What did the earliest parks in China look like? How did people go to the park at that time? Parks | Space | China
Visiting parks is an important part of our daily life, but you may not know that the birth of the cultural space "park" was actually just over 100 years ago.
Associate Professor Lin Zheng from the Chinese Department of Sun Yat sen University told us a little-known story about early Chinese parks during his "One Seat" speech. From the various functions undertaken by the park at that time, such as enlightenment, culture, literature, entertainment, politics, etc., we have learned about the important historical value of the park. The following is the main content of the speech.
The first park built by modern Chinese people
Today, the park is a public space that every one of us is accustomed to. But over 100 years ago, it was a brand new imported product, introduced to China as a symbol of the most modern Western urban civilization.
There is a "Zoo Station" on the Beijing subway, which was called "Ten Thousand Animal Park" at that time. It was the first park built by modern Chinese people themselves.
The "Western Tea House" in the Ten Thousand Animal Garden
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Ten Thousand Animal Park was very "foreign", introducing a large number of exotic buildings and modern facilities. For example, in the Laiyuan Building, there is a rotating staircase on the third floor, which houses a restaurant, also known as a Western restaurant. The caf é in Wanxiyuan is called "Western Tea House" and is a modern glass hall with a total of 800 glass windows. A scholar wrote like this: "A cup of coffee flies to consume overnight food, surpassing the suspicion of swimming to the Atlantic Ocean." This means that after drinking a cup of coffee, it seems to have arrived in the West in an instant. It was through these ritualistic experiences that the Chinese people of the late Qing Dynasty experienced the Western civilization represented behind the park.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government sent five ministers abroad to investigate the "Good Law for the People" in the West. They returned and reported four things, namely museums, libraries, parks, and animal parks. When these four new things are put into practice in China, they are all categorized within the framework of parks.
Parks were actually invented by the West in the mid-19th century to address the urban problems brought about by the Industrial Revolution. At that time, parks were the center of modern municipal planning and were seen as the "lungs of the city", which could purify the physical and mental well-being of urban residents from both material and spiritual perspectives. For example, in Paris, Mayor Osman opened a large number of parks, green spaces, and boulevards, to the extent that some people commented that greening was a political activity for Osman. In the United States, "Father of Parks" Olmsted believes that parks are a powerful tool for social and moral reform, which can control crime. Central Park in New York is his masterpiece.
Therefore, the park has assumed the function of education since its inception, which coincides with the values of enlightenment in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. In the eyes of the Enlightenment, parks can cultivate Chinese citizens with physical and mental health that is different from the "sick men of East Asia". Modern philosopher Liang Qichao even said: If you don't go to the park for a day, your spirit will be turbid and your ideals will be polluted.
Parks undertook the mission of enlightenment, therefore, most early parks in Beijing had public libraries, lecture halls, exhibition halls, museums, music halls, as well as public sports venues, including morality, intelligence, physical fitness, and aesthetics.
"There are both parks and amusement parks"
The Republic of China further continued the ideas of the Qing government and launched a series of park opening movements, transforming many royal gardens of the Qing Dynasty into parks and opening them to the public. For example, the Altar of State was opened in 1914 and named Central Park. The Xiannongtan was opened in 1915 and was initially named Xiannongtan Park, later renamed Chengnan Park. The Temple of Heaven opened in 1918. The Tai Temple opened in 1924 and was named Peace Park. The Temple of Earth was opened in 1924 and was initially named Jingzhao Park, later renamed Citizen Park. Beihai, Summer Palace, and Zhongnanhai were opened in 1925, 1928, and 1929, respectively.
Unlike the Western style green parks built in the Shanghai Concession, Beijing's parks were built on the basis of the imperial gardens of the Qing Dynasty, so the scenery is completely Chinese, but the inner spirit is extremely modern. For example, the National Beiping Library in Beihai Park, according to the recollection of students at the time, had a palace style exterior but a completely Western style interior, which was no less impressive than the Library of Congress on the other side of the ocean.
In addition to introducing a large number of modern facilities, early parks also established very detailed regulations, teaching citizens in every detail how to use these park spaces appropriately. For example, loud noise is not allowed, nudity is not allowed, feeding animals is not allowed, and climbing flowers, plants, and trees is not allowed.
Traditional China lacks the concept of public space, and therefore lacks appropriate behavioral norms in public space, which is known as "public morality". Starting from the Ten Thousand Livestock Park, the park has taken on the responsibility of cultivating civic morality.
At that time, in addition to parks, Beijing also had another unique entertainment space, represented by the New World and Chengnan Amusement Park. This comprehensive entertainment space introduced from Shanghai symbolizes a public tourist destination that has not yet been covered by modern park theory.
