Review of A Paradise Lost. The Imperial Garden Yuanming Yuan
Journal
The China Quarterly
Type
book review
Date Issued
2002-07
Author(s)
Abstract
Book review of A Paradise Lost: The Imperial Garden Yuanming Yuan. By Young-Tsu Wong. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8248-2328-1.
Yuanming Yuan has become the most famous garden of imperial China thanks to its well-documented and tragic history. The nationalism of Chinese historians and the enthusiastic endorsement of Westerners - Victor Hugo used to compare Yuamming Yuan to the Parthenon - have combined to turn the ruins of the Yuanming Yuan into a major tourist attraction today. At the very beginning of the 18th century the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662-1722) supervised the simultaneous construction of two new garden complexes, the court's principal residence of Yuanming Yuan in Haidian (Beijing) and the summer residence of Bishu Shanhuang in Chengde.
Yuanming Yuan has become the most famous garden of imperial China thanks to its well-documented and tragic history. The nationalism of Chinese historians and the enthusiastic endorsement of Westerners - Victor Hugo used to compare Yuamming Yuan to the Parthenon - have combined to turn the ruins of the Yuanming Yuan into a major tourist attraction today. At the very beginning of the 18th century the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662-1722) supervised the simultaneous construction of two new garden complexes, the court's principal residence of Yuanming Yuan in Haidian (Beijing) and the summer residence of Bishu Shanhuang in Chengde.
Language
English
Keywords
Yuanming yuan (Beijing
China)
Qing dynasty
Qing landscape architecture
Chinese garden history
Chinese architecture history
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Publisher
Cambridge Journals
Volume
2002
Number
170
Start page
499
End page
500
Pages
2
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
215105