Essay Sample on Beijing in Splendor: Examining the Physical Structure of a City

The significance of the physical structure of any city is overshadowed by its ability to facilitate the movements of its inhabitants, the feelings it conveys to its visitors, and its classic design that allows it to rise beyond its ruins in the future. The natural features of a city determine its ability to change amid challenges in the governing parties and in the wake of urbanization. Wu Hung, who was born and grew Beijing, paints a picture of the state of the city shone in splendor the late 1940's. In his literary work, he provides an analysis of the struggles that have been witnessed in efforts to reinvent Beijing amid protests by the then ruling regime. Remaking Beijing draws attention to the transformation of Tiananmen Square, which is considered the most sacred space by the people of China.

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He has helped in the exploration and comprehension of how the Square has become a benchmark for modern China's official art. It has become a site where museums narrating the history of the country are located in addition to becoming a source to inspiration to the contemporary artists who continue to create paintings, photographs, and stage their live performances. He further explores how the site has transformed into a public space for people to express the political frustrations from a domain that was solely restricted to the imperialists.

Furthermore, he analyzes the construction of Chinese society at a time when the regime was against efforts to modernize China. He explores how the proposal to build a new capital city for the country was met with rejection from the authorities who wanted Beijing to remain an ancient city. His work is an illustration of how the thirst for modernity drove China to building a city that accommodated the needs of the ruling class as well as those of the majority of the population, especially those living and working in Beijing.

In addition, he provides details on the influence of the ruling and political elites in the development of a city. For instance, he demonstrates how the Communist Party sought to assert its authority by transforming the city of Beijing into a socialists' city through the symbolism that is associated with Tiananmen Square. The literary work also elaborates Beijing's transformation in terms of infrastructure and structures, especially its coextensive expansion on its outer side. Wu Hung's devotion to the explanation of how the Communist Party and the general public, including the professionals and artists, sought to alter the square and its monuments is evident in this and other pieces of literary work.

The book gradually describes the Square's symbolic alterations from a constricted domain of the imperialists to a public space that fostered political expression of a modern nation as well as providing a platform where artists could stage their performances. It is upon the reader to identify the consequences of Square's altered symbolism for Beijing's urban identity and its impact on the political reality of the people of China.

Particularly, he opines that the fundamental feature of the architectural program of traditional Beijing was the fact that Tiananmen was closely connected to the Imperial City as it served as the front gate. The Imperial City could only be accessed by the royal family and the elite and had guarded gates and thick walls. It was, therefore, inaccessible to the common citizen, but the noblemen and ministers would gain entry on special occasions to the throne of the emperor. The ordinary citizen access to the city was compared to their access to secrecy and power. This arrangement allowed the emperor to retain power over the people given that he was invisible from the outside, but from his private space, he could see everything in the outside. Thus, the design of the Imperial City of Beijing was a manifestation of the ancient, powerful political philosophy, which made it a sight to behold.

The central gate of the Tiananmen was used in instances when the emperor needed to leave the Forbidden City for official functions. However, even when it was not used as a royal passageway, the Tiananmen still held a symbolic threshold in that all the grand ceremonies and rituals were performed in the square. The nature of the ritual performances in the by the royalties explains how the pre-modern Tiananmen Square worked in terms of the interactions between the ruler and his subjects. Their communication was through symbols with no direct contact. During this era, the Tiananmen Square, which was the front of the Imperial City, was important in concealing while at the same time exhibiting imperial power.

In the wake of the modern era in China, Tiananmen became accessible to the general public. The left and the right Chang'an gates to the Imperial City were opened permanently, enabling the connection of the Tiananmen to the city of Beijing, allowing the public scrutiny of the once-powerful gates and walls at a close range even though by then, they had been dilapidated. There were other significant changes in Tiananmen Square, such as the demolition of the Imperial City walls and the fall of the front section of the forbidden city that contributed to the isolation of the gate tower ripping it off its symbolic context and authentic architecture.

The modern era presented myriad opportunities for the transformation of Tiananmen as all of the structures that surrounded it were converted into public spaces used for a number of functions. Thus, the area before the Tiananmen was open to the public and became suitable for demonstrations and political gatherings. They were mostly from intellectuals of colleges in Beijing and the liberals who were engaging in both controversies arising from the international and national spheres. One of the memorable demonstrations held at the space was the Fourth demonstration, which ushered in a new perspective in the history of Chinese politics, in that demonstrations by the masses and their public opinion were identified as robust forces that could influence politics at national and international levels. In addition, the fourth demonstration revealed a new and unique type of public space in China, given that it led to the country's acquisition of identity and significance as a result of the public opinions and demonstration that were manifested there. Therefore, as the size and power of demonstration heightened, so was the significance of the Tiananmen representative of the political space.

Notably, Tiananmen continued to experience transformation through remodeling and redecoration in efforts aimed at enhancing its significance. Tiananmen experienced gradual detachment from its original architectural context to becoming the recognized symbol of the new regime symbolizing the leadership of the people and the unity of the people aligned to the revolutionary movement. However, Tiananmen Square continues to hold its traditional identity relevance as an architectural front while still constituting the face of authority even though in a different sense.

In addition, Wu Hung specifically views Tiananmen and Mao's Tiananmen portrait as the face of the authority. He offers three suggestions on the implications of mian (face), which include a mask or a portrait, architectural frontage, and an indicator of dimensional relationships and system in a way that enables the comprehension of the concept of face by the People's Republic of China. He brings in contrast to the emperors whose identity and presence was concealed/ masked behind big walls and gates and the modern-day leaders of the nation who disclosed their faces to the public. He offers explanations behind the appearance of several portraits of the country's influential leaders, including those of Sun Yat and Chiang Kaishek. Mao's portrait, which appeared in 1949 after the capture of Beijing by the communist party, has remained in the square for more than six decades. The longevity of the Mao portrait could be attributed to its annual repainting and alterations in its versions, which Wu Hung interprets as the demonstration of how the portrait's representation and meaning was subject to reinterpretations that were based on the dominant political principles. For instance, he compares the original portrait of 1949, which is a revelation of the distinctive style of the artists and the traces of informality while the subsequent versions are quite impersonal and stylized, with Mao's gaze seemingly dominating the Tiananmen Square.