Travelers across America in the 1930s would’ve had a fairly easy time finding architectural landmarks—and the scholars actively visiting and studying them.
But at the same time in China, the exact opposite was the case. Per Smithsonian magazine, “… no official records of historic structures that survived in the provinces,” and it was perilous at best trying to navigate the Chinese countryside in search of the country’s long forgotten architectural gems.
A pair of trailblazers from the country—architect Liang Sicheng and his poet wife, Lin Huiyin—who had been educated in America, made sure, upon their return home, that China’s ancient structures got the respect they deserved.
What they were doing was largely foreign to the Chinese at the time; as Smithsonian‘s Tony Perrottet puts it, they were “espousing the Western idea that historic structures are best studied by firsthand observation on field trips.” It doesn’t seem all that groundbreaking to an American audience, but at the time, it was a huge leap forward for the Chinese, who had not embraced this type of historical study of architectural structures.
The pair, along with a number of other academics, ended up “discovering” some 2,000 sites throughout China.
To learn more about the husband-and-wife team who helped save (and promote) some of the greatest architecture in the world, click here. Below, watch a CCTV documentary on the pair.
—RealClearLife Staff
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