Grow Your Knowledge
Judge Warren and Nobie Chan Education Center
We offer integrated programming exploring Chinese culture and other Asian cultures for students and the general public. The Judge Warren and Nobie Chan Education Center, the Garden’s hub for classes and educational events, is a partnership with South Seattle College and the State of Washington.
Classes
We routinely hold classes on a number of topics related to Chinese culture, including art, architecture, literature, the culinary arts and horticulture.
Guided Tours
Touring the Garden with one of our education docents is an ideal way to begin deepening your understanding of Chinese culture. Guided tours are available to private groups (both visiting and local), and may also be included as part of Garden events and classes.
Recommended Reading
Chinese Gardens
Architecture of the Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. Vancouver: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden Society, 1987.
Han, Pao-Teh. The Story Of Chinese Landscape Design: External Forms and Internal Visions. Taiwan: Youth Cultural Enterprises, 1992.
Keswick, Maggie. The Chinese Garden. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1978.
Keswick, Maggie. A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Engel, D.H., Creating a Chinese Garden. Portland: Timber Press, 1986.
Ji, Cheng.TTze Craft of Gardens, Trans. Alison Hardie. New Haven, 1988.
Morris, Edwin T. The Gardens of China: Art, Architecture, and Meaning. Ne
Art
Sullivan, Michael. The Arts of China, 4th ed. University of California, Berkeley, 1999.
Silbergeld, Jerome. Chinese Painting Style. University of Washington Press, 1982.
Cahill, James. Chinese Painting. Geneva: Skira, 1960.
Cahill, James. Parting at the Shore. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1978.
Li, Chu-Tsing and James C. Wyatt. The Chinese Scholar’s Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period. London, 1987.
Little, Stephen et al. Taoism and the Arts of China. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago.
Rosenblum, Robert. Art of the Natural World: Resonances of Wild Nature in Chinese Sculptural Art. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 2001.
Sullivan, Michael. The Three Perfections: Chinese Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy. New York: George Braziller, 1999.
Calligraphy
Harris, Robert E., Jr., and Fong, Wen C. The Imbodied Image. Princeton, 1999.
Ch’en Chih-mai. Chinese Calligraphers and Their Art. London: Cambridge University Press, 1966.
Ecke, Tseng Yu-ho. Chinese Calligraphy. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1971.
Poetry
Individual volumes from Copper Canyon, New Directions and/or Penguin for poets T’ao Ch’ien, Wang Wei, To Fu, Li Po, Su Tung Po.
Hamill, Sam. Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese. Rochester: BOA Editions, 2000.
Watson, Burton, Trans. And Ed. The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.
History and Culture
Cass, Victoria. Dangerous Women: Warriors, Grannies, and Geishas from the Ming Period. London, 1999.
Ching, Julia. Chinese Religions. Maryknoll, NY: Maryknoll Press, 1993.
Fairbank, John King, and Goldman, Merle. China: a New History. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1998.
Fitzgerald, C.P. China: A Short Cultural History. 3rd rev. ed. London, 1961.
Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962
Blunden, Caroline, and Elvin, Mark. Cultural Atlas of China. Rev. ed. Oxfordshire: Andromeda, 1998.
Palmer, Martin. Travels Through Sacred China. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996.
Chinese Philosophy
Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton University Press, 1963.
Hu Dongchu, The Way of the Virtuous: The Influence of Art and Philosophy on Chinese Garden Design. New World Press, 1991.
Fung Yu-lan. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. Free Press, 1966.
Plant Explorers
Lancaster, Roy. Travels in China. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Book Collectors’ Club, 1989.
Wilson, E.H. A Naturalist in Western China. London: Cadogan Books, 1986.
Farrer, R. On the Eaves of the World Rhode Island: Theophrastus, 1977.
Penjing, Gongshi and Flower Arranging
Huang, Yung-chuan and Philips, Carolyn J. tr. The Art of Traditional Chinese Flower Arranging. San Francisco. Asian Art Museum, 1988.
Hu, Kernin. The Spirit of Gongshi: Chinese Scholar’s Rocks. Chicago: Art Media.
Hu, Y. Chinese Penjing. Portland: Timber Press, 1988.
Memoirs and Literature
Cao, Xueqin. The Dream of the Red Chamber, many translations.
Kates, George N. The Years that Were Fat: The Last Years of Old China. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1967.
Shen Fu, Six Records of a Floating Life, translated by Leonard Platt and Chiang Su-Hui London: Penguin Classics, 1983.
Strassberg, Richard E. Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Waley, Arthur. Monkey: The Journey to the West. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1943.
Students from Chief Sealth International High School in West Seattle learn about traditional Chinese tea.
