"Harmony Between the Universe: International Perspectives on the Lion Forest Garden" Launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair

FRANKFURT, Germany, Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Local time October 9th, the book launch event Oriental Garden Art and Urban Ecological Civilization: Book Launch of Harmony Between the Universe: International Perspectives on the Lion Forest Garden, hosted by Suzhou Lion Forest Garden Management Office and organized by China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Co., Ltd., was held at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Sun Yan, Head of the Education and Culture Office at the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Frankfurt, noted that the ecological principles embodied in classical Chinese gardens offer valuable insights for the green development of contemporary cities. She emphasized the significance of the newly launched book, which examines the aesthetic philosophy and ecological principles of Oriental gardens within a broader international context.

Frankfurt Book Fair Vice President Claudia Kaiser recalled frequently visiting Suzhou's gardens while studying in Nanjing and noted that the book comes at an opportune time, enabling more international readers to appreciate the beauty of Oriental culture and Chinese gardens.

Qian Yucheng, Deputy Director of the Suzhou Administrative Bureau of Gardens and Landscaping; Zhu Haijun, Head of the Division of Cooperation and Exchange; and Zhang Jie, Director of the Suzhou Lion Forest Garden Management Office, jointly made video addresses. In their remarks, they hailed the publication as a vivid showcase of Chinese garden culture reaching out to the world, marking a shift in the international communication of Suzhou gardens from one-way presentation to two-way dialogue.

British sinologist James Trapp, one of the book's contributors, emphasized in a video address that the authors did not seek to explain the garden but instead offered different ways to appreciate its multiple layers of meaning. Serbian sinologist Ivana Babic observed that nothing meets people's desire for a poetic life in harmony with nature better than traditional Chinese garden art.

Subsequently, the book's editor-in-chief, Italian scholar Paolo Vincenzo Genovese, along with Danish garden artist Stig L. Andersson, American sinologist Shelly Bryant, Turkish sinologist Giray Fidan, and Polish sinologist Jan Jakub Żywczok, also delivered video remarks, sharing their initial motivations for contributing to the book and their reflections on the creative process.