Unlike the building traditions of Europe and the United States, those of China have received little attention in Western languages. Even informed audiences are seldom aware of the wealth of historic structures extant in China, the technological accomplishments they embody, and the aesthetic principles employed in their design. Only in the last several decades have modern scholars been able to actively engage in fieldwork in China, so that interested individuals elsewhere could learn about the richness and diversity of the architecture preserved there. Chinese Bridges: Living Architecture from China's Past, the result of a collaboration between cultural geographer Ronald Knapp and photographer A. Chester Ong, is an important addition to the growing number of books in this area. With its informative text and spectacular photography, this work strikes an excellent balance between general survey and coffee table book. It is certain to pique the interest of English-speaking historic bridge spotters as well as amaze them with the technological prowess of premodern Chinese builders.

The volume is divided into three parts, and even here, we see the dual function of the book: to inform and to tantalize. Part I, “China's Ancient Bridge Building Traditions,” is devoted to defining and describing technical terminology and the different types of bridges seen in the text. It includes an essential discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of various building materials employed in the construction of traditional bridges. In part II, “Chinese Bridges as Living Architecture,” the voice of Ronald Knapp emerges. With his vast experience writing about the cultural significance of China's vernacular architecture, Knapp's emphasis always returns to the way in which the bridges express contemporary local culture. Here, he describes how bridges and their decoration are integral to rural Chinese society, and how they vary according to region and climate. These structures were and are used to change lives by connecting villages; facilitating travel and transport; providing shelter for conversation, small-scale trade, and worship; and even preserving the good fortunes of patrons and whole communities. Part III, “China's Fine Heritage Bridges,” is dedicated to specific bridges or bridge types. Not only does this section contain illustrations and documentation of well-known monuments, but also it includes information on the recent rediscovery of bridge types otherwise familiar to the sinophile only through historic paintings (see esp. pp. 219–43). Here, too, much of Knapp's discussion revolves around the role and preservation of historic bridges in today's rapidly modernizing China.

The technological achievements reflected in the traditional bridges and bridge building found in this volume are incredible. Yet Knapp does not emphasize the development of building technology over time, a typical focus for works on bridges in the Western context as well as in the history of science in China (see Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part III, Civil Engineering and Nautics [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971], 145–210). Iron chain suspension bridges are documented from as early as the third century bce, with extant examples dating back to the fifteenth century ce (p. 19). Sui-period (581–618) builders were advanced enough to produce the world's first known segmented arch bridge (Anji Bridge, Zhaozhou, Hubei, pp. 123–27), and Song-period (960–1279) builders were able to manipulate individual stones measuring 11 meters in length and weighing more than 150 metric tons to construct megalithic beam bridges (Luoyang Bridge, Quanzhou, Fujian, pp. 212–17). Thus we might conclude that the technological problems of spanning rivers and ravines were solved so early that they ceased to be an important factor in bridge aesthetics. However, by eschewing chronology, the author runs the risk of (unintentionally) presenting Chinese bridges as unchanging in time, if not space, and traditional builders as lacking any interest in technological innovation—a common misperception of all Chinese architectural studies.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of this book is to reveal the continued practice of traditional bridge building in the remote regions of China. Descriptive image captions serve as a parallel text, both informing the peripherally interested who will never read more, and directing the more curious to look to the longer descriptions in the body of the work. Inevitably, a text written for the lay, English-speaking audience will leave the specialist (or Chinese speaker) wanting more. But my greatest quibble is with the overall editing. Although I am happy to recommend this work to friends and nonspecialist colleagues, enough typos (especially in dates and Romanized Chinese names) remain in the text that it would be difficult to assign to even introductory students without an errata page. Yet the reproductions of photographs—photos hard won by trekking into remote areas across modern China—are exquisite, and this is clearly where the attention of the publisher was focused. I look forward to the revised edition.