Tao Zhu (The University of Hong Kong)

Sites of Memory in Asia: Remembrance and Redemption. Tian’anmen Square, located in the city center of Beijing, is one of the biggest public spaces in the world and the most significant in China. The square went through a radical transformation between 1958 and 1959. The square renovation project, along with Beijing’s 'Ten Great Buildings built in the same period, was considered as a part of an architectural and urban initiative of Mao Zedong’s 'Great Leap Forward.' This lecture examines how the architects and artists working on the project became embroiled in an ongoing struggle to devise a style that would be suitable for the new socialist regime. It also explores how the project, which consumed enormous resources and labor, was built in 10 months to meet the government’s deadline to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the ‘New China,’ at the very moment that China was experiencing one of its most dire socioeconomic crises.