Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture) [Hardcover]

Vera Schwarcz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture | Publication Date: March 25, 2008

The Singing Crane Garden in northwest Beijing has a history dense with classical artistic vision, educational experimentation, political struggle, and tragic suffering. Built by the Manchu prince Mianyu in the mid-nineteenth century, the garden was intended to serve as a refuge from the clutter of daily life near the Forbidden City. In 1860, during the Anglo-French war in China, the garden was destroyed. One hundred years later, in the 1960s, the garden served as the "ox pens," where dissident university professors were imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. Peaceful Western involvement began in 1986, when ground was broken for the Arthur Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology. Completed in 1993, the museum and the Jillian Sackler Sculpture Garden stand on the same grounds today.

In Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden, Vera Schwarcz gives voice to this richly layered corner of China's cultural landscape. Drawing upon a range of sources from poetry to painting, Schwarcz retells the garden's complex history in her own poetic and personal voice. In her exploration of cultural survival, trauma, memory, and place, she reveals how the garden becomes a vehicle for reflection about history and language.

Encyclopedic in conception and artistic in execution, Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden is a powerful work that shows how memory and ruins can revive the spirit of individuals and cultures alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Well written, carefully structured, and beautifully focused on the importance and values associated with memory and remembering. Vera Schwarcz emphasizes the interest in exploring a garden whose materiality has been lost but whose spirit endures, and does so creatively and with grace."—Peter Jacobs, University of Montreal

"This book presents the complex history of a Beijing garden built by a Manchu prince in the nineteenth century. . . . Its story includes more than 100 years of classical artistic vision, political struggle, and suffering, including the 1860 Anglo-French war in China, which destroyed it, and the outrages of the 1960s Cultural Revolution. Schwarcz uses this garden's ruin as a vehicle for exploring trauma and memory, leading to the spiritual revival of both individuals and cultures. . . . [An] eloquently and well written volume."—Choice

About the Author

Vera Schwarcz is Mansfield Freeman Professor of History and East Asian Studies and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. She is author of several books, including Bridge Across Broken Time: Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812241002
• ISBN-13: 978-0812241006
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,317,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, reaches into both heart and mind..., August 7, 2008

By 

Michelle Gerling "Yong chun" (Tel aviv, Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture) (Hardcover)

`Place and memory' came to me while conducting research on a related subject. Out of the pile of books about the history of late imperial China on my desk, it stands out as an unusually excellent read. Though under strict orders to `read just one chapter', I went on and am now deep into the whole book. I could not help myself, because it reads like a beautiful story, full of emotion. It is packed with knowledgeable insights, and right from the start appeals to the reader's heart and mind. Most importantly, the composition of this book transcends by far most standard research material about memory and place in China. Usually, this sort of material is interesting and full of facts, but going beyond dry facts is difficult. Piecing together a history of places in China is not trivial; I find that many times I give up on asking questions like `so, what was this before the road was built'? or `why is the neighborhood called `thousand lotus pagoda hill', because it is very plausible that there is no answer around.
This is why this book is so unique: the author, Prof. Vera Schwarcz, has avoided the fatigue and confusion of 'seeking truth from facts', and bravely delved into the clarity of history as the story of people. In this sense, the book is not only a great read and a very moving story about a garden long gone, but an inspiration not to give up on the search for the roots of change that surround us. I recommend it very warmly to anyone with an interest in memory and remembering in China and elsewhere.