Chinese President Xi Jinping: ‘No More Weird Architecture’

By Megan Willett 

Flickr: Toby Simkin China's CCTV building was made fun of for looking 
like a pair of pants.

Chinese president Xi Jinping is fed up with his country’s 
fascination with what he calls “weird architecture,” 
the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Speaking at a literary symposium in Beijing last week, 
Xi’s two-hour speech took shot at Chinese architects and 
artists who have designed avant-garde style buildings.

Instead, he said that art should “be like sunshine from the 
blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, 
warm hearts, cultivate taste, and clean up undesirable work 
styles.” 

In other words, the speech was a call for more traditional 
Chinese art that is patriotic, socialist, and nationalistic at its 
core. 

REUTERS/Alex Lee This gold coin building in Guangzhou is not your average 
skyscraper.

Xi believes that the art and architecture in China should appeal 
to the average Chinese citizen, who should also be the main 
subject of all artwork.
His sentiment hearkens back to late 
Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s idea that the working class in 
China should not only be the major audience for all art, but 
that it should be a reflection of their everyday lives, according 
to Xinhua.

Xi’s speech comes at a time when China is being noticed and 
appreciated for its architecture. In 2012, Wang Shu, an 
Hangzhou architect, became the first man who was born and 
working in China to win the Pritzker Prize, the architect’s 
equivalent of the Nobel Prize, according to the Wall Street 
Journal.

REUTERS/Carlos Barria This art space in Wuxi looks like a clay teapot.

Of course, not all of China’s bizarre buildings are a hit. Rem 
Koolhaas’ CCTV headquarter building was nicknamed “big 
pants” for its bizarre shape, a building in the Jiangsu province 
was mocked for looking like a clay teapot in the Jiangsu 
province, and there was also a bizarre 33-story building in 
Guanzhou that looked like a giant coin.

Xi also touched on the fact that China is known for copying 
buildings from the rest of the world, saying that problems 
like plagiarism and unoriginality were not helping the 
Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort The Sheraton Huzhou 
Hot Spring Resort is sometimes known as the "moon hotel."

In the past, Chinese architects have copied famous architect 
Zaha Hadid as well as created replicas of famous world 
monuments. They even built aminiature version of Italy. 

The speech addressed the rampant corruption in Chinese 
architecture that Xi is trying to curb as well. The Chinese 
president said that artists should not be “slaves” to the market 
and the work itself should not have “the stench of money.”

David Gray/REUTERS A canal runs through China's forgery of Italy.