This pioneering work in Chinese domestic architecture examines for the first time the Chinese house from a cultural perspective. Knapp explores how the typical Chinese home reveals a long folk tradition of craft and symbolism, including the popular practices of fengshui. Extensively illustrated with wood block prints from traditional Chinese homes, original line drawings, and Knapp's own photographs, the book vividly portrays a living tradition of amazing resilience.

The Chinese House: Craft, Symbol and the Folk Tradition (Images of Asia)

Arts & Photography

Knapp, Ronald G.

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

Chinese Bridges (Images of Asia)

Architecture

City walls are considered to be the essence and signature of the traditional Chinese city. Here, Ronald Knapp explores the history and importance of walls in such cities as Chang'an and Xi'an, Beijing, Nanjing, and the recently preserved city of Pingyao.

China's Walled Cities (Images of Asia)

History

Asia

Winner of ForeWord Magazine's Architecture "Book of the Year" Award! Exquisite examples of traditional dwellings are scattered throughout modern-day China. Chinese Houses focuses on 20 well-preserved traditional Chinese homes, presenting examples from a range of rural and metropolitan areas throughout China. The photographs of each are accompanied by extensive background information and historical content. An introductory essay examines the different types of Chinese homes and provides an overview of the rich regional variety of Chinese dwelling forms. It also provides insights into little-known design concepts that emphasize the flexibility, adaptability, and versatility of traditional building forms and the work of classical craftsmen. Richly illustrated with photographs, woodblock prints, historical images, and line drawings, Chinese Houses portrays an architectural tradition of fantastic range and resilience.

Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage of a Nation

Tuttle+publishing

Bridges, the least known and understood of China's many wonders, are one of its most striking and resilient feats of architectural prowess. Chinese Bridges brings together a thorough look at these marvels from one of the world's leading experts on Chinese culture and historical geography, Ronald G. Knapp. While many consider bridges to be merely utilitarian, the bridges of China move beyond that stereotype, as many are undeniably dramatic, even majestic and daring. Chinese Bridges illustrates in detail 20 well-preserved ancient bridges, along with descriptions and essays on the distinctive architectural elements shared by the various designs. For the first time in an English-language book, Chinese Bridges records scores of newly discovered bridges across China's vast landscape, illustrated with over 400 color photographs, as well as woodblock prints, historic images, paintings and line drawings.

Chinese Bridges: Living Architecture from China's Past

The multiple Chinese migrations from southeastern China to Southeast Asia have had important implications for both regions. In Southeast Asia this influence can be seen in the architecturally eclectic homes these migrants and their descendants built as they became successful; homes that combined Chinese, European and local influences, especially during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia strives not only to be an informative but also an authoritative book on the subject of hybrid architecture—filled with stunning color photographs and essays on nearly thirty well-preserved homes.

Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia: The Eclectic Architecture of Sojourners and Settlers

Photography & Video

Discover the rarified Peranakan (native-born Chinese of Southeast Asia) aesthetics that are today highly sought-after for their beauty: distinctive furniture and ceramics, textiles and jewelry, and many other art objects. Peranakan Chinese Home displays these extraordinary objects, visible markers of a highly developed culture. The broad range of beautiful objects which the Peranakan Chinese created and enjoyed in their daily lives is astounding. Each chapter in Peranakan Chinese Home focuses on a different area and presents objects used or found in those spaces. Each piece is described in the context of their utility as household objects, as part of periodic celebrations to mark the Chinese New Year and other holidays, or in important life passage rituals relating to ancestor worship, birth, marriage, mourning and burial. The meaning of the rich symbolic and ornamental motifs found on the objects is discussed in detail and key differences are highlighted between Peranakan objects and similar ones found in China. A fascinating mix of Chinese, European and Southeast Asian influences, the distinctly Peranakan identity of a people and their culture is beautifully portrayed through objects and archival photographs in this lovely and exotic book.

The Peranakan Chinese Home: Art & Culture in Daily Life

China's art objects and traditionally manufactured products have long been sought by collectors—from porcelains and silk fabrics to furniture and even the lacquered chopsticks that are a distant relation to ones found in most Chinese restaurants. Things Chinese presents sixty distinctive items that are typical of Chinese culture and together open a special window onto the people, history, and society of the world's largest nation. Many of the objects are collectibles, and each has a story to tell. The objects relate to six major areas of cultural life: the home, the personal, arts &amp; crafts, eating &amp; drinking, entertainment, and religious practice. They include items both familiar and unfamiliar—from snuff bottles and calligraphy scrolls to moon cake molds and Mao memorabilia. Ronald Knapp's evocative text describes the history, cultural significance, and customs relating to each object, while Michael Freeman's superb photographs illustrate them. Together, text and photographs offer a unique look at the material culture of China and the aesthetics that inform it.

Things Chinese: Antiques, Crafts, Collectibles

Bridges, the least known and understood of China's many wonders, are one of its most striking and resilient feats of architectural prowess. Chinese Bridges brings together a thorough look at the marvels of Chinese bridge design from one of the world's leading experts on Chinese culture and historical geography, Ronald G. Knapp. While many consider bridges to be merely utilitarian civil engineering, the bridges of China move beyond that stereotype, as many are undeniably dramatic, even majestic and daring. Chinese Bridges illustrates in detail 20 well-preserved ancient bridges along with descriptions and essays on the distinctive architectural elements shared by the various designs. For the first time in an English-language book, Chinese Bridges records scores of newly discovered bridges across China's vast landscape, illustrated with over 400 color photographs, as well as woodblock prints, historical images, paintings and line drawings.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Knapp, Ronald G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Knapp, Ronald G.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Knapp, Ronald G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Chinese House: Craft, Symbol and the Folk Tradition (Images of Asia)

Chinese Bridges (Images of Asia)

China's Walled Cities (Images of Asia)

Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage of a Nation

Chinese Bridges: Living Architecture from China's Past

Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia: The Eclectic Architecture of Sojourners and Settlers

The Peranakan Chinese Home: Art & Culture in Daily Life

Things Chinese: Antiques, Crafts, Collectibles

Chinese Bridges: Living Architecture from China's Past

Things Chinese: Antiques, Crafts, Collectibles