Fu Li: How does a bouquet of Olympic awards present the fusion of Eastern and Western civilizations?
China News Service, Beijing, February 7 Title: Fu Li: A bouquet of Olympic awards, how to present the fusion of Eastern and Western civilizations?
Author Liu Wenxi Du Yan Xu Jing
Flowers, one of the most beautiful things that nature has given to human beings, are closely related to human life and develop with human beings with unique emotional functions. When flowers meet the Olympic Movement, they not only witness moments of glory, but also convey the yearning for peace.
Although the bouquets of the previous Olympic Games have different flower materials, they all reflect the Olympic spirit and the cultural characteristics of the host country and the host city. From the "red and fiery" awards bouquet of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to the "Olympic Flower that never fades" at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, it inherits the national spirit of the Chinese nation's unremitting self-improvement and unity and the Olympic spirit of constantly pursuing mutual understanding, friendship, unity and fair competition, and conveys China's determination to keep its promises and join hands with other countries to take the road of green, low-carbon and sustainable development.
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Awards Bouquet. Courtesy of Beijing State-owned Assets Corporation
On the occasion of the Winter Olympics and the Chinese New Year, the "East and West Question" column of China News Service exclusively interviewed Fu Li, senior engineer of the Beijing Municipal Landscaping Bureau, telling the story of traditional Chinese flowers such as the moon season through the perspective of experts, how to exude immortal aromas in the Olympic Movement, and how Chinese flowers promote the exchange of Civilization between East and West.
The following is a summary of the interview:
China News Service: At the ancient Olympic Games in Greece, the bouquet became an indispensable "flower of honor" on the podium. In the modern Olympic Games, bouquets appear on the podium in a more colorful form, becoming a window for each host country to display its unique culture. Why do flowers take on this heavy responsibility in the grand event of all mankind?
Fu Li: More than 2,000 years ago, the Greeks folded an olive branch symbolizing peace and woven it into a laurel crown for the winners of the ancient Olympic Games. At the time, this was the only reward and the highest reward for athletes. The olive laurel carries the recognition of human strength and conveys the yearning for peace and hope.
In the development process of the modern Olympic movement, the flowers used for the Olympic Games have been continuously improved, and the ornamentation and connotation have been continuously enriched, which not only offers blessings to the medal-winning athletes, but also the expression carrier of the concept of a country running the Olympic Games.
For example, the 2004 Athens Olympics was the time athens returned to its homeland after 108 years of waiting. As one of the symbols of the ancient Olympic Games, the olive branch garland became a major spectacle at the Athens Olympic Games. This bouquet of awards is made of olive oil, gerbera and a yellow flower as the main flower material, and the olive leaves are woven, and the bouquet and laurel made of olives once again appear on the podium of the Olympic Games, reflecting the heritage of traditional Greek culture.
For example, the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games is an Olympic Games held under the epidemic situation, the award bouquet is called "Victory Bouquet", the flowers are from the earthquake-stricken areas of Japan, echoing the Tokyo Olympic Games "reconstruction olympics" preparation concept, full of the desire of the people in the disaster area to recover.
In fact, not only the bouquet of awards, but also the ceremonial bouquet, welcome bouquet, guest corsage, indoor flower arrangement, and so on at the Olympic Games. It can be said that the love of flowers is human nature. Whether in the East or the West, flowers are not only things for people to see, but also "beautiful messengers" for people to lyrically tell their stories. With the development of human society, flower culture contains more information about cultural diversity and civilizational commonality, so in global events such as the Olympic Games, flowers with universality and eternity have become "important members".
China News Service: Beijing is the world's first "double Olympic city", what kind of emotions does China convey to the world with flowers in the two Olympic Games?
Fu Li: The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is the first time that China has hosted the Olympic Games, and the dream of the Chinese centennial Olympic Games has come true. I had the privilege of participating in the Olympic awards bouquet and ceremonial flower work. In order to make the flowers express the joy and confidence of China's Olympic Games, the production team gave birth to many fantastic ideas, and finally selected the "Red Fire" award bouquet for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which not only comprehensively considered the IOC's hard requirements for the award bouquet in terms of height and safety, but also cleverly integrated traditional Chinese cultural elements.
