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Ok we will call them penjing like the article suggests, but others will continue to refer to them as bonsai and I am not going to go out of my way to correct th
by dqv 5y ago
Ok we will call them penjing like the article suggests, but others will continue to refer to them as bonsai and I am not going to go out of my way to correct them.
- genewitch 5y agoI'm down with penjing!
- eozoon 5y agoWhich honestly feels a bit silly to me, because the Chinese penjing community are also obsessed with the details of the craft - may be to a slightly less degree than their Japanese counterpart due to the Japan culture's tendency to formalize things. But I promise you penjing enthusiasts are just as likely as bonsai enthusiasts to object to stick-in-a-pot being called a penjing. (eg of a penjing site full of guides and discussion about the type of plant, the soil, the pot etc: https://www.pjcn.org/ https://www.pjcn.org/ ) And just like the article says about Japanese and their attitude towards the "not bonsai" - outside of the enthusiast communities, most people don't care, and will enjoy their small-tree-like-plant and call it bonsai/penjing anyway. So I don't see why one would object to calling a casual mini tree a bonsai but is comfortable calling it penjing. Either both are okay or neither is.
- dumb1224 5y agoI agree with you. My mom is very into plants but she never calls her pots of mini trees penjing. But I guess there's the language aspect of the word usage as well: 'penjing' (literally pot of scenery) sounds very formal like written language, not very colloquial. It would sound like an advertising word as if from a production video or a market. Whereas the Japanese counterpart is regarded as an established high art/profession (which is common in Japanese society).