【正文】 e emperor39。s rapid and often chaotic sociocultural transformation that started in the 1980s has led to a crisis in its national cultural identity. Traditionally, Chinese national identity was based on the feudalistic social and political order of the dynastic rulers. The architectural hallmarks of China, even in 2021, the items listed as national and world heritage sites, are products of feudalism, the imperial era, and the official scholarly culture. While past achievements cannot be denied, it is necessary to ask whether this style represents national Chinese cultural identity in 2021(Figure 2125e). This identity crisis is particularly obvious in the area of urban design. When a French designer places his own masterpiece (the National Grand Opera House) into the center of China39。s Westernization, what is China39。s landscape architects to consider. Why We Are Living: The Death of Gods The third challenge is the loss of the spiritual homeland, where the soul rests and life is devoted to finding meaning. My grandmother told me that when a tree grows old, it bees a spirit, and that some spirits will inhabit the old trees. It has been said that the same is true of the fish, snakes, birds, and other animals. An old rock beside a village bees a spirit as do streams, ponds, hills and the land itself. Our parents built temples in which to shelter and worship ancestors, the wise men of the past, and the religious spirits who safeguarded welfare. It was once believed that these spirits protected earthly life, and that the future would depend on their judgment. Such spirits gave meaning to life (Figure26a,b). The jobs of 40 million farmers have been lost in recent years, a figure that increases annually by two million. Where do the landless farmers belong and what is their spiritual homeland? The bankruptcy of the former stateowned factories has left more than 21 million workers jobless. How much will they suffer spiritually because they were conditioned to regard the factory as their home? (Figure27a28b) The trend toward materialism has taken over China at a rapid rate, just as it has in other regions around the world. Every piece of land and all the elements in the landscape have been inhabited by various spirits where ancestors have been buried. These plains have been taken over by real estate development. The Dragon Hills, or the sacred hills, that secured numerous villages in rural China have been bulldozed. Meaningful and sacred streams and ponds that once shielded villages have been filled in or channeled in the name of flood control. Old camphor trees that house tree spirits have been pruned and sold to beautify city boulevards. Landscapes have bee mercialized. Gradually, the spiritual connection to the land and to the world beyond this earthly one has been lost (Figure29ac). It is certainly a nostalgic attitude to believe that the ideal agricultural landscape will be the model for everyday living, and it is native to believe that the land of peach blossoms can be regained and kept in the industrialized, motorized and globally connected society. A new type of land of peach blossoms must be explored and created, and it is to this mission that the profession of landscape architecture fits at the right time and at the right place. But how can this be achieved? How can landscape architecture assume the role to protect and rebuild such material and spiritual connections through the design of the physical environment? This is perhaps the most challenging question of all. 3 Recreating the Land of Peach Blossoms in a New Era: The Mission of Contemporary Landscape Architecture What is the Mission? In facing environmental and ecological degradation, a loss of cultural identity and the erosion of spiritual connection to the land, the mission of contemporary landscape architecture is to bring together again nature, people and the spirits, to create a new Land of Peach Blossoms in the urbanized, global, and industrialized era. Why Landscape Architecture? Landscape architecture can play a major role in the mission to rebuild the land of peach blossoms because it is a medium upon which various natural, cultural, and spiritual processes interact. This creates a workable link to gather and harmonize nature, people, and spiritual processes. Prominent naturalist and biologist Edward Wilson once mented that, In the expanding enterprise, landscape design will play a decisive role. Where the environment has been mostly humanized, biological diversity can still be sustained at high levels by the ingenious placement of woodlots, hedgerows, watersheds, reservoirs, and artificial ponds and lakes. Master plans will meld not just economic efficiency and beauty, but also the preservation of the species and the race. (Wilson 1992, Page317). Landscape refers here not only to the issue of the environment and ecology but also to the mood of the entire nation, to its sense of identity, and its cultural bearings (Girot, 1999). Landscape provides a foundation for connection, for home, and for belonging (Corner, 1999). Landscape architecture is possibly the most legitimate profession among those dealing with the physical environment to work toward recovering cultural identity and rebuilding the spiritual connection between people and their land. The strength of landscape architecture lies in its intrinsic association with the natural systems and its roots in agricultural traditions, matching local practices and variegated across thousands of years of evolution. It strengthens the motto that the best way to think globally is to act locally. Landscape architecture is the most workable scale for local action. Therefore, it is legitimate to argue that landscape architecture is a promising profession, and in China it is the rig