Evelasting Blossoms

B. The Author's Preface

My mother, Ho Lyan Yu Wen, with her love and her whole life experiences created the realistic fine yarn crochet flowers, 「Everlasting Blossom」, which was named by my father, Ho dz Yuen. You get it’s picture why it was named so; because they are always looking vivid, beautiful and breath taking as if they were blossoming in spring.

I try to begin the story with where my mother was born, her family and the living environment. When she was a young girl, she was influenced gradually by the traditional Chinese needlework, which led her stepped into the area of fine art, thus formed her artistic hands. Even the environment kept on changing from best to worse, suffering from destitution, she was always kept her utter innocence and optimistic delightful spirit. She always appreciated with keen sense toward nature. She always enjoyed watching a butterfly or the beauty of a small flower, and forgot the difficulties of the life.

I believe the beginning of Everlasting Blossom was not an adventitious, It was the fruit of love and life experiences.

In the early years, if my mother was not being painstakingly and formed by her family to needlework;

If she had never gotten a chance to touched the old tradition fine art;

If she did not keep a heart of child; Everlasting Blossom will never blossom in the world.

Almost everyone who had visited the exhibition of Everlasting Blossom would with one voice:

「They are gorgeous !」

「It is unbelievable that with yarn you can crochet a flower that as vivid as life ones!」

「My goodness! I though they are real flowers!」

「Even the pistils and stamens look like the real thing! 」

While the exhibit of the “Everlasting Blossom” was hold in San Francisco, Professor Sye Bing Ying had affirmed and keeping on telling her friends :「I have never visited the same exhibit twice, but this is my third visiting to Everlasting Blossom!」

After I retired, I live in a senior apartment in Oakland. There is a big pagoda tree in our yard, which draw me back to my childhood when I was in Si-An, northern China. I lived with my parents and my sisters and brothers. It was during the war with the Japanese. Everyone in China was in a very difficult situation and living in poverty. My mother used to pick a lot of pagoda flowers and mixed them with flour, sesame oil, Chinese spices , salt and steamed them, which was one of our most favorite food. They were always so testy and delicious!. While she was watching us enjoying it happily, she often sung a nursery rhyme:

Pagoda tree, pagoda tree,

There is an opera showing under thee

Call for daughters, call for daughter-in-laws,

The wee little grandbabies clamorous restlessly

A strong wind came and ended up the show shortly.

And blow the little ones home swiftly.

「Why the wind ended up the show shortly?」I asked my mother.

「Oh, I think it’s because their misbehavior.」My mother answered smilingly.

「If we were visiting my grand-mom, will the wind blow me back too?」

「No! Of course not. Grand-mom will be so delight to see such a nice grand-daughter. Definitely she’ll love you dearly, and huddle you tightly, she will never let the wind to blow you away 」

「When shall we visit her ? 」

「Well…….very soon,…………one of these days.」

「Mom, one of these days? But when will that be?」

「……」

This conversation was taken place during the 2^nd world war, the invasion of the Japanese in China. We lived in Si-An, the capital of Shan-Syi Province, which was free from the Japanese, while my grandparents were lived in Pei-King, which was in the enemy's hands. They were not just too far away from each other, it was just impossible to get there. Therefore, until my grand-mom past away, I had never had a chance to visit her.

Before I had the stroke, while I was visiting a friend of mine. We were walking down the street. I smelled some kind of sweet jasmine smell. But there were no jasmine flowers around. Only big tall trees on both sides of the street. I saw strings of small light lavender flowers hanging in the trees.

They looked like wisteria flowers, but wisteria are vines, they would never grow into big trees like what I saw at that moment!

「It is possible the sweet smell come from those flowers? Those are not wisteria, aren't they? 」I can’t help but asked my friend.

My friend laughed and said,「No! They are not wisteria flowers, They are Pagoda tree flowers.」

「Really? When I was a little kid, my mother used to steam pagoda tree flowers for us. How come that I don’t remember if they ever smell like these?」

「Are the flowers of pagoda tree eatable？」My friend asked curiously.

「Of course they are eatable.」I answered absent-mindedly. There were question marks filled my heart:

「Are pagoda flower smells so sweet like these? How come I ‘ve never remembered they smelled sweet? It would wonderful if mom was still around. 」

At that very night, I had a sweet dream. I dreamed that my mother came to see me. I was loaded with joy. Suddenly the pagoda flower pop up in my mind:

「Mom, are the pagoda flowers smell sweet?」

「Of course they smell sweet.」

「Is that so! But I remembered the flowers you steamed, they smelled sesame oil, prickly ash, star anise, cinnamon, clover and fennel. They never smell like the fragrant of flowers.  」

「My silly child! 」She said graciously.「The flowers you ate, were well steamed, the fragrant of the flower had already vaporized.」

Mother’s benign smile was gone when I woke up. My pillow was wet with tears. That was two years later after my mother had passed away.

Ever since then, I yearning to write a book about my mother and about her unique handcraft, Everlasting Blossom. I started to collect all kinds of information about Everlasting Blossom, I wanted to have the book to be as a tribute to my mother . And pass on the beautiful memory to my children.

My left hand and left foot paralyzed since the stroke, I can’t arrange those crocheted flowers any more. I can’t have any more exhibitions of Everlasting Blossom. But My right hand is still working fine. After I had some information ready , I started tp typy with three fingers: my index finger, medius and the 4th finger. Each time when I hit a key on the keyboard, sounds like I’m talking to my mother. Telling her that how much I love her, how much I missed her.

With a wish in my heart：「Hopefully with this book, it will wake up those flowers from where they stored. May be they will have a chance to meet some one who will make the Everlasting Blossom blossomed again.  

The pictures in the following chapters, may tell you the value of Everlasting Blossoms. They may not be very clear, but those blurred ones may look more like real flowers! However the blurry and dim pictures in this book it's because either they were copied from the originals, or taken by a camera which was not a professional one in the year of 1967! But each time when those flowers were setting in the showroom, people at their first look would think they were looking at some real, fresh flowers! They are very unique, artistic and never been produced before.

My mother, Ho Lyan Yu Wen’s work, not only shows the beauty of the traditional art of Chinese needlework, it also surmount the tradition and created a new vision of art in cultural circles .

There are 37 masterpieces of different kind of Everlasting Blossoms in this book, as well as 8 butterflies, 7 corsages and some very rear, valuable pins with animal heads. Those animal heads are only as big as a coin.

The very first time when Everlasting Blossoms met the publics at the Tai-chung Library in Taiwan, attracted so many visitors. The showroom was never lake of audience during that 9 days' exhibition. Reporters of Taiwan Central Daily News and other paper, and TV reporters came to interviewed my mother. The Women Union of Taiwan presented her a silver trophy with golden Chinese characters; 【巧奪天工】, which means “Superb Craftsmanship Excelling Nature”