Cultural Consumption of the Overseas Chinese Garden in the Process of Cross-cultural Communication

Abstract. When referring to the tangible cultural heritage, people tend to concern more about the conservation and research of the entity of the tangible heritage than the cross-cultural communication of the cultural heritage which is also one of the most important components of the preservation of the cultural heritage. As an exotic new born of the cultural heritage, the entity born from the cross-cultural communication inherits the properties of the cultural heritage on the one hand, and on the other hand generates diversities as a result of the differences based on social, cultural and environment. And the business model is one of the most important reasons for the production of diversities. There’s no doubt that a good form of business model makes great significance to the cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the study of the business model of cultural heritage in the process of cross-cultural communication will not only contributes to the deeper understanding towards the phenomenon of the cultural heritage’s cross-cultural communication, but also leads to the introspection to the tangible cultural heritage itself. In this way, a new kind of conservative notion could take form, and the goal of protecting cultural heritage could be achieved. Thus the Chinese Garden is a typical representation of the cultural heritage which makes great sense in the cross-cultural communication.

As a kind of tangible cultural heritage, the Chinese gardens are well preserved in different regions in China. While the spirits of the Chinese garden carry forward through the construction of the Chinese gardens abroad during the cross-cultural communication. As a new kind of form of the cross-cultural communication of the cultural heritage, on the one hand, the Chinese gardens overseas built ever since China's Reform and Opening express creatively of the materialist and the spirituality of the traditional Chinese Garden, and on the other hand, those Chinese gardens overseas face all kinds of tough issued such as investment, business model and management. The exploration of the reasons for these tough issues makes a great sense of the study towards the cross-cultural communication and preservation of the cultural heritage.

In this paper, the development of the whole overseas gardens and the cultural consumption of the Chinese gardens in Europe is generalized, then two typical cases are selected from those two categories mentioned above. By way of field study and interviews, it shows different strategies towards cultural consumption and provides constructive advice for the survival and development of overseas Chinese gardens.