1/19/24

Lei Gao-The Yuan Ming Yuan: A Journey Through China's Imperial Garden

The Yuan Ming Yuan was the Chinese Imperial garden on the edge of Beijing, more or less equivalent to Versailles, a comparison which landscape historian Lei Gao discusses, before showing us images of the garden before its notorious destruction by British and French troops in 1860. Since then there has been much debate about whether to restore the ruins or leave as a monument to national humiliation. As Lei shows us, digital technology is one solution to this conundrum, as can be seen from the video which Lei shows at the end of the talk:

SCMP Archive, Digital rebirth of Beijing's Old Summer Palace.

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Andrew Bunting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society