The Classical Chinese Gardens as a Medium: Rethinking the Visual Transformation in Chinese Culture in the Twentieth Century

ABSTRACTThe enormous diversity between the Chinese and Western cultures led to two different visual principles. Western visuality followed the perspective based on the retina, while the Chinese painters used the “far and near method” (yuanjin fa 遠近法). Before the twentieth century, the representation and dissemination of Chinese gardens at the visual level were dominated by traditional landscape painting. However, the Chinese gardens’ visual representation gradually shifted from traditional landscape painting to Western cartographic techniques (site survey and photography) after the Opium War (1840–1860). When studying the history of Chinese gardens, images provide a symbolic reference for interpreting the past of these gardens as crucial visual evidence. This article uses the visual evidence of classical Chinese gardens as a medium to reveal the influence and role of Western-centric theories on Chinese culture. Fundamentally, this paper attempts to analyse the impact of these changes on the inheritance of cultural memory from an intercultural and interdisciplinary perspective.KEYWORDS: VisualityChinese gardenlandscape paintinggarden surveygarden photography AcknowledgementsI would like to thank my colleagues and friends in CUHK for their comments and suggestions on my article.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Mencius said, “When observing someone, there is nothing more telling than the pupil of the eye. In the pupil, one’s wickedness cannot be concealed. When one is correct within one’s innermost being, the pupil will be clear. When one is not correct within one’s innermost being, the pupil will be dull. If one listens to his words and observes the pupils of his eyes, what can a person hide?” See in (Mencius Citation2009, 84).2 In Zong Bing’s words, “Kunlun Mountain is huge, and (human’s) eyes are small. If the eyes are very close to Kunlun Mountain, then the shape of it cannot be seen. If there are dozens of miles away from Kunlun Mountain, the entire shape of the mountain will fall into the eyes. Because the farther eyes are from the landscape, the smaller shape painter sees, and the scenery will be contained within the range that the painter can see. Assuming a greater distance, the smaller the shape seen. Now we unfold the silk and draw the landscape in the distance. Then, such small silk can reproduce even the shape of high mountains like Kunlun Mountain and Langfeng Mountain (阆风山). If the painter draws a three-inch line vertically, he can express very high mountains; if the painter draws a few feet horizontally with ink, he can reflect a hundred miles away. When the painter looks at landscape paintings, the only thing he may be afraid of is that the painting skills are not good enough, but the scale will not affect the realism of the landscape images. It is a natural trend. Therefore, the beauty of Songshan and Huashan and the natural aura between heaven and earth can all be expressed in one frame”. This paragraph is translated by author, the original sentences see in (Zong, Wang, and Chen Citation1985, 5).3 “Our generation is born in this era, and fortunately, we have new materials from sites in addition to the materials on paper. Although our generation can supplement the material on paper with evidence, this material can also prove that some parts of the ancient book are records. The incorrect instruction of a hundred schools is not without a fact that only expresses one side. This double method of evidence can be done until today”. (Wang Citation1994, 1–3).