lingnan folk-custom

guangzhou, in ancient time, was the territory of baiyue, lingnan, and its traditions and folk-custom all descended from the central china’s, by absorbing souls of exotic cultures for thousands of years, unique lingnan culture and folk-customs come into being. as guangzhou is a political, economic and cultural center, guangzhou folk-custom is most representative in lingnan area.

in guangzhou, many routines and habits of traditional festivals descend from the folk-custom in the central china, especially some important festivals, like spring festival, lantern festival, qingming festival, dragon boat festival, mid-autumn festival, double ninth festival, winter solstice festival etc. however, thanks to historical, geographic, climate and local factors in guangzhou, guangzhou people produced their characteristic folk-custom. for instance, as guangzhou is near the tropic of cancer, it’s very warm in the four seasons, and rich in rainfalls, and hundreds of species of flowers blossom all year round, therefore, spring festival flower fair will open on new year’s eve, which is a peculiar and unique folk-custom in cities. additionally, another example of southern-lion dance, which is different from the northern-lion dance in style and content, in addition, sea-god’s birthday on 13th feb. of lunar calendar, shawan piaose, mache grass-dog etc are all the unique customs in guangzhou, especially custom of drinking early morning tea.

what’s the uniqueness of guangzhou folk-custom? in conclusion, there are three features:

(1)   guangzhou folk-custom is much diverse, old and young. the amalgamation of south and north culture and communications with the foreign culture are the dominant reasons to explain the features of guangzhou folk-custom, and those reasons are continuous historical evolutions, advantaged physical geography like mild climate, rich products and favorable geographic position. up to the present, many old folk-custom is conserved well in guangzhou, as well as the exotic.

(2)   guangzhou folk-custom is full of vivacity and romantism, which is determined by peculiar anthropologic structure and geographic conditions. its elegant landscape cultivates vivacious character of the local residents; colorful gardens make a beautiful drawing; vast seascape stimulates people’s imagination, encourages spirits of exploration. for instance, the exciting scene in dragon boat completion, hear-stiring drum beats in lion dance, romantism in piaose show.

(3)   guangzhou folk-custom is chartered with compatibility, open, warm and romantism, which is closely related with people’s temperaments. unlike north people, guangzhou people are commonly implicit and not good at expressing their sensations, but they are very gentle and think much of friends and capable persons, such as many people coming to guangzhou from other places, if only they did well to guangzhou people, they would be memorized and commemorated; national hero lin zexu is one of them.

next is an introduction of spring festival flower fair, dragon boat, lion dance, sea-god’s birthday, shawan piaose, mache grass-dog and birthday of panku emperor, which all incarnate three features mentioned above..

spring festival flower fair

whenever new year or festival comes, the beautiful flower city, guangzhou, is decorated with lanterns and streamers everywhere, overflow with happiness and auspicious.

spring festival flower fair in guangzhou has been well-known home and abroad for a long time, and is a unique sight of folk-custom. the annual spring festival flower fair is held in eight flower streets of guangzhou, the first is the spring festival flower fair in xihu road and jiaoyu road at yuexiu district; the second is in dashatou sanma road at dongshan district; the third is in liwan north road at liwan district; the fourth is in jiangnan west road at haizhu district; the fifth is in tianhe east road at tianhe district; the sixth is dashadi spring festival flower fair at huangpu district; the seventh is huadi spring festival flower fair in fangcun district; the eighth is dajie spring festival flower fair at baiyun district. guangzhou spring festival flower fair is held every year from 28th dec. of lunar calendar to the wee hours of the first day of new year.

guangzhou spring festival flower fair, which is of centuries-old history and of long standing, is a unique and traditional folk-customer in guangzhou, and its emergence has close relations with guangzhou’s geographic location, history and culture, tradition and folk-custom. guangzhou enjoys a climate of sub-tropic and monsoon, so it is not very hot in summer or not very cold in winter, with an average temperature of 21.7 centigrade, annual precipitation of 1982.7 mm, and average relative humidity is 77%. with these natural advantages, flowers of various kinds continuously blossom all seasons, so guangzhou is given another name of flower city. thanks to its predominant geographic location and favorable natural surroundings, all kinds of flowers are provided with perfect cultivation conditions.

