Childhood

Ye had a happy childhood in Bi Garden, built by Bi Yice, his mother's great-grandfather. After retiring from his post as governor of Dinghai during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Bi bought a piece of land in Suzhou and built the Bi Garden.

"My earliest impression of Chinese culture all came from the garden," Ye said. "Calligraphic inscriptions on the rocks and paintings on pavilion walls nourished me and inspired my interest in traditional culture."

However, the happy times ended with the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) when his family was forced to move out of the Bi Garden and a dozen households moved in to share the space.

Since then, building a Chinese garden was his dream but it wasn't until 2003 that he could realize it. Together with four influential friends, he bought five villas in downtown Suzhou and connected their open courtyards to build a 500-square-meter Chinese garden.

With 2 million yuan, 700 tons of stones, and over 30 species of plants, Yu supervised a team of 30 construction workers to build the garden. It took them two and a half years to complete.

"I drew all the plans myself and discussed construction details with the technicians, all experienced Chinese garden builders," said Ye. "I often changed the design, drawing on new inspiration to improve it." His pursuit for perfection proved a big success. Now Ye Fang Garden attracts many visitors, especially scholars and artists, from everywhere.

When the curator of New York's Guggenheim Museum was in Suzhou, she visited Zhuozhengyuan Garden, one of China's four most famous gardens, and then paid a visit to Ye's garden.

"She told me that although Zhuozhengyuan is very beautiful, she liked my garden more because it is a real place for people to live in," said Ye with a smile.

That view is echoed by many other visitors. Ye's design focuses on how to mix modern and traditional - modern lifestyle with Chinese garden tradition.

"I didn't want to build a garden just to visit. It's my home and it must be comfortable and convenient for my family," said Ye.

Based on the garden-for-living concept, Ye researched the paintings of Tang and Song dynasties for hints to create his own classical Chinese garden, a garden he describes as "belonging to this era and fitting urban lifestyles."

Ye often argued with his expert tradesmen, most of whom were trained in traditional Chinese garden theory and refused to accept his innovative approach.

"I had to persuade them to implement my designs and some adopted them so well they are applying them in other Chinese garden constructions," Ye said proudly.

According to Ye, current Chinese garden design is housed in the architecture or forestry departments at domestic universities, while many scholars ignore aesthetic concepts.

"Actually, it's easy to design a Chinese garden with three-dimensional computer technology. But the cut-and-dried model is just doctrinairism and won't endow the garden with life and soul."

He recalled an interesting story when he went to Zhejiang Province to look for suitable plants for his garden. "I asked for trees in an unconventional shape, which in a painter's eyes are pretty," he said. "This was seen as weird by the tree farmers so I had to lie, saying I'm too poor to buy the 'normal' trees," said Ye with a laugh.

Ye contemplates the possible difference between his teenager daughter and other children who grow up in apartment buildings: "She might have a deeper understanding of Chinese culture than her peers after immersing herself into the garden."

"In primary school, she would often stroll through the garden to find inspiration for her writing. Her story about the flowers, birds and carp fish earned her quite a high score from the Chinese teacher," said Ye.

His success has earned the envy of many who have unsuccessfully sought him to help design their villa gardens. "Designing and building Chinese gardens is just my interest. I don't intend to make money from it. The garden is one of my favorite art creations, not a commercial product," he said.

"Life is like a boat. All I need is just that, a pot of good wine, several interesting books and my family happily staying together on this boat."

(Shanghai Daily August 26,2008)