Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2ABOUT THE CHINESE GARDEN....................................................................................................3FEATURES OF A TYPICAL CHINESE GARDEN............................................................................4ANALYSIS OF SITE...........................................................................................................................5

Nature...............................................................................................................................................5Culture in Space and the Public Sphere...........................................................................................6Nationalism and Multiculturalism...................................................................................................7Globalisation and Post-modernism..................................................................................................8Gender..............................................................................................................................................9

CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10REFERENCE LIST............................................................................................................................12

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INTRODUCTIONSemiology is the study of the existing conventional communicative system. Language; the

words we use to speak, gestures, images, objects; is understood as a system of language made up

with a system of signs (Barthes, 1964). Semiotics is crucial in the formation of literary theory in the

20th century (During, 2003). In Saussure's view, “language is not a function of the speaker. It is a

product that is passively assimilated by the individual.”, meaning language does not come about on

its own. It is a system of signs which is strictly conventional and belongs to the public sphere in

order for it to be communicative (Saussure, 2002). In this essay we will take a look at how the

Chinese Garden in Singapore works as a machine and I would attempt to do a site reading of it.

In addition to an introduction of the garden that I will be talking about in the next section of

this essay, I have made a documentation of the chosen site. I would suggest that you look through

the documentation prior to reading this essay as it includes more detailed illustrations of the

elements found in the Chinese Garden. I will then make an analysis of the site in relation to the

ideologies of nature, space, nationalism, globalisation and gender. Finally I will conclude this essay

by wrapping up the analysis made from understanding the ways in which meaning is generated and

disseminated through practices, beliefs, institutions, political, economic or social structures within a

given culture. I would also briefly propose a future trajectory regarding the site.

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ABOUT THE CHINESE GARDENIn the 1950s, the Singapore government chose Jurong for development as an

industrialization area. Up until then, Jurong was a rural village area. Located away from the Central

Business District and having deep coastal waters made it a prime location to situate heavy

industries. Presently, there is an influx of residents brought about by extensive public housing and

amenities (Wikipedia, 2011).

The Chinese Garden is a garden in Singapore, also commonly known as Jurong Gardens. It

is located in Jurong East and is a five-minute walk from Chinese Garden MRT Station. It was built

in 1975 and designed by an architect from Taiwan, Professor Yuen-chen Yu, who modelled the

garden following the northern Chinese imperial style of architecture and landscaping, specifically

the Sung Dynasty Period. The 13.5 hectares garden was built in an effort to introduce greenery to

the industrializing landscape of Jurong. Admission to the garden has been made free since 2001 and

it is open to the public daily from 6 am – 11 pm.

Entrances to the garden are connected by bridges as the garden is surrounded by a lake. The

main entrance is connected by the White Rainbow Bridge, the east entrance which exits towards

Chinese Garden MRT Station is connected by a red-coloured bridge and another entrance which is

connected to the Japanese Garden is connected by a stone bridge. The east entrance was specially

constructed in conjunction with the Chinese Garden MRT station for increased accessibility. The red

colour of the bridge symbolises fortune and good luck in Chinese culture and the two marble stone

lions situated at the entrance represents authority.

Over the years, new features have been added to the garden to revitalize the area. During the

two times that I visited the site, some of the structures were even being renovated. Features of the

garden now include pagodas, a pavilion, a stone boat, bridges, courtyards, bonsai collection, a Live

Turtle and Tortoise Museum and sculptures of Chinese zodiacs and heroes. Although the human-

made architectures are integrated harmoniously with greenery, one would not find flowers

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prominent in the garden. This is because the art of Chinese gardening focuses more on style of

landscape, recreating natural landscapes in miniature. If one were to visit the Chinese Garden,

Singapore, one would find carefully-composed scenes (Zhewen, 2011).

FEATURES OF A TYPICAL CHINESE GARDENClassical Chinese gardens typically include structures such as pavilions for providing shelter

and resting, contemplation and for appreciation of the surrounding scene. A ceremony hall for

celebrations and ceremonies with an interior courtyard which is usually not very far from the

entrance (Main Arch Building). Courtyards are used for meditation, painting, drinking tea or

playing musical instruments. The stone boat is pavilion of at least two storeys that provide a

panoramic view of the garden. Another feature that is typical and prominent in a classical Chinese

gallery are arching bridges built of stone or wood. Galleries are narrow sheltered corridors and have

small windows of different geometric shapes to views of the carefully frames scene outside (Che,

2010). Water such as ponds and lakes are central to the Chinese garden as it symbolises lightness

and communication (Chen, 2011). Engravings of calligraphy on rocks as decoration is also typical.

All the features highlighted here have been illustrated in more detail in the documentation of

Chinese Garden which should be attached with this essay.

