The Park Hotel, Shanghai (1931-1934) and its architect, Laszlo Hudec (1893-1958) : "Tallest Building in the Far East" as metaphor for pre-communist Shanghai

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dc.contributor.authorHietkamp, Lenoreen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-14T16:50:34Z
dc.date.available2024-08-14T16:50:34Z
dc.date.copyright1998en_US
dc.date.issued1998
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of History in Arten_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThe Park Hotel (1931-1934) was, and still is, a landmark in Shanghai both because of its height and as a representative of pre-Communist China. For almost fifty years, the hotel was the "tallest building in the Far East" This thesis examines how the skyscraper -- an architectural expression of modernity and capitalism -- came to exist and be owned by Chinese bourgeois businessmen. Primary sources were found in the Hudec Collection (the architect's archives) in the University of Victoria's Special Collections. The study concludes that the hotel is a metaphor for the city's pre-Communist period, because all the factors involved in its origins and construction paralleled the city's own growth. The Austro-Hungarian background of the architect, Laszlo Hudec (1893-1958), and his exposure to architecture in America and Germany contributed its construction. The Park continues to testify to that early partnership between Western ideas of modernity and Chinese entrepreneurs, particularly significant today as the tallest buildings in the world once again rise on Shanghai's soil in response to economic changes in China.
dc.format.extent187 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/18137
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleThe Park Hotel, Shanghai (1931-1934) and its architect, Laszlo Hudec (1893-1958) : "Tallest Building in the Far East" as metaphor for pre-communist Shanghaien_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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