Donia Zhang

Neoland School of Chinese Culture · Chinese Culture Publishing

Cultural sustainability is a very important aspect of the overall sustainability framework and is regarded as the fourth pillar alongside the other three: environmental, economic, and social sustainability. However, the concept is neither fully explored, nor widely accepted or recognized. This book elicits the interplay of nature-culture-architectu...

Health and happiness are fundamental to human quality of life. The United Nations World Happiness Report 2012 reflects a new worldwide call for governments to include happiness as a criterion to their policies. The Healthy Cities or Happy Cities movement has been endorsed by the WHO since 1986, and a Healthy House or Happy Home is a critical consti...

The aim of this study is to evaluate the physical form of the phase one new courtyard housing prototype in Juer Hutong ('Chrysanthemum Lane') of Beijing, and propose further design development for the new courtyard type. In doing so, Heliodon experiments were carried out, using architectural simulation models, to test sunlight penetration during di...

Classical courtyard houses of Beijing (siheyuan) as a housing typology have attracted interest of people from all walks of life. Due to deterioration, the large-scale demolition of these houses since the 1990s has given rise to heated debates, nationally and internationally. In this book, the author traced the history and design philosophy of class...

Environmental education and ecological literacy is evolving into a pedagogical field, with more and more schools today taking actions to create landscaped settings for natural learning than ever before. With these developments comes a need for an integrated book that provides both core philosophies as well as method. This comprehensive volume Schoo...

This article examines the city of Qufu, once the state capital of Lu (1042-249 BCE) in today's Shandong province, China. Qufu is the hometown of Confucius (551-479 BCE), and for sites associated with the Chinese philosopher. The Temple of Confucius in Qufu was constructed in 478 BCE, with its expansive complexes of the Kong Family Mansion and Cemet...

This concise collection contains English translation of 50 Chinese proverbs, 40 extracted verses from the Classic of Poetry (Shi Jing), and 30 Chinese couplets. It aims for cultural understanding and exchange and to let Chinese wisdom pass down to newer generations, so that everyone can find something valuable and benefit from them, as the Chinese...

Confucian Analects (Lunyu), Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong), and Great Learning (Daxue) are the three core classic philosophical works of Confucius compiled by his disciples and followers before 300 BCE, which embody Confucian political propositions, ethical thoughts, moral concepts, and educational principles. This 240-page translated volume cont...

This collected Book of Songs with searchable titles contains numbered musical notations and lyrics of 258 modern classic Chinese songs from the 1930s to 2020s, as well as that of 13 modern classic English love songs. The Chinese songs are organized into four groups: about land, about life, about love, and for youth. This compilation of songs is an...

Historic cities all over the world are facing challenges on how to best preserve their architectural heritage. We need good examples to follow. This study explores the historic city of Pingyao in China’s Shanxi Province, and the Qiao Family Courtyard in Qiaojiapu Village of Qi County nearby. Pingyao is a representative of northern Chinese city plan...

As one of the greatest masterpieces in Chinese history, Dao De Jing is a philosophical work by Laozi (Li Er, c.571-471 BCE) published in the 4th century BCE. It contains 81 chapters/verses whose essence is on moral philosophy and ideal ways for humans to be in harmony with nature, self-cultivation, governing the country, deploying military forces,...

This 200-page volume contains 85 carefully selected Chinese poems arranged in chronological order, from antiquity (c.2000 BCE) to the modern time (1972), though most of them are from the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, since these two eras were the climax of Chinese poetry creation and development. The selection was based on the popul...

Through a historical research on two well-preserved vernacular Chinese dwellings: The Wang Family Courtyard in Shanxi and the Sam Tung Uk Walled Village in Hong Kong, this paper examines the cultural sustainability of architecture in China, and explores what factors have contributed to their success and decline, and what can be learned from their s...

The cultural dimension of sustainability as the fourth pillar of the overall sustainable development framework encompasses both tangible and intangible cultures. In this study, tangible culture refers to the home environments of Chinese residents in China and North America, while intangible culture refers to their faiths and belief systems, in othe...

Cultural sustainability is the theoretical framework for this study, which investigates Nanchizi ("South Pond") new courtyard housing experimental project constructed in Beijing, China, in 2003. It is located in a traditional courtyard house neighborhood right to the east of the Forbidden City, in a culturally and politically sensitive area that th...

The purpose of this research is to investigate through adult perceptions what factors have enabled and limited student participation in schoolyard gardening, and how to support student involvement in schoolyard gardening. It is a collective case study of three schools in Toronto District School Board (TDSB, Ontario, Canada). Sixteen interviews were...

The Chinese have lived in single-extended-family courtyard houses in many parts of China for thousands of years. The earliest courtyard house found in China was during the Middle Neolithic period (5,000-3,000 BCE). However, the 20th century was a significant turning point in the evolution of Chinese courtyard houses. This presentation provides an o...

The courtyard house is one of the oldest dwelling types, spanning at least 5,000 years and occurring in distinctive forms in many parts of the world across climates and cultures. This article takes a panoramic view and makes a cross-cultural analysis of the courtyard houses in six cultures: Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Greco-Roman, Spanish, and Hispan...

Set within the theoretical framework of cultural sustainability, this in-depth case study examines the Shilinyuan (meaning “Lion Grove Courtyard-Garden Housing”) built in the old city of Suzhou, China, in 2000. It is a modern interpretation of southern Chinese vernacular houses, with private and semi-public outdoor spaces, and a communal Central Ga...

