A Walk-through into Lingnan Garden

Our Vision
We aim to enhance CityU community’s knowledge about the history of Lingnan Garden and the beauty of Chinese art through our online exhibition and activities.
 

Our Missions
•    To encourage our audience to understand and interpret Lingnan Gardens, art and culture from different perspectives through activities and exhibitions
•    To enhance CityU members’ art appreciation ability by providing them with interactive programmes with our professional guests and online platforms.
 

Our Programme
Our online cultural festival starts from 26th March to 3rd April 2022. We offer an online exhibition focusing on 4 aspects of Lingnan garden, art and culture as well as 4 types of online activities including lecture, panel discussion, performances and workshops. This experience will allow our audience to learn more about Lingnan garden, art and culture. 


Details of the Online Exhibition

Our exhibition consists of 4 topics:
•    Architecture of Lingnan Garden 
•    Plants in Lingnan Garden
•    Lingnan School of Painting 
•    Literature Related to Lingnan Garden
The initial designs and ideas of our planned physical exhibition will be shown in this online exhibition.

This online exhibition will be displayed on our website.
Link: https://intolingnangarden2.wixsite.com/cityu 


Details of the Online Activities

Lingnan Garden Designer
Sunday 27 March 2022

Nature of Activity DIY Terrarium Workshop
Platform YouTube (Tutorial videos); Website (Teaching materials and steps)
Introduction The workshop will be a micro landscape of the Lingnan garden in making the terrarium. By creating the garden in the terrarium, the participants can put different models of Lingnan garden elements. For example, the square pond, the miniature bonsai, and the stone bridge. Our decoration would use a geometric style, which matches the features of the Lingnan garden. It distinguishes the differences between Suzhou garden and Lingnan garden from the terrarium. Moreover, Lingnan gardens are artificial, so the designer should design the display and the size of the garden. Thus, the participants can be designers to create their garden and learn Lingnan culture and the features of Lingnan garden.
Remarks Due to the current pandemic situation, our workshop should not register for the public. For those who are interested, please buy the materials from the list as provided in the website and make them at home. After making the terrarium, you may fill in the google form and post the photo of your work. All submissions will be collected and a portfolio will be made and presented on the website.
 

A Bag with Lingnan Garden
Monday 28 March 2022

Nature of Activity DIY Tote Bag Workshop
Platform YouTube 
Introduction This workshop will use painting tote bags to enable participants to understand Lingnan gardens' characteristics practically. The tote bag is used as a metaphor for the limited space of Lingnan garden. Participants could imagine the area of the tote bag as a Lingnan garden and draw their Lingnan garden on it. In this workshop, the participants will be first introduced to several key elements representing the Lingnan garden style and then design their tote bags. The participants are given a chance to appreciate the beauty of Lingnan gardens and show their creativity, boosting the originality of their works through painting.
 

Imagining Lingnan Through the Eyes of Young Musicians
Tuesday 29 March 2022  12:00-14:00

Nature of Activity Panel Discussion
Language Cantonese
Platform YouTube (Live stream)
Guests Ms Leung Fei-tung and Ms Jessica Fung
Introduction As the treasure of Lingnan culture, Lingnan music such as Cantonese music and opera embodies the essence of traditional Chinese musical culture and brings different elements to its contents and performances. Integrating music into the environment, some Lingnan music set its performances in Lingnan gardens, providing sensational sensory and visual pleasure to the viewers.
It is an honour to have invited Cantonese opera artist Ms Leung Fei-Tung and the bamboo flutes artist Ms Jessica Fung to be the guest of the panel discussion. The two young musicians will lead the audience to the world of Cantonese opera and music, imagine Lingnan Garden through Lingnan music and give their insights into the cultural inheritance of Cantonese opera and music.
 

Singing Cantonese Operatic songs in the CITY's Lingnan garden
Wednesday 30 March 2022

Nature of Activity Cantonese Operatic Song Concert
Platform YouTube
Guests Ms Leung Fei-tung, The Gong Strikes One
Introduction Cantonese operatic songs are one of the most representative song arts in the Lingnan area. Having extremely rich Canton elements, it is greatly appreciated and sung in the Canton area. Cantonese opera and Cantonese operatic songs have been closely related since ancient times but are still slightly different in performance. The former tells the story through the "four basic skills" of singing, acting, delivery of spoken lines and martial arts, while the latter highlights the part of singing. The performers tell the story and express their emotions with their beautiful voices and the accompaniment of music.
With the sweet voice singing Cantonese operatic songs accompanied by the traditional Lingnan Garden decoration, an illusion of travelling back to the traditional Lingnan Garden will be created. The scene of ancient people enjoying this form of entertainment will immediately pop up in the audience’s minds. Through this opportunity, the audience can enjoy the essence of Cantonese operatic songs and find it entertaining to release stress in their daily life.
 

Walking into the Architectural World of Lingnan Gardens
Thursday 31 March 2022  14:00-16:00

Nature of Activity Lecture
Language Cantonese
Platform YouTube (Live stream)
Speaker Mr Li Lin
Introduction Showing incredible scenery within limited space, the architectural designs and horticulture of Lingnan Gardens were created according to their local climate and characteristics. Compared to other traditional Chinese gardens, Lingnan gardens shows both traditional features and garden-design ideology of Chinese gardens and Western architectural elements, making them stand out from the rest of Chinese gardens.
It is an honour to have Mr Li Lin, an architect who has expertise in Chinese architecture and landscape garden, explain the architectural features of Lingnan garden and bring the audience along to a walk-through into the four prominent Lingnan Gardens. In this lecture, the audience can understand how the designers of Lingnan gardens built these recreation areas with creative yet traditional characteristics in a limited space.
 

Bookmark with four seasons window grilles
Friday 1 April 2022

Nature of Activity DIY Bookmark Workshop
Platform YouTube
Introduction This workshop is for participants to make the window grilles and stained-glass windows in the form of bookmarks using iron wires and colourful film. The workshop will begin with explaining the features and applications of several varieties of Lingnan window grilles, followed by a discussion of the meaning and application of the character ‘亞’ components in Keyuan. Through making the bookmark, the characteristics of Chinese and western cultural exchange embodied in Lingnan garden can be highlighted.
 

Seeking Nanyin in Our CITY
Saturday 2 April 2022

Nature of Activity Dishui Nanyin Performance
Platform YouTube 
Performers Ms Tong Siu Yin and her musician team
Introduction Nanyin, one of the most precious cultural treasures in the Lingnan region, is a performing art that narrates stories by singing songs. It was once a popular entertainment in Hong Kong in the early 20th century, usually performed by blind artists in tea houses and brothels, while some might be invited to perform in the houses of the wealthy family. The artists can change the rhythm instantly during the performance based on their preferences. The tone of the music is depressing as the contents are mainly about the ups and downs in life and are used to express the sadness of the songwriters or performers. Therefore, Nanyin is also regarded as “the Blues of the Orient”. From the genuine emotion and lingering charm presented in the performances prepared by Ms Tong, one of the few Dishui Nanyin performers in Hong Kong, with the accompaniment of her musician team, the audience can feel the ups and downs in life and the sadness behind the love stories. 
 

Inquiry

Website:  https://intolingnangarden2.wixsite.com/cityu 
Instagram:  into_lingnan_garden.2022
Facebook:   CityU: A Walk-through into Lingnan Garden
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdOERgRLdsRfdqYqpL4rQ8Q 
Email:  intolingnangarden2022@gmail.com