Two recently published English-language books on China’s wooden bridges make significant contributions to our understanding of this important, yet understudied, genre of Chinese architecture.1 An estimated three thousand covered bridges still survive in China, more than anywhere else in the world. China’s Covered Bridges: Architecture over Water provides an engaging and informative introduction to the most remarkable bridge types and individual examples among them. Woven Arch Bridge: Histories of Constructional Thoughts, in contrast, focuses on one subset of Chinese bridges located in a mountainous region in northern Fujian Province and southeastern Zhejiang Province, in China’s southeast. Inscribed in 2009 by UNESCO as a form of intangible cultural heritage, extant woven arch bridges number only around one hundred, of which the earliest known dates to 1625.
The authors of China’s Covered Bridges are among the world’s most seasoned experts on wooden bridges. Ronald G. Knapp, professor emeritus at State...
University of California Press