Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden - Hardcover

by Vera Schwarcz (Author)

The Singing Crane Garden in northwest Beijing has a history dense with classical artistic vision, educational experimentation, political struggle, and tragic suffering. Built by the Manchu prince Mianyu in the mid-nineteenth century, the garden was intended to serve as a refuge from the clutter of daily life near the Forbidden City. In 1860, during the Anglo-French war in China, the garden was destroyed. One hundred years later, in the 1960s, the garden served as the "ox pens," where dissident university professors were imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. Peaceful Western involvement began in 1986, when ground was broken for the Arthur Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology. Completed in 1993, the museum and the Jillian Sackler Sculpture Garden stand on the same grounds today.

Author Biography

Vera Schwarcz is Mansfield Freeman Professor of History and East Asian Studies and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. She is author of several books, including Bridge Across Broken Time: Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.