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What lies beneath the enduring charm of West Lake? This volume reveals how this iconic Hangzhou landscape evolved from a swamp into a public space and, ultimately, a powerful cultural symbol. Through new interdisciplinary research, it reframes West Lake within long-term landscape formation, showing how interactions between people and nature shaped its preservation, aesthetics, and commodification. Chapters uncover overlooked histories—from water myth to dredging, from material culture to global reception—demonstrating how West Lake became a place where knowledge, art, and identity were continually remade.
This book offers a fresh model for landscape and place studies in China and the broader East Asian cultural sphere.
This book offers a fresh model for landscape and place studies in China and the broader East Asian cultural sphere.
Price: $99.00
Pages: 394
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Sinica Leidensia
Publication Date:
16 July 2026
ISBN: 9789004762091
Format: Hardcover
Antonio José Mezcua López, Ph.D. (2007), Professor of Chinese Culture at Granada University. He has published extensively on Chinese landscape culture. His last publication is “Late Ming Xizi Lake, the courtesan world in the landscape culture of the West Lake,” Landscape History (2023).
Xiaolin Duan, Ph.D. (2014), Professor of History at North Carolina State University. She has published monographs, articles, and translations on Middle Period China, including Rise of West Lake: A Cultural Landmark in the Song Dynasty (University of Washington, 2020).
Xiaolin Duan, Ph.D. (2014), Professor of History at North Carolina State University. She has published monographs, articles, and translations on Middle Period China, including Rise of West Lake: A Cultural Landmark in the Song Dynasty (University of Washington, 2020).