ISHS Acta Horticulturae 523: XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 13: New and Specialized Crops and Products, Botanic Gardens and Human-Horticulture Relationship
CHINESE PERSPECTIVES OF ALLOTMENT AND COMMUNITY GARDENING |
| Author: | W.Z. Zhou |
| Abstract:
The famous Chinese scholar Yutang Lin said "The American is a known and great worker, the Chinese, however, is a known and great person who pursues a leisurely life". I do not dare to assert whether the American is a great worker or pursues a leisurely life. There are many interweaved reasons for the Chinese love of leisure. The temperament of the Chinese people has been nurtured by culture and thus accepted philosophy. The interest in leisure was generated by an ardent love of life, then surged by romantic literature in a powerful flow of successive dynasties, and eventually became recognized as a reasonable manner by a kind of life philosophy which in general may be called the Taoist school of philosophy. Therefore the Chinese culture of leisure was highly developed. In ancient China the residential environment was the main place where literati and officials practiced cultural and artistic activities. From here follows that the garden was the most basic carrier for the Chines culture of leisure. The Chinese people grew flowers and trees, took pleasure in potted landscapes (bonsai) and built gardens. All of that accumulated a rich, generous, and age-old culture of gardening. It finally gained China a good reputation as the "mother of gardens". | |
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