Heze Hosts Int'l Forum on Peony Culture and Global Exchange

The 2026 Heze Peony International Communication Forum was held on Saturday in Heze, east China's Shandong Province, bringing together global diplomats, scholars and artists to explore how the city's iconic flower can serve as a bridge for cultural exchange and mutual understanding.

This year's forum was themed "Blooming Across the World, Cultivating Shared Beauty," focusing on the connotations and contemporary significance of peony culture. The forum is part of the 2026 World Peony Conference, a month-long event that kicked off on Friday.

The event featured a thematic short film tracing the peony's millennia-old cultural journey, video greetings from friends around the world, and a fusion performance blending guzheng and violin that drew enthusiastic applause. Participants exchanged peony-themed cultural creations, promoted the "Five Continents in Bloom" Chinese Classical Garden, and launched initiatives such as "The Peony's Voice from Space," highlighting the flower's timeless appeal.

In Chinese culture, the peony has long symbolized prosperity, vitality, and the people's aspiration for a better life. Participants at the forum said such symbolism can also resonate across borders, offering a language of beauty and emotion that is widely understood and shared.

With a cultivation history spanning over 1,500 years and a rich cultural legacy surrounding the flower, Heze, known as China's "peony capital" with 1,308 varieties, attracted 9.92 million visitors during its peony festival last year, up 14.8 percent from a year earlier. The city has developed a comprehensive industrial chain - using stamens for tea, seeds for oil, roots for medicine, and petals for wellness - with products exported to over 30 countries and regions.

"Flowers are an aesthetic language that transcends national borders," said Zhang Lun, secretary of the CPC Heze Municipal Committee, noting that they are promoting both "peonies going global" and "flowers coming to Heze."

Sun Wenli, Vice Head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee, pledged full support to elevate Heze's peony culture as an international symbol of friendship and happiness.

During a roundtable discussion, experts explored how to decode and reconstruct peony symbols for global communication.

The event was jointly organized by the Publicity Department of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee, China International Communications Group (CICG), and the Publicity Department of the CPC Heze Municipal Committee.

Source: Publicity Department of the CPC Heze Municipal Committee

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