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ANALYSIS OF SITE

NaturePerhaps to start off, I shall include a passage from Burke:

In a state of rude nature there is no such thing as a people... The idea of a people is the idea

of a corporation. It is wholly artificial; and made, like all other legal fictions, by common

agreement. What the particular nature of the agreement was, is collected from the form into

which the particular society has been cast. (Burke, 1791)

My usage of the term nature here can be defined in two ways. The first is defined as nature

in terms of the physical environment of mother nature. The second definition of nature is that it can

be looked at as a state or single essential principle in which the range of things and living processes

might be mentally organized around (Williams, 1979). The nature of culture is based on the ability

of humans to classify experiences and encode those experiences symbolically and then dispersed on

to others (Williams, 1979). The Chinese Garden infuses these two definitions of nature.

A number of symbolisms in Chinese culture are derived from nature. Plants recurrently

appearing in the garden symbolize meanings such as abundance, longevity and fulfilment in

accordance with Chinese tradition and folklore. Bamboo is regarded as a behavioural model of the

gentleman as it features characteristics such as being upright, persevering, having a heart that is

open to acceptance just as the bamboo is hollow-hearted. The Chinese zodiac makes use of animals

to represent character as displayed on the sculptures in the Garden of Abundance. Confucianism is

an ideology which encompasses an array of moral, social, philosophical and religious ideas and

values. It's religious view focuses much on ethics as its central component (Littlejohn, 2010) and it

uses much symbolism from nature as nature is regarded as “existing for its own sake without any

double or ulterior motives. Hence the way in which it produces things is unfathomable.” (Blavatsky,

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1926).

Culture in Space and the Public SphereTechniques, strategy and new human relations are interconnected. The practice of freedom,

social relations and spatial distributions in which they find themselves can only be understood

through the other (Foucault, 1984). I will analyse the usage of space structures such as the Main

Arch Building, stone boat and pagoda within the context of China against the context the Chinese

Garden in Singapore.

In ancient China, structures such as the Main Arch Building with courtyards are used for

meditation, painting, drinking tea or playing musical instruments (Che, 2010). The stone boat at the

Summer Palace in Beijing was used for a better panoramic view of the surrounding garden and was

built on a stone base as requested by the emperor to symbolise the stability of the Qing Dynasty

(Graff, 2002). Pagodas were built for religious use by Bhuddists (Kieschnick, 2003).

The two courtyards situated within the Main Arch Building in Chinese Garden Singapore is

mainly rented out to hold events or functions. The smaller replicated structures of the stone boat and

pagodas have been removed from their original political and religious purposes. In addition to that,

the architectures are also removed from their function of providing more panoramic view of the

garden as access up the stone boat and pagodas have been restricted off indefinitely “until future

notice”.

In a physical sense, the Chinese Garden is used as a space for social activities like gatherings

and family picnics or a spot for couples to go on dates. At the same time it is also a space used for

isolation and solitude. The space is used for interaction with nature and animals and a site for

interaction as annual events like the Lantern Festival are held there. It is a machine relating to the

Chinese tradition and ethnicity. The space is also used as a machine of ideology in terms of it's

moral code, authority, politics, ideas on gender, religion and tradition. Elements such as religion and

tradition is obvious from the architecture of pagodas to information displayed regarding Buddhism

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and Confucianism. Codes of authority and power is displayed with warning signs of prohibition and

surveillance cameras found throughout the garden. The Chinese Garden is also used as a machine of

media as it conveys certain moral, educational and patriotic messages. The space is also a machine

of finance. Income is generated by renting out spaces for filming and

events. To a lesser extent, income is also generated from the sale of soft-drinks from the

vending machines and the fee charged to visitors who buy food to feed the fishes and turtles

and tortoises.

Nationalism and MulticulturalismNationalism is a political ideology that involves a group of individuals having a strong

identification with a nation (Smith, 1993). Anderson characterized nationalism as collective

identities towards communities which are not naturally expressed in language, race or religion but

rather socially constructed by the individual themselves (Anderson, 1991). Although the Chinese

Garden is somewhat contradictory to this ideology, the site does portray a sense of nationalism.

The reason I say that Chinese Garden is contradictory in its display of nationalism is because

the design glorifies northern imperial China as evident in its style and replications of structures.

Despite Chinese being the dominant ethnic group in Singapore, this design is not reminiscent of

Singapore's history in which it started off as a Malay fishing village that was colonized by the

British, occupied by the Japanese and later on gaining independence as a sovereign state.

The teachings of Confucianism seem to contradict with the image of a multicultural

Singapore and the present period. In Bell's suggestion, the promotion of Confucianism in this age is

being seen as a way to maintain a 'social stability' and create a 'harmonious society' (Bell, 2006).

However the site does somewhat display Singapore nationalism by taking pride in being a

popular tourist attraction, housing the world's largest collection of turtles and tortoises and having

the words “One people, One Nation, One Singapore” engraved at the base of the 8 Sculptures of

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Chinese Heroes. The eight sculptures were donated as a gift to Singapore on it's 25th anniversary by

Tee Yih Jia Group. The organization is a Singapore International Company which holds strong

Asian values and is a leading frozen foods manufacturer. The heroes depict honesty, loyalty to the

country, righteousness, modesty, love, filial piety, courtesy and love.

