Taiwan Today

Taiwan’s budding floral design sector is going global thanks to the dedication of local artists.

In his high-ceilinged flower shop in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City, Kelvin Lee (李嘉偉‬) demonstrates how to weave a beautiful bouquet from half a dozen or more different plants. He uses a handful of bold purple Vanda orchids, a spray of white Ascocenda orchids and matches them with snowy pompon mums. As a finishing touch, he adds a few stems of blue-green eucalyptus and various other leaves, and effortlessly brings them to rest in a wide-brimmed vase.

“I’ve contrasted warm with cooler hues to achieve a harmony of colors and depth,” the florist said. This kind of arrangement would look equally at home as a decoration on a dining table as it would in the hands of a bride on her wedding day, he added.

Lee, 45, has been working with flowers for around two decades. He studied how to take care of plants by helping out at a small florist in a wet market in the mid-1990s, graduating to a grander establishment a year later. During that period, he spent all his spare time and cash learning the fundamentals of crafting elegant arrangements from other designers. Even after he opened his own flower shop in 1997, he continued to take classes for several years.

Today he is one of the country’s most celebrated floral artists. Next March, Lee will represent Taiwan at the Interflora World Cup, also called the FTD World Cup, the Oscars of flower designing held in Philadelphia in the U.S. His success mirrors that of the country’s floral art sector, which is now blossoming on the world stage thanks to the hard work and perseverance of local artisans like Lee.

Promoting Professionalism

Lee’s journey to professional floral designer is not unusual in Taiwan. Many learn the trade by working at a flower shop and studying in their free time under an individual practitioner. He has tutored students himself, including Shen Chih-jui (沈智叡‬), who went on to win Taiwan’s first gold in the floristry event at the 2013 WorldSkills Competition held in Leipzig, Germany. The biennial contest celebrates the work of young vocational students across dozens of categories.

Private organizations have also played a crucial role in nurturing the sector. Taipei City-based Chinese Flower Design Association (CFD), founded in 1983, has branches around the country. It has been holding the Taiwan Cup Flower Design Competition since 1989. Held every two to three years, the contest has spurred local artists like Lee, a silver medalist at the event in 2001, to develop their skills.

Another way florists are enhancing their professionalism is through vocational training programs. The China Floral Art Foundation, also based in the capital, runs courses designed with the help of materials and visiting teachers from floral art company Zuidkoop Natural Projects and the European Floral Design Academy at Aeres University of Applied Sciences, both in the Netherlands. More than 10,000 students in Taiwan have passed the foundation’s exams since classes started in 1992.

“You have to study subjects ranging from botany and color science to the history of Western floral designs dating from ancient Egypt,” said Wu Shu-chuan (吳淑娟), the foundation’s president. “You’re required to memorize more than 500 scientific plant names, which alone is quite challenging.”

Flower Power

It helps that Taiwan has homegrown advantages when it comes to working with flowers. “The country is a paradise for designers because many kinds of plants are easily available,” Elly Lin (林惠理) said. Lin manages Taipei Florist, a well-known shop that has been in the business of selling blooms since 1966.

Taiwan is especially strong when it comes to orchids, according to Lee. The sheer number of colors and shapes available means it beats all other flowers in terms of variety. “We have a long history with the plants and so local artists really know how to work with them,” he said, adding such a wide range is exciting for overseas visitors.

The best opportunities to showcase Taiwan’s flower power have been at government-organized shows. The first major event was the Taipei International Flora Exposition, which ran November 2010 through April 2011. Held at several locations in the capital, the fair attracted the world’s media with big names like the BBC and National Geographic reporting on side activities such as the EcoArk, the world’s first large-scale building made from recycled plastic bottles.

This November, Taiwan is hosting the flower festival for a second time. The 2018 Taichung World Flora Exposition is being staged in the central metropolis from November through April 2019. Among those creating displays for the event is Kuo Chih-kai (郭智鎧). The Taipei-based florist has designed wedding arrangements for some of Taiwan’s wealthiest families including the daughter of Terry Gou (郭台銘), chairman of New Taipei City-based Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract electronics firm. Kuo has landscaped a garden for the expo, which features a rainbow bed of flowers in which the figures of a bride and her frog prince stand.

As well as spotlighting Taiwan, these events encourage young people to pursue a career in floral art, according to Mika Lin (林美曄), the CFD’s honorary president. “Young people today spend too much time in the digital world, but events such as the expo can inspire them to take up flower design in the real world,” she said.

Global Recognition

Large-scale fairs bring the world to Taiwan, but local designers are also taking Taiwan to the world by winning major competitions. Lee gained international recognition when he claimed gold at the 2006 Asia Cup in Floral Design, held by the Asia Florists’ Association based in Tokyo. The contest, a prestigious event that has been running since 1995, has been won by two other Taiwan designers.

Taipei Florist’s Lin won third place at the 1997 FTD World Cup, the highest honor achieved by a Taiwan designer at the competition so far. Lee is now busy preparing to better that record when he attends next year. He has been practicing every day since January and keeping up to date with current trends, such as a fashion for using environmentally friendly materials like hemp cords instead of wires and screws as fasteners.

This is the competition that all flower designers dream of attending, Lee said from his elegantly decorated shop. “I’ll do my very best to make Taiwan proud.”

Cultivating the Mind

While the Western aesthetic in floral design dominates the competition circuit and commercial sector, Eastern styles—loosely divided into Chinese and Japanese in Taiwan—are still honored and practiced by artists in the country. Inspired by the brushwork of calligraphy, the two Asian schools emphasize the use of stems to form clear lines. The aim is to present a poetic sense of stillness and elegance, in contrast to the bold colors and loud displays of Western bouquets.

Taipei City-based florist Kuo Chih-kai (郭智鎧) said Western-style flower ensembles are typically ordered for weddings and public events but Eastern arrangements are used as a way to “cultivate the mind.” Both Chinese and Japanese floral displays are also made for temple offerings and occasionally as part of reception decorations at weddings. But they are rarely sold in flower shops. It is more usual for friends or relatives who have taken up the art as a hobby to offer them as homemade gifts.

The Japanese style—called “ikebana”—took root in Taiwan during the colonial era (1895-1945). It places even more emphasis on simplicity than Chinese designs. Liao Mei-rong (廖美容) studies “ohara,” one of ikebana’s three principal schools. The discipline incorporates images of nature in arrangements, often through the use of broad-based containers that allow the idea of a landscape to be evoked.

While it is difficult to generalize about Japanese floral art, essentially it favors “leaving blanks” in order to create an atmosphere of solitude, Liao said. This is typically achieved by using just a few flowers in a presentation. She heads the Taipei chapter of the Ohara School of Ikebana headquartered in Tokyo. It organizes flower arrangement shows, publishes magazines for its members and holds classes. Many of its students go on to become teachers.

Chinese traditional flower art, which traces its origins to the third century and offerings to Buddhist deities, emerged in Taiwan in the mid-1980s when the Taipei-based Chinese Floral Arts Foundation (CFAF) was established. Its founder Huang Yung-chuan (黃永川), later director of the Taipei-based National Museum of History, meticulously researched and promoted the tradition. Chinese floral art tends to use more flowers than the Japanese schools, but it is still more subdued than Western styles.

The foundation runs courses, publishes books and holds exhibitions in Taiwan and overseas. CFAF Chief Executive Officer Hwang Yen-chiao (黃燕雀‬) said it has done more than any other organization in the world to preserve the practice. 

—by Oscar Chung

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw