Chinese Pagodas on the World Stage: Models from the Tushanwan Orphanage, 1915

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This book tells the remarkable tale of a set of 84 model pagodas made at the Tushanwan Orphanage in Shanghai. An extraordinary combination of cultures and historical intentions, th ey depicted monuments of traditional Chinese culture for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a world’s fair held in San Francisco in 1915. The models show not only Buddhist pagodas but also an Islamic minaret, feng shui literary towers, and defensive structures, in a wide variety styles and materials, dating from the Tang to the Qing. Now in the collection of the Asian Civilisations Museum, they are a vital architectural archive that preserves these structures as they stood at the turn of the twentieth century. Show more