Globalisation and Post-modernismGlobalisation causes the deterritorialism or weakening of culture of a certain place

(Appadurai, 1990). Perhaps the tactic of building this garden was also to re-enforce the Chinese

culture as means to re-shape contemporary discourses . The same strategy can be said to be

applicable on both China and Singapore. China has opened up the imperial palace to the public in

attempts to revive tradition and culture. When in the past, Chinese 'commoners' were not allowed

inside the Forbidden City, they now can visit on their own free will. The Chinese Garden in

Singapore might have been intentioned to revive Chinese Culture and tradition but the site seems to

attract other groups of visitors.

On my recent visits there, I would estimate that 70% of the visitors are in fact, not Chinese.

These visitors are not even from the major ethnic groups in Singapore. They are of White, Philipo,

Bangladeshi and Indonesian ethnicity and classified under the “Others” category of Singapore's

ethnic make up. This is interesting to me because I would not have guessed that the site catered

much to these said 'foreigners', yet they make up a prominent statistic in visitation. Another reason

why I found this fact very curious was because I did not think the site was very educational.

Information are displayed at a minimum and most writings were in the Chinese language and were

not translated.

Globalisation is an inevitable course which typically also means the urbanization of land to

make space for industries that would contribute a nation economically. Those same industries even

contribute to a further deterioration and pollution of nature and move on to become a vicious cycle.

It is ironic that, especially in this day and age, we as human beings contribute so much to the

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destruction of nature whether it be directly or indirectly, intentional or unintentional, in the name of

progress, yet use that same destroyed land to 'make nature'. The same story can be applied on the

Chinese Garden, Singapore.

We live in the Age of the Spectacle, where appearance is far more important than substance

and entertainment is more important than reason (Debord, 1967). The Chinese Garden is, as

Baudrillard would put it a hypermediated and hyperreal, a recreational simulacrum in which it

enacts replicas of Ancient Chinese landmarks and cultural ideas. The Singapore Lantern Festival

held at the Chinese Garden in 2008 featured Hello Kitty and cartoon characters and was the biggest

cartoon character lantern festival in the world (Harada, 2010)

Jean Baudrillard claims that society has replaced all reality and meaning with and signs and

that the human only experiences a simulation of reality and the real meanings have been infinitely

mutable by the constructs of society. In Simulacra and Simulation, he breaks down the sign-order

into four stages. The first stage is a good reflection of a basic reality. The second stage is where sign

is used to mask and pervert a basic reality of the order of enchantment. The third phase is where

signs masks the absence of a basic reality. In stage four, the sign bears no relation to any reality

whatsoever and is its own pure simulacrum. (Baudrillard, 1994)

GenderIn many cultures, assumptions that men and women possess essentially different capacities

and functions. Gender performance is discursive. It arises out of linguistic formations which

Foucault puts as the effects of power knowledge. Power knowledge, through it's circulation,

enforces the governing ideas about any topic in question and the way we behave or perform is based

on this (Butler, 1996). The discourse can release or constitute sites of resistance as well as

oppression. Confucianism has been recognized as being old-fashioned, patriarchal and pervasively

sexist (Reese, 2003).

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However I would like to bring attention to the statue of Hua Mulan, one of the sculptures of

8 Chinese Heroes in the Chinese Garden. It is the only character of the female gender amongst the

eight. Women were not allowed to fight in wars in ancient China but the as the legend goes, Mulan

dressed herself as male, taking over her father's place. When her real gender was later discovered by

the others, they were surprised but it didn't lessen their take on her heroism and bravery. Judith

Butler says that identity is “performative in the sense that it constitutes an effect the very same

subject it appears to express.” (Butler, 1991)

The Chinese society's ability to admire the story of the female heroine has helped justify

other woman who have successfully defined new roles for themselves alongside the male

counterparts (Mann, 1990).

CONCLUSIONThe intended original value of a space may or may not be recognized and is left pray to

diverse movements and meanings given to them by the onlooker. De Certeau writes that spaces

“seem to be carried as emblems by the travellers they direct and simultaneously decorate.” (De

Certeau, 1984). The practice of freedom, social relations and spatial distributions in which they find

themselves can only be understood through the other (Foucault, 1984).

The analysis of the Chinese Garden saw that it is a public space that was intended to serve as

a sanctuary of greenery in the mass of an urbanized town. The strategy of this site is the

representational spectacle of Chinese traditions and architectures. Tactics involve combining

dissimilar elements to gain a momentary advantage. The government and corporations use it to

display their presence as socially responsible organizations that give back to the community. At the

same time, visitors develop their own tactics by subverting representations that institutions seek to

impose upon them (De Certeau, 1984).

Regarding the future trajectory of Chinese Garden, in my opinion, although throughout the

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years new additions and renovations have been done to the garden, there needs to be a more defined

use of the space especially in regards to the building structures. For the time being quite a number

of elements such as the pagodas and stone boat pavilion is closed off and not being fully utilized.

My concern is that if not enough is being done to revitalize use of the Chinese Garden, it will slip

further and further from relevance within the society and be turned into a completely contradictory

space. But perhaps this is not such a negative thing as in the post-modern age, identity is fluid,

flexible and fragmented (Bauman, 2000).

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