Publications- Suzhou Revisited - Landscape Series by Mao Yi Gang

Reminiscences of Traces of Southern China

After the landscape series of Guilin Revisited, I started to visit the classical gardens and canal towns of Southern China searching for the warm and moist air of the region. Although I visited the areas early in my life, the previous visits were always brief, and as a person not well travelled then, I was incapable of understanding the true beauty of the places. As time goes by with the maturity of one's age, the beauty of things often lies unnoticed just beside you.

Searching for the collective memory of previous visitors, I often strolled around in gardens visiting pavilions in the night; crossing stone bridges; appreciating the beauty of lotus flowers. I was deeply touched by the special gardening spirit that embraces the elements of natural landscapes and condenses them into a small plot of land, reflecting a sense of living that integrates an aspect of the domicile with aesthetic appreciation. The ambience created is gentle and cultivated, neither more nor less, giving the greatest comfort to one's body and soul. The biggest difference between Chinese and Western gardens lies in the fact that the latter ones strive for symmetric designs, whereas Chinese gardens highlight a sense of natural irregularities and complexity featuring grounds on different levels accessed by winding narrow paths.

In 1997, the UNESCO enlisted classical gardens of Suzhou in the World Heritage List. With a history spanning over a few hundred years, the development of gardening flourished best in the Ming and Ching dynasties, and Suzhou was the most representative place. The growing importance of the art of gardening as a major world heritage can be seen when major museums in the world nowadays construct their own garden settings to the scale of 1:1. The global significance of Chinese gardens can be compared with that of the renowned Chinese blue and white porcelain.

It is rare to see systematic presentation of gardens in oil paintings in China. The visual vocabulary for gardens is certainly not easy to master. I therefore integrate technical languages of the East with the West. The heritage of expressiveness in Chinese landscape paintings has been adopted to highlight the "tranquility, elegance and exquisiteness" of our culture and history. The layout of the paintings is constructed in landscape format. Shapes are rendered organically and mostly filled with two extreme hues of the morning and that of the early evening. The ambience created is intensive and profound, projecting a sense of multum in parvo (much in little) and infinite within finite.

When it comes to garden designs, ancient people emphasise the natural irregularities of stones and rocks, as well as the beauty shown in the bends and curves of the flows of water. No gardens can be considered complete without the view of waters.

Looking at the bends and curves of the water flows in gardens, one naturally associates them with the canal towns of Southern China where cities and villages are linked together by waterways. On a clear autumn day, I travelled on a wooden boat along a canal town, quietly watching the gradually receding ancient-looking stony steps, stony bridges and houses, feeling peaceful and secure in my heart.

My drift of thoughts includes the remembrance of happenings of various natures that have taken place in these gardens and ancient canal towns over the centuries of years past.

One's thinking ponders further as one ventures into the landscapes of Southern China where the land is characterised by bridges and alleys, gardens and parks - lamenting how much we have gained and, at the same time, how much we have lost. Leisurely poised in a kind of trance, one is lucky enough to fully enjoy the moment by taking a sip of Longjing green tea and tasting various local snacks while taking part in a ballad singing of the Suzhou dialect.

How delightful it is to see the river as green as orchid flowers. All of us miss the essence of Southern China.

Mao Yi Gang
April 2005