Palace of Puzzles

In 1829, James Legge left his Huntly birthplace as a missionary to the Far East. Believing that he had to understand those he sought to convert, he learned Chinese and began a lifelong study of the language and culture. Later, occupying the first chair of Sinology at Oxford, he published 20 monumental volumes of the Chinese Classics. Legge understood the sensitive nature of reinterpretation with his work opening routes of exchange that instigated early modern globalization. So, looking at our contemporary society, how has this process developed? What becomes lost in translation? How does cross-cultural dialogue allow each culture to enrich and contribute to one another?

As their name suggests, The Utopia Group are concerned with the notion of the ideal society. However, without idealising the modern world itself, they search for the seeds of Utopia in reality. Engaging with the community of Huntly allowed the diverse array of residents to witness how their town has been, and still is, involved in global cultural exchange.

Their time in Huntly was filled with events dependent upon close collaborative partnerships with the local people. Producing a 24-piece puzzle of charcoal images of Chinese text, Deng Dafei and He Hai hid the various pieces around the town. People joined the hunt to place the pieces back together, which formed a Chinese newspaper- one of Legge’s cultural developments in China. The search for these fragments represented a physical manifestation of searching for meaning within a bigger picture- a concept Legge was familiar with through his beliefs. This idea was developed in an exhibition of drawings, which took place in the house built and owned by the Legge family on the town’s main square.

In commemoration of the legacy of James Legge, a funeral procession was staged in Huntly which drew from both Western and Chinese traditions of burial and remembrance. Local church hymns, Scottish bagpipes, newspaper confetti and banners written in Chinese calligraphy precluded the burning of a papier maché boat in the River Deveron. That afternoon, a ceilidh and a discussion were held, on ‘The Legacy of James Legge: Understanding, Misunderstanding, belief and Amnesia- China and the West’.