Chinese Version
2021-07-09, Friday, Heavy Rain
In May 2021, a bush of bright yellow iris on the bank of Charles River caught my eye, as I rarely saw yellow iris and I had only seen iris on land, such as gardens, roadsides or hillsides. So I left the trail and stepped on the rocks to get closer to see the yellow iris. I felt that the yellow flowers were beautiful and graceful on the top of skinny long green leaves, with the high-rise buildings in the background,
After staying with the yellow flowers for a while and before leaving, I took some photos of the yellow iris. I shared a photo with my friend, MK, who claimed that he didn’t know much about flowers.
After I told MK: “The pretty yellow flowers are called irises.”
He immediately replied: “I am familiar with the name of iris. In my memory, iris is usually purple.”
I was surprised to hear his quick description of iris and agreed: “Yes, the yellow irises are rare.”
“I was reminded of the painting of iris by Van Gogh.” (MK)
Later I told MK, I grew up in Zigong, a small city with no public libraries or museums, therefore I knew very little about paintings. I only knew Van Gogh’s famous sunflower and his self-portrait.
Then he sent me a photo of the iris by Van Gogh. He seems liked iris a lot: “In Japan, the cherry blossom is the most popular flower. The iris may be the second most popular. Traditionally, beautiful women are often called iris.”
His explanation reminded me of my friend who named her daughter Iris, because my friend liked paintings of iris by Georgia O’Keeffe.
MK said later: “Iris, in Greek mythology, is a goddess who is the personification of the rainbow.”
It seems like iris is a popular and well known flower in both Japanese and Western culture. So I told MK: “Iris does not seem very popular in China. Because a poet, my classmate in college, once told me that the iris was too ordinary for a poem.”
MK said he understood there are some different views about iris between Chinese and Japanese, and probably Western traditions.
After thinking for a while, MK explained his hypothesis to me. “Very interesting! The difference might be related to that in the traditional perspective about the beauty of women. For example, I believe the concept of ‘傾城’ is quite unique to Chinese history and literature. I have never heard such a ‘傾城’ type of story in Japanese and Western history or literature, and anywhere else other than China. In Chinese tradition, we can say ‘傾城’ such as 楊貴妃, 西施 and 王昭君 is the prototype of beauties. BTW, they are famous in Japan, as well. To describe the beauty of these ladies, adjectives that came up to my head are ‘super-gorgeous’, ‘super-attractive’ and extraordinary (although unfortunately I haven’t gotten a privilege to see them in person!). I guess it is easier to find these features in 牡丹 (peony), which you told me is a symbol of beautiful women in China, compared to the iris. I guess this could be one of the reasons iris has not been one of the most popular flowers in China, unlike Europe and Japan.”
After hearing MK’s explanation, I thought a bit and realized that popular flowers in China are usually either in a round symmetric shape, such as the peony, rose, plum blossom, chrysanthemum, water lily, and camellia etc or possessing sweet fragrant, such as jasmine, fragrant orchid, and sweet-scented osmanthus etc. On the other hand, the native iris in China has a triangle shape with no fragrance. Therefore the is not very popular in China.
Footnote:
MK thought that a footnote will help explain why and how 傾城 is a concept unique to China:
傾城 (literary, figuratively) drop-dead gorgeous, extremely beautiful women (who may have the potential of bringing about the downfall of an empire, state, or city) (modified from Wiktionary) .
楊貴妃, 西施 and 王昭君 were typical and the most famous 傾城 in Chinese history.
Little Episodes
1. 
This morning, I shared this story in my circle of friends: “Chatting about iris flowers brought out the differences between history and culture. People love flowers, and flowers please people. The culture and history of flowers please many people. I started the conversation of iris, because a poet, my classmate in college, once said to me that iris is too ordinary for a poem, which makes me feel sad as I like iris. After hearing my sadness, another friend who claimed he didn’t know much about flowers has many says about iris flowers.”
After reading my shared story, one of my high school alumna and a serious flower lover commented: “Because iris comes from the Greek word ‘Rainbow’, Westerners plant it in the cemetery, hoping iris becoming a medium for communication between dead and alive. This is something I read in an article before and I was very impressed. ”
2. Van Gogh’s iris paint。
On line comments: “Van Gogh captured the striking wildness of these flowers.”
3. The yellow iris I saw (05-22-2021)
4. Other story around iris in 2021:
Iris, Female Writers, Family Histories.
Yellow iris flowers.
Pretty iris flowers
5. Wiktionary and Wikipedia
“wiktionary is a dictionary written in one language and covering all words in all languages, just as Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written in one language of all topics from all language-areas.”
6. Xiaoyun, my elementary friend, also planted iris in her garden.
She said: iris is also called BianZhuGen in our home province Sichuan. Iris is bulb.