guangzhou, famous for its history and culture, has a civilized history of over 2,200 years. as the birthplace of silk road on the sea, traffic and trade were always flourishing in guangzhou, where large quantities of flowers were needed. early in xihan period, when lujia visited nanyue state for developing diplomatic relation, he found out that nanyue people were strongly interested in flower cultivation, ikebana and wearing flower, and all the rooms were decorated with flowers, so he praised guangzhou people were persons with colorful clothings and flowers. it was said that in nanhan period, nanhan emperor’s favorite concubine was a girl planting flowers in zhuangtou village at the south bank of pearl river. as she still loved planting flowers in palaces, many nobles were affected to admire flowers, so did common people. in order to remember this lady, later generations give her name to a kind of local jasmine. when su dongpo, an eminent poet in the northern song dynasty, passed by lingnan, he was amazed by the beautiful scapes here, so he wrote down famous poems to express his emotions. thus we can see, since ancient time, flower culture has been in a critically important position in lingnan history, and encouraged flower cultivation and the development of flower fair.

the development of guangzhou flower fair can be traced back to ming dynasty. at that time, herb market of luofu mountain, fragrance market of dongguan, flower fair of guangzhou and pearl market of lianzhou were called “four markets” of guangdong. especially guangzhou flower fair was the unique one in the whole nation due to its large scale, wide influence and excessive visitors, and there is a poem saying that numerous visitors sail around the market from day to night, which indicates the appearance of the night market and its settled location. in the beginning of 1860’s, flower fair was settled to open several days before spring festival, almost every family will buy some flowers to decorate their houses.

the large-scale guangzhou flower fair on the new year’s eve began after 1920, and the market will open from 28th dec. of lunar calendar to 12pm of the new year’s eve. after liberation, especially after the implementation of the reform and opening policy, living standards in guangzhou have been largely improved, as well as the requirement for flowers. as the market scale grows larger and larger, it is expanded in a wider area. one week before the new year’s eve, traffic in some principal streets will be controlled, and relative department will build shelves and booths for the flower farmers to sell flowers. these flower shelves stand closely and stretch forward, forming a flower porch. at the entrance or exit of every market, colorful and grandflower boards will be erected. farmers will also transfer some plants big in size several days in advance, and the flower fair will open on 28th dec. of lunar calendar without delay, on that day, the whole city will be surrounded by flowers and happy atmosphere.  

for a long time, guangzhou people have been accustomed to cultivating, admiring and trading flowers, in addition, flower is regarded as the symbol of beauty. thereby, you will find flowers almost everywhere in local people’s house, the front yard, the back yard, the main hall and bedrooms, and flowers are widely used in many occasions like open ceremony, wedding car’s decoration or even in visiting relatives and friends etc. flower has been an indispensable part of guangzhou people’s daily life, as well as the traditional folk-custom in guangzhou.

entering into flower fair, you will be surprised by magnificent and resplendent flower boards and an endless flower veranda. according to packing, the flowers can be classified into three kinds: bundled flower, potted flower and bulk flowers, and the bundled flowers mainly include peachblossom, willow flower in silver color and bell flower etc.

guangzhou people like to display peachblossoms in their house in hope of seeking great success in future career. in cantonese, the pronunciation of peach is close to the pronunciation of tu, which means good fortune in chinese, even some young people without a girl friend this year will put peach flowers in room in hope of finding a pretty girl in the coming year.

bell flower is a familiar variety in flower fair. as it is similar in shape of a bell, we call bell flower. putting bundles of bell flowers at home, which means new year’s jows, people believe that they will be blessed with good fortune in the coming future.

potted flowers are usually displayed in the middle section of porches, and potted flowers often include camellia, orchid, peony, cherry bay, rose, banana shrub, asphodel, citrus microcarpa, tropic succulent plant etc.

guangzhou people usually put a pot of citrus at home in hope of seeking good luck all year round. fruit of citrus is in a round shape, and it tastes both acid and sweet, very special flavor.

camellia is in pink color with plump pedals, just like embroidered love balls overspreading the green jade. putting camellia at home, people is in a hope of having a happy and wealthy life.

although kumquat is small-sized, about 70 cm high together with a pot, it grows several hundred fruits. its branches are bended by these little, lovely, golden fruits, which symbolize wealth and luck. as fruit of kumquat is esculent and tastes sweet, after spring festival, some people like to marinate the fruits in honey for asthma treatment.

