Hi all!
Today, we’ll be discussing flower symbolism in the Chinese culture– particularly, the chrysanthemum!
In America and other parts of the Western World, white, yellow, and pink chrysanthemums are used to decorate gardens and front yards. They represent optimism and joy in American culture.
However, in Chinese culture, white and yellow chrysanthemums are used for funerals, and therefore represent death. The color white in Chinese culture is always associated with death and funerals. (Fun Fact: Chinese funerals are themed white, while Chinese weddings are themed RED, a lucky color!)
Chinese funeral flower arrangement
Chinese wedding dress
The bad luck is magnified if the chrysanthemums are cut at the stem, as cut flowers generally serve as presents for the family of the deceased. Gifting these chrysanthemums to someone is as good as wishing for them to pass away! If you ever wanted to gift a traditional Chinese person flowers, you should NEVER gift them yellow/white (cut) chrysanthemums; instead, you should gift them with peonies.
(Most Chinese people do not give flowers as gifts. They enjoy gifting others with useful materials instead of decorative ones. Usually, when a Chinese person goes over to someone’s house for the first time, he/she gifts the homeowner with either food or flower tea. NOTE: You should never arrive at a Chinese person’s house (or anyone’s house, for that matter) for the first time/first time in a long time without bringing any gifts.)
Hopefully, you enjoyed this new knowledge on the symbolism of chrysanthemums in Chinese culture and learned about gifting Chinese people, either with flowers or food! Until next week! 🙂
谢谢作者的提醒，一般中国人不太会送菊花给别人，就像是不会送钟给人家一样，代表了一种不祥的讯息。比起西方人来说，中国人偏爱有香味的花种，像是桂花，茉莉花等等，不一定是很美观很鲜艳，但是幽雅的气味让人神清气爽。
“菊，花之隐逸者也。” 可谓是中国的国花，自古以来菊花的风骨便为人所称道，最有代表性的当属陶渊明。他写过 “采菊东篱下，悠然见南山”的千古绝句，与世无争的菊花和不问世事的他有着相似的命运和气节。乃至一从陶令平章后，便被世人 “千古高风说到近”。
然而菊花总是等到众花争艳，相继凋零后才不紧不慢地盛开。林黛玉也曾提笔“孤标傲世皆谁隐，一样花开为底迟”的诗句来描绘菊花的傲骨。
实属花中之冠
Fantastic article. I really learned a lot.
There is a term in Chinese called 客气. To my understanding, I believe that it is a mixture of politeness and formality. In Chinese culture, giving gifts to family and friends is really common. On Chinese holidays people would visit each other but never empty handed. For example, during Moon Festival people usually gift each other moon cakes. On the other hand, children would receive red envelops (hard cool cash) during Chinese New Year. In Chinese tradition, it is polite to always bring a gift when visiting a relative or friend that you haven’t met in awhile. In fact, many Asian countries also have a similar tradition.
Reading this article about chrysanthemums really made me think about chrysanthemum drinks that I often drank as a child–they were really delicious. Anyways, although I knew that in the Chinese culture, white symbolized death and red symbolized marriage, I still found this article rather informative. I didn’t know that chrysanthemums were generally given to families with a recently deceased member. Also, I didn’t know that traditional Chinese people preferred gifts that they could eat or use. It’s good to keep this in mind for the next time I visit a Chinese person and plan on giving him/her something.