IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section B

Abstract

In the 1840s, the Sino-British Opium War marked the formal entry of Western informal imperialism, led by Britain, into mainland China, integrating the Chinese market into its global free trade network. Following the establishment of concessions and foreign settlements in Treaty Ports, Western-style architecture gradually emerged across Chinese southeast costal line, with British consulate buildings holding particular importance. These consulates, as sites where extraterritorial rights were exercised, significantly shaped Sino-British relations and served as material symbols of British quasi-colonial influence. Beyond their official function, consulate buildings also embodied imperial ornamentalism, as British consuls and their families transformed these spaces to mirror homes in the metropole, making them vehicles for British politics and culture, as well as capitalistic social hierarchy. This research examines the evolving identity of consulate architecture using the British Consulate in Wen-Chow as a case study. Initially serving as administrative and residential spaces under Western ideology, this Consulate was repurposed several times during the last century as a dissonant built heritage. While its spatial layout retained the essence of a residence, the Chinese government eventually transformed it into a museum, reshaping both its function and symbolic meaning. This transformation accentuates the emotional distance between the building’s quasi-colonial past and its new role, reinforcing its current identity as a cultural site over its former identity as a symbol of British informal imperial power.