red kumquat is a special species growing in guangdong, and its fruit is in a round shape, with white downy pericarp, and looks very adorable, and it is with a moral meaning of prosperity and wealthy.

in may, 1987, we once chose chinese traditional ten famous flowers which include plumblossom (jiangzhe), peony (luoyang), chrysanthemum (chang’an), orchid (fujian& guangdong), china rose (laizhou), water lily (hunan & hubei), camellia (yunnan), rhododendron (yunnan), sweet-scentedosmanthus (guilin), asphodel (fujiang). with pure white bulbs, bottle-green leaves, graceful and immaculate charm, refreshing fragrance, simple but elegant character, people show great respect for daffodil. in guangzhou, it symbolizes auspice, loftiness, nicety and immaculacy.

the middle section of porch is commonly displayed with orchid. according to its packing, orchid is in the kind of potted flower; according to species, it is classified into guo orchid and cattleya. guo orchid mostly grows in soil, and belongs to soil-grow plant, and its primary species include dark orchid, autumn orchid, fragrant orchid, spring orchid, winter orchid etc. cattleya, a kind of aerophyte, is usually suspended in air and parasitizes on the haulms of other plants, and its basic species are cattleya, cymbidium, phalaenopsis, lady's slipper orchid etc.

dark orchid is further divided into rare dark orchid, dark orchid of yellow petal, dark orchid of plum petals etc. dark orchid of red petal is with red haulms, red petals, red pistil, and it looks very staring with dark green leaves. guangzhou people display it at home for it implies holiness, transcendency and close relations with nature.

dark green orchid is with green leaves, green haulms, and green petals, which make its flaxen pistil staring, just like countless twinkling lights in the green clusters, thereby, people will naturally feel refreshing and inspiring when they admire it. in guangzhou, people like to put it in the house for its moral meaning of achieving great success in career. 

rare dark orchid is previously raised in fujian, at present is in guangzhou. it grows with thick, wide and long leaves, dark red haulms, dark violet petals and white pistil dotted with red spots. due to its rare features, rare dark orchid is regarded as a precious species of dark orchid, with a moral meaning of pride, modesty and capability.

according its leave patterns, spring orchid includes jinbian spring orchid, yinbian spring orchid and tiger pattern spring orchid etc.

orchid species are very abundant, besides fragrant orchid; there are autumn orchid, winter orchid, cattleya, short orchid etc. in guangdong, the primary species include damo orchid, qijianbai dark orchid, yuzhen orchid and renhua white orchid etc, among which, the most precious is damo orchid belonging to short category with thick, wide and short leaves, and it is said that damo orchid is worth of over usd$100,000.

shopping in flower fair, most people love to choose bulk flowers one by one carefully. people could take any flower they like and bargain with the flower traders.  bulk flowers mainly consist of chrysanthemum, coxcomb, peony and rose etc. most guangzhou people will not care much about the price, and they will take a great deal of flowers in all kinds home. it’s no wonder some poet once expressed his exclamation by a poem describing guangzhou people’s enthusiasm for flowers.

as we all know, chinese bonsai are mainly composed of jiangnan bonsai, sichuan bonsai and lingnan bonsai. birthplace of lingnan bonsai is in fangcun district of guangzhou, every year, a lot of fangcun bonsai will be seen in flower fair. admiration for nature is the most outstanding feature of lingnan bonsai. on the base of natural tree’s structure, by absorbing art souls of lingnan school of painting, lingnan people invented a special way of sculpting in consideration of the local natural and climate conditions, and the way is to cut trunks and to conserve branches, in this way, vigorous, natural, elegant and unconstrained style of lingnan bonsai came into being, and the art of lingnan bonsai achieved a great progress as well.

the end section of flower porch is a place for saling aquatic animals like goldfish and some other breeds for admiration, as well as antiques, soundries shelves, ceramics, lacquers, glasswares, balloons, craftworks, goods for celebrating new year’s eve and toys etc., and you can buy anything you need for spring festival.

eight flower fairs in guangzhou are brilliant with lights all night long, and crowd with a sea of heads and flowers. flowers are in people’s eyes, talked by people, hold by people, lifted on people’s shoulders, on new year’s eve, guangzhou turns to a city of flowers, a sea of flowers and a world of flowers, and at that moment, you will really understand the saying of “ colorful threads and flower clothings”.