The first private garden built by a painter shows up in Suzhou,
famous for its delicately built gardens in ancient times, after the
tradition of building private gardens was discontinued for half a
century.
In
a typical ancient style, the Cuiyuan Garden is much smaller than
its 60-strong splendid predecessors, some of which have been listed
as the World
Cultural Heritage Sites by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization last year.
Yet the Cuiyuan bears all necessities for a traditional garden:
buildings of varied shapes, a creek, rockery, flowers and
trees.
Cai Tinghui, owner of the garden, is deputy director of the Academy
of Chinese Paintings of Suzhou. He designed and instructed the
one-and-a-half-year construction of the garden.
The 53-year-old Cai said that by carving stone statues, seals and
kettles, he earned more than 100,000 yuan over the past two
decades. And now he put all his earnings into building the
garden.
Cai’s garden is a milestone marking ordinary people’s renewed
interest in having an artistic residence, said the city’s gardening
bureau director Xu Wentao.
“We have many people who are much richer than Cai, and we would
encourage them to do the same,” the official said.
(eastday.com 07/09/2001)