Celebrating love and poetry

For aficionados of Chinese classical literature, a trip to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, can be an emotional experience.

Chengdu's streets, parks and promenades are replete with references to poetry, music and Sichuan opera and the people who had a role in shaping these works of art.

Visiting Du Fu's (AD 712-770) Cottage is a pilgrimage for those who have succumbed to the enigmatic and minimalist charm of Tang Dynasty poems.

The park, dedicated to one of the leading voices of the Tang school and Chengdu's celebrity resident from 759 to 763, is spread out over 24 hectares.

Du arrived in Chengdu from the war-ravaged city of Chang'an (Xi'an), an impoverished and deeply-troubled man, worrying over the An Shi rebellion and the fate of poetry in times of turmoil.

One night a relentless storm blew the roof of his thatched cottage away, leaving the poet, along with his wife and young children, at his wits' end. The tragedy inspired a passionate outburst about the vulnerability of homeless scholars and a desire for a roof over every head and remains one of Du's best-loved poems, among the 240 he penned in that cottage.

The original site of the straw-roofed hut, beside the Flower Bathing Brook, now carries just a memorial plaque. An imaginary reconstruction of the cottage, Spartan but functional, encircled by an intense growth of creepers around the bamboo fencing, stands a hop away, conjuring up an ambience of single-minded dedication to one's craft.

There is an unusually striking bronze figure of Du near the main lobby, and the exhibition hall documents the poet's life in clay models, with illuminated bilingual (Chinese-English) display boards.

In the bronze, Du's emaciated features are played up, making him look like a genius who is aloof and formidable. The hands and torso are unnaturally elongated, adding a larger-than-life aura.

Toward the east gate, next to the calligraphy center, where on a lucky day one might find children dressed in traditional Chinese gowns reciting Du's poetry, is a gallery of sculptures of classical poets. There's a self-assured Wang Wei (early Tang Dynasty) cast in bronze; a reclining marble figure of Qu Yuan (Warring States Period), emerging out of clouds; and a rebellious Bai Juyi (mid-Tang) flailing his arms in the air.

Warring States Period (475-221 BC) scholar and minister Qu Yuan, looks out of a block wood, with a deeply furrowed forehead. The lone woman in the group is Song Dynasty poetess Li Qingzhao, a slender figure cast in bronze, wearing a forlorn look.

The marble sculptures of the Tang Dynasty poetess Xue Tao (AD 770-832) at the River Viewing Pavilion, girdled by the Jinjiang River, in contrast, do not have a shade of sadness about them.

Xue stands regally and fearlessly among the thickets of bamboo, supremely confident of her own abilities as poet and government official.

Legend has it that she would process her own writing paper. A small well, covered by a stone slab with floral patterns, is where she would draw the water from to soak the pulp made from bamboo. There are an amazing 150 varieties of the plant on display.

Chengdu natives seem to have a thing about poets and performers. Colophons scribbled by classical poets are replicated and sold alongside landscape paintings. Images of Sichuan opera masks stare from sundry merchandise.

At night when the rows of glittery lights illuminate the outlines of the pagoda-roofed buildings on either side of the newly jazzed-up Old Qintai Road, it's time for Sichuan opera performers to come out of the shadows and claim the spotlight.

For the really curious spectator they don't mind demonstrating the art of putting on the elaborate make-up, and switching from monkey to princess in a split second.

At the head of Old Qintai Road is an eye-catching bronze sculpture, of a man with knotted hair playing on his zither, stirring a maiden to dance. This is the poet and musician Sima Xiangru (179-118 BC) and the lady Zhuo Wenjun, a beautiful young widow he spotted at a banquet and fell incurably in love with at first sight.

The story goes that they eloped, braving all odds, subsequently married and lived happily ever after.

It's a love story that in many ways underscores Chengdu's irrepressible love of all things poetic.