A War of Words of Academicians Triggered by the Selection of National Flower;
Plum and Peony competing it Tit for Tat

(Transmitted from the May 30th Beijing Science and Technology News)
There are about 30,000 kinds of flowers around the world, and 10000 to 20000 of them originate in China. For this reason many countries around the world say that “there is no garden existing without China's flowers." However, currently China is the only big country where National Flower has not yet been established. "National Flower selection has missed many opportunities such as the 2008 Olympic Games. If until the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, still China has not established National Flower, it is too embarrassing for the Chinese people!" said Academician Junyu Chen, who is called Academician of Plum, a famous expert of landscape architecture from Beijing Forestry University to Beijing Science and Technology News.
There are about 30,000 kinds of flowers around the world, and 10000 to 20000 of them originate in China. For this reason many countries around the world say that “there is no garden existing without China's flowers." However, currently China is the only big country where National Flower has not yet been established.
Because China do not have National Flower, in the 2001 APEC meeting, it was joking to see "China's National Flower-peony as the background" appearing in some news reports; In the 1999 Kunming International Horticultural Exposition, the vacancy of National Flower became a pity at the end of the last century for the country with such a long history. "China should have its National Flower!" Chen Yu advocated.
Recently,  Academician Zhiyuan Fang of China Academy of Agricultural Sciences stated his opinion on dual National Flower in a popular science lectures, "plum is the symbol of the spirit of loyalty and unyielding , which is on behalf of spiritual civilization; Peony means wealth, which is on behalf of economic prosperity. Dual National Flowers, one in South and the other in North, represent both spiritual civilization and material civilization. If peony is established as National Flower but not plum, it is not conducive to the policy of “one country, two systems”. Because in Taiwan now there is “National Flower”----the plum blossom, which is inherited from the Republic of China, we can not force people in Taiwan to give up their tradition which has been cherished for many years. Therefore, we can simply establish the two flowers as National Flowers in a comprehensive way. "
However, Academician Zhiyuan Fang’s words caused a stir, which hadn’t been expected. After Academician Zuoxiu He heard this idea, he said to Beijing Science and Technology News that there is a big incorrectness in dual National Flowers: The proposition of” double National Flowers" often refers to plum first sequentially, which means that “dual National Flowers”  is "Plum Blossom, Peony Flower", but not "Peony Flower, Plum Blossom".
"As far as I know, proponents strongly opposes the recognition of “dual National Flowers” as "Peony Flower, Plum Blossom", which is an acute political problem: why should Plum which has been passed down since Republic of China in Taiwan ranked in front of Peony ?” said Zuoxiu He.
“There is no so-called sequential problem with peony and plum as National Flowers, thus there is no political problem existing here." Chen told Beijing Science and Technology News. “National Flower is the specially famous flower in its domestic country, which is a symbol of national culture and spirit, though not written into the constitution, but people of all countries attaché great importance to it, which reflects the love of the motherland and the rich National feelings, and enhances national cohesion.
In fact, China has a long history of flower culture. Since the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, peony has been cultivated. In the Tang Dynasty, Peony, which is very beautiful, fitted the aesthetic taste of the society at that time, thus was regarded as the best of all the flowers.
In the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi officially designated Peony as National Flower. Nevertheless, in literature and art history, there are a large number of poetries depicting Plum, which makes any of the other flowers unmatchable. In 1929, Plum had been identified as National Flower.
After new China was founded, there has been no National Flower. Since the 1980s, the selection of National Flower was formally launched. In 1982, Junyu Chen first nominated Plum as China's National Flower. In 1988, he proposed that both plum and peony as the national flower of China. However, after more than 20 years, still National Flower hasn’t been established due to different opinions.
"Many countries establish the well-known flower in particular in its own country as their national symbol, such as Cherry being the national flower for Japan, Tulip for the Netherlands, and Lotus for Egypt." JunYu Chen believes that the selection of the national flower should be a civil act with no political purpose.
