Abstract:
The Howqua’s Garden in Fa-ti, Canton in the late Qing Dynasty was formerly known as the Puankhequa’s Garden, and the two have a spatial continuation and progression relationship. From the perspective of garden patrons and Chinese and Western visiting groups, the research, based on literature research and image analysis, clarifies the scope of the garden during the period of Puankhequa’s Garden and the remains and reconstructions of Howqua’s Garden by the hierarchical overlaying method, and discusses the historical logic and cultural production with respect to the evolution of the garden’s spatial patterns. Inheriting the courtyard area on the south side of Puankhequa’s Garden, Howqua’s Garden was further reconstructed and expanded southward, changing the layout direction of taking the lotus pond area on the north side as the main scenery during the period of Puankhequa’s Garden. The cultural products of Puankhequa’s Garden are mainly literature works such as poems and essays, while those of Howqua’s Garden are mainly pictorial works such as export paintings, photographs and copper prints, which are based on foreign visitors recording the scenery of Garden through photography and paintings, and can convey the visual images and cultural connotations of Howqua’s Garden to the world in a more direct way. This transition process not only indicates a transformation in garden constructor, spatial pattern and usage mode, but also implies a shift in the cultural production of Guangzhou gardens in the late Qing Dynasty, and became one of the key elements in the modern transformation and modernity construction of Lingnan gardens in the late Qing Dynasty.