Architecture and Nation Building in the Age of Globalization: Construction of the National Stadium of Beijing for the 2008 Olympics

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This study examines the relationship between architecture and nation building in the age of globalization, with an analysis of the debates and controversies about the National Stadium, the main sports venue for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The article argues that nationalism, along with the cultural ideology of global consumerism, drives the production of flagship architectural projects in China. The dilemma between nationalism and global consumerism has led state politicians and bureaucrats to opt for a global architectural language to narrate national ambitions. The study reveals the rationale underlying the search for global architecture among political elites in China, as well as its mixed consequences for local cultural discourses and politics. On July 30, 2004, in the Olympic Park in north Beijing, the construction site of the National Stadium was unusually quiet. Huge machines were lying on the ground. Workers had been ordered on a two-month-long vacation. The construction of the National Stadium, which started seven months earlier in December 2003, was suddenly stopped by order of the central government. The direct cause for stopping the construction was a petition submitted to the central government by a group of academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the most distinguished academic establishment in physical sciences and architecture. In the letter, the academicians criticized the