Unlike the style favored by intellectuals and with an enlightening function in the park, the New World has a women's theater, a storytelling room, and a variety show, all aimed at common people's fun. The best selling dish in the restaurant is beef noodles. The atmosphere of Chengnan Amusement Park is also chaotic and noisy. The tea house has a trick of throwing a hot towel from the first floor to the second floor. If it is thrown, everyone cheers loudly, regardless of whether the performance is still on stage. So, except for a few writers who are very considerate of the common people's interests, such as Lao She, Zhang Henshui, and Lin Haiyin, many new cultural figures are not very interested in the Chengnan Amusement Park. In the TV series "Awakening Era", there is a scene where the leaders of the May Fourth Movement, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, wanted to distribute flyers for the "Beijing Citizen Declaration", and the locations were chosen as New World and Chengnan Amusement Park. Undoubtedly, this place accommodates citizens in a broader sense.
"How did people go to the park at that time?"
How did people go to the park at that time?
Firstly, dating can be done in the park.
Traditional Chinese women are not allowed to leave the main gate and not allowed to walk through the second gate. For example, Du Liniang in "The Peony Pavilion" did not know that she had a backyard at the age of 16. Starting from the Ten Thousand Livestock Park, the park is open to all men and women, and there are also patrols to maintain the atmosphere, providing a relatively safe and friendly space for women. The enlightenment values symbolized by the park also coincided with the new female image advocated by the May Fourth Movement at that time. So, the female students who cut their hair short became a unique scenery in the park, and the park also became the favorite place for writers and artists to go.
At the same time, in the context of the May Fourth Movement, young men and women wanted to break free from the constraints of arranged marriages and hoped for social openness and freedom in marriage and love. Parks, which are both open and private public spaces, have become the best place for dating. So in the new literary works of that time, most scenes related to love occurred in parks.
In Zhang Henshui's novel "The Cause of Laughing", the male protagonist dates three women of different identities and chooses three different parks in Beijing. When going on a date with a drumming artist from Tianqiao, choose the Xiannongtan in the south of the city because it is relatively close to the Tianqiao; I went on a date with a performing heroine and chose the Shichahai that ordinary people like; On a date with the daughter of the Minister of Finance, we went to the very elegant Beihai Park. Zhang Henshui's novels are mainly aimed at readers from other places, and he has also taken everyone to appreciate the different urban spaces in Beijing through this way.
During the Republic of China era, many new cultural people's modern weddings were also held in parks. For example, the wedding of Zhao Yuanren, one of the four great mentors of Tsinghua University, and his wife Yang Buwei was held in the park. Their date was in Central Park, so when they got married, they took a group photo in Central Park and sent it to all their relatives and friends, which was considered a wedding. This was a groundbreaking achievement at the time, so the next day the Morning Post reported on the wedding under the title "New People: New Style Wedding".
Secondly, various public activities can be carried out in the park.
The park provided a public space for intellectuals at that time, ultimately leading to the emergence of modern literature, culture, and political trends.
Chinese literati have a tradition of garden gatherings, but there is still a qualitative difference between garden gatherings and May Fourth gatherings in parks. As Kang Baiqing once said, "Going on a spring outing was a clich é of the ancients. The ancients wanted to write poetry while going on a spring outing, but we only talked and played..." Modern club gatherings emphasize the practice of a public life in the public domain, in order to explore how Chinese culture and even politics can be reformed.
At that time, several important literary and political clubs regularly gathered in Central Park. The Youth China Society advocates that modern clubs require social cultivation and group training. The abundant park space in Beijing provides a venue for their group training.
Moreover, the division of labor in parks varies across different spaces. For example, in the early stages of club activities, they would choose the Central Park in the city center. When the political color of the club becomes stronger, they would choose the relatively remote Taoran Pavilion. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Taoran Pavilion was a popular destination for literati to go on outings, and later became a secret gathering place for revolutionaries. Li Dazhao and Zhou Enlai once held a joint meeting of five groups at Taoranting, promoting the development of the revolutionary cause.
In addition, you can also stroll in the park.
For example, social influencer Hu Shi. According to Hu Shi's diary from 1920 to 1924, we can see that he frequently visited the park. In addition to participating in some club activities and literary activities, he also often gathered with friends and went to the Laijin Yuxuan and Changmei Xuan in Central Park for meals and tea. On a whim, I would go to the health club to play basketball and only go home in the middle of the night.
Lu Xun, on the other hand, liked the winter cabbage buns from Yuxuan. According to his student Xu Qinwen's recollection, once Lu Xun took Xu Qinwen to Jinyuxuan to have tea and ordered a steaming plate of steamed buns. In addition to the winter cabbage buns from Yuxuan, Lu Xun also loved Changmeixuan's ham buns very much. In his 1924 diary, he wrote: "Take a small step to Central Park and buy thirty ham buns before returning.". Buying 30 buns at once shows his love for them.
"The Beihai Park in the Works of Shen Congwen and Lao She"
Shen Congwen is a young man who has just arrived in Beijing from Xiangxi and is unemployed and out of school. He was living in an apartment called "Narrow and Mouldy Studio" - it was narrow and humid, and in winter, he couldn't even start a fire. Beihai Park has become a space for him to engage in activities, warm up, absorb knowledge, and even provide spiritual protection.
Going to Beihai Park has become his daily homework and the topic of one of his novels.
Beihai Park was opened on August 1, 1925, and Shen Congwen's novel "To Beihai" was published on August 15, indicating his high level of attention and interest in Beihai Park.
In another autobiographical novel, "The Honest Man," Shen Congwen has the male protagonist Kuanjun follow two beautiful female students along the way - actually his two female readers - and eventually be caught by the park patrol as a confession party.
Besides seeing people, there is also an important thing that Shen Congwen does when he goes to Beihai Park. He goes to the library of Beihai Park to read books, which is also his greatest pleasure. For a young man like him who has not received higher education, his experience of self-study in the public library laid the initial foundation for his future growth as a writer.
After the May Fourth Movement, the inner city center where Beihai Park is located rose to become the center of new culture, and a generation of new youth rapidly grew up. The birthplace of the New Culture Movement - Peking University was here at that time. Peking University President Cai Yuanpei was an advocate of the concept of aesthetic education, and Beihai Park can also be said to be an ideal place to practice the concept of aesthetic education.
For example, during his tenure as a mentor at Tsinghua University, Liang Qichao would bring students to Beihai Park for summer tours every year, and he would also invite renowned teachers to give lectures to these students at his own Songpo Library. Behind this is a reflection of Liang Qichao's educational philosophy. He hopes to make up for the shortcomings of modern education by combining the traditional Chinese academy system and the Western academy system outside of the classroom, and through teaching by example between teachers and students. The trip to Beihai also left a very deep impression on students, with a state of "bathing in Yi, dancing in the wind and rain, singing and returning".
Shen Congwen, as a literary youth nurtured by the aesthetic education atmosphere of Beihai Park, grew into a leader of Beijing style literature in the 1930s. When he started editing the literary supplement of Ta Kung Pao, he returned to Beihai Park where he held a group meeting with young writers to create a relatively equal space for dialogue. Beihai Park has become a literary and aesthetic education base that has been passed down from generation to generation.
In Lao She's novel "Four Generations Together", Beihai Park symbolizes the fall and rebellion of Beiping.
When the third son of the Qi family, Ruiquan, decided to leave Beiping and join the revolution, he drank some wine and stood in the shadow of the old locust tree. The joyful scenes in Beihai Park and Zhongshan Park flashed past him like lanterns.
He went to his girlfriend to bid farewell to his younger brother. He asked his younger brother, "Do we still have the opportunity to explore Beihai?"? This is actually a very painful sentence. For Rui Quan, Beihai and Zhaodi symbolize the beauty of a peaceful era that cannot be regained. But Zhaodi didn't understand this sentence, and she asked coquettishly, "Why not?"?
When Ruiquan becomes an underground worker and returns to Beiping, what he most wants to go to is the park. For Rui Quan and the author Lao She, the park symbolizes an order of daily life, and war precisely breaks this order.
After Ruiquan returned to Beiping, the first action that the book vividly portrayed was his killing of his former girlfriend and current female spy recruitment in Beihai Park. This is a reunion of young lovers after a long separation, and also a cruel confrontation between the enemy and us. On the surface, two people holding hands intimately and passionately, but in reality, it is a battle of life and death. Finally, Ruiquan personally strangled his former lover to death at this once beautiful date spot.
At the end of the book, the Anti Japanese War came to an end, and Lao She once again described a scene in a park: "The White Pagoda in Beihai Park still stands proudly. The red and white lotus flowers in Haizi still emit their fragrance as usual. The Temple of Heaven, the Imperial Temple, and the Forbidden City remain solemn and dignified, with ancient glazed tiles shining brightly." This symbolizes the enduring but resilient power of Beiping and even the Chinese people.
"Parks have become a part of daily life"
Although the original intention of opening parks during the Republic of China period was to enlighten and cultivate modern citizens, the consumption and style of the parks at that time determined that they were only entertainment spaces for the upper middle class. It was not until the establishment of New China that the "People's Park" was truly realized.
In elementary school, the school often organized us to go for spring and autumn outings in the park, and when we came back, we also had to write essays. The song that left the deepest impression on our generation is "Let's Row Our Rows", which almost everyone can sing. This song is the theme song of the movie "Flowers of the Motherland", and the lyrics "Beautiful White Pagoda" and "Green Trees and Red Walls" represent the scenery of Beihai Park.
Later, when I was studying at Peking University, I often went boating and sightseeing in Beihai Park. When visiting schools in the United States, I would pass through a neighborhood park called Boston common every day to go to school, which is part of the park system created by Olmstede that I just mentioned. Now, my mother often goes to the park near my house to dance square dancing, and there are many people dancing with her.
Today, parks have become a part of our daily lives, endowed with new meaning and vitality. Every day, we stroll through the park, enjoying the scenery, socializing, dancing, writing, working... everything is taken for granted. It is precisely this space and practice of daily life, which is not focused on by grand narratives, that plays an irreplaceable role in people's lives.
Space is never just a physical space. It is precisely because there are so many people living in it that our city is a living city, and parks are always vibrant.
In his speech, Lin Zheng
