background of europe also played into how they structured their urbanism.
@@johnisaacfelipe6357 in some ways yes and no. if we go back to the classical period our cities were built around a common square that was dedicated to public commerce and judicial hearings, because their society was very law based and wanted to incorporate the whole of the city. In the medieval period we started to diverge into more isolated settlements around feudal keeps and in larger cities the city centers of before were replaced with compact housing and artisanal crafts. This was because the focus was on protection around the feudal lord. Now, during renaissance we reverted back to a form of urbanism focused around public squares and interconnected, rational designs because of the humanist movement of the era. Onwards it was more of the same.
@@nunosilva187 sounds like fake history, in many city and town squares around europe lies a church or cathedral, only in modernity has europe lost its religious expressions.
Asian style architecture was never a great influence in Europe
@@Flymoki13 I would say that there was some significant influence though to say that europe had no local religious and cultural schema in its urbanism is utterly ridiculous
Thanks for bringing attention to this!
Beautiful!
Really enjoyed. My favorite is the pavillon in Potsdam. But why did you exclude the Pillnitz Castle outside of Dresden?
I love some of these videos, and I suggest a topic: the most impressive historical mausoleums. Whether they hold the remains of kings, popes, or robber barons.
fascinating!
Please more videos on projects that could have been in the world
It feels like some high fantasy elven architecture designs were derived from chinoiserie. I'm looking at Rivendell with it's peculiar roof crenelations, and window placements resembling nets. Also, night elf's kaldorei in world of warcraft resembles east asian cities.
European and Chinese architecture mixed together is just **Chef's Kiss** I wish it could come back because they really do complement eachother well!!
once heard my grandparent said, "Westerner of the Europe love our Chinese decoration, is such exotic work of art".
i saw the pagoda in kew 3 weeks ago, it is a spectacular building with amongst the other ones on site. That was the first time i saw something like this.
very cool and insightful vid! thank you ! would like to know more about chinoiserie
great video.
I never knew this exist extremely fascinating, we learn something new everyday it is.
I would very much like to see Germans building in Chinese and Japanese styles, and vice versa. These are cultures and styles that would be interesting to mix.
Man voice is so relaxing I forget to focus on what he's saying
Fascinating
fascinating
Interesting tidbit, that map at 2:00 is on display in the National Archeological Museum of Venice. It's a masterpiece.
kew garden , really wonderful 🎉
0:53 that looks incredible
03:10 - I love your use of this paining for the word "lighthearted" because its meaning is quite the opposite 😂
Very interesting. Beautiful buildings. Also, can you give me a playlist of the background music?
“á la chinoise” would be more like “chinese-like”. “Chinoiserie” is a noun and would be closer to “chinesery” if we had such a word
Pillnitz castle near Dresden is another impressive example of what royalty back then imagined life and architecture to look like in the Far East.
Palermo is my home, thanks for sharing la Palazzina Cinese
Could you add a list of sources for the information? It sounds fascinating, but I’m always nervous about digesting UA-cam history videos if I don’t know where the person got the facts. 🙂 ❤
You can really tell the difference in buildings constructed out of fascination of the culture vs fascination with what seems exotic... huge divide between tackiness and tastefulness.
Do a video on when china tried to do western architecture (Xiyang Lou)
5:00 Can confirm those are the most accurate depiction of Chinese I've ever seen in Europe
I think I read somewhere that they were modeled on people who just happened to live nearby. So if you could travel back in time to the 18th century you might find these people on the streets of Potsdam!
I lived in Palermo. I never made it inside that house but went to the gardens.
Thanks
Some people get a tattoo due to a fling or lover, but he made a pavilion/estate. When things didn't go well, unlike a tattoo some people would cover up or disguise it with another, he built over what was there with something much larger.
The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England, is often overlooked as a masterpiece of Chinoiserie because the outside is evocative of Mughal architecture.
9:32 woah i used to play shows in the confidance! it’s really fun to know why it was called that… i’m happy that i stumbled across this video!
Would you add subtitles? It would be great
Very good
Now this is interesting
Ooohhhh... No okay but I really like this style it's so cute and whimsical
There is a story about British musician and film star George Formby that when he became very rich and successful he bought a large house and decided to have a "Chinese Room" made. He hired some local decorators to fully redecorate and furnish the room with "Chinoiserie'. It seems that the decorators had little knowledge of China or Chinese style, because the story goes that when a reporter visited and was shown around the house he found the room full of Hebrew writing.