Guest Artist

Professional Zhao Bing is a famous expert on landscape architecture in the Nanjing Forestry University. Last Monday afternoon, Professional Zhao came to our school, and gave the students of GCA a speech about the Su Zhou's Gardens. He started from telling us an analysis of the word "Garden" in Chinese. He also told us the simple history of garden, some kinds of gardens and some characteristics of the Su Zhou's Gardens.
The word "Garden" in Chinese is "园林". In the old Chinese, "园" was written as "園", and this character include 4 parts. "土" means earth and the change of landforms. The small "口" and the bigger one represent water in the garden and wall around there. Finally, another part of "園" means branches of trees. Thus, "园" can describe the garden well . Then, "林" is a word of woods, so "园林" means the garden with many trees, or woods.
Su Zhou's Gardens have many nicknames because of their characteristics. One of Su Zhou's Gardens' characteristics is the contrast between the outside and inside of them. Su Zhou's Gardens are called "Old woods in the city" because it is much more silent inside than outside. There is another nickname called "Fresh history culture", for people can see the past from these gardens in the present. Many gardens in Su Zhou were built in different dynasties in different ages, so we can infer how cultures were then. All of these points are about characteristics in some broad areas, but Professional Zhao also told us some details, such as strange stones and rocks in Su Zhou's Gardens, and the ways to locate and draw water, etc.
In truth, I think the speech was educative but little boring, for maybe I was too busy at that day. I think I could learn many things which I did not know from this speech. The explanation of the Chinese word of garden was interesting. On the other hand, that speech included many important parts of the landscape architecture, but they were introduced in some uninteresting and hackneyed ways, so I could not remember the contents of the speech without my note. I hope I will listen to a more interesting one.