Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
By Gerald Mbanda
Published:August
Roundabout in Shanghai city decorated with flowers. Photo @Gerald Mbanda 2023.
Whenever I travel to China, one of the most exciting sceneries I enjoy is looking at flowers of different colors planted in a way that they make a lasting impression for their beauty and the way they are well arranged. Chinese florists have decorated many Chinese cities and country side with beautiful flowers that create a mood of happiness and relaxation to the viewer.
When you look at the flowers in China and the care taken to make them attractive, you simply see the harmony between humanity and nature. The Chinese path to modernization is a process of modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. The Chinese leaders consider protecting nature as an essential component for building China into a modern socialist country in all respects.
China is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. It has two national botanical gardens, the China National Botanical Garden in Beijing and the South China National Botanical Garden in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province, which serve as the country’s biodiversity conservation bases, reserves of strategic plant resources and important platforms for botany communication.
Flowers have been used for centuries in different cultures to express love and affection. People on different occasions, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, visiting friends, have carried flowers to express their joy and happiness to the one visited. In hospitals flowers are given to patients to wish them recovery or to mother who have given birth. Florists have a language of communication with the colors of flowers. For example, the orange blossom, for instance, is explained to mean chastity, purity, and loveliness, while the red chrysanthemum means “I love you.”
Flower garden in front of Jinhua Narada Hotel Zijiang Municipality Photo @Gerald Mbanda, May 2023
There are a couple of things one should know before sending flowers to spouses, girlfriends or casual associates. Probably the most important thing is that color can have a much deeper meaning and is used to symbolize things much more commonly in Chinese Culture than in most Western cultures.
Red is perhaps the most important color and carries the most meaning. It is considered as the color of luck, prosperity, and good fortune. On a good day, the stock market boards are ablaze with fiery red, and it is a green board that sends people home in desperation.
The plum blossom is also regarded as one of the “Four Gentlemen” of flowers in Chinese art, together with the orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo. It is believed to symbolize fertility and purity, making it a good choice of flowers for a young family. It is one of the “Flowers of the Four Seasons”, which consist of the orchid (spring), the lotus (summer), the chrysanthemum (autumn) and the plum blossom (winter).
In Chinese culture, Lilies are much loved because they are believed to represent good fortune and happiness. It is also believed that Lilies are used to help people, as they can be used to solve difficult situations or problems.
In different societies it is believed that people who love flowers are kind people who also love others. They are peaceful people who wish good to others and also love a good looking and calm environment. They care about the environment by keeping harmony between man and nature. The question whether the Chinese are peaceful and loving people is easily answered by the nature of their culture.
Gerald Mbanda is a Researcher and publisher on China and Africa.
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