Chinese Housing in North America Survey Results

This presentation highlights my research findings on courtyard housing renewal and redevelopment projects in China, and cooperative housing and cohousing in North America (Canada, in particular). It links architecture with social sciences and humanities, and connects housing with health and happiness. This study takes a holistic view of health as t...

Cultural vitality as the fourth pillar of sustainable development has been widely acknowledged, and vernacular architecture as a major part of a nation’s material culture has entered the cultural sustainability dialogue. This recognition demands that new housing design and development should honor a local or regional identity. This in-depth case st...

Culture has been recognized as the fourth pillar of sustainable development, and culture is often viewed as a system of symbols that arises from human interpretations of the world. The cultural codes of symbols and symbolism are imperative to be reexamined for any reinterpretation of a traditional culture. This article explores the origin and meani...

This paper presents an analysis of the former Chinese Communist Party leader Chairman Mao Zedong’s political career (reigned 1949-1976), with regards to his success and failures. Mao was one of the most prominent Communist theoreticians who governed a quarter of humankind for a quarter of a century. His political philosophy, particularly his Method...

This essay takes a holistic look at the philosophy of education in China from the antiquity to the present time, with an emphasis on the notion of self-cultivation in different schools of thought. The purpose of the study is to draw out the positive aspects of Chinese philosophy for newer generations to carry forward the cultural heritage for a hea...

This paper examines the design philosophy of classical Suzhou gardens in China, with regards to their natural and architectural elements on the moral education of the inhabitants. Through studying the metaphorical connotations of garden elements, the author reflects on their propositions for contemporary environmental ethics, aesthetic appreciation...

This paper investigates residents living experience in the common courtyards of cooperative housing and cohousing in Canada, and their sense of happiness associated with it. Cooperative housing as a form of social housing established in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as early as the 1910s. Cohousing as its subsequent name has evolved into a global moveme...

The Chinese have lived in single-extended-family courtyard houses in many parts of China for thousands of years. The earliest courtyard house found in China was during the Middle Neolithic period (5000-3000 BCE). The courtyard form signifies Chinese quest for harmony with nature and in social relationships. However, the 20th century was a significa...

Health and happiness are fundamental to human quality of life. The Healthy Cities or Happy Cities movement has been endorsed by the WHO since 1986, and a Healthy House or Happy Home is a critical component of a healthy city or a happy city. Nevertheless, the concept has not been fully explored. Existing literature on the healthy house has often foc...

Set within the theoretical framework of cultural sustainability, this in-depth case study examines the Juer Hutong new courtyard housing prototype built in the inner city of Beijing, China, whose phase one was completed in 1990 and phase two in 1994. Juer Hutong (Chrysanthemum Lane) is located in the area of the celebrated Nanluogu Xiang (Gong and...

This anthology is a collection of Donia Zhang's published poems on the theme of environmental education. She links nature with culture through these literacy artworks that express profound cultural meanings when interpreting the natural world. The American poet, Robert Frost, once said "A poem begins in delight but ends in wisdom." Let's see if his...

This essay focuses on the impacts of socio-economic transformation and privatization in the Chinese housing market on the lives of residents in China. China has implemented a socialist market economy since 1978. This new political system has caused many of its sectors to privatize, one of which is the land and housing market. Due to an increase in...

Vernacular architecture has a long and entrenched root in culture, and culture has been regarded as the fourth pillar of sustainable development that is increasingly brought into contemporary architectural discourse. This paper considers architecture as cultural artifact and examines the form, space, materials, and construction of classical courtya...

Courtyard houses served as a traditional dwelling type for single, extended families in Beijing for centuries. However, the twentieth century brought significant changes, as individual houses were divided into multiple units and their courtyards filled in for ancillary structures such as kitchens and storage sheds. This study combines architectural...

The United Cities and Local Governments have now endorsed a four-pillar sustainable development framework that includes environmental responsibility, economic viability, social equity, and cultural vitality. Whilst in his book The Nature of Design, David Orr (2002) maintained that sustainability is a modern term for “longevity” (p. 11), whose essen...

This paper highlights the key findings from the author’s 2015 book Courtyard Housing for Health and Happiness: Architectural Multiculturalism in North America. The study investigated the interrelations of housing-health-happiness, and examined health from a cultural perspective. It defined a courtyard as a “pedestrian, communal, outdoor space enclo...

This presentation represents part of a PhD research in progress. It examines an ongoing residential rehabilitation project that has been implemented piecemeal in four inner city districts of Beijing since 2005, and the municipal government is spending ¥1 billion (RMB) in 2008, renovating 44 hutong (lanes) and 1400 courtyard house complexes, involvi...

This paper examines the relationship between complex philosophical theories and the practical application of design, and propose a design template for schoolyard gardens that is applicable in the northern hemisphere. It is based on Daoism, Feng Shui, sustainable design principles, as well as the author’s 4-month daily observations in an elementary...

This paper seeks to identify, through adult perceptions, what factors have enabled and limited student participation in schoolyard gardening and how to sustain student involvement in an urban district school board in southern Ontario, Canada. Through literature review and in-depth interviews with 16 adults associated with 3 (4) schools, the school...

The purpose of this research is to investigate through adult perceptions what factors have enabled and limited student participation in schoolyard gardening, and how to support student involvement in schoolyard gardening. It is a collective case study of three schools in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB, Ontario, Canada) that are currently r...