Center for East Asian Garden Studies
The Huntington’s Center for East Asian Garden Studies promotes innovative scholarship on the traditions of garden-making in China, Japan, and Korea.
Furthering the educational mission of The Huntington’s Chinese and Japanese gardens, the center makes these traditions accessible to wide audiences through lectures, workshops, symposia, exhibitions, and performances.
Previous Events
The Japanese Shōya House: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Architecture
Yukio Lippit, professor of Japanese art and architecture at Harvard University, discusses how The Huntington’s Shōya House offers a unique opportunity to explore an abundance of ideas and elements about Japanese architecture as a whole. Recorded March 28, 2024.
Ordering the Myriad Things: The Transition from Traditional Knowledge of Plants to Scientific Botany in China, 1850–1950.
In his book, Ordering the Myriad Things, Nicholas K. Menzies, research fellow in The Huntington’s Center for East Asian Garden Studies, examines how traditional knowledge of plants in China gave way to scientific botany between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. This talk focuses especially on images of plants, contrasting their representation in late-imperial Chinese painting and materia medica to the conventions of scientific botanical drawing. It highlights the work and careers of three 20th-century Chinese artists who paved the way for today’s professional botanical illustrators. Recorded Feb. 17, 2022.
Temples in the Cliffside: Buddhist Art in Sichuan
In her book, Temples in the Cliffside: Buddhist Art in Sichuan, Sonya Lee argues that centuries-old religious monuments can be part of the world’s sustainable future. This talk focuses on the transformation of cave temples from religious centers into tourist destinations in southwest China, where venerable sites such as Leshan, Nankan, and Baodingshan have become entangled in some of the most consequential economic, political, and religious trends in Asia today.
Visit Videos and Recorded Programs to watch previously recorded lectures, conferences, podcasts, and videos.
Previous Exhibitions
“A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan”
Part 1: Aug. 28–Dec. 13, 2021
Part 2: Jan. 29–May 16, 2022
Public Programs
Music in the Chinese Garden
Wednesdays, 1–3 p.m.
Enjoy traditional Chinese music every Wednesday afternoon in the Garden of Flowing Fragrance.
Educational and School Programs
Chinese Garden Discovery Cart
Discovery Carts are engaging and educational mobile exhibits that offer new learning experiences to garden visitors. The Chinese Garden cart encourages visitors to learn through culturally themed activities involving Chinese opera masks, musical instruments, poetry, apothecary traditions, architecture, and tea preparation, all of which highlight the scholars’ garden.