Mourners congregate in lines as one-by-one each line of people moves forward to place a flower at the feet of Wu Zhengyi, bows three times, and pays their respects to his family members by shaking hands and saying a few words. | A couple of days ago, I had the distinct honor to be able to pay my final respects to one of the greatest botanists that China and the world has ever had: Dr. Wu Zhengyi. Perhaps one of the people who spoke at this ceremony captured the importance of Wu Zhengyi's life and career the best: 'If someone in the world can point out the names of each plant, understands the habits of each plant, then it must be the one Wu Zhengyi; if someone can understand the world language of each plant, each plant's emotional understanding, Wu Yi is also the one' (translated from source: Sina news). Wu Zhengyi's importance to the botanical sciences cannot be overstated. Among other accomplishments, he compiled the massive Flora of China (a 126 volume comprehensive description of more than 31,000 different plants native to China, which took 45 years to complete), |
spearheaded the establishment of China's first national park, and was influential in the eventual construction of a seed bank at KIB (where I am located, and within whose walls I have trod) as a means of protecting the world's plant species (primarily currently focused on Chinese plants) from extinction (source: gokunming.com). He was a conservation visionary, a "living [botanical] encyclopedia," and the father of Chinese botany.
I was invited to attend this ceremony as one of the KIB students. We all wore the KIB white shirts that had the seal of KIB on the front and a Chinese saying, the motto of KIB, on the reverse. We were technically there as workers, ensuring that this memorial service, which included hundreds of mourners (I never got a quote on how many actually were there, but they included several Chinese political dignitaries (and their body guards), many students, family members, long time friends, and even those (including myself) who had never met him, but realized his incomparable significance), went as smoothly as possible. I found that my role, and the role of many of the male students, was to form a barrier at the front of the building in order to funnel the crowd only through one of the three doors leading to the inside of the memorial | Tissue paper floral displays with messages to Dr. Wu lined up along one of the walls. |
building. As the ceremony progressed, it was difficult for me to understand what was taking place, as the students were lined up outside the door (along with the crowd overflow), and, though they had loud speakers set up outside for us to hear, I did not have a translator with me to let me know what was being said. I find it best when you are in an unfamiliar situation to, as they say, "do as the locals do," and so I bowed when the others bowed, walked inside when the others walked inside, and paid my respects as I saw the others doing. As we walked inside, I noticed many floral displays (some were real flowers, others were made from tissue paper, and most had a white banner with black Chinese characters, which I assume were various tributes to Dr. Wu) scattered along the walkways, along the walls, and around Dr. Wu himself. Also
A line of students, including me, passing behind Dr. Wu after paying our respects. | surrounding Dr. Wu were various species of flowers, including white chrysanthemums (one of which each person also carried in his or her hands and then laid at his feet), several lilies, and aroids (perhaps an Anthurium species) with red round spathes. As we arrived inside the memorial hall, we lined up in parallel lines, facing Dr. Wu. As the band of soldiers played their tunes and banged the gong, the mourners in the line directly in front of Dr. Wu took their white chrysanthemums, laid them at his feet, bowed low to him three times, and then circled behind him on their way to offer their condolences to family members. This process was repeated for each subsequent line until |
all were given a chance to say their goodbyes. After we offered our condolences to the family members, we exited through a side door and were offered little pieces of Chinese candy. As each of us students enjoyed our small sweet outside the memorial hall after tasting the bitterness of loss within, the music from the band of soldiers called us back to their attention as the pallbearers, dressed and gloved in white garments, solemnly ushered Dr. Wu into a van, the front of which was decorated with many flowers, that was to deliver him to his final resting place. We stood still and watched as the van carrying Dr. Wu drove towards the mountains of Kunming, where the plants Dr. Wu loved so much were silently weeping.