The Real vs the Imaginary: Sir William Chambers on the Chinese Garden

Sir William Chambers was one of the most important English architects in the eighteenth-century, but both in his day and later his international recognition was closely connected with his admiration for and promotion of Chinese art, particularly Chinese landscaping. Between 1757 and 1773, Chambers published three treatises praising the ingenious mixture of nature and art in a Chinese pleasure ground, criticizing the then influential English gardener Lancelot (Capability) Brown, and trying to goad English garden design into the direction of China. He did not achieve his purposes mainly because he mixed what he knew as genuine about the Chinese gardening art with what he fantasized about it. While recent scholarship has focused on his fantasy, this article examines what Chambers knew or imagined about Chinese landscaping, what he and his detractors were for and against, and how the fiasco of his 1772 and 1773 treatises, which he brought upon himself, nevertheless helped to usher in a new phase in the English reception of Chinese landscaping ideas.     

建福宫花园建筑历史沿革考

建福宫花园位于紫禁城西北部的建福宫后,为原乾西五所中之四、五所所在地,于乾隆七年改建成建福宫花园,由于初建的建福宫花园有许多不尽人意之处,之后又陆续添建碧琳馆、慧曜楼,改建玉壶冰等建筑,至乾隆二十三年花园方总体告罄。本文试梳理出建福宫花园建筑的历史沿革,分析其改建、添建的原因,并探讨建福宫花园的使用情况。     

大型活动的形象影响研究—以′99昆明世博会为例

从旅游影响的角度出发,大型活动将对举办地形成一定的形象影响。本文以'99昆明世博会为例,使用问卷调查数据,从四个方面研究了'99世博会的形象影响问题。研究表明:'99世博会所带来的形象效应并未成为游客选择昆明作为出游目的地的首要决定因素,目的地区域的传统特色(如气候、环境及文化因素),仍然是游客作出决策的主导因素;'99世博会对举办城市昆明而言,所带来的积极影响超过了负面影响,可以有效提高举办地的知名度;大型活动长期的、潜在的形象影响可以通过了解游客的重游意愿和口碑效应来衡量,世博会的举办所带来的潜在长期影响是正面的;有助于形成较高的形象认同度。     

Champaner‐Pavagadh Archaeological Park: A Design Approach

Champaner‐Pavagadh, like many other heritage sites in India, is both an historic and ethnographic landscape. It possesses a unique status as a medieval city—Champaner—frozen in time, more or less protected by its sudden abandonment 450 years ago. At the same time, it is a living sacred site—Pavagadh Hill—visited annually by millions, with a resident population. Efforts are underway to declare the hill and the remains of the medieval city at its foot an archaeological park, which will ensure protection and conservation of cultural and natural resources. The challenge in designing the site as an archaeological park lies in articulating the pastoral image conjured up by the term in a manner that does not belie complex issues of land ownership, varied use, and ecological integrity of the site. Working landscapes—farms, flower fields, orchards, and nurseries—can be employed as a landscape‐design typology to ensure sustainability and to preserve and frame sightlines to monuments. Garden archaeology is necessary to uncover the symbiotic relationship between buildings and gardens of medieval Champaner.     

James W. Ceaser's Contribution to Political Science Introduction

Abstract

A theme of interest in the process of democratic consolidation among comparative politics scholars is how political and nonpolitical variables, including economic and class issues, interrelate. Whereas the “transitions to democracy” literature conceptualizes the emergence of democratic regimes to be primarily an elite-driven political process, the actual consolidation of a democratic regime requires the active organization of civil sectors that then learn to live by and accept the outcomes of uncertain democratic governance. This “granting of stakes” in the new regime is perhaps best accomplished by the aggregation and articulation of interests among labor and business sectors in “civil society”—a term usefully defined by Alfred Stepan (1988) as manifold social movements from all classes organized to promote their interests. It is in this area that the interplay of political and economic interests is most clearly visible. Indeed, although elites can make decisions about the institutional, political, and economic future of a country in transition, they cannot guarantee that those decisions will be implemented or supported by the populace and that the incipient democratic system will stabilize. What is frequently neglected in elite-centered accounts of democratic transitions, then, is civil society and its links to elites through popular organizations.     

有价值的乌托邦--对霍华德田园城市理论的一种认识

19世纪末英国社会改革家埃比尼泽·霍华德提出的田园城市理论 ,不仅是城市规划的理论 ,还是关于社会改革的学说。它针对 19世纪工业化、城市化给城市带来的弊病而提出 ,具有丰厚的历史文化和社会背景 ,以及多种社会改革学说的渊源。田园城市理论虽具有很强的乌托邦色彩 ,但至今仍对城市和社会发展有借鉴意义。     

People,plants and performance: On actor network theory and the material pleasures of the private garden

Actor network theory has received considerable attention within geography. In this paper I suggest that geographers have looked at these ideas in a particular way and that this can be productively complemented by an excursion into the contemporary private garden. Through exploring the ways in which people and plants live together there, some geographical criticisms of a defined actor network theory no longer seem to necessarily apply to a more diffuse set of actor network ideas. Furthermore, these ideas can also provide a productive means of engaging practically with the material presence of things, insofar as this materiality is important in the constitution of human cultural experience.     

唐至明代南京旧园林探赜

通过对南京自唐至明这一时期文献记载及遗存的园林旧址的探赜、勾沉,并参照今人的一些著述,以皇家园林为契入点,对以私家园林特别是诸多宅园为主的故址、风貌、建园、修葺、重建等状况加以阐述,体悟文人诣趣、构景理式的隽永况味,并于片鳞半爪间窥其全貌。     

从“无我之境”到“有我之境”中国文人园林的美学表述

人园林,是中国传统人追求人生至高精神境界的感性诠释。其美学理念是从“画境”到“意境”;其美学特征是情与景溶,天人合一;其最高审美理想和审美追求则是从“无我之境”到“有我之境”。     

The date of Marvell’s Hortus

A post-Restoration dating of Marvell’s poem The Garden and its Latin companion piece “Hortus” to around 1668 has been generally accepted in recent criticism, despite some counter-arguments from those who defend the traditional dating to Marvell’s period at Nun Appleton (1650–2). None of these analyses, however, have attempted to date the Latin rather than the English poem. This article offers a new dating of “Hortus” to around 1654, during Marvell’s time at Eton as tutor to John Dutton. The argument is based on a series of parallels and allusions to Latin poetry either dating from, or demonstrably particularly fashionable in, the period between 1646 and 1654, as well as close attention to the political resonance and contemporary understanding of the poem’s classical sources. As such, it is also a case study in the dating of neo-Latin verse, of which many thousands of examples survive from seventeenth-century England.