"The State Constitution only provides the national flag, national emblem. No country’s Constitution includes National Flower. The national flower selection should widely solicit the opinions of the masses." Junyu Chen said. "However, each discussion in which experts and the media engaged seemed terrific, but thunder heavy but the raindrop little, no result reached."
In 1994, Chinese Forestry Society had come up with criteria for National Flower selection. National Flower selection must comply with the following four conditions: First, to distribute widely; Secondly, to look beautiful; Thirdly, to have a deep cultural connotation; Fourthly, to have a certain economic value.
 However, when such criteria had just been introduced, immediately some scholars questioned: "widely distribution" was not suitable. It seems reasonable but it is too subjective, because we may not like the most widely distributing species. The giant pandas do not widely distribute; however, it is everyone's favorite national treasure.
For the same reason, "looking beautiful" is nor as a mandatory, because there is no uniform standard for "being beautiful". Since China has a broad geographic area, its demographic composition is complex, and national traditions vary considerably, such a request is especially not meaningful. And only according to a certain literary meaning, it is insufficient for some kind of flowers to have certain meanings. Moreover, the traditional culture has a profound meaning, for example, the Doctrine of the Mean by Confucius and the Science of Law against the Mean which is also is a culture, how can we rely on several birds and flowers on behalf of the profound traditional culture?
Amid all the controversies, the opinions on how to select National Flower gradually divide into four groups. Some people advocate a single national flower：either plum blossom or peony factions. Other people, with Chen as the representative, put forward the concept of” one country, two National Flowers", that is, both plum and peony is National Flower. There are also some people proposing "one country, four National Flowers", which are Peony, Lotus, Chrysanthemum and Plum, which represent Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Ana some others advocate "one country, five National Flowers", of which "one is the master and the other four are supplementary": the peony being the leading National Flower, and the orchid (spring), the lotus (summer), chrysanthemum (autumn), plum (winter) being China's four famous flowers representing four seasons."
The discussion becomes unprecedentedly heated; what's more, the competition between flowers becomes the competition between provinces and even cities. But still, the focal point focuses on whether the plum or the peony should be selected as National Flower.
In Luoyang Province in Henan, ”the leading group of proposing Peony indisputably as National Flower "of which the mayor himself is in command, together with Beijing, Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, Heze in Shandong Province and other areas, jointly become "an office competing for Peony as National Flower". They've been lobbying around the whole country, putting forward Peony as National Flower.
"Although I am President of the plum and calyx canthus Branch of China Flower Association, I still hope that the plum blossom and peony eventually become dual National Flower, with no sequential problem." Junyu Chen said. For more than 20 years, he has been still actively walking here and there for his hope in early years. Every year, he submitted to the National People's Congress the motion on the establishment of National Flower; at peacetime, he "constantly propagandizes and writes articles".
"First of all, both peony and plum originates in China. Peony originates along the mountains in Qinling and Daba Mountains in western China; Plum originates in Southwest China." Junyu Chen said.

From the range, the plum blossom can no longer only be planted in the Yangtze River Basin and complies with the selection criteria of a wide range of distribution. Junyu Chen has engaged in research on the plum blossom for more than 50 years. Due to the promotion of the research project of "Plum in the south being moved northwards" over which he has been presiding, the line of the cultivation of Plum has moved northwards for more than 2,000 kilometers, and the plum only original in warm weather in the south is now open in the cold northern cities such as Daqing and Urumqi. The original wild plum blossom only distributed in the 17 provinces in the southern part of China, but now Plum has been in full bloom in a vast majority of the provinces in China through filtering and cultivation, thus the plum blossom complies with the standard for the "being elected" as National Flower.
In addition, Chen conveyed and found that "one country, two National Flowers" is not unprecedented in the world. In Japan, cherry and chrysanthemum are the dual national flowers; In Mexico, Cactus and Dahlia are also dual National Flower. In a city, there are also the double floral emblems, "such as in Beijing, chrysanthemum and rose are the dual floral emblems, while the plum blossom and cuckoo is the dual floral emblem in Wuxi, so I think it is feasible to establish dual National Flowers." Junyu Chen said.
