A01=Craig Clunas
aesthetics
art
asia
asian society
Author_Craig Clunas
Category=JBCC9
Category=WMB
Category=WMD
china
chinese history
cultural studies
eq_bestseller
eq_home-garden
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
expectations
garden culture
garden-making
gardening
gardens
han people
historical context
illustrated text
illustrations
imperialism
imperialist
materialism
ming dynasty
perception
real estate
ruling class
social life
visual representations
visualization
visuals
wen family
Product details
- ISBN 9780948462887
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 1996
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Gardens are sites that can be at one and the same time admired works of art and valuable pieces of real estate. As the first account in English to be wholly based on contemporary Chinese sources, this beautifully illustrated book grounds the practices of garden-making in Ming Dynasty China (1369-1644) firmly in the social and cultural history of the day.
Who owned gardens? Who visited them? How were they represented in words, in paintings and in visual culture generally, and what meanings did these representations hold at different levels of Chinese society? Drawing on a wide range of recent work in cultural theory, Craig Clunas provides for the first time a historical and materialist account of Chinese garden culture, and replaces broad generalizations and orientalist fantasy with a convincing picture of the garden’s role in social life.
Craig Clunas is Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His many books include Screen of Kings: Art and Power in Ming China (Reaktion, 2013).