The bouquet of "Red Fire" awards is in the shape of a spire as a whole, composed of 9 main flower materials "Chinese Red" moon season, each with 6 flowers, each with 6 pieces of grass, taking the meaning of "long and long" and "smooth sailing", while conveying a beautiful meaning, expressing the blessings and expectations of the Chinese people for the Olympic Games.
In July 2008, the staff of the Beijing Olympic Flower Distribution Center was packing the newly made bouquet of awards flowers, which undertook the design, production and distribution of the 6,000 bouquets of award flowers for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. Photo by Liu Xin, a reporter of China News Service
China is known as the "mother of the world's gardens", the bouquet selection range is very broad, the reason for choosing the moon season as the main flower material, there are three reasons: one is that the fiery red, gorgeous moon season is not only in line with the mood of the Chinese at that time, but also can express the blessings of the Olympic athletes; second, as one of the city flowers in Beijing, the moon season reflects the garden style and cultural heritage of the Chinese capital city; the third is that the moon season can be described as a "messenger of peace", spreading love and peace to the world.
Originating in China and popular in China, it has been cultivated as early as the Han Dynasty and has been cultivated for more than 2,000 years. During the Qing Jiaqing period, the Englishman Sir Hume introduced four varieties of vermilion, Chinese powder, perfume moon season and Chinese yellow moon season from Guangzhou, and introduced them to Britain through India. At that time, it was the Napoleonic Wars, Britain and France were at war, in order to safely transport these precious monthly seasons from England to France, the two countries actually reached a temporary armistice agreement, and the delicate moonflower was escorted to France by the British Navy, which was threatening the world at that time, and sent to Napoleon's wife Josephine. This group of precious Chinese monthly seasons was crossed, selected and cultivated by the hands of horticulturists and European roses, resulting in many new strains such as Portland roses and tea-scented roses.
All over the world, such a delicate and colorful flower is not only the city flower of Beijing and many cities, but also the national flower of some European and American countries, and is regarded as the most versatile flower when expressing love, friendship, celebration and congratulations.
At the 2012 London Olympic Games, the main flower material of the award bouquet was the characteristic monthly season of the United Kingdom, and there were lavender, rosemary, wheat ears, etc. as a match, and the graphic symbolizing the emblem of the 2012 Olympic Games was outlined through the color block, which was called the "victory bouquet".
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, you can still see the beautiful and enthusiastic figure of the moon season. The bouquet of flowers awarded at the Winter Olympics is not a fresh cut flower, but a "flower of velvet" crocheted with the intangible cultural heritage of the Haipai velvet weaving technique. Among them, the selection of monthly flower patterns echoes the bouquet of flowers for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, showing the cultural heritage of the "City of The Two Olympics", while the selection of olives is a tribute to the Olympic tradition.
On January 4, 2022, in Shanghai, more than a dozen members of the Skilled Mothers Workshop were compiling the beijing Winter Olympics awards bouquet. The bouquet of awards at the Beijing Winter Olympics changed the traditional flowers and adopted a bunch of velvet flowers crocheted with the intangible cultural heritage - Haipai velvet weaving technique. Photo by Tang Yanjun, a reporter of China News Service
China News Service: Flowers have been integrated into people's lives, conveying emotions and expressing spirit. In the course of human development, what role have flowers played in the cultural exchange between the East and the West?
Fu Li: It is difficult to verify when China began to plant flowers, but China's flower culture has a long history and is profound. Chinese flower culture has roughly experienced the initiation period of the pre-Qin Dynasty, the gradual heyday of the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Flourishing Tang Dynasty, and the prosperous period since the Middle Tang Dynasty, showing a trend of continuous accumulation and evolution.
The earliest collection of Chinese poetry, the Book of Poetry, is the source of the singing of flowers, using flowers as a comparison, so that flowers as a kind of depiction object, truly enter the field of literary aesthetics. It can be seen from "peach dreams, scorching its glory" and "jagged lettuce, left and right flowing" and so on, people use flowers to express different moods in nature; it is not difficult to see from "Wei Shi and female, Yi Qi, give them peony medicine" and so on, at that time, people have used flowers and trees for social etiquette, with peonies and other plants to convey love.
