chen-yi nursery

Greg Ruckert greg@alpacamanagement.com
Sat, 08 Jun 2013 16:07:52 PDT

> Historically, this is at odds with the reputation of the Chinese as a 
> people
> you could do business with on a handshake, to say nothing of the quality 
> of
> many of their manufacturers, particularly anything in the porcelain and 
> pottery
> line.

> The proprietress of the Chen-yi nursery might do far better in the long 
> run
> propagating her wild-collected plants, growing them on, ascertaining their 
> true
> identities, running an immaculately clean operation, and then selling them 
> for
> considerably higher prices. However, I don't know if I'd have the 
> self-control
> to do that myself, were I in her shoes.

I had the privilege to meet Chen-yi in 1999. In fact she put me up in her 
unit in Beijing and took me to dinner.  Indeed business was done on a hand 
shake.

It must be remembered that the email that started this thread was about 
fraud being perpetuated in her name.

Before judgemental comments are made about the Chinese people we should look 
at all the history, not just select bits and pieces. Think about the boxer 
wars, about English attempts at colonization and the whole picture.

I remember a long time ago, when our government still thought China was a 
military threat, saying that I didn't think the threat was real as they 
would buy us out before they went to war. Didn't need to be Nostradamus.

Americans need to remember that China and its people are what have funded 
"The American Dream".  They own you.  Let us not be too judgemental.

Any way, back to Chen-yi.  She comes from a Botanical family. Her father 
(had the priviledge to meet him as well), a Chinese Professor who has 
written beautiful books on Chinese orchids.

Yes, her plants were wild collected back then, and probably still are. Her 
husband did the collecting. I visited the facility they despatched from. 
They didn't have the facilities to grow them on.

It is very easy to be critical of their operation BUT they are getting plant 
material out to collectors - to us.  By the way our laws in Australia do not 
enable us to bring them in.

What I lament is that we now have international laws, about money, that stop 
Botanical gardens from distributing material that originated overseas.

These types of laws are what are causing Chen-yi's business model to work.

Rather than criticising what she does it would be better to find a way to 
help her operate in a more acceptable way.

Greg Ruckert
Nairne,
South Australia




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