Europe as Façade

In China, numerous buildings employ an overtly baroque style, alluding to a hyper-Europe. In the context of an intensification of nationalistic Chinese sentiments that help maintain the Chinese nation-state, Europe remains an important constitutive outside. What cultural translations from Europe to China are at stake here, when Europe is turned into a façade? Inspired by the work of Rey Chow and Michel Foucault, this article reads these façades as constitutive mirrors, both heterotopian and utopian, that open up possibilities to rethink the notion of culture and its geopolitical manifestations. To analyse the imagination of Europe in such models, websites of real estate developers are analysed, showing how for them, Europe is a fantasy to capitalise on, signifying craftsmanship and a pastoral and rich and full life. In contrast, the artwork Mirage City by Amsterdam-based artist Meiya Lin questions the presence and perpetual multiplication of a hyper-Europe in today’s China. In the final part of this article the author reflects upon the ways in which the presence of Europe in China interpellates him.