Flowers have different cultural connotations in Chinese and Western cultures. In China, the idea of "the unity of heaven and man" has long dominated cultural history. Therefore, in the writings of the ancients, natural objects were often given personality images. For example, the lotus flower "out of the mud without staining" symbolizes high morals and integrity, and people appreciate the flowers while appreciating people's inner qualities. In the West, the flower is more of a symbol of the flower as an opportunity to trigger emotions or to express thoughts.
This difference is also reflected in the design of the garden plant. Chinese in the garden's plant landscape collocation, there is a reflection of artistic beauty, but also respect and conformity to nature. For example, a garden plants begonias, peonies, and magnolias, and while creating a landscape of spring flowers, it takes the artistic conception of "jade (magnolia) begonia (begonia) and rich (peony)" to nourish the body and mind. Western culture respects scientific rationality, so it pursues formal beauty and artificial beauty in the design and layout of the courtyard, such as neat and tidy tree pruning and paying attention to the regularity of geometric patterns.
In July 2015, the public visited the Suzhou Garden Museum to understand the history and culture of Suzhou gardens. Photo by Wang Jiankang, China News Service
In modern times, there have been more exchanges between Chinese and Western flower cultures, and "flower language" like the West has been accepted by many young people. Taking the moon season as an example, in traditional Chinese culture, the moon season symbolizes Changchun and longevity; in the current culture, it symbolizes love and peace, which is the new meaning of the birth of the moon season after it was introduced to the West.
China News Service: This year's Winter Olympics meet the Chinese Lunar New Year, which is a special Spring Festival and a special Winter Olympics. What do you think of China hosting the Olympic Games twice in just over a decade?
Fu Li: Still speaking of flowers. Over the years, with the increasing frequency of cultural exchanges between China and the West, people's aesthetic methods of flowers have both collided and blended with each other.
Taking the New Year flower as an example, the combination of Chinese and Western potted plants has become popular in the market in recent years. In terms of flower applications, there are not only the main force of the traditional New Year flower market such as phalaenopsis orchid, red palm, pineapple, etc., but also calla lilies, vermilion red, orchid, periwinkle, etc.; in terms of color, not only red, pink, yellow and other traditional Chinese festival tones are selected, but also the use of international popular colors such as Morandi color system, Klein blue, etc.; in the combination of pot design and creation, the technique is more diversified, both using traditional Chinese flower arrangement techniques, paying attention to the display of plant lines and the setting of focus flowers. In addition to the overall shape, it reflects the charm of flowers and plants, and also uses traditional garden landscaping techniques to create a landscape image of "a peak is too hua qianxun, a spoon is a thousand miles of rivers and lakes", and there are also Western-style floral techniques to create symmetrical, horizontal, sagging and other geometric shapes.
On January 18, 2022, as the Spring Festival approached, citizens came to Kunming Dounan Flower Market to buy New Year flowers. Photo by Li Jiaxian, a reporter from China News Service
In the past two years, the potted plant market has poured in new members represented by succulents. Succulents are easy to live, occupy a small area, and have a variety of shapes and colors during the growth process, bringing endless fun to farmers. As a gardener, I am happy to see the emergence of these new elements, which also reflects people's new pursuit in the new era: "simple" conservation investment, harvest "wonderful" home environment. These also complement the "simple, safe and wonderful" requirements advocated by the Beijing Winter Olympics to varying degrees.
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games put forward the three major concepts of "Green Olympics, Science and Technology Olympics, and Humanistic Olympics", and in more than ten years, Beijing and even the whole country have achieved remarkable results in ecological environment, scientific and technological innovation, and humanistic spirit. Today, green has become the background color of the Winter Olympics, and high technology has come to play a big role. Under the epidemic, China is preparing to host the Winter Olympics, so that athletes from all over the world can enjoy this sports event.
In my opinion, the natural and harmonious development between people and flowers is like the way to get along in this world, mutual respect, complementarity and mutual benefit, and making the world harmonious in openness, cooperation and win-win results, which is the most beautiful wish of all mankind. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Fu Li is a senior engineer of Beijing Municipal Landscaping Bureau and a master's degree student in landscape architecture planning and design. Engaged in landscaping related work for 15 years, he set up a column of "Fu Li Flower Appreciation", which is committed to introducing the development of landscaping and garden flower culture in Beijing. Participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games awards bouquet and the floral performance of the main press center. Won the title of "Beijing March 8th Red Flag Medal".