The image and reality of Chinese landscape, with special reference to tourism.

摘要

Chinese ideology of landscape, as one of the most important themes in landscape studies, has long been a lacuna in geography, not only because of the barriers of language and politics to most Western scholars, but also the neglect of the philosophical approach, other than pragmatic case studies, among Chinese geographers. Although Chinese philosophy is based upon man-nature relationship, it has not yet been fully studied as an aid to understanding how Chinese people perceive and evaluate landscape.; The importance of Chinese landscape in international tourism was recognized in 1978 but it was not supported by relevant research on landscape. After ten years of practical tourism, China has suffered from confusion in promoting its landscape images in international tourism.; The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of Chinese ideas about landscape. The impact of Confucianism, Taoism, and Ch'an Buddhism on Chinese attitudes toward nature and cosmos is analyzed as the philosophical foundation of the study. In order to compare the ideal landscape in theory and in reality, a comparative study is provided on both selected landscapes, used as tourist attractions, and popular landscape images, as reflected in paintings, literature, photos, tourist brochures, and public education.; This study suggests that Chinese ideas about landscape are deeply influenced by idealized images perceived in paintings and poetry. The centrally controlled social system in China has facilitated the domination of this idealized landscape image over Chinese society. In modern international tourism, with little knowledge of Western culture, government authorities and planners often make decisions regarding tourist attractions based upon the Chinese point of view, ignoring the cultural differences about landscapes between China and the western world. By providing evidence of Americans' disagreements with Chinese pre-conditioned "common knowledge" about Westerners' tastes in landscape, it is pointed out that the study of landscape from both Chinese and Western perspectives is urgently needed.