PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE By I. Chi Su President, Bonsai Clubs International For the Chinese Langauge Version Click Here The last quarter of 2007 was very busy. We completed the trips to Mongolia and Xinjiang in Mainland China, returned to Taiwan for the Bonsai Exhibition of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan and the Taipei Viewing Stone Exhibition, and then immediately traveled to India to attend the All India Bonsai Convention & Exhibition in November. Although such travel can be extremely tiring my mind is very content. The India Bonsai Association and Hindu holy man Sri Ganapati S. Swamiji co-sponsored the All India Bonsai Convention & Exhibition. It was similar to other international exhibitions -- Indian bonsai professionals, hobbyists and organizations are invited to participate and there were bonsai demonstrations, lectures and a tour. Chairman of the exhibition Mr. Nikunj S. Parekh presided over a successful event. Nikunj is the President of the India Bonsai Association and a director of the BCI Board. I was invited and represented BCI in the grand exhibition. The most unique feature of this exhibition was its theme of the religious mind and spiritual orientation. Sponsor and religious leader Sri Swamiji known by everyone as Holy Man likes music and bonsai and during his several speeches he emphasized the importance of living green and appealed to everyone to plant more trees because the energy produced by plants can accelerate the health of the human body. The Holy Man writes songs, plays and sings his songs to purify mind and soul, and preaches for world peace. This is the deepest experience I have had from past international bonsai and viewing stone exhibitions, and it will remain in my heart forever. I originally planned to travel to Mainland China this winter but the climate became very strange. Guangdong and Fujian in southern China normally with a subtropical climate had heavy snow storms, affecting millions of people. The conditions were extremely harsh and disastrous for China. Taiwan also had bad weather. From the middle of December to January we had bitter cold temperatures and plum rains. I had no choice but to move some of the tropical bonsai to the warmer south, and all of my planned activities for the period were forced to stop. Nevertheless, devotees of bonsai and viewing stones used this rare idle time to communicate with each other. In spite of the fact that I live in the mountains, I had many visits from friends. Our conversations were centered on bonsai collections, viewing stones and antique pots. When our relaxed talks and drinks came to an end (although we could talk forever on these beloved topics) and my good friends left, I then reminisced about my past. I grew up in a small rural village of southern Taiwan surrounded by farmland. We lived a chaste old country life performing all of the tasks of feeding chickens, grazing cattle, growing vegetables, and agriculture. The things I miss the most are capturing frogs on the ridges between rice fields during typhoon nights, catching loaches on the rice seeding beds during the boiling hot summer July, and fishing catfish under the Lin Tou Trees (Pandanus Odoratissimus) on the creek bank after the storms came and the creek would raised suddenly. All of these childhood memories developed my great passion for Mother Nature, therefore the Su’s Barony was in the forefront of my mind as I planned and worked towards my dream. The journey of life seems like a dream -- the high and low tides of events progressed to the fulfillment of my dream. Twenty-six years ago, following my childhood dreams from the rural village, I became involved with bonsai and sought a perfect property to build a barony. Today I have more than two hundred specimen bonsai, forty ancient trees, camellias, cherries and a variety of fruit trees, so that Su’s Barony is not only a bonsai garden but also a great garden for visitors. The viewing stones represent the most important aspect of Su’s Barony. We successively completed the first, third, fourth and fifth halls representing the prevailing Chinese cultures and arts. I invite our fellow BCI members to come visit the Barony and enjoy the various viewing stones from all over the world. You can also enjoy my antique pots which have been collected over years in a rather unique way. More than ten years ago, I went to Mainland China’s Jiangnan area (southern of Yangtze River) and collected treasured purple-sand pots. I even went underground 300 meters on Yixing with the workers to see how purple sands spread on the underground layers, and I learned the entire process of creating purple-sand pots from soil-selecting, cultivating the soil, refining it, forming it into shapes and baking the pots. I visited the Dragon Kiln where pots went through the same kilning process of the Ming Dynasty. After that I collected purple-sand pots of the Ming and Ching Dynasties from Mainland China, Japan and Singapore. Meanwhile I won the bids of important Chinese antique pots from the two major international auction houses, Christie’s and Sotheby’s. To date I have collected pots made by Imperial kilns with different glaze colors, and styles etc., from Sung, Yuan, Ming and Ching Dynasties. These are all part of Su’s Barony. I am very proud that some of my antique Chinese pots were exhibited at the Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. for three and a half months in 2005. This exhibition was the first personal collection of Chinese antique pots to be exhibited at an American national museum. I received the sad and startling news that on the day before the opening of the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition in Japan in early February Mr. Kato Saburo died. This terrible news made my heart ache, the treasure who throughout his life gave all his heart and abilities to the bonsai arts. His death is not only a great loss for bonsai in Japan but also a great loss for the bonsai world. I am very sad that he is gone and sincerely pray for his peace in heaven. I. Chi Su, BCI President BCI is recognized as a 501.c.3 non-profit organization by the IRS. This means that donations above membership dues are likely to be deductible for USA taxpayer donors. This President's Message appears in the 2nd Quarterly 2008 issue of BONSAI MAGAZINE & STONE APPRECIATION, the official publication of Bonsai Clubs International.  Email to: BCI Web Master  Email to: BCI Business Office