ChineseGardenScene says:

from the desk of:     

                         ChineseGardenClipper

With little or no experience of the Dunedin Chinese Garden of Enlightenment;

ChineseGardenClipper  consumed with zest, the content of the book or booklet, published by The Dunedin Chinese Garden Trust:

                      Lan Yuan  - The Garden of Enlightenment

                                  Edited by James Beattie

Firstly, in it's just 91 pages of what the publishers describe as:

" Essays on the intellectual, cultural and architectural background to the Dunedin Chinese Garden."

It's content, largely attributed to Cao Yongkang, Chen Ling, Tan Yufeng, Duncan Cambell and James Beattie;

reveals, so much more, to both the learned garden scholar and novice, alike.

It simply, yet succinctly and even romantically, divulges [ what ChineseGardenClipper considers ] three important objectives;

of both the Dunedin Chinese Garden's Trust and the garden, itself.

• Honour & respect for an ever increasing - Chineseness, globally.

that is, ' Why other cultures would choose to become interested in and take-on the qualities of Chinese artistic conception & industriousness.'

• Garden design concepts, put appreciatively and in an engaging manner.

that is, ' With due consideration for the wider audience of it's readership.

• Offering both reminiscence and alternatives, to recording, of.

                        miniature landscapes

that is, ' Much like the quoted " Chamber for Idle Sitting," or a " Lodge for Treading Upon Harmony;"

the publication engulfs the thought - reminding us all of the dangers of loving material things [ for just that ] which, can become a satanic illusion -

or such illusory things [if not considered & meditated upon ] can become like a protective wall in our imaginations.

Not all of the content is new, then again, nor certainly is the intriguing history of it's subject matter.

A lively account of a  " Vision, through to Reality."

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Please visit the University of Waikato  [ New Zealand ] - Arts and Social Sciences Faculty, through LINKAGE:

               Staff Profile - James Beattie