2.
As we all know, today, economic, cultural and political life in East and South East Asia is shifting rapidly. Apart from the already established economic powers such as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, new economic powers are being developed in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and other countries. It is a spectacular process of economic and social progress and profound restructuring of society. The most visible "peak" of this rapid development is the pace of construction in cities of different scale. Connected to this is the pervasive expansion and explosion of urban space and metropolitanization. All cities are pushed towards unprecedented movement and transformation. A considerable number of new cities have emerged all over the Asian Pacific Region. Typical examples are China's "Special Economic Zones" such as Shenzhen, Zhuhai and, most remarkably, the Pudong Area of Shanghai. Hundreds of thousands of high-rise buildings have been erected from grounds which were agricultural fields or abandoned land until a very recent past. Similar situation can been seen pervasively across the whole continent. The urbanisation and high speed construction in Asian cities are also a process of international exchange of architectural and urban ideas and practices between Asian and foreign professionals. Many internationally known architects begin adventuring in such a dynamic context while Asian architects are increasingly exposed to international influences. This process of confrontation and exchange, which represents perfectly the Global operation of architecture at the turn of the millennium, has generated some very special, innovative but also controversial models of architectural/urban conception and practice specific to the particular context of Asia. Rem Koolhaas observes on his research trips to China that "some architects can design a skyscraper in three days or four in Shenzhen". This proves to be an unprecedented, new system of speed and efficiency. The suddenly emerged urban areas are often situated in between the original agricultural land, coexisting with its immediate past and expanding themselves violently into Nature. Koolhaas coins this as -SCAPE, or a new genre of urban situation which is in-between the classical city and landscape(countryside), or a new kind of post-urban condition. No doubt, such spectacular transformations are also a process of re-negotiation between the established social structure and influences of foreign, especially Western, models of social structure, values and ways of living. A kind of mixture of liberal Capitalist market economy and Asian, post-totalitarian social control is being established as a new social order. Culture, in such a context, is by nature hybrid, impure and contradictory. Accordingly, the new architectures and urban environment are being renovated and transformed into a sort of "Theme Park" orientated cityscape. Signs of different cultures are emphasised to celebrate the Globalisation. Again, to use Koolhaas' term on his comment on China's urbanisation, the new urban growth is bringing about a kind of Cities of Exacerbated Difference (COED), which "is not the methodical creation of the ideal, but the opportunistic exploitation of flukes, accidents and imperfections". It serves as a prototype of Rem Koolhaas' idea of the "Generic City".

3.
Such a process of urban transformation causes inevitably contradictions, contests, chaos and even violence. It lays bare a fundamental paradox behind the pragmatic conviction, promoted as an official ideology of development in Asia's modernisation, which believes in the co-operation between Asian lifestyles and social orders and a globalising liberal consumer economy. Meanwhile, this incarnates perfectly the image of the post-colonial and post-totalitarian modernisation in the region, and in our world today: the impulsive and almost fanatical pursuit of economic and monetary power becomes the ultimate goal of development. In Asian cities as well as our exhibition itself, there are coalitions of these differences, and what is also relevant is that there are mutations. This tension generated from the mixture of the capitalistic economy with the Asian culture reveals an interesting historic reason for Asian modernisation. In most of the Asian regions people have adopted to modernisation in very specific ways which prove to be highly radical. It has to do with the colonial past and de-colonisation in the region. Most of Asian countries have chosen to modernise themselves. Such a specific modernisation has been based upon the conviction that by modernising the national economy and culture one can obtain a veritable and reliable national independence. However, very often, such a frenzy desire often leads to a paternal or even totalitarian structure of social management and pervert pursuit of "hyper-Capitalism". This is a period of chaotic but exciting transition. Nothing is established, harmonious and "normal". Everything is in permanent transformation. Or, one can even coin it as "Frenzy City": the highest urban density, uncontrollably rapid development of economy, money chasing, explosive exploration of natural and human resources, and lost of social, cultural and political stability are becoming new conditions of existence in the Asian city.

4.
The most frenzy aspect of such an explosive way of modernisation is the pervasive conquest of consumerism. The Asian urban society, be it traditional or communist in terms of political system, has been turned into a consumer society in which values and human relationships are increasingly inscribed in material and monetary exchanges. To acclaim the triumph of such a "hyper-Capitalism", almost every major city in the region as well as every national, municipal and corporation authority intends to construct monumental edifices of commercial complex, which often consists of offices, shopping mall, entertainment centres as well as international hotels (ex. Time Square and Pacific Place in Hong Kong, Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur, The Raffels City and Great Wall City in Singapore, The New Dongan Centre in Beijing, etc. ) The ultimate goal for the authorities is generally to offer their cities the tallest building in the world in order to show their pride and miraculous force in modernisation. Thus, Kuala Lumpur is now holding the tallest building in the world "Petronas Twin Tower" (450 m) designed by Cesar Pelli while Shanghai will surpass the record with an even taller "Shanghai World Financial Centre" designed by KPF associates in some months from now. With this kind of symbolic creatures that one can qualify as Asian corporation architecture (which is perhaps excellent examples of Rem Koolhaas' architecture in the Generic City), Asian cities are becoming new key points in the "network" of Global cities which are the very central forces influencing, controlling and even dictating the new world order. In the meantime, the urban spaces are being fast expanded, as that fact that new towns like Pudong, Shen Zhen, etc., are being planned, constructed and developed across the continent. The political, economic and cultural authorities also share a long term vision of modernisation. In spite of the search for typically Modernist symbols such as the tallest skyscrapers, they also conceive projects and strategies to develop the future industry represented by new technologies. In many cities, new areas are planned and developed to become "Asian Silicon Valleys". The Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor (planned by Kisho Kurokawa), among others, is the most mediated example while most of the computers in the global market are produced in Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore and China. What is also remarkable is that the most advanced telecommunication technologies have become a "natural" aspect of everyday life in Asian urban societies. Mobil phone, internet and video games are not only trendy gadgets for young people to show off but indispensable "survival kits" for the urban inhabitants. (Interesting is to point out that, form the beginning of 1997, different steps of the touring events of "Cities on the Move" have been essentially organised via email, leave along the artists' diverse exploration of multimedia interface as art language.) As a natural part of the "success story", the pressure of the growth of international travels makes all cities invest in new commuting infrastructures: Bangkok's sky train and Guangzhou's subway are tow recent examples while Osaka, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai have seen the newest airports in the world constructed in their suburbs, designed respectively by Renzo Piano, Norman Forster, Kisho Kurokawa and Paul Andreu...

to be continued (5-10)