Harbin to Hanoi: Colonial Built Environment in Asia, 1840 to 1940

Colonial built environments were an expres­sion of imperial aspirations, a manifestation of power, a tool in the civilization of indig­enous cultures, a re-creation of a home away from home, and a place to live and work for both colonizers and colonized. Experts on city planning, architecture, and Asian and imperial history detail colonization’s influence at both the top and bottom levels of society and its representation in stone, iron, and concrete. Creating the colonial built environment was a multilayered, unpredictable process. This study emphasizes the diversity of the colonial built form from Harbin to Hanoi and differing experiences of foreign rule, as well as the flexible interac­tions between colonizers and colonized and the many risks of building and living in such colonies and treaty ports.