Chen told "Beijing Science and Technology News" that dual National Flower will promote the great cause of peaceful cross-strait reunification." I have seen the Honorary Chairman of Chinese Kuomintang Lien Chan twice, and I talked about the program of dual National Flowers with him, and he agrees very much with the proposal of dual National Flowers." Junyu Chen said.
For the program of dual National Flowers that strongly proposed by Academician Junyu Chen, vice president of the Peony Branch of China Flower Association Kuijie Qin questioned:” Is it really necessary to have two National Flowers? In more than 100 countries where there is National Flower, the proportion of the countries which actually has dual National Flowers is less than 10 percent. For example, in Japan, the Japanese royal family regards the national flower chrysanthemum, but the civil recognizes cherry as National Flower. The two national flowers, one is on behalf of the Royal, and the other a representative of the civil, which is due to the history tradition in Japan. If we also elected two national flowers, what do they represent respectively? It's not good to be too dispersible and one National Flower will not disperse the implication."
Executive director of Xi'an Institute of Flower Professor Jizan Li is also a supporter of Peony. In his view, as the national flag, the national flower can only have only one choice. He is in favor of Peony being selected, because in addition to the above four standards, Peony belongs to the plants in conservation and is conducive to promoting biological diversity.
In 2005 the national "two sessions (National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference)", the nine members of the CPPCC National Committee from Wuhan put forward a joint motion that "the plum blossom is established as National Flower of China." And the representative of the National People's Congress from Luoyang in Henan and Shandong's Heze put forward again that "Peony shall be identified as National Flower soon as possible." "Plum faction" and "Peony faction" competed tit for tat, and the national flower struggle again rose.
On condition of anonymity, a staff of China Flower Association told the "Beijing Science and Technology News" that if a flower can put on the crown of "National Flower", its social emphasis will be greatly enhanced, and its production will expand rapidly. At that time, every place will have sight of the national flower and the national flower will appear on every important occasion. The region which respects the flower will benefit endlessly from the government's favorable policies, the increase of the local sales of goods and the development of cultural industries. And the growers of National Flower will be the first to enjoy the national flower's function of "enriching the people".
Junyu Chen did not deny this. "I found that among a few options on National Flower, the peony flower being National Flower is particularly backed by the largest supportive force of the Government, this is because, Luoyang and Heze are famous for Peony, if Peony is selected as National Flower, the two cities will enjoy the enormous benefits."
In 2005, in a General Assembly of academicians,  Junyu Chen called on academicians signing on "the Proposal of Plum & Peony fixed as China's National Flower" as soon as possible, using the influence of the academicians to elect National Flower early.
"Already 104 academicians have signed their names." Junyu Chen recalled. "At that time, academician Zuoxiu He signed in the Assembly."
However, the next day, Zuoxiu He called to Junyu Chen, asking whether the national flower selection would bring along any political and economic interests.
"I told Zuoxiu He that the signature was with no purpose nor economic interests, and it was a voluntary act. If he was regret, we can remove his signature." Chen told "Beijing Science and Technology News."
"However, on the phone Zuoxiu He said that he would write articles against us." Junyu Chen said.
On that issue of the signatures of academicians, Zuoxiu He told the "Beijing Science and Technology News":" I was opposed to the sequential problem of dual National Flowers. I thought that since dual National Flowers are conducive to the policy of 'one country, two systems', Peony on behalf of the mainland put in front of plum, I would like to sign my name on the proposal."
"However, Academician Junyu Chen was strongly opposed to put Plum in front of Peony, so I refused to sign on the proposal." Zuoxiu He said. "I guess he adhere to Plum put in front of peony is because he is President of the plum and calyx canthus Branch of China Flower Association."
"In addition, Junyu Chen mentioned that he had talked about the dual national flower with Honorary Chairman of Chinese Kuomintang Lien Chan twice, and I would like to ask him whether the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office had given him the power?" said Zuoxiu He.
