A Chinese oasis in Manhattan

As was customary in the day, nine powerful Chinese officials gathered in a private garden in 1437 to enjoy literary and music performances. The painter Xie Huan depicted the scene in Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden, currently on display in the Metropolitan Museum's Chinese Gardens: Pavilions, Studios, Retreats.

The Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden is exhibitedat the Metropolitan Museum in New York. [Provided to China Daily]

These same men were responsible for calling a stop to Admiral Zheng He's exploratory voyages, which they believed to be an extravagantly unnecessary government expense. China was a "walled garden", and should focus instead on self-cultivation, they said.

"This metaphor of China as a garden, and the garden as a place of inward exploration, is particularly fitting," says Maxwell Hearn, curator of the Metropolitan Museum's department of Asian art.