On the occasion of the 30th World Book Day, the theme activity of 'Entering a Dream in the Garden - Panoramic Immersion in Garden Culture' was successfully held at the Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture (MCGALA). This activity was jointly planned by The Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture and China Machine Press, and received special support from the popular science project of The Architectural Society of China. The activity particularly focuses on popularizing Chinese garden culture and promoting public reading. Through expert dialogues, cultural displays and interactive experiences, an innovative field for the dissemination of traditional culture is constructed.
The Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture is the first national museum with gardens as the theme in China and an important popular science base for Chinese garden culture. This event is chaired by Director Zhang Baoxin of the Garden Research Center of The Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture. Mr. Wang Qijun, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and art consultant of The Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture, and Professor Wu Xiaomin, director of the Yuanmingyuan Research Center of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, serve as keynote speakers. They have carried out a wonderful dialogue on themes such as the history and art of Chinese gardens and the digital inheritance of garden culture.
As a special activity for World Book Day, this event takes the release of Professor Wang Qijun's new books ‘Entering a Dream in the Garden - The Chinese Garden as if Made by Nature’and 'Illustrated Garden - Decoding the Beauty and Ingenuity of Chinese Gardens’ as an opportunity. These two books contain hundreds of illustrations drawn by the author and express the content in popular academic language, becoming popular reading materials for the public to decode the artistic codes of gardens. This event has attracted the participation of many audiences online and offline, allowing garden culture to move from the professional field to public life.
The beauty of gardens: Frozen poetry and three-dimensional paintings.
In the expert dialogue session, Professor Wang Qijun systematically combs through the millennium evolution history from Shanglin Garden, the imperial garden of the Qin (221 BC - 207 BC) and Han (202 BC - 220 AD) dynasties to the Summer Palace in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911). Chinese gardens carry the profound philosophical thinking and aesthetic ideals of Chinese culture. From the imperial gardens of the Qin and Han dynasties to the elegant gardens of scholars in the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing dynasties, the integration of nature and humanity is fully demonstrated between every stone and every body of water. The imperial gardens of the Qing Dynasty, which are a culmination of the essence of gardens, are of shocking scale and have a spatial hierarchy of 'small gardens nested within each other', and are regarded as the pinnacle of Chinese gardens and became a model for world gardens in the 18th century. The development of Chinese gardens is a combination of culture, technology and materials. Every tree and every scene everywhere showcases the gardening wisdom of the Chinese nation.
Professor Wu Xiaomin starts from the 'homologous reconstruction' theory and shares the creative transformation of Jiangnan gardens by imperial gardens in the Qing Dynasty. From the perspectives of macro layout, meso layout and micro layout of garden construction, she elaborates in detail on how the two mythological systems of Kunlun mythology and Penglai mythology of 'one pool and three mountains' have run through the gardening activities of imperial gardens and private gardens in China for thousands of years.
The soul of gardens: Inheritance of artistic conception and culture
When it comes to the artistic conception of Chinese gardens, Professor Wang Qijun believes that its core lies in 'integrating poetry and painting into gardens' and the sustenance of literati spirit. Gardens are a combination of painting and architecture, pursuing a Chinese-style artistic conception, that is, the 'lying tour' mode of 'moving mountains and shrinking waters'. The borrowing scenery technique of Suzhou gardens and the metaphor of the four seasons rockery in Geyuan Garden, Yangzhou, all reflect the philosophy of 'although made by man, it seems like it is created by nature'. Professor Wu Xiaomin added that gardens are not only a carrier of life but also a spiritual home. The wisdom of 'adapting measures to local conditions', 'integrating poetry and painting into gardens', and 'using blank space as black' from the macroscopic layout of 'one pool and three mountains' to the microscopic layout runs through the cultural genes of gardens for thousands of years.
Technology Empowerment: Contemporary Renewal of Garden Culture
In the activity, two professors also discussed the significance of digital technology for the protection and dissemination of gardens. Professor Wu Xiaomin's team uses digital restoration to allow the audience to have an 'immersive' experience of the vanished grandeur of gardens. Professor Wang Qijun proposed that in the future, cultural tourism and cultural creativity can be combined to integrate garden art into carriers such as pop-up books and digital paintings, so that traditional culture can enter people's lives in a more vivid way. Digital technology has opened up a new path for garden research. For example, through the three-dimensional restoration of Changchun Garden in the Old Summer Palace, details that are difficult to capture in traditional two-dimensional images are revealed. Chinese gardens are a comprehensive expression of regional culture, literati spirit and gardening skills. They not only carry the aesthetic ideals of traditional literati but also are continuously given new interpretation methods by new technologies (such as digitalization) with the development of the times. However, their core cultural connotations are always in the same line.
This event is designed to enhance the interactivity and sense of participation of the participants. There is an audience question session, and experts vividly answer questions by combining cases. Moreover, two children from the 'Garden Little Lecturer' team of the Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture recite classic chapters of 'Yuan Ye' and 'Preface to the Orchid Pavilion', showing the cultural inheritance power of the new generation. Audience feedback indicates that they have gained a systematic understanding of the historical context and artistic essence of gardens. This promotes the incorporation of garden culture into the popular science education system and stimulates the public's interest in visiting gardens and exploring traditional Chinese culture.
See the world, history and oneself through gardens
At the end of the lecture, Professor Wang Qijun sighed with emotion: 'Chinese gardens are the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese nation and are worthy of our continuous exploration and inheritance.' Professor Wu Xiaomin called on the public to walk into gardens and feel their charm that transcends time and space. This activity not only opened a window for the audience to understand Chinese gardens, but also provided new ideas for the innovative dissemination of traditional culture.
