Xu Zhimo memorial garden at King's College Cambridge opens to public

Chinese poet Xu Zhimo's memorial garden opened at King's College Cambridge in England on Friday, during the fourth annual Cambridge Xu Zhimo Poetry and Art Festival. Dozens of poets from China and Britain gathered in the garden, reading their own works on the theme of Birds and Gardens.

A marble memorial stone engraved with verses of Xu Zhimo's famous poem "A Second Farewell to Cambridge" is placed at the entrance of the Xu Zhimo memorial garden at King's College Cambridge in England, August 10. [Photo: Xinhua/Stephen Chung]

Xu Zhimo was an early 20th-century Chinese poet. In 1921, Xu studied at King's College Cambridge. His best-known poem, "A Second Farewell to Cambridge," was written in 1928, after Xu's third visit to Cambridge. It is filled with longings for Cambridge, his love of England and its poetry.

90 years later, a Chinese garden named after Xu Zhimo's was designed and built at King's College Cambridge. It is the first Chinese garden built inside any college campus in Cambridge. 

A woman walks across the Xu Zhimo memorial garden at King's College Cambridge in England, August 10. [Photo: Xinhua/Stephen Chung]

The garden center is shaped as Yin and Yang, with a walking path running through. The inscribed in the path are the second and third verses of "A Second Farewell to Cambridge", guiding visitors through the garden to the Crescent Moon Bench, which was named in memory of the Chinese literary society co-founded by Xu Zhimo in 1923.

Xu Shanzeng, the oldest grandson of Xu Zhimo, is invited to Cambridge to read his grandfather's best-known poem in the garden on August 10. [Photo: Xinhua/Zhang Dailei]

Professor Alan Macfarlane, chair of the Cambridge Xu Zhimo Poetry and Art Festival, said on Friday that the garden is not only designed on Daoist and Buddhist principles, but also to represent a fusion of East and West, just as Xu Zhimo was trying to bring the cultural treasures from China to England, and from England to China. 

Macfarlane added that he hopes through both poetry and the garden, cultural links between China and Britain can be further enhanced. 

A view of King's College Cambridge, August 10, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Zhang Dailei]

The poetry festival has become one of the most influential Sino-British cultural exchange activities in Britain since 2015. During this year's festival, eight artwork exhibitions showcasing modern Chinese paintings, porcelain artworks and calligraphy are also being held at the college.