REVIEW.
ChineseGardenClipper
A Garden Book.
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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