Tracing the Contour of Song Dynasty West Lake
Honor Award
Communications
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Yichen Shan, Student International ASLA;
Yizhi Zhang;
Zhang Chi Chu;
Jing Xu;
Xiaoyan Shen;
Xiaoxue Wang;
Siyuan Wang;
Lulu Huang;
Zhangying Dong;
Yiren Guo;
Yilai Zhong;
Zihan Gan;
Qinglian Du;
Yichi Zhang
Faculty Advisors:
Shixian Shen;
Yari Jin;
China Academy of Art
Beautifully illustrated, multi-dimensional study. The West Lake Cultural Guidebook portion of this project as a folded publication is beautiful, elegant as well as informative and intricately illustrated. All the noted communication methods spread the word on the initiative for sure, but as a communications piece presented here, the guidebook shines the brightest!
- 2024 Awards Jury
Project Statement
The Song Dynasty was the peak period of Chinese cultural development. As the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou, the city and forests formed a beautiful urban garden with the west lake being its center.
"Tracing the Contour of Song Dynasty West Lake" restores the gardens of the Southern Song Dynasty and promotes them to the public and tourists, and builds a bottom-up, online and offline combination of the Southern Song Dynasty West Lake garden landscape Metaverse, to explore ways to spread the cultural concepts of Song Dynasty gardens. By linking the cultural attractions of West Lake and deepening the historical context of each scenic spot, readers can re-experience the city's grand occasion in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Project Narrative
Project background
The Song Dynasty ( including the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty ) was the most brilliant cultural era in Chinese history. Song culture reflected the extraordinary historical wisdom, rich aspirations, and open and inclusive social outlook of the Song Dynasty. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou was the capital.The highly developed cultural environment in the Southern Song Dynasty promoted the development of garden landscapes. However, with the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the change of dynasties, and several historical catastrophes, Hangzhou gardens gradually lost their luster, and most gardens existed only as images. In addition, there are very few records and works on the gardens of the Southern Song Dynasty. Although the public knows about the West Lake today, they know little about its appearance in its heyday.
Significance of the project:
Inheriting the gardens of the Southern Song Dynasty Protection of world cultural heritage Increase the sense of cultural identity
Innovation：
Innovation of dissemination content: This project preserves the landscape context of the West Lake Garden in the Southern Song Dynasty with both pictures and texts, which is conducive to inheriting and promoting the garden culture of the Southern Song Dynasty. Innovation in publicity channels: Spreading the ancient garden culture of the Song Dynasty through social media such as Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin is easier to be accepted by modern young people, and the scope of publicity is not limited by the location, and the audience is wider. Innovation in publicity methods: This project promotes the garden culture of the Song Dynasty through signature walls, interactive installations, flag-planting games, and comparisons between ancient and modern times, bringing immersive experiences to the public.
project outcome:
Preliminary research and restoration
Reading literature: 108 books, 56 ancient paintings; According to historical data, imagine and restore 26 gardens of West Lake in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Achievement display and publicity
Museum exhibition, 2000+ participants; Two academic salons with 100+ participants; Published 4 papers, 2W+ readers; A garden collection pamphlet according to the restoration results, and the emperor and the empress dowager garden life pamphlets. The distribution volume of the three pamphlets is 200+; Three kinds of knowledge-based interactive games: flag planting, monopoly and leaf play, with a total of 300+ offline participants; Social media promotion, 5 tweets on public accounts/ web pages, with a total of 5000+ reading clicks.
Ongoing
The team is jointly studying the culture of the Southern Song Dynasty with the Ceramics Department of the China Academy of Art, the Department of Humanities and Arts, and the Department of Clothing Design; Hangzhou West Lake World Cultural Heritage Monitoring and Management Center, Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, and West Lake Studies Research Association are conducting joint research.
Future Outlook
Continuous social media promotion; The Southern Song West Lake Garden App has been produced and needs to be launched urgently; With the Department of Landscape of the China Academy of Art as the core, set up a research team to continue to excavate the gardens of theWest Lake of the Southern Song Dynasty