"Although I am President of the plum and calyx canthus Branch of China Flower Association, I still hope that plum and peony eventually become dual National Flowers, with no sequential problem, nor political purpose." Chen refuted.
On the progress of the selection of National Flower, Junyu Chen said: "Now China Flower Association is in charge of this matter, and we do not know what they are doing."
The staff of China Flower Association said: "Now the selection of National Flower stops. As early as in 1994, we had submitted the program which had been consulted by the community and discussed by experts to the National People's Congress, and later, we collected the views of other timely feedback and submitted to the National People's Congress, but there has been no information back.”
The staff said that the nominated candidate of China's national flower are as follows: plum blossom, peonies, chrysanthemums, orchids, Rose, azaleas, camellias, lotus, osmanthus, Chinese Narcissus, pomegranates, Lamei, spring, peach, Yingshan Hong, Clivia, Hemerocallis fulva, Jinhua Cha, Phnom Penh, Daphne, Ziwei, Gardenias, Davidia involucrata (dove tree), a bunch of red, Lotus Flower, the number of which is as many as a dozen.
On September 20, 2005, the Chinese Society of Horticulture, Beijing Institute of Landscape, and Shanghai Institute of Landscape and Architecture held in Beijing a "seminar on China's national flower selection." Most representatives supported the peony and the plum as China's "dual national flowers." However, there were different opinions, proposing "one country, one National Flower."
In the fall of 2005, China Fair Association held a meeting in Chengdu and proposed the peony as National Flower, and reported to the NPC Standing Committee, hoping that in 2006 the country "two sessions" Peony would be selected as National Flower. But it was meeting by some experts and scholars. "Now, what China Flower Association can do is to promote the national flower selection as soon as possible, and there is still no specific next step." The staff said. "Because National Flower selection needs the National People's Congress pass, but we have not been accredited by the National People's Congress."
In response, Junyu Chen said: "The national flower is on behalf of the states with the characterization of the masses, which shall be selected by the people. Must National Flower selection be submitted to the NPC? Following the suit and so forth, all selections around the whole country, such as National Wine, a state banquet, National Bamboo, National Fruit, National Grass……, be reported to the NPC to decide, the NPC would become the selection committee of each trade. In China, such as Maotai wine as National Wine and table tennis as National Ball are common results."
"Before the liberation, the former National Government determined the plum blossom as the national flower. We should learn from the practice." Chen told "Beijing Science and Technology News." After the victory of the Northern Expedition, in 1929 around, the Interior Ministry of the National Government and the Ministry of Education jointly launched National Flower selection. First of all, a magazine in Shanghai published the votes and widely solicited the views of all sectors. On the basis of this, the Interior Ministry of the National Government and the Ministry of Education orders that the plum blossom was set as National Flower, and explained the reason why they did not vote for Peony was that they just overthrew the Qing government, whose National Flower Peony, therefore Peony would not be selected as National Flower for the National Government. In addition, the country was yet to be reunified, thus Plum which only originated in the South which was the revolution started was selected as the national flower.
Dr. Tao Qingmei of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences also believes that national flower is a symbol of national card, the setting of the standard would affect all aspects of relations and interests and directly affect the selection process and the results. Therefore, in setting selection criteria, the public's right to speak and vote should not be deprived, and such an important business should not casually conferred on Chinese Forestry Society.
According to Academician Junyu Chen, the first step of selecting the national flower is to preheat the program, "so that the program is well known, catching everyone's attention. We continued to attract people's interest in this matter, thus there will be more opinions. Secondly, a civil society should be timely established and they develop a plan and timetable to continue to help prevalent National Flower and educate the public. Thirdly, the program after being studied (most people agree with the proposal) shall be transmitted to the NPC Standing Committee, and wait foe the final approval of the National People's Congress. To set the national flower before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, next year 'two sessions' is the final sprint, and we can not miss it!" Academician Chen said that he would once again put all his efforts into it, striving to see the results of the selection of National Flower in his lifetime.