Chinese Art in Uzbekistan
From a Single Lecture to Sustained Local Practice
中国艺术在乌兹别克斯坦：从一次讲座到持续的在地实践
Xitoy san’ati O‘zbekistonda: bir ma’ruzadan uzluksiz mahalliy amaliyot sari
January 16 — October 1, 2026
Zhao Guiyang
External Expert · Center for Retraining and Professional Development, Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan
乌兹别克斯坦艺术科学院教师再培训与专业发展中心 · 外籍专家
When I first began teaching Chinese art in Uzbekistan in January 2026, I did not imagine that a single lecture would gradually develop into a sustained practice of teaching, field observation, cultural exchange, and exhibition planning. What began as an introduction to Chinese painting slowly became a process of asking a larger question: how can an artistic tradition from one cultural context be understood, discussed, and reinterpreted within another?
2026年1月，当我第一次在乌兹别克斯坦讲授中国艺术时，我并没有想到，一次讲座会逐渐发展为持续的教学、田野观察、文化交流与展览策划实践。最初只是对中国绘画的一次介绍，后来却慢慢转变为对一个更大问题的思考：一种产生于特定文化语境中的艺术传统，如何在另一种文化环境中被理解、讨论，并重新阐释？
January 16, 2026 · Tashkent
My first lecture on Chinese art in Uzbekistan, marking the beginning of a continuing practice of teaching and cultural exchange.
2026年1月16日 · 塔什干
我在乌兹别克斯坦的第一次中国艺术讲座，也由此开启了此后持续的教学与文化交流实践。
Video source: Official Instagram account of the Center for Retraining and Professional Development, Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan.
视频来源：乌兹别克斯坦艺术科学院教师再培训与专业发展中心官方 Instagram。
The answer did not emerge from a single lecture. Over the following months, I continued teaching in different educational settings in Uzbekistan, working with artists, teachers, students, and designers from different backgrounds. The subjects gradually expanded from Chinese painting and calligraphy to landscape, gardens, architecture, design, and contemporary visual culture. Rather than presenting these as separate fields, I tried to trace the relationships between them—how a way of seeing a mountain could become a way of organizing a garden, and how spatial ideas embedded in traditional painting could be translated into architecture and design.
这个问题的答案并不是在一次讲座中形成的。在随后的几个月里，我开始在乌兹别克斯坦不同的教育环境中持续授课，与不同背景的艺术家、教师、学生和设计从业者交流。课程内容也逐渐从中国绘画与书法，延伸到山水、园林、建筑、设计与当代视觉文化。我不再把这些内容作为彼此分离的领域来介绍，而是尝试寻找它们之间的联系：一种观看山水的方式，如何转化为组织园林空间的方法；传统绘画中的空间观念，又如何继续进入建筑与设计之中。
Viewing and discussing classical Chinese painting with local art educators, Tashkent, 2026.
与当地艺术教育工作者共同观看并讨论中国古代绘画，塔什干，2026年。
From Chinese landscape painting to classical gardens: exploring the translation of visual traditions into spatial thinking, Tashkent, 2026.
从中国山水画到古典园林：探索视觉传统向空间思维的转化，塔什干，2026年。
城墙之外是草原，城墙之内曾是文明的中心
From the airport, it was a drive of one hour and nine minutes. The road passed from town streets lined with dense trees on both sides to rural roads surrounded by wild grasses. Yet neither roughness nor desolation appeared along the way.
On the journey, I came upon a blue lake. Not long after, a high earthen mound emerged from the wilderness. Looking north across the plain, beyond the edge of the barren land lay two low hills overlapping one another. Their slopes were dark, almost charred black, yet beneath the darkness lingered faint traces of green and red.
In the ancient novels of China, such a place would have been where outlaws and wandering heroes concealed themselves among the mountains. Perhaps the people of Khorezm felt something similar. They chose this place to build their royal city, gazing toward the distant hills across the plain.
墙体已经坍塌，围合关系依然清晰可辨
Not far to the north of the fortress lies a dry riverbed, pale and deeply cut into the earth. It is the Amu Darya of history.
Where there is a river, there is navigation. Along that ancient channel converged trade, taxation, military forces, grain supplies, and administrative power. Here they were gathered, managed, and distributed. This was the royal city of a civilization.
To the south stretched agricultural oases nourished by the river's waters. To the north began the vast grasslands and the world of nomads. This was also a frontier between farming and pastoral life.
拱券仍然存在，支撑它的时代已经远去
A royal city built to defend against northern enemies—this was one of the reasons the Ming dynasty established its capital in Beijing. Somehow, in the twenty-first century, that logic found an unexpected meeting point with Khorezm of the first and second centuries.
Today, little remains of the royal city except mounds of earth and fragments of arches. The mud-brick walls lie exposed beneath the sun, each brick catching the light. The cavities in the walls stand out one by one before the eye.
I could not always distinguish what belonged to antiquity and what had been restored in later times. Yet as I walked among the ruins, the intersecting lines of collapsed walls seemed to sketch the silhouettes of former inhabitants and the glow of vanished lamps.
The narrow lanes and the accumulated ruins of time evoked the bustle of merchants and travelers, as well as the grandeur of a once-powerful city-state.
Only after climbing to the highest platform did I realize that I had entered from the wrong side. The neatly constructed modern stairway for visitors, standing apart from the ruins, unexpectedly became part of my landscape.
And yet, scrambling across the rammed-earth walls and weaving through the remains of the fortress gave me something different: a physical encounter with Khorezm itself, one that seemed to bridge the distance between centuries.
废墟之中，仍然保留着通向远方的方向
废墟不是混乱，而是被时间拆开的平面图
Chinese Original Text
以下内容为作者中文原稿
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从高加索回来的路上，我一直在思考伊斯兰的平面几何与空间结构设计的关系。
记得刚来到中亚时，看到这些密集而繁复的图形真的让我窒息，并且有这个感受的不止我一人。我们租的房子里，墙布是繁复的植物纹理，地毯是繁复的几何花纹，沙发靠垫也不会落下这个热闹，甚至连茶杯都耀眼得复杂。本想着异国工作是一种度假式的浪漫，没想到第一天就成了审美的挑战。
五年过去了。
我早已习惯了这种繁复，甚至开始欣赏——欣赏它在繁复中藏着的结构。正是这些结构，让无限展开的几何图纹获得了稳定。于是我再次前往希瓦。
我想起了朱玛清真寺，想去亲身体验：这种平面结构的逻辑，是否也应用在了空间结构的操作之中。
这一次没有直奔希瓦古城，而是先去了花剌子模时期的王城要塞 Toprak-kala。
出机场，一个小时零九分钟的车程，从两侧满是浓密树木的城镇公路到周边尽是荒草的乡村公路，却也没有颠簸与贫瘠。途中遇有一片蓝色的湖。再不久，便见一座高高的土丘立于荒原之中。顺着荒原北望，荒尽处，沉睡着前后叠加的两座矮山。山色黑焦，焦中略带青红。在中国的古代小说里，那是绿林英雄藏没的地方。或许当年的花剌子模人也有类似的感应，便在此筑起王城，与远山相望。
王城北侧不远处有一条干枯的河道，略显幽深夹着贫白，那是历史中的阿姆河。遥想有河道的地方必有航运。彼时的河道、税收、商路、军队、粮食，都在这里汇集、管理与分配，这是文明的王城。城南是河流灌溉出的农耕绿洲，城北则是广阔的草原与游牧世界。这里也是农耕与游牧的边界。
筑王城以御北敌——这是明代建都北京的缘由，竟在二十一世纪与一至二世纪的花剌子模相遇了。王城如今只剩下一些堆土与少许拱券。拱券的土砖结构暴露在阳光下，颗颗闪耀；墙壁的孔洞，粒粒入目。
我分不清哪些是遗存，哪些是后来的修复。但行走其间，纵横交织的塌陷墙垣，勾勒着往日的人影与灯火；狭小的巷道与堆败的时空，渲染着旧日商旅的繁忙与城邦的雄阔。登上高台才发现，我走错了入口。那边修得整整齐齐的砖砌游览台阶，反而成了我的风景。而在夯土之间穿梭登踏，反倒让我与花剌子模有了一场跨越时空的身体亲历。
热闹了几个世纪之后，无奈河道改，城废为丘。再千载，希瓦兴。
我已无法辨认哪里是宫殿，哪里是宗教场所。只有一片热闹的混沌，在废墟中翻涌。河道改向，王朝消失，城市沦落，宗室难辨。但山还在那里。河道留下的痕迹还在那里。城与山之间的凝视关系，还在那里。这些组织空间的方式，仍有余存。王权、宗教、贸易所构筑的秩序结构，延续至今。
站在废墟之上，我忽然产生了新的疑问。
Toprak-kala 早于伊斯兰数百年。可当我俯瞰这些方格状的空间遗迹时，却不断想起后来在希瓦古城中见到的街巷与院落；想起经学院里重复展开的房间单元；想起朱玛清真寺那片由木柱构成的空间森林。它们是否属于同一种传统呢？还是说，这片土地本就存在着某种对于秩序、边界与空间组织的偏好，而不同文明只是不断赋予它新的编码？
答案我尚且不知。但在离开王城的时候，我已不再只把它看作是废墟。
它更像一个问题。一个从花剌子模延伸到希瓦，又从希瓦延伸至整个中亚的问题。
Field Notes
Location: Toprak-kala, Republic of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan
Date of Visit: May 2026
Travel Route: Urgench → Toprak-kala
Travel Time: Approximately 1 hour 9 minutes by car from Urgench Airport
Weather: Clear, dry steppe climate
Field Observation: Remains of the royal city, defensive walls, vaulted structures, and traces of the former Amu Darya cultural landscape.
This archive is part of an ongoing field research project.
Please credit the author when quoting or reproducing materials.
Keywords
Toprak-kala · Ancient Khorezm · Amu Darya · Khiva · Silk Road · Archaeology · Spatial History · Cultural Landscape