As Juergen Habermas points out, "In the commercial process of the whole society, the progressive potential of public construction is losing. What instead is vulgar, mediocre, simple and crude style of entertainment function…The monotonous office buildings have occupied the city center. Thus, the functional relationships of all the constitute nodes of these constructions cannot be identified. "From these descriptions, we can understand: the baptism of the Western modernization caused the disintegration of the whole classical architecture system. However, the social formation changed inevitably along with the fast development, but not subversively. With various efforts of government cultural officials and intellectuals, many cities in Europe and even central cities and towns still retained a large-scale "old quarter" and classic architecture. Until now, not only "classic architecture" has been duly protected, even those modern architecture that not favored by Habermas has been developed into a mature and complete aesthetics system, and gradually become a new Western modern architectural tradition. By contrast, with the rapid modernization, Chinese traditional architecture has been lost and new construction is still in the stage of shoddy imitation. Early in 2000, Zhu Mingtao had been to Europe for short-term academic exchanges. In free time, he has visited several famous buildings in European cities. In later conversation, Zhu Mingtao pointed out that he felt the demise of Chinese architectural culture after his trip to Europe. He said: "Compared with Europe architecture, Chinese real estate just built numerous shabby dwellings, without modern aesthetic or traditional rules. In the face of globalization and cultural openness, the lack of self-image satisfaction, self-defined as invalid and the resulting self-doubt made Zhu Mingtao stubbornly believe that: only the traditional construction is a unique oriental feature, can represent the height of Chinese architectural culture; and the modernization of Chinese culture must be found based on the traditional way that it can find a way out. It is the initial motivation of Zhu Mingtao to paint Chinese garden.
　　Unique landscape architecture is a transformed world of ancient Oriental art, renowned for its mysterious spiritual content. Foucault mentioned in his work Different Space : "... in the East, so far as an amazing creation which has a history of several thousand years, landscape architecture has a profound symbolic significance ... it is said that it has a complicated superposition meaning. "The form of Chinese landscape architecture is the integrated embodiment of different arts, such as architecture, landscape, sculpture, painting, calligraphy and poetry. Compared with the landscape in brush painting by artists, the landscape architecture is the memorial cultural symbols with great significance. Various styles, patterns and each detail of the landscape architecture contain aesthetic rules which formed by a long-term evolution of Chinese feudal elite culture, and the orthodox visual paradigms which formed by the spirit of Eastern philosophy, religion, philosophy and popular morality. Different with practical function of the current park, garden in the feudal era was not sightseeing place for public. It's every landscape layout was the materialization of the privileged and elite literati private aesthetic philosophy and metaphysical culture materialized culture. Therefore, the true garden in history represents the geographical elite aesthetic of feudal culture and unique oriental elegance upbringing. These gardens with physical form abandoned their specific practical applicability and rose to a cultural phenomenon. Its content is the natural landscape with humanity. To quote Williams' "Cultural and Social Debate ": "culture represents the whole life style of a society" ; to explain the cultural landscape, then, the garden in feudal era can be understand as a miniature of the whole society.
　　Although Zhu Mingtao reproduced garden feature with realistic methods, in terms of artistic expression, his painting did not restore its original existence of private cultural sites, or the comprehensive form of self-sufficient and complete aesthetic subject. Because, the feudal gardens that built to meet the demands of the individuals have transformed into the collective memory of the public, after the political revolution in modern times, especially after the new Chinese socialist revolution. Through the transformation of the primary system, the former private cultural space stripped of the feudal tradition remains, and also undermined the integrity of the unique aesthetic experience of the East. In the socialist system, the government transformed the garden into recreational park on behalf of the people. The cultural experience of original royal gardens was replaced by delight and collective memory of the public. Zhu Mingtao was born during the Cultural Revolution, thus garden in his memory should be more of a public plot. Tracing the original meaning of the garden in the name of art has lost real contact in classical era. That closely related cultural context can reach the current that only through the text of the old poor imitation to reach the current text of the translation. As an artist, his culture accumulates or personal experience has a meaning only if it changes into artistic experience. Garden, as the matrix of artists' concept, must be disassembled, reconstructed, and interpreted through new methods or new concepts that it can transform the spiritual landscape into unique artistic experience. If we are able to observe the whole artistic experience of him, we will realize the retired of artistic image and the presentation of cultural symbols in his thinking process. Zhu Mingtao's early landscape paintings mainly show details of the specific things and spiritual present of   performance techniques. The rocks and pavilions in his paintings are faithful to the original. He prefers messy brush strokes. The color layout of his paintings has a strong sense of modern form. Along with the deepening of exploration, Zhu Mingtao gradually realized that the heritage of our unique Chinese cultural temperament have no clear form or system, except for a profound sense. But it is just this ambiguous nature that caused the indescribable classical plot, raising the imaginary Eastern culture as a kind of virtual revere. For this spiritual nature is ineffable and indescribable, Zhu Mingtao use a set of static images and fuzzy drawing techniques. Single color, feeling of depth and disposition of the specific images indicate these works are no longer a pure landscape painting. Hazy distance in the works extended real picture of the garden to image slices, ensuring the completion of garden images and avoiding the artist's individual subjective anxiety disorder. The garden in the works was eventually presented as an isolated image divorcing from the social environment and describing context. Therefore, the garden in Zhu Mingtao's paintings is a double illusion of oriental culture, a kind of collective memory, and an illusion in memory from the real imitation. Although the image expresses the memory of the past, the unique artistic language derived modernity under the present perspective intervention.
　　Zhu Mingtao's drawing pattern relates to the shift of a specific aesthetic character. Subject to the limitations of personal experience (he has been working for college since graduation), Zhu Mingtao is used to attach importance to the spirit of art and technology of realistic expression. Empirical differences and overlapping styles produced during the evolution of garden style can be said an example of style changing. From the direct reproduction of the landscape to the presentation of the passing memory, it sublimates the cultural level of the arts. The thinking of the landscape is turned to the thinking of the thinking experience (landscape culture) itself. Series of works in the evolution stage have some kind of tendency of expressionism, and ultimately attributed to an Oriental spiritual symbols and affirmation to the value of region culture. The extensive meanings include Oriental cultural self-identity and contemporary heritage of the old collective memory of culture.
　　A generation of artists has been transformed into cultural nihilists by methods of Modern Art.  Negation and defection of the established aesthetics rules have erased critic function of art to social themes. The creation of modern art just is a mirror of philosophical thought. Benjamin pointed in "Art Works In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction": "they advocated 'art for art' as a respond, which proposed an art theology. This doctrine straight leads to a negative theology. As a result, they conceived a concept of "pure' art, not only refused to play any of the social functional key roles, but also not willing to classify by subject matter. "And the next generation of artists indulge in the" post-colonial", "globalization", "diversity" and other success achieved by short-term academic strategies. Ontology of art as boring and retired business strategies, pulled out a vague stirring passion, commitment to contemporary paintings will return to the social function of narrative expression and symbols on the image to consider.
　　As Boas presumed in the Primitive Art: It is from other cultural phenomena that give birth to the present art. This "other cultural phenomena" in Zhu Mingtao garden series could be interpreted as the gone Oriental flashy life and rueful history - the dream of unique Chinese culture.

Cao Zhenwei
2011-5