{"id":944,"date":"2023-02-08T09:22:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T09:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/?p=944"},"modified":"2023-02-08T09:22:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T09:22:03","slug":"orchid-diplomacy-in-singapores-botanic-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/2023\/02\/orchid-diplomacy-in-singapores-botanic-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchid Diplomacy in Singapore\u2019s Botanic Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Holttum stated, \u2018a botanic garden is essentially a museum of living plants\u2019.1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Its position as a museum is a result of the garden\u2019s double function; it is a place where plants can be studied by experts for science and a place where exhibits occur for the education and recreation of non-experts. Museums are also seen as having a political function and traditionally, the political function of botanic gardens originates from the garden\u2019s position as a colonial construction. However, as this blog post will explore, in the aftermath of World War II and on the advent of Singapore\u2019s independence, the Singapore Botanic Gardens took on a further political dimension as the garden\u2019s award-winning orchids stemmed the beginning of \u2018orchid diplomacy\u2019. The prestigious reputation of orchids grown in the Singapore Botanic Gardens allowed the plant to provide a visible, unique symbol of nations\u2019 friendship that was and still is today used as a tool of diplomacy.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Holttum, who was took on the position as Director of the Gardens from 1925, is credited with the popularization of the technique of orchid hybridisation that facilitated the orchid becoming prestigious.3<\/a><\/sup> However, itwas the international flower shows and exhibitions that placed Singapore\u2019s orchids on the world map. Timothy Bernard explains that when Tan Chay Yan\u2019s hybrid orchid the Vanda won the highest honour in the horticultural world at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1954 it placed \u2018Singapore as a powerhouse on the world map of orchid cultivation.\u20194<\/a><\/sup> The presence of the orchids within international diplomacy soon became national interest with the Sunday Standard<\/em> reporting that Queen Elizabeth was presented with a bouquet of orchids flown from Singapore to London cultivated at the Botanic Gardens in Singapore.5<\/a><\/sup>The gifting of them to one of the most important diplomatic figures of the time, marked by the Queen\u2019s position as Head of the British Empire that ruled over Singapore, evidences how the garden\u2019s orchids had begun to be recognized as an important symbol for the nation within international diplomatic circles. The New Nation<\/em> also reported how Singapore\u2019s leaders were \u2018saying it with orchids\u2019 when welcoming New Zealand\u2019s governmental visitors on their visit to the botanical gardens.6<\/a><\/sup> Again, this exemplifies the plant being used as an offering of friendship within international politics. Alongside orchids being given to important foreign dignitaries, in 1956 following the nation\u2019s independence, Singapore\u2019s Botanic Gardens began the \u201cVIP Orchid Naming\u201d Program at the Gardens. This was an official government practice that named orchids for visiting dignitaries and celebrities such as Michael Jackson.7<\/a><\/sup><\/a>The timing of this program is also significant it began in the same year Singapore received independence, as Bernard argues the program thus exemplifies an effort from Singapore to \u2018enter complex, scientific, economic and diplomatic networks\u2019 that were not controlled or overlooked by their previous colonial rulers.8<\/a><\/sup><\/a>\u00a0The focus on orchids as a symbol that embodied honour and prestige not only in the Gardens but internationally continued into the late 20th<\/sup> century. In 1990, in an interview with The Strait Times<\/em>, the Chief Executive Director of the new board at the Botanic Gardens, Dr Tan, emphasised that an \u2018immediate goal was to get the Orchid Garden at the Botanic Gardens going\u2019.9<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The directors believed that this achievement would turn the botanic garden into a \u2018national asset\u2019.8<\/a><\/sup>This reinforces how still forty years later, the orchids were an emblem that added an additional political function into the Garden, one that impacted within national and international realms.<\/p>\n

This blog post\u2019s investigation using newspaper reports and Bernard\u2019s in-depth evaluation of Singapore\u2019s Botanic Gardens reveals how the Garden\u2019s orchids became a symbol of friendship, prestige and honour that was recognized and respected internationally from the 1950s until the present-day. This exemplifies how the space and objects within the Garden took on many functions and how over time different functions were prioritised. If we look beyond the Garden\u2019s traditional definition as an institution of science and consider the space as a \u2018living museum\u2019 it helps to discover and explain these differing functions. This specific case of orchid diplomacy suggests that a further investigation of the Singapore Botanic Gardens or other botanic gardens could reveal other examples of the space being used for purposes outside of the gardens traditional scientific role which suggests that it potentially providing an interesting space for a long-essay investigation.<\/p>\n

  1. R. E. Holttum, \u201cThe Historical Significance of Botanic Gardens in S.E. Asia,\u201d\u00a0TAXON<\/em>\u00a019, no. 5 (1970): pp. 707-714, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/1219283, 707. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. Timothy P. Barnard,\u00a0Nature’s Colony Empire, Nation and Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens<\/em>\u00a0(Singapore: NUS Press, 2016), 131. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Ibid., 127. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. Ibid., 129. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  5. \u201cMalayan Orchids For The Queen,\u201d\u00a0Sunday Standard<\/em>, May 27, 1951, 3. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  6. \u201cSaying It with Orchids,\u201d\u00a0New Nation<\/em>, 1973, 3. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  7. Barnard, Nature\u2019s Colony, 132. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  8. Ibid. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  9. \u201cTurning National Parks into ‘Global Asset’,\u201d\u00a0Strait Times<\/em>, June 9, 1990, 8. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Richard Holttum stated, \u2018a botanic garden is essentially a museum of living plants\u2019.1\u00a0Its position as a museum is a result of the garden\u2019s double function; it is a place where plants can be studied by experts for science and a place where exhibits occur for the education and recreation of non-experts. Museums are also seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spatialhistory.net\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}