From Jehol to Stowe: Ornamental Orientalism and the Aesthetics of the Anglo-Chinese Garden

Abstract

This chapter discusses cultural syncretism and strategies of accommodation between China and England’s horticultural theories and practices in the eighteenth century. The architectural presence of China in English gardens is analysed as a form of ornamental orientalism in the context of the development of the Anglo-Chinese garden. The chapter argues that the creation of a hybridized horticultural grammar of ornament took part in a self-reflexive cosmopolitan writing of England’s cultural identity.