Architecture Mr. Eric B. Cumine, A&LBA. delivered a lecture yesterday evening to the Shanghai Art Collectors Society on the subject. of Chinese Architecture at the society's headquarters at 55 Yuen Ming Yuen Road.
He said that it was a vast subject yet unexplored and that there were Very few experts in the world Books on the subject were scarce as it is riot been in the province of any one person to make a study of this subject. The British Boxer Indemnity Refund Commission has supported the Peking Institute of Research in Chinese Architecture which has done a great deal of archaeological and analytical work in this field.
Chinese architecture, he said, had not changed appreciably in its general aspect for some thirty centuries The system of construction and arrangement of plan remained the same. The excavation at Anyang reveal that the buildings of the 11th century B.C. (Shang dynasty) were almost the same in plan as those today. Foreign rulers have observed Chinese traditions no less meticulously than the native ones, consequently the lack of permanence in the materials used in Chinese architecture was more than made up for by the strength of tradi-ion.
Lantern slides of examples of Chinese architecture followed the short talk on an introduction to Chinese architecture when many points of detail and interesting facts about building were pointed out to the audience.
The activities of ihe Association were dealt with very fully by the Chairman, who emphasized that the interests of British residents in China were being carefuly watched. The Association could undoubtedly claim credit for much of the action now
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.