thoglette wrote:Edit: you deserve more that that. Without writing a dissertation on symbolism and aesthetics, the reason you "don't get" penjing is exactly the same reason you think bonsai "look nice". Penjing is still culturally foreign, bonsai is not.
I don't really care that it's foreign. I don't like it and understanding it more deeply will not change my mind. Going from bonsai to penjing (in the comonly understood form) would be a step backward for me. It is visually unappealing after having seen the more refined and tasteful product. That is why I personally cannot understand the interest from westerners.
Looking at John's pics above reminds me why I don't care for it. (sorry John)
The first one - a skinny chinese elm laying on top a piece of dead wood is to me lazy and rushed. It would probably look alright viewed from 20 metres away.
The second is just an average attempt at a root over rock. The placement of figuerines to make it look realistic in fact does the opposite. It introduces a sense of scale and makes the tree look very course. To be in proper scale with the figure the tree should have very fine twigs not heavy branches right to the tips. As is it grates. Why is it that the Japanese (most) frown on using these tacky figureines? Because they remove the suggestiveness of bonsai. (the freedom to imagine the landscape around and beyond the tree) and they interfere with the illusion.
Interprate it as you will, penjing is just very rough by comparison and it's no use to say we should not compare because they are both there in front of us.