People learn about a country through it’s culture, media and symbols, and this is one of a series of books which takes classical Chinese ideas, forms and symbols and gives them a modern twist serving as a window into Chinese culture.

It’s a neat premise and works well, although it feels a little odd to begin with. This is not just a horticulture book, it’s as much an art book, travel book with some some history and poetry mixed in. It’s strange and foreign but also beautiful and absorbing, like China itself.

This is where this diminutive hardback book excels. It manages to bring an idea of familiarity to something very different and by using flowers, many of which we are familiar with in the UK, it shows us how they have inspired artists, poets, writers, philosophers and even warlords with their beauty, fragrance and tenacity.

Qian Zingjian is an artist from Singapore and his style is a vