On two sides of a clear stream: gender-based differences in the awareness of spatial design in the Humble Administrator’s Garden in the 18th and 19th centuries

Abstract

This study compares the gender-differentiated awareness of the spatial design of the semi-public Humble Administrator’s Garden in the 18th–19th centuries. It found that men visiting the garden would mostly recall Wen Zhengming’s painting of the garden from the previous dynasty and gradually process from the boundary scenes to the core scene, highlighting the idea of following tradition; women would start from the core scene and then radiate to the boundary scenes in a rather modern and practical way. When living in the garden, men would only recognize the main scenes, while women would recognize the main scenes and the bridges, corridors and steps connecting the main scenes as a metaphor for the release of spatial confinement. The pond divides the garden into a male space on the south bank and a female space on the north bank. The two banks of the pond, which was designed to be in the relationship of seeing and being seen, became a confrontation between the new concept of modernity and older social conventions, thus reflecting the reconstruction of the socio-cultural connotations of spatial design for gardens during the tug of war between the maintenance and dissolution of Confucian ethics in the late feudal empire.

Keywords

• humble administrator’s garden
• spatial design
• sociocultural implications
• confucian ethics
• modernity