There are a lot of different types of camellia, and many of the main varieties originated in Yunnan. My mother was Yunnanese, and when I was a boy growing up in the small town of Yuli in Hualien County, Taiwan, every year, in the period immediately after Chinese New Year, we would go up into the hills to view the camellias in bloom. Later on, when I was studying at Chinese Culture University, I found that the Hua-kang district of the Yangmingshan hills, where the University was located, was covered with camellias. When my mother passed away in February 1994 (a particularly cold year), I started painting camellias for the first time.

After I moved back to Hualien in 2006, for various reasons I gradually collected over a hundred camellia plants.

This particularly variety of camellia is called “Valentine’s Day.” It originated in Yunnan, and it flowers in February each year, immediately after Valentine’s Day. With its large blossoms and big leaves, I was particularly fond of this plant, and painted this picture in order to have a record of it.

Tzu-chi Yeh, Hualien