Lecture at UF to focus on private area within China’s Forbidden City

February 7, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — One of the most significant and rarely seen cultural sites in China’s Forbidden City will be the subject of a lecture on Thursday by Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund and a University of Florida alumna.

The free lecture starts at 6:30 p.m. in Holland Hall, Chesterfield Smith Classroom, Room 180.

“Restoring the Emperor’s Private Paradise: Qianlong Garden, Forbidden City, China,” will focus on the decade-long restoration of the Chinese Emperor Qianlong’s private retreat, an elaborate complex of 27 buildings with some of China’s most extravagant 18th-century interiors. The World Monuments Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting endangered ancient and historic sites, has been working with the Chinese government on the restoration of this national treasure.

Burnham graduated from UF in 1969 and is a member of the board of advocates for the College of Design, Construction and Planning’s Historic Preservation Programs. In 2004 she was the first recipient of the program’s Beinecke-Reeves Distinguished Achievement Award, an annual award recognizing an individual with a connection to the state of Florida who exemplifies the spirit of historic preservation and has demonstrated exceptional dedication to the field.

Marty Hylton, an assistant professor of interior design and acting director of the Historic Preservation Programs, organized the event as a way of bringing this beautiful but little-known piece of cultural heritage to public attention.

“The Qianlong garden interiors are some of the most significant in the Forbidden City and China,” Hylton said. “With Bonnie as an example, I hope students can gain a better understanding of the career choices available to them with a degree and background in historic preservation. For the public, this is an opportunity for an insight into a remarkable period of Chinese history and a glimpse of a highly significant heritage site that had, until 2010, not been open to the public in some 50 years.”

The lecture coincides with the opening of an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Qianlong restoration. The exhibition, which was launched at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., features 90 objects of ceremony and leisure that inhabited the private realm of the Qianlong Emperor. Many of these objects had never been seen outside China until now.

The event is co-sponsored by the Historic Preservation Programs and the Department of Interior Design, and seating is limited.

For more information contact Hylton at 352-392-4836 or mhylton@ufl.edu.