| With the evolution of Garden History study from being a generalized descriptive historiography into a more in-depth explanatory historiography,to place landscape architecture studies in a broader social context beyond aesthetics and style for the purpose of discovering the garden development motivation has become one of the most important subjects in the study of Garden History.Being one of the three significant chinese garden styles,modern Lingnan private gardens and its existing studies are very lacking in depth and breadth,which can be revealed in the following aspects: firstly,the majority of the existing studies emphasize largely on static spatial analysis and aesthetic criticisms etc.;besides,in those only existing studies of garden development motivation,the conclusions were tremendously drew from geochronology and cultural generation’s perspectives only.Landscapes are only treated as a static and enclosed space but very much failed to include people’s physical activities and the social impacts of their formation.Therefore,this dissertation will transform perspectives from the static attention to the aesthetic of physical space into a dynamic human-centered social space,and with the support of Lefebvre’s “social space”theory,Bourdieu’s “field theory”and Foucault’s “power space” theory to discuss modern Lingnan private gardens’ development motivation from a power-related point of view.This dissertation not only be helpful to further improve the research about the history of modern Lingnan private gardens,but also provide new perspective and method for correlational research.Furthermore,the range of this dissertation is the south of the Five Ridges from broad sense,the research included 33 private gardens in Guangdong,Guangxi,Fujian,Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan.Moreover,this dissertation is going to regard residency,landscape architecture,ancestral temples and family members as a comprehensive family settlement,utilizing Foucault’s Genealogy as a general methodological guidance for the purpose of establishing social pedigree,and by means of literature research,field study,graphical method,comparative studies and other multi-disciplinary research methods to organize modern Lingnan private gardens’ types and characters depending on in which class and identity the garden belongs to.Moreover,it is also going to look at social class hierarchical recognition,family settlement and family structure from macro to micro level,in order to explore the operation of power relations in space,and how these the strategies and manifestations affect the physical arrangement of gardens.The main results of the study are as follow:1.Modern Lingnan private gardens are diverse and cannot be represented by literati garden or merchant Garden,it also cannot be reduced to a garden type with a common style.According to the class and identity of the owners,this dissertation analysis production process and development characteristics about four types including: business gardens,governmental&scholar gardens,overseas Chinese gardens and warlord gardens,furthermore reveal the development motivation about this multiple gardens.2.Try to analyse the power space in modern Lingnan private garden,there are many kinds of power operation,such as impact of power,family discourse,gender differences,master and servant level differences,family culture and such power-related operation.In the successful operation of the power relations,it promoted the continuation of space implementation and improvement,and complete the physical garden spaces dynamically.3.Within the social context full of hierarchical recognition and with the impact from social class hierarchy,people come from each level will design their gardens responding to their own identity,with which they could gain social acknowledgement and power from other collectives.Government officials,scholars,and businessmen have similar scholarly directions when it comes down to garden design,which can be revealed as follows:(1)Garden layout directly follow or learn from Jiangnan literati garden,or to get inspiration from the classic literary works,while focusing on the importance of “number” of meaning that relates the layout with numbers.(2)Put great efforts into interior furnishings of the study room.(3)Emphasize the value of garden plaque,couplets and other writings.(4)Look highly upon the planting design in terms of cultural moral.(5)To create a condition for a variety of activities.Military class like warlords,who are the actual local governors,whose performance in garden making includes:(1)Architectural appearance wise,to utilize Roman arch-style or western gothic church style in order to give a sense of deterrence.(2)Integrate the defense function into residential spaces and architectural design in order to unify landscape aesthetics and defense functions.(3)Plantings are normally simple but clear enough to enhance the concept of defense.Overseas Chinese as a rising national bourgeoisie,whose garden making style can be summarized as follows:(1)The building parts are detached single houses that make full use of vertical spaces.(2)Landscape structures have adopted a large amount of western styles,which can also been seen in regular network garden space arrangement.(3)Lifestyle has been westernized so that relative technologies and infrastructure in internal spaces have been largely applied.(4)Planting wise,pattern flower beds,pruning hedge,modeling plants and other western garden features have been largely adopted.4.When zooming into family settlements from the macro social context,influenced by the significance of family,the honour or disgrace of individuals have been tied with family status.Therefore the construction of private gardens became a form of representing those family values.Meanwhile,the location of gardens can also reflect the sense of power,which can be revealed in:(1)Put effort into occupying the best scenery resources according to Fengshui principles.(2)Dominating of the settlement inside or outside of the space.(3)Control and enhance the relationship between space and ancestral temples so as to make landscape a sacred place.5.Regarding the family structure based on micro social context,the traditional ritual,ethical and hierarchical values of humility became a disciplinary force embedded within the landscape,and garden construction is the way to fulfill the owner’s power with the help of spatial arrangement for the purpose of effectively constraining the behavior of family members as well as to maintain the order.When it comes down to detailed design,conclusions can be drawn:(1)Through the placement of stage,room space division,channels and decoration differences to enhance the male-oriented perspective.(2)Through the separation of space and circulation between masters and servants to indicate consciousness of different class.(3)Through garden plaque,couplets,structure and other writings placed within garden to emphasize family mottos,whose contents are normally about “study principles”,“emotional expressions”,“philosophy of life” and “family reinforcement”.At last,this dissertation form the point of view found that modern Lingnan private gardens have an intimate relationship with social structure.Other than those conclusions drawn from geochronology and cultural generation theory,the formation of modern Lingnan private gardens can be better explained from social perspective,which is an important complement to both existing conclusions. |
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