Bonsai practitioners shoulder their responsibility and walk the path of Chinese bonsai culture

[Bonsai Voices]

Walking the path of Chinese bonsai culture: shoulder the responsibility of bonsai practitioners!

Original photos and text | Bonsai Mozhe (Ankang, Shaanxi)

When our eyes are blinded by foreign cultures, we forget that behind our own names there is a bigger name: "Chinese."

Chinese culture is broad and profound, and we cannot finish learning it in a lifetime. But there is another kind of culture called "intangible cultural heritage," which is gradually being forgotten by people, and may even have no one to pass it on! Of course, this path is not simply about passing things on, since sometimes life forces us, and the times keep advancing.

There are always a group of people walking this difficult path. Is it for money, for profit, or for dreams? I cannot guess and cannot figure it out! If you ask me, I think it should be more about responsibility!

In the twelve years I have studied bonsai, I have never taken a master, just looking here and learning there, and I have never had the ability to buy good bonsai. But I have never forgotten my dream, to create a bonsai of my own. Over these years I have been injured and sweated for bonsai. But I have always insisted on creating Chinese bonsai.

Gradually I came into contact with and saw some bonsai organizations in China. How is our country's bonsai actually progressing? Can it go far? It makes one think deeply. Does greater fame mean collecting more money, or bearing greater responsibility? Why are bonsai exhibitions held on ever larger and more luxurious scales, yet always with the same old faces and rarely new ones? Why are the exhibitors all elderly seniors? Does our country have no young people?

When a disciple takes a master, should the master's duty be to better pass on skills, with virtue first? Or does taking a master put the disciple on a shortcut to success? Does money represent art, or is art itself money? The way of collecting wealth is certainly important, but one should have a sense of integrity, and that is responsibility, the responsibility to inherit and carry forward "intangible cultural heritage."

Our country's bonsai is generally impacted by Japanese bonsai, and with the growing bubble in domestic bonsai, does bonsai give me a light of hope or greater pressure? Right or wrong, it is hard to know!

While we rejoice over how much honor and money bonsai brings us, we should also think a little about what we have done on the path of inheriting and carrying forward "intangible cultural heritage"!

When you read this article, perhaps you will be unhappy, but progress always advances through friction and public opinion. Some things always need someone to do and to speak about.

The path of Chinese bonsai culture is just one: keep walking it. It may not succeed, but we must shoulder the responsibility!

Highlights replay:

The bonsai art of Li Weimin, representative inheritor of Suzhou-style bonsai craftsmanship

Appreciation of works by Li Weimin, inheritor of Suzhou-style bonsai

Emphasize life cultivation, appreciate new bonsai works

What has happened to Chinese bonsai culture and art?

He "entered the field midway," and in ten years put nature into a pot!