Since I plan to do some research on Chinese sims in Second Life, I found one Chinese Garden to explore this week. Before I go to the garden, I changed my outfit to Chinese Qipao.
I think this Chinese Garden in SL is a kind of typical Chinese garden. I have visited many Chinese garden in China and some buildings and decorations in this SL garden remind me something in the real Chinese Garden.
The roof and the wall of each building are very Chinese style. Many traditional Chinese architectures are build up with wood. Also, the furniture inside is also made by wood. The decorations include calligraphy of Chinese poems and paintings, porcelains, maybe some other things related to Buddhism and Taoism.
In this place, the most frequently appeared sign is dragon. In our Chinese culture, dragon is the sign of power, rich, luck and so on. There is a dragon that we can ride on in this garden, but I don't think it is a Chinese dragon, the appearance is more like a Western dragon.
Also, I think many plants can represent Chinese feature as well, such as bamboo, plum blossom, orchid, pine tree, lotus and so on. In this SL garden, I saw some of them.
The biggest building has some paintings on the wall inside and when I entered the gate, I saw "silk road" floating there. However, there is no connection with those paintings.
There are many stone sculptures of lions. Stone lion is also a typical decoration in Chinese architecture.
Anyway, this SL Chinese garden is really like the real Chinese garden, because the natural environment and the buildings are connect with each other very well.
And I really like the free gift-a Chinese traditional fan that I got from the Chinese store.^ ^
First of all..I CAN NOT WAIT TO RIDE THAT DRAGON!
ReplyDeleteok now back to more academic stuff..cough cough..
It is interesting that you decided to change your appearance for entering the Chinese landmark, I think it shows the importance of shaping avatar's identity aligned with the space. The well-detailed architecture and design have made the predominant feeling of going to an ancient place, however I am wondering is there any explanation about Chinese symbols such as dragon and lion written for someone who is not familiar with Chinese culture as well?