Re-rooted on the mainland
Second-generation siblings from Taiwan manage exquisite bonsai that was their father’s offering of love to Xiamen
A garden in Xiamen, Fujian province, is famous for its exquisite landscape bonsai, including many varieties that were introduced from Taiwan island, across the Strait.
The garden is managed by Chen Hsiu-yu and her younger brother Chen Tai-ming, two second-generation Taiwan entrepreneurs.
One can gauge its quality from the fact that the highest bid for one rare bonsai here exceeded $200,000.
“But we don’t sell the most expensive one because it has been meticulously crafted over generations and has a history of over 100 years. It’s a priceless inheritance,” said Chen Hsiu-yu, general manager of Mark Agronomy, which her late father established in Xiamen in 1993. They sell others, though.
Chen Hsiu-yu’s father Chen Yanhuan arrived in Xiamen sometime in the early 1990s, in search of opportunities like many other business people from Taiwan. During his visit he found that there were hardly any large-scale nurseries in Xiamen; also, the city did not have much to show by way of landscape greening. So, he decided to introduce Taiwan’s horticultural and landscape design to the coastal city.
“He was almost 60 years old at that time, and his mindset had changed from solely focusing on financial gains to pursuing something that was more sentimental to him and didn’t harm the environment,” Chen Tai-ming said.
“Almost everyone my father met in Xiamen spoke a dialect similar to the one spoken in Taiwan, and people were very friendly, making him feel like he had returned to his childhood days. So he settled in the city and bought a piece of land to start doing what he loved,” he said.
As far back as Chen Tai-ming can remember, his father had always been fond of plants, and the terrace of their house in Taiwan would be like a small garden, with plants and bonsai adorning it.
In 1999, a typhoon followed by a sudden frost struck the garden in Xiamen. “Almost everything got destroyed, but my father refused to leave as he had a deep emotional connection with those plants,” Chen Hsiu-yu recalled.
So the siblings started helping out, gaining knowledge in horticulture management and gradually taking over their father’s company.
In 2016, when Typhoon Meranti hit Xiamen, 70 percent of the trees got blown away. They used the tree trunks to make tables and chairs, and even pavilions which have remained there ever since.
“They give us a sense of mutual support in life and death, just like an inheritance from our father,” Chen Hsiu-yu said. “We see trees growing from a sapling to its full size in this courtyard. When it’s alive, it’s lush and verdant. Even after it dies, we still see it before our eyes. It’s a support for us, whether alive or dead.”
Credit goes to the company for introducing many plant species such as Podocarpus nakaii Hayata and Pterocarpus santalinus, in Xiamen. The company sowed the seeds, and nurtured the plants till they grew into mature trees. They have now been there for generations.
Twenty years ago, Chen’s father and others of his generation also introduced moth orchids from the island to Fujian. Each plant could sell for as high as 2,000 yuan ($276.70), a huge price in those days.
As the popularity of the orchids grew, more people began planting them and now moth orchids are commonly seen around Fujian. People enjoy gifting them or buying one for themselves.
As the climate, environment and soil are similar in the two places, the survival rate of the plants imported from the island is relatively high.
The company’s employees even travel to England and Singapore to learn new design techniques and methods.
In 2017, when the BRICS Summit was held in Xiamen, the company participated in the city’s municipal greening and environmental protection projects. They introduced green technology from Taiwan to improve several landscape projects in Xiamen, particularly those related to the event.
They have also organized crossStrait bonsai exhibitions to promote exchanges. In October, a cross-Strait bonsai exhibition at their garden saw around 100 exhibits arriving from both sides.
The garden also serves as a science education base for students. Every year, it welcomes more than 20,000 elementary and middle school students, who come for study tours.
With the introduction of policies to promote forestry and agriculture from Taiwan, the siblings see new opportunities on the mainland. They actively engage in the rural vitalization initiative, focusing on smart agriculture and pursuing in-depth development through technological research and the introduction of new techniques.
“We hope to introduce more modern advanced techniques and methods of landscape design, whether from Taiwan or other parts of the world, to promote agricultural development,” Chen Tai-ming said.