MAD DINNER is the first book by MAD office, Beijing-based architectural office. Organized around the metaphor of dinner table conversation, the book is a collection of ideas and opinions about topics ranging from politics to ecology to fame to the future. The dinner's "guests" include people from all levels of Chinese society: a government official, hairdresser, migrant laborers, a doctor, a taxi driver, and a developer are all brought together to offer their views in an atmosphere of openness and exchange. MAD's work is embedded in a series of extended conversations with international advisors, including the Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, British writer Ian Buruma, filmmakers Zhang Yimou and Jia Zhangke, and the artist Ai Weiwei. The conversations work in tandem with MAD's proposals to reveal their essential account of the architect's practice and experience inside of China, the fastest urbanization in world history.
Jiang Jun Books
Work In Progress is a multidisciplinary publication that brings together a number of China's most influential contemporary writers, photographers and critics to assess the scope of Chinese culture and its recent, rapid industrialization. Culled from the pages of Urban China , a monthly magazine that covers politics, sociology, mass media, architecture, art and literature, the book offers an intimate view of a century of radical modernization in China. It covers a broad range of topics oriented around three basic themes--society, family and education--offering personal perspectives on a culture that is hugely influential, and increasingly discussed, but little understood. Presented here for the first time in English, this fully-illustrated compilation features essays, photos, maps, diagrams and illustrations that establish a new paradigm for the study of Chinese culture, presenting local commentary on politics, history, art and urban life.