The Tea Gardens of Dazhangshan
The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens 2019
30th edition
edited by Patrizia Boschiero, Luigi Latini, Maurizio Paolillo
Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche
Treviso 2019
244 pages, 156 illustrations in colour and 29 black and white
ISBN 978-88-8435-150-0
Italian edition: ISBN 978-88-8435-149-4
(series Memorie/dossier)
The thirtieth edition of the International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens is dedicated to The Tea Gardens of Dazhangshan, situated in Wuyuan county, in the northeast of Jiangxi province, in southeast China. A site capable of stimulating a reflection on both historic and contemporary rural landscapes, as well as the environmental and social emergencies currently affecting our planet. The vast system of hills beneath the mountains of Dazhangshan is surrounded by tea cultivations managed according to agroecological criteria: the undulating fields with their distinctive rows of tidy hedges unfold between the forests above and the rice paddies in the valleys below. The tea plant (Camellia sinensis), which originates in this corner of China, has shaped a contemporary landscape conveying a sense of history and projecting into the future the values of a rural environment where humans have established a harmonious relationship with nature.
The book, edited by Patrizia Boschiero, Luigi Latini and Maurizio Paolillo, is a collective work that brings together a dozen unpublished contributions, a rich photographic, cartographic and documentary apparatus, published in Italian and English.
Contents
The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens, 1990-2019
Regulations and Scientific Committee
The Tea Gardens of Dazhangshan. Statement of the Carlo Scarpa Prize, in English, Chinese and Italian
Maurizio Paolillo, From China to Wuyuan County. A historical and geographical overview
Maurizio Paolillo, The Beauty of the Dao. The multiple faces of landscape in the cultural tradition of China
Hong Peng, Poetry and Craftsmanship, a Marriage of Nature and History. The gardening philosophy of Dazhangshan’s organic tea farms
Chen Xing, A Home for Tea, a Home for Books
Xiao Kunbing, Culture, Cultivations and Tea Routes in Ancient China. Historical and anthropological aspects
Yu Yue, Environment, Tea and Tea Culture in Jiangxi
Livio Zanini, Before the Arrival of Tea in Europe. The Chinese beverage in western sources prior to the 17th century
Giuseppe Barbera, Anthropocene, Agriculture, and Landscape. Reflections on the margins of a journey in China
Anna-Paola Pola, “The Most Beautiful Village in China.” Heritage, politics, and transformations in rural China
Mónica Luengo, Cultural and Heritage Values of the Asian Tea Landscapes in an International Framework
Hervé Brunon, Maxime Decaudin, For an Ecological History. Reflections inspired by China
Massimo Rossi, Some Reflections on Cartographic Representation in the Chinese Culture
Bibliography
Illustration References
List of Authors
The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens 2019