Shanghai, China
Session 4: Dec 1, 2008 – Jan 23, 2009

Xiangning Li is an associate professor of architectural history, criticism and theory at the Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning in Shanghai, China. Li has published widely on contemporary Chinese architecture and urbanism, including a book based on his dissertation, The Real and the Imagined: An Analysis of Value Perspectives in Contemporary Urban Studies. Since 1999, he has been a guest editor and frequent contributor to the Shanghai-based academic journal Time+Architecture. Li recently served as a curatorial consultant and contributor to the 2007 Shenzhen Biennale and the 2008 Shanghai Biennale. He was also a member of the curatorial committee for the Shanghai 2010 EXPO Village’s public art program. In the summer of 2008, Li’s work was featured in an exhibition of Chinese garden architecture in Dresden, Germany. In 2006, he was a visiting scholar at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Xiangning Li received his Ph.D. from Tongji University in 2004.

XIangning Li, Public Presentation, 1/21/08

As an urban theorist, Xiangning Li is concerned with the transplantation, application, adaptation and distortion of Western models in China. During his UFI residency, Li expanded his research on this theme from a different perspective, with the goal of connecting the discourse of Los Angeles urbanism to Shanghai’s contemporary urbanism and suburbanization process. Li examined issues such as urban sprawl, gated communities and multi-centered urbanity in Los Angeles, in search of lessons applicable to Shanghai as it grows and expands.

Li sees many common problems facing Los Angeles and Shanghai, such as social segregation, discontinuity of the cityscape, the banality of the built environment, lack of public spaces, and themed urbanization/suburbanization. Since the beginning of the 20th century, a process of Westernization has characterized Chinese modernization. Shanghai’s development plan for its suburbs, “One City, Nine Towns,” reflects a preference for Western culture, architecture, and urbanism. Through a critical analysis of Los Angeles, Li explored whether American-style suburbanization is an appropriate model for Shanghai.

Xiangning Li