The First Flower Arrangement Art Exchange among China, Japan and Korea

The First Flower Arrangement Art Exchange was held successfully at the CPAFFC auditorium on July 2nd，2015.

CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin，speaking at the opening ceremony，said flower arrangement was an art of beauty originating from people’s love of flowers. By arranging the fiowers in certain patterns， people could create an artistic ambience to express their ap-preciation of the vigor and brilliance of life.

In ancient China， the literati of-ten used concrete objects， flowers for instance， as metaphor to laud the har-mony between Heaven， Mother Earth and life and express their yearning for a better and more noble life.

Flower arrangement has been practiced in China for thousands ofyears. As one of the important classi-cal arts of the nation， it has developed a unique art system through integration with calligraphy， painting， gardening and ceramics. Chinese flower arrange- ment started in the Southern and North-ern Dynasties and experienced ups and downs to reach a golden era in the Sui， Tang and Five Dynasties， an era in which the literati admired elegance andladies loved flowers. At that time， Bud- dhism was very popular in China and people liked to offer fiowers before the Buddha statue. Envoys from Japan and Korea who came to study Buddhism were deeply impressed by the omnipres-ent flowers on the Buddhist altar. That’swhy the art of fiower arrangement was introduced into Japan and Korea.

With the development of times， this traditional form of folk art gradually ab-sorbed nourishment from other nations’culture while keeping pace with the time to get rid of the stale and bring forth the fresh. It maintained its traditional char-acteristics and acquired fresh vigor.

The CPAFFC， Japan NPO， RBA International and the Korea-China As-sociation for Friendship in Cultural and Economic Fields jointly planned and hosted the First Flower Arrangement Art Exchange， using the unique art form as a culture link to foster friendly feelings among the youth of China，Japan and South Korea. The activity promoted non-govenunental exchanges in culture and education and enhanced people’s mutual understanding among the three countries.

Feng Luo， a famous Chinese art-ist of flower arrangement and professor of Beijing Forestry University， together with Kume Fumiyo， a master of Japa-nese ikebana， Park Kumja， guest pro-fessor of the Graduate School of Life-style Design at Sookmyung Women’s University and Han Myeong Soon，chairperson of the Korea Federation of Flower Arts Organizations， demon-strated the skills of flower arrangement in front of hundreds of youths and VIP guests. Some of the students also tried their hand with the help of the artists.

“Flower arrangement is closely linked with philosophy， literature and painting. Traditional Chinese flower arrangement stresses a natural demon-stration of the flower’s charm and the creation of a beautiful scene in a poetic atmosphere. The flowers are used to convey emotions. The Chinese art of flower arrangement derives its artistic conceptions from landscapes， pastoral scenery， ancient gardens and folk cus-toms，”said Professor Feng Luo during an interview with the China Central Television (CCTV).

The event was presided over by Secretary General Wang Heshan of the China Friendship Art Exchange Asso-ciation. CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin，Vice President Hu Sishe， Minister Kyo-ji Yamamoto of the Embassy of Japan in China， Cultural Counsellor Kim Jin Gon of the South Korean Embassy and other guests attended the opening cer-emony.

CCTV， Sina.com and Youth.cn allreported the event.