I moved to the Bay area last winter from a small town in the broad American Midwest and was amazed to see so many of my countrymen in this area. Wherever I go, I hear people talking in Chinese loudly as if it were some place in my own country. Dozens of Chinese restaurants and grocery stores open every month. Chinese neighbors and Chinese friends are no longer as hard to find as it was in Illinois. It was really by chance that I found the Chinese Cultural Garden in the AAA book of California. To my amazement and happiness, I know I have discovered a dream place that displays perfectly the traditional Chinese design of gardens.
Created in 1972, the Chinese Cultural Garden in San Jose has its own historical significance in addition to its artistic quality because it was the first one of its kind in the United States. The garden takes up 5 acres of the 32-acre Overfelt Garden located on McKee Road in East San Jose. The Overfelt Garden was named after Miss Mildred Overfelt, the last member of one of the oldest frontier families in San Jose. In 1959, Miss Overfelt gave away nearly 50 acres of the family ranch land, which valued at more than $500,000 at that time, to the City of San Jose. Of the 50 acres, about 17 were given to the Alexian Brothers Hospital on Jackson Avenue and the rest went to the Garden. Legal papers were drawn up on the property in 1959, in which Miss Overfelt demanded as a condition that these 32 acres be used to build a place where one might find peace and solitude. In other words, it should be a contemplative botanical garden for strollers, bird sanctuaries, reflecting ponds and artificial lakes, instead of a recreational park where sports activities would be allowed. Decades after her donation, Miss Overfelt's dream came true.
It was a sunny afternoon in September when I first entered this enchanted realm. My impression right after I stepped into the garden was that it was so quiet. The only sound I could hear was the birds' singing. White clouds were floating in the brilliant blue sky. Wildflowers and native grasses were thriving on each side of the walkway. The door to the outside world seemed to have been closed, and suddenly I found I was more sensitive to every small bit of beauty in this garden. As I was strolling along the small and winding trail in the garden, I noticed that everything was full of the genuine touch of the Orient. A thirty-foot bronze and marble statue of the ancient philosopher Confucius is overlooking a reflecting pond. A marble and teak Great Gate highlights the garden, and the red-painted Plum Pavilion is surrounded by dozens of plum trees imported from China. Strategically located ponds, fountains and pavilions add to the ornamental effect of the garden. All of the buildings inside the garden are of the traditional Chinese architectural style. Touring the garden, one will notice that the buildings and pavilions have bright vermilion roofs and doors, which display a bright color shining in the sun. The idea behind this coloring is embodied in a sentence from an ancient Chinese poem. "A red spot stands out well against a mass of green." Every scene in the garden projects a profound sense of antiquity in addition to its primitive, challenging beauty. For those who cannot forget the country roads in the good old summer days, a walk in the garden is just like a pleasant experience back in time.
However, it seems that not many people here know of its existence. In one of my visits to the garden, I encountered a middle-aged man with his little son sitting on a wooden bench facing a beautiful pond. He said: "I've been living in San Jose for over 20 years and this is the first time that I know of such a place here in San Jose." I didn't ask him how he felt about this place. From his gaze at the calm water and his thoughtful expression, I already knew the answer. But there are many other people who are still unaware that there's a good chance for cultural enrichment in the San Jose community. My motivation to write this article is to let more people know of this garden while the purpose of creating this garden was to let more American people appreciate Chinese culture. The Dr. Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall is one of the big features in the garden. At the entrance to it, the City of San Jose set a large marble plaque to honor the two persons for their "vision, energy and dedicated effort" in creating the garden. One of them was Frank Lowe, the first board chairman of the Chinese Cultural Garden Planning Committee. The other was Sam Della Maggiore, the former Santa Clara County Supervisor and also the first chairman of the garden advisory committee. Another person whose efforts should also be recognized is Mrs. Pauline Lowe.
Nearly 28 years ago, it was Frank and Pauline who initiated the vision of bringing a piece of Chinese culture to San Jose. They learned that individual donors in Taiwan were going to give a 3-ton black marble and bronze statue of Confucius, one of the greatest educators and philosophers in the ancient China, to the City of San Jose as a gift of friendship. Frank shared with Sam the idea of creating a garden of Chinese style to place the statue, and immediately gained his approval. Between Guadeloupe Park and the Overfelt Park, Frank Lowe chose the latter to be the home for this precious gift. After joint efforts with the Park and Recreation Department of San Jose, the beautiful statue was finally erected in one part of the Overfelt Garden in June of 1974. It was the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Garden.
Three years after the erection of the statue, another big feature was added as a new attraction to the garden. Designed by Wang Yu Tang, a prominent ancient architectural designer in Taiwan, a marble and teak Great Gate was donated by the people and the Confucius-Mencius Society of Taiwan. The arched gate was modeled after a structure which stands on the land where Confucius was born. It was shipped to San Jose piece by piece with the shipping weight exceeding 36 tons. Another name for the Great Gate is the Friendship Gate, which is in memory of the Eastern and Western friendship.
During the period 1980-1986, there were constant efforts dedicated to the development of the garden. The Black Stone was a gift from the Mayor of Taiwan to the Mayor of San Jose in 1980; the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and the Chiang Kai-shek Pavilion were both homed in the garden in 1984, and the beautiful Plum Pavilion was situated among many flowering plum trees. In the whole process of creating the garden, Lowe showed great enthusiasm in dealing with legal papers and the landscape designation. With the gradual formation of the garden, it became a pride and a volunteer job for Frank and Pauline. They would spend weekends at the cultural garden, bringing visitors into the Memorial Hall and telling them the history and culture of China as well as the significance of the Chinese traditional architecture. "As our children were growing up," Pauline Lowe once said to the Mercury News reporter, "we felt we wanted to invest in the country. Some people invest in stocks. This is more or less our investment, and it benefits everybody. And we enjoyed it too." Staying in such a charmingly beautiful place especially when you are one of the creators of this place, I think everyone will feel enjoyable and the sense of pride. Frank Lowe left this world 9 years ago but Pauline still keeps going to the cultural garden on weekends to give people tours and explanations. When I called to ask if she could talk with me about Frank and the cultural garden, she agreed immediately. She said she would spend most of the weekends in the Memorial Hall hosting visitors and I could find her there.
When I finally made my way through the late-afternoon traffic jam around 4 PM that next Saturday and rushed to the garden, I was afraid I would miss her. However, Pauline was still there. It was very quiet in the Memorial Hall. The sunshine passed through the hollowed-out vermilion door and showed a peculiar pattern on the floor. During the conversation, I was deeply touched by the warm and open attitude of this lady and felt very pleasant staying with her. In her eyes, Frank was not only a great man who created the garden and established the Santa Clara County Teacher Recognition Day, but also was a warm-hearted and helpful person. He would go to the police station to rescue an innocent Chinese student; wherever the Chinese people in the community had troubles, they would turn to him because they were sure that Frank would help them. Our talk was interrupted several times by the visitors coming in, and each time Pauline went over to them and showed them the pictures and pamphlets of the garden and led them around the Memorial Hall. She pointed at the traditional slant roof of the Hall, and told them that ancient Chinese people tended to build the roof slanted to lead away evil spirits for it was believed that they would slide off if they tried to stay on top of it. The marble lions are also symbolic as well as the railings and plaques within the steps, which represent harmony between the heavens and earth. I saw a young couple from Sunnyvale open their eyes wide and were amazed to hear that. They said they would never even notice these designs if Pauline didn't explain it in such detail. Actually, Chinese culture in some sense is beautiful in its subtlety, but sometimes it is hard for people from other cultures to understand its essence.
To better serve the visitors from different countries, Pauline used her own money to translate the handouts of the principles of Confucius into other languages like Arabic, Korean and Spanish. Author of the Great Harmony, Confucius spoke of honor, respect, virtue and kindness among human beings. In his theory of Great Harmony, he described a world equally shared by all. "People did not regard as parents only their own parents, nor did they treat as children only their own children". "Mutual confidence was fostered and good neighborliness cultivated". The theory has influenced China for thousands of years and still has significance in the present society. To achieve great harmony is also the belief of Pauline and she said, "If you love your children, you have to love other children." It is this kind of universal fraternity that makes Frank and Pauline an unusual couple who have contributed greatly to the cultural enlightenment of San Jose. Pauline especially stresses the open-minded attitude of Chinese people to the American society. "People of different cultures should appreciate each other and help each other. Each person gives a little and our community will surely become better".
When I waved goodbye to Pauline, the sun almost set beyond the horizon. The last glow of the sunshine was faintly reflecting on the tranquil pond. Sitting under the shadow of the big palm trees, I thought a lot. Most of the Chinese immigrants have experienced the bewilderment of culture conflict when we first arrived here. It is a dilemma whether to cast off our cultural identities and integrate ourselves into the "mainstream" or to persistently retain our cultural roots and feel like an outsider of this society. But now Frank and Pauline have given me a different perspective to look at this problem. Even in the centuries before Christ, Confucius has brought forward the logo " Under Heaven, One Family". Maybe we should not set our eyes constantly on the cultural difference and cultural conflict. Instead, mutual respect and mutual appreciation may be the right way to go for all the people in different cultures. In San Jose, the Chinese Cultural Garden offers the experience of education and cultural enlightenment and broadens the understanding between Eastern and Western society. I believe this is the ultimate goal for Frank and Pauline to dedicate all their efforts to the Chinese Cultural Garden.
Return to Projects
Notes:
1. This article is mostly based upon the interview with Mrs. Pauline Lowe on Sept. 29, 1998. I have also consulted two articles on San Jose Mercury News: An Immigrant's Gifts to S. J.: Ex-Farm Hand Enjoys Role as Civic Benefactor published on 10/16/1985 and Two Men Helped Chinese Garden Take Root: Cultural Plot at Overfelt was "Labor of Love" published on 04/29/1987.
2. To learn more about the Overfelt Garden, please go to the website: http://www.acoates.com/Overfelt.html.
3. To see other portraits of Chinese personages, please go to http://www.chinapage.com/portrait.html.
4. To learn more about the bibliography and works of Confucius, please go to http://www.albany.net/~geenius/kongfuzi.
Return to Projects