Authentic Antipodean Chineseness? A Scholar's Garden in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

“Chineseness” may be linked to the Chinese garden and ancient Chinese poetry. This article presents a study set in a Chinese garden in Dunedin, New Zealand. This scholar's garden is marketed as being authentic in that it was designed in China, constructed using traditional materials imported from China, and built according to traditional principles by Chinese artisans. In this article we critique the use of the term authentic in this setting and argue that it is the visitors' experiences of the garden that act to authenticate authenticity, or otherwise, depending on their personal characteristics. In addition, we argue that ancient Chinese poetry is a suitable and important medium through which to offer visitors opportunities to engage with the garden and with Chineseness.

“中国特色”和中国古典园林及中国古代诗词是很有关联的。本文的研究基于大洋彼岸的新西兰的但尼丁中国园林探讨这一关联。但尼丁中国园林的设计在中国完成，实际建筑使用了中国传统的原材料，并在中国加工后运输到新西兰再由中国建筑工人进行组建。因此但尼丁中国园林被宣传为“真实的”。在本文中我们对此情况下使用“真实的”提出批判，提出游客在园中的体验起到“真实化真实性”的作用，并在一些情况下取决于游客本身的特性。同时，我们认为中国古代诗词作为一个适要的媒介可以为游客提供更好的机会参与到中国园林的空间体验及对“中国特色”的理解。

Keywords:

• Chineseness
• Chinese garden
• authenticity
• visitor experiences

Keywords:

• 中国特色
• 中国园林
• 真实性
• 游客体验

Notes

1. Access to the index of the nine volumes can be found at: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/swzl/rwzg/index.htm

2. An article discussing the origin of Romanticism in the Chinese garden (Lovejoy, 1933) offers some interesting insights that may connect intercultural understanding with Romanticism in Western philosophy.

3. The expression is from a story that a Daoist magician who sold medicine in the market retired each evening to rest inside a pot he had hung up by his shop.

4. In some translations it is also read as “Middling Hermit.”

5. This quality is reminiscent of Sontag's remark on Benjamin in Under the Sign of Saturn, “The more lifeless things are, the more potent and ingenious can be the mind which contemplates them” (Sontag, 2002, p. 120).

6. This expression comes from a passage in the Vimalakirti Sutra, describing how the Buddha “contained the height and breadth of Mount Sumeru inside a mustard seed without any increase or decrease in its size” (Schmidt, 2003, p. 499).

7. The Dunedin Chinese Garden is named Lan Yuan.