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"Urban China: Work In Progress" is a groundbreaking publication that brings together many of China's most influential contemporary writers, photographers, and critics. Drawn from the pages of "Urban China," a monthly magazine that combines politics, sociology, mass media, architecture, art, and literature, the book provides an intimate view to a century of radical modernization in China. Organized around three basic themes - society, family, and education - the book fans out to cover an expansive range of topics, offering personal perspectives on a culture that is influential, often discussed, but little understood. Presented here for the first time in English, the essays, photos, maps, diagrams, and illustrations that comprise "Work In Progress" establish a new paradigm for the study of Chinese cultural construction.
“An excellent magazine... Every month Urban China attempts the seemingly impossible - to construct a coherent narrative about a landscape that is changing by the minute.” - Rem Koolhaas
“I have been a fan of Urban China for a long, long time. It is a great example of how a magazine can be a laboratory and also a time capsule.” - Hans Ulrich Obrist
“Urban China has done a great job to become a really unique magazine on urban issues.” - Hou Hanru
This book is drawn primarily from three issues, Building Socialist New Village (Urban China#12), Chinese Family (#19), and Chinese Education (#22). These three were originally created to coincide with Documenta 12, each reacting to one of the exhibition’s three key topics. Issue 12 responds to the question “Is modernity our antiquity?” by examining the New Village, a stacked concept that implies both historical continuity and radical change. Issue 19 offers a response to “What is bare life?” by reducing Chinese society to its most fundamental social unit, the family. Issue 22 answers “What is to be done?” by declaring education the most important component of China’s remaining modernization.
Taken together, these issues cover large sections of the Chinese cultural landscape, connecting its imperial past to its globalized present. By presenting a perspective that looks simultaneously inward and outward, forward and backward, this book tries to apply to the process of modernization the benefit of hindsight, locating China’s current condition within a continuum of modern and pre-modern behavior, and redefining the drive to modernize as an effort to tie-in rather than catch up, an often unintentional process of applying new practices to ancient principles.
Translated in full for the first time, this selection offers a sample of the vigorous self-examination in which the PRC is currently engaged. The work is presented in draft form to emphasize the effort’s uncertain outcome. Annotations are offered in the form of excerpts, which tie together seemingly unrelated articles and provide an alternate route through the book.
For the past four years, Urban China has recorded revolution in real time. This collection represents a small sample of their findings, an internal progress report, reformatted for external use. It is a reminder of how much we have to learn, and an indication of how China, having spent the past century remaking itself, may someday remake the world.
— Brendan McGetrick
《城市中国：行进中》是一本汇集了众多中国最具影响力的当代作家、摄影师和批评家的极具突破性的出版物。它是从《城市中国》这份囊括了政治学、社会学、大众媒体、建筑、艺术和文学等多样元素的月刊杂志的海量内容中精选而成，向读者提供了一个透视中国激进的城市化进程的亲密视角。围绕着三个基本主题：社会、家庭以及教育，本书覆盖了极其广泛的话题，提供了资深的专业人士们关于文化—一个经常被论及但却极少被真正理解的现象—的个人见解。作为第一个英文版本，书中大量的论文、照片、地图、图表以及插图建构了一个研究中国文化建设的新的典范。
“ 这是本极其出色的杂志……每个月《城市中国》都试图完成一个看似不可能的任务—持续而连贯的叙述着一个关于随时都在发生变化的城市风景的故事。”
—瑞姆.库哈斯（RemKoolhaas）
“长久以来我一直都是《城市中国》的忠实读者，它是一个伟大的榜样，告诉我们要怎么做才能让一本杂志成为一个实验室以及我们时代中那些具有重要代表性的文物的保存器。”—汉斯.乌尔里希.奥布里斯特（Hans Ulrich Obrist）
“《城市中国》通过卓越的工作已经成为了一本独一无二的关于城市问题的杂志。”—侯瀚如
FULL TITLE: Urban China Work in Progress
SUBTITLE: Selections from the Magazine
13 DIGIT ISBN WITH DASHES: 978-988-18033-9-9
IMPRINT: Timezone 8
US RETAIL PRICE: $40.00
PAGES: 208
WIDTH: 9.96
HEIGHT: 12.34
BOOK FORMAT: Vertical
PRODUCT_FORM: Paperback
BINDING SPECIFICS: Other
ILLUSTRATED: True
COLOR: 355
BLACK AND WHITE: 114
DUOTONE:
TRITONE:
TOTAL PRINT RUN: 2,000
OFF PRESS/BOUND BOOK DATE: 04/30/09
PROPOSED PUB DATE: 07/01/09
COUNTRY BOOK IS SHIPPING FROM: China
DESCRIPTION_SHORT: "Work In Progress" is a groundbreaking publication that brings together many of China's most influential contemporary writers, photographers, and critics. Drawn from the pages of "Urban China," a monthly magazine that combines politics, sociology, mass media, architecture, art, and literature, the book provides an intimate view to a century of radical modernization in China. Organized around three basic themes - society, family, and education - the book fans out to cover an expansive range of topics, offering personal perspectives on a culture that is influential, often discussed, but little understood. Presented here for the first time in English, the essays, photos, maps, diagrams, and illustrations that comprise "Work In Progress" establish a new paradigm for the study of Chinese cultural construction.
SELLING POINTS: First time translated in English, local perspective on Chinese politics, history, art, and urban life, strong photography, inexpensive, innovative design
WEBSITE LINK 1: http://www.iurbanchina.com
SAMPLE LAYOUTS: Urban China-DAP PDF.pdf
EXHIBITIONS: "Urban China: Informal Cities" at New Museum in New York 2/11/09 - 3/29/09 then traveling to Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
CONTRIBUTOR 1 NAME: Brendan McGetrick
CONTRIBUTOR 1 ROLE: Edited by
CONTRIBUTOR 1 SHORT BIO: Brendan McGetrick is an independent writer, editor, and designer. His work has appeared in publications in over twenty countries, including Wired, Art Review, Domus, and Casa BRUTUS. His recent projects include the books Becoming (Ivory Press, 2008) and MAD Dinner (Actar, 2008), as well as 桌志 | Eat Up, a magazine about consumption formatted as a table cloth. From 2002-2006, he served as head writer at the research studio AMO.
CONTRIBUTOR 2: Jiang Jun
CONTRIBUTOR 2 ROLE: Introduction by
CONTRIBUTOR 3 NAME:
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