Abstract architects, beware: President Xi Jinping isn’t a fan of your strange-looking buildings.
During a two-hour speech at a literary symposium in Beijing earlier this week – a rare attendance for a Chinese president – Mr. Xi discussed how art should serve the people. He called for morally inspiring art that should “be like sunshine from the blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles.”
Amid calls for patriotic art, Mr. Xi also said buildings such as the CCTV headquarters, which is one of Beijing’s most iconic towers and is nicknamed “Big Pants” for its design akin to trousers, should no longer pop up in the city. Completed in 2008, the CCTV tower, which was designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaus, has been the brunt of jokes among Chinese netizens for years.
