According to Wen Wei Po (July 2 1), 62 academicians of China Academy of Sciences and Academy of Engineering recently signed an initiative, calling for the determination of China's national flower as soon as possible, and put forward a proposal to determine plum blossom and peony as "dual national flowers".
Yesterday, an academician, a famous flower expert, a professor at Beilin University and one of the earliest advocates of national flower selection, asked his assistant to fax a copy of the Proposal on Determining Li Peony as China's National Flower as soon as possible signed by Mr. Chen and 62 academicians including Wu, Qian Zhou, Shen Guofang, Yuan Longping and Meng Zongzhen.
The proposal says: More than 100 countries in the world have established their national flowers, and China is the only big country that has not yet established its national flowers. This is not commensurate with the title of "Mother of Gardens" in China, nor is it conducive to fully demonstrating the charm of China's profound flower culture to the whole world and supporting China's flower industry to participate in international competition. With the approach of the 2008 Olympic Games and the 20 10 Shanghai World Expo, it is urgent to solve the problem of national flower-the dispute about national flower has been concluded.
Tracing back to history, the "struggle" of the national flower has a long history. Since the 1980s, various views on the national flower have emerged one after another. There are mainly four kinds: one is a single national flower, which is divided into two factions: plum blossom and peony; Second, two flowers in one country. Academician Chen Junyu, who originally advocated a single plum blossom, put forward the idea of "two flowers in one country", that is, plum blossom and peony are national flowers; Third, there are four flowers in one country, namely peony, lotus, chrysanthemum and plum blossom, which are divided into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter; Four are five flowers in one country, with the five famous flowers of "one main flower and four auxiliary flowers" as the national flower-peony as the main national flower, orchid (spring), lotus (summer), chrysanthemum (autumn) and plum (winter) as the "four famous flowers in China".
After years of fierce competition for the national flower, the industry has gradually reached an understanding that a single national flower is inconvenient to remember and not representative, and the "double national flower" should be more appropriate. Plum blossom and peony presented by 62 academicians are all native to China, with a long cultivation history, various varieties, good fragrance and color, and are deeply loved by Chinese people. 1987 China famous flowers were selected on a large scale, and plum blossom and peony were only the first and second. Moreover, the culture of two flowers is profound and rich in connotation. Plum blossom has always been regarded as a representative of perseverance and a symbol of the spiritual civilization of our nation. Peony is elegant and represents a prosperous and powerful material civilization.
"Double national flower" is also very common in all countries of the world. For example, in Japan, chrysanthemum and cherry blossoms are double flowers, and in Mexico, cactus and dahlia are double flowers. China has a vast territory and diverse climate. Plum blossoms are mainly distributed in the Yangtze River basin and its south, and peony is mainly distributed in the Yellow River basin, with a wide range and wide representation. In addition, plum blossom is a small tree and peony is a shrub, which is also very suitable for the complementary application of garden cultivation.
Academician Chen Junyu said that the national flower is one of the popular cultural symbols in a country and has a strong mass character. Because of this, countries all over the world have always chosen national flowers based on established customs. He suggested that the selection of national flowers should be led by professional organizations such as flower gardening and forest farmers, with folk selection as the main factor and finally approved by the government.