Charles Ⅱ statue

Charles II Statue @ Yahoo! Video

A story for my Forbidden Soho

This is a story about nostalgia.

When people live in a new environment and miss something, what they see and what they feel may be totally different. What they see is from the physical space while what they feel is from their memories or familiar things. So these two spaces could be separate, one is outside and the other is inside. Most of time, people could not distinguish which is outside and which is inside, just know they are in the opposite space without logical relationship, and nobody knows where is the border. Just like the narration from ‘invisible cities’, ‘From one part to the other, the city seems to continue, in perspective, multiplying its repertory of images: but instead it has no thickness, it consists only of a face and an obverse, like a sheet of paper, with a figure on either side, which can neither be separated nor look at each other.’ I just want to use this imagination to present my homesick feelings.

When I stand at the crossroad and look forward to Soho Square, it is sunny and clear. The flourishing green trees stand in the interspace of buildings and the people lie on the grass to enjoy their leisure moment. 
Then I come close to the entrance of the square, my view is expanded and the pavilion in the centre reminds me of some familiar feelings. A great palace from Forbidden City, which is the strongest memory about my hometown, seems to appear in the shadows of the trees. 
Suddenly I glimpse a vogue reflection of this palace on a building window, and the surrounding turn dark, except the street lamp, radiating the warm and yellow light just like from Forbidden City. Is it my illusion?

When I go through the enclosure and walk to the pavilion, everything become normal again. I stand in front of the small house and look inside the window glass; surprisingly it is not dark but golden. There is an emperor’s throne with Chinese imperial decoration, which makes the room extremely magnificent. 
I am so curious about everything inside and push the door. When I go in the room, it is become normal again. I look outside through the window, the statue of Charles II seems become to the statue of stone lion from Forbidden City. Moreover, the buildings around square also turn into the Chinese palaces.

The same thing happens to the red telephone box. Looking inside the box, a large golden vase is placed in the corner, but when I go in to see clearly, it disappears. Standing in the poky room, the outside space become Forbidden City again.

This story refers to the two spaces existing together. Inside the border, there is the physical space as people can touch it. While outside the border, there is an invisible space. These two could never intersect just like the reality and illusion. But they stick on but never are separated nor look at each other.

The border could be people’s eyes, any real constructions, walls and enclosure.

A story from ‘ invisible cities’

When you have forded the river, when you have crossed the mountain pass, you suddenly find before you the city of Moriana, its alabaster gates transparent in the sunlight, its coral columns supporting pediments encrusted with serpentine, its villas all of glass like aquariums where the shadows of dancing girls with silvery scales swim beneath the medusashaped chandeliers. If this is not your first journey, you already know that cities like this have an obverse: you have only to walk in a semicircle and you will come into view of Moriana’s hidden face, an expanse of rusting sheet metal, sackcloth, planks bristling with spikes, pipes black with soot, piles of tins, blind walls with fading signs, frames of staved in straw chairs, ropes good only for hanging oneself from a rotten beam.

From one part to the other, the city seems to continue, in perspective, multiplying its repertory of images: but instead it has no thickness, it consists only of a face and an obverse, like a sheet of paper, with a figure on either side, which can neither be separated nor look at each other.

invisible cities

The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo. The book is framed as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his expanding and vast empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 cities, apparently narrated by Polo. Short dialogues between the two characters are interspersed every five to ten cities and are used to discuss various ideas presented by the cities on a wide range of topics includinglinguistics and human nature. Not only is the book structured around an interlocking pattern of numbered sections, but the length of each section's title graphically outlines a continuously oscillatingsine wave, or perhaps a city skyline. The interludes between Khan and Polo are no less poetically constructed than the cities, and form a framing device, a story with a story, that plays with the natural complexity of language and stories.

The book, because of its approach to the imaginative potentialities of cities, has been used by architects and artists to visualize how cities can be, their secret folds, where the human imagination is not necessarily limited by the laws of physics or the limitations of modern urban theory. It offers an alternative approach to thinking about cities, how they are formed and how they function.

The book was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1975.

The Travels of Marco Polo, Polo's travel diaries depicting his journeys through the Mongol Empire which were written in the 13th century, share with Invisible Cities the brief, often fantastic accounts of the cities Polo visits, accompanied by descriptions of the city's inhabitants, notable imports and exports, and whatever interesting tales Polo had heard about the region.

some possible relationship between two cities from “ invisible cities”

When people come to a new city, what they see and what they remember are familiar things in their memory. For example, the goblet means bars, the curtain and plotted plant means home, the show window means shops. So their memory could be changed by the new things come to their minds. The feeling about the home and familiar space.

When people forget their memory more and get lost in the new place, they could more easily get familiar with the new one.

In this book, there are many stories about invisible cities, and several the ways of imagination are helpful for my forbidden soho. 

From the book, I found the following impossible relationship between soho and Forbidden City:

l  Under the Forbidden City, there is underground space built for some special functions, such as hiding treasures or secrets. The shape of this space is decided by the overground palaces, just like a reflection of them. The same as my forbidden soho, one could be another’s reflection.

l  When a city is destroyed and the walls are removed, if they are replaced by other kind of bricks, or make the walls in another order, it will be another city. the Forbidden Soho could be a puzzle game, the bricks from Forbidden City and soho could be moved and reset.

l  The forbidden soho is half Forbidden, half soho. The soho part is permanent and the other half is meet different people’s desires. In other words, it is people’s memory from another city. In my eyes, it is Forbidden City with Chinese style buildings, but in other’s eyes, it could be a totally different other mixture.

l  The feeling and the physical city exist in two space, the border is people’s eyes. These two spaces, sometimes, you can’t tell which is outside and which is inside. So I think if the forbidden soho could be just like this. Standing outside of the certain border and look inside, it is a real soho. But when go in the border, and look outside, it is the Forbidden City. This is just like two spaces sticking together. In one space, people could see the other one but could never get there.

The borders in Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is a huge architectural system, as so many elements are contained in this complex and exert their indispensible functions. First, to know this system, the most crucial thing to understand is the different kinds of borders.

Outside the whole palace complex, the moat runs on a rectangular plan and set up the first and natural border for Forbidden City. Inside the river, there are the tall and firm walls standing around the palaces, which were pierced by gates with lookout buildings constructed above them. They are the most impregnable defence system.  One watchtower is erected on each of the city wall. Apart from serving as lookout towers, these turrets could also be an exchange center for the Forbidden City. Information and requirements are gathered here to submit to the emperor. 

The main entrance in the south of the city is the Meridian Gate. Two extensions to the wall project southward to form a three-sided square. It was customary that after each triumphant expedition, the emperors would ascend the Meridian Gate to accept prison of war or inspect the military parade. And on the left and right of the city wall, there are four entrances for the liegeman. A so-called ‘dismounting stele’ was erected in front of each gate to remind them ‘dismount here’.

Through these walls, all the palaces are divided by another wall into two parts: the Outer Court and the Inner Court. This separation is very important for the royal life. The emperors administered their duties and held audiences with ministers in the Outer Court. And another border, the Inner Golden River, which snakes its way west to east, connected with the foundation of the Three Great Audience Halls, restrict the special rectangular area, moreover, highlight its critical status in the entire city.

The rear, northern, half of the Forbidden City, commonly known as the Inner Court, is the residential area of the emperors and imperial household. In this area, all of people must abide by the strict principles. Therefore another kind of border was built to mark off people’s rank especially for the imperial concubines.

The gardens in the Forbidden City are an integral part of the halls and palaces of the Inner Court. This is a place for entertainment. So the borders here are most corridors for walking and sight-seeing. And inner the Imperial Garden, there are several low walls with beautiful windows, which are serve as an indispensible part of the natural scenery. These borders are not for restriction but for forming the multilayer scenery. Looking through the windows, the travelers could enjoy the landscape as a great painting.

In conclusion, the functions of the border in Forbidden City are the following:

 Fortification

 Looking out

 Entrance

 Information exchange

 Highlighting the supreme status

 Inspecting the parade

 Separation

 Walking and sight-seeing

 Marking off the rank

 Setting for scenery

In these borders, there are some sorts of marks such as the stone lions and the dismounting stele.