by Romi Slowiak, MCFGS Board Member and SAINT PAUL PEONY FESTIVAL Manager
In a bold move, with no grant to support it, the Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society launched the first SAINT PAUL PEONY FESTIVAL on a vibrant spring day in May. The festival was a success on many levels thanks to volunteers and the crucial financial and programmatic partners: the USCPFA-Mn, the St. Cloud State University Chinese Language & Culture Partnership Program and Hidden Springs Peony Farm (you can still order 8 weeks of peony tubers at a 10% discount with code FRIENDSHIP~ hiddenspringspeonyfarm.com).
This inaugural event commemorated the late Ms. Joyce Hsiao, one of the co-founders of the Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society and also expressed everyone’s respect for cultural heritage through the peony, the national flower that vividly witnesses Chinese cultural heritage and that once proliferated in Minnesota. Many do not realize that in the 1920’s Faribault, Minnesota was known as “The Peony Capital of the World”. This was primarily due to the Brand Peony Farm, which grew and sold a large variety of peonies, shipping them to various parts of the world. Bill Zajicek the President of MCFGS hopes that Liu Ming Yuan will become a horticultural destination for its many plants including peonies.
The festival included tributes to the flower in many art forms, curated in partnership with Christina Deng-Morrison, MCFGS board member and founder ASANE, and introduced by MCFGS Vice President Chen Zhou.
- Dances by TCCDC (a special one contributed by Joyce Hsiao’s family), Phoenix Dance Academy, Shen Pei Arts Studio and CAAM-CDC.
- Poetry by classical Chinese Tang Dynasty poets read in Chinese and English by Yinghua Academy students, and the wonderful poem Spring by Ziqing Zhu read by Nick Zhang and Dr. Yang Li.
- Both a song and a dance in the Peking Opera tradition.
Another major partner was the Chinese Language Teacher’s Association founded and led by Pearl Yue Cheng which offered a gallery of student art, Fenghuang Ancient City marble fan-making and children’s water calligraphy lettered with mops right on the Xiang Jiang Pavilion stone floor!
Peony plants were raffled by volunteer Rachel Speiss, sold and described in detail by peony expert Mary Yee, and wonderful fashions created with traditional Hmong fabrics were sold by board member Susan Klevan and offered at a discount to support the Festival by Serenity Tailors of Woodbury, owned by board member Pa Thao.
It is only appropriate to share a few words about Joyce Hsiao. Both her daughter Caroline Van and MCFGS Co-Founder Linda Mealey-Lohmann offered warm remembrances of Joyce. Here are some from her daughter’s speech:
“My mother was born in 1927 in a mining town near Tianjin, China. Her ancestral home was Hangzhou. After being home-schooled, she moved to Peking for high school and college during the Chinese Civil War and WWII. In the autumn of 1948 just before the Communist Revolution, Joyce boarded one of the last steamships to America to study at Penn State. She received her PhD in biochemistry in 1952 at the age of 25. Her professor asked, “ Why do you want a PhD since there will be no jobs for you?!” She truly hoped that the plight of women would change – in America, in China – and tried to hold on to an independent voice. Then, a first date at a Penn State football game led to marrying CC Hsiao and a move to the land of 10,000 lakes in 1955. Both were scientists and teachers at the UMN and other places, but most of all this couple fell in love with 1) the natural beauty of Minnesota and 2) the kindness of Minnesotans. Mother shared in my father’s adventurous and creative projects, and in his big dream of this Friendship Garden. She brought beauty and aesthetics to their home and community, with care toward gardens and fountains, trees and flowers. She maintained a hardy hedge of peonies in her yard for half a century. These two immigrants from China in the 1940s believed in bringing Chinese culture to Minnesota, in her words, “to further the friendship and understanding between the peoples of these two nations.”
We all hope that art, culture and the peony flower will grow and bloom in the China Friendship Garden year after year into the future!
Caroline Van, MCFGS Board Member, daughter of Joyce Hsiao & Linda Mealey-Lohmann,Secretary MCFGS, photo of Joyce Hsiao
Bill Zajicek, MCFGS President, Romi Slowiak, Board Member & Festival Manager, Chen Zhou, Vice President & Festival EMCEE
Dancer at Peony Festival
TCCDC Dance for Joyce