it is an essay book with more than 100 color and black& white images, the images and texts are beautifully interacted, which reflect the research, philosophical thinking and contemporary architectural practice touching many different fields including art, architecture, Chinese garden and Japanese zen garden study, perma-culture and farming practices, and these thinking and practices are very much connected with our daily living experience
Hu Fang s Dear Navigator is a collection of ten short stories that reflect on contemporary society, politics, and the human condition. The author takes us on a journey across time and space to hidden realities where we meet culture workers, astronauts, airplanes, Zen masters, and hunger artists. The title story Dear Navigator is a collection of letters written during a 520-day simulated space mission to Mars to test if humans can endure travel from Earth to Mars and back again. Whale Song tells the story of XP, a lonely male escort, as he goes on a surreal journey to self-realization, and The Shame of Participation tells a tale of two thieving artists who legally steal objects from those living in a city in desperation. When the reality turns into fiction, and the science fiction becomes reality, Hu draws on the experience of everyday life, the past, and the unknown future to create stories of otherworldly melancholy and humor.
Fang's novel tells the story of a man in the process of designing a theme park, called Garden of Mirrored Flowers. The design of the theme park in Fang's book is inspired by the classic novel Jin Hua Yuan, or Flowers in the Mirror, from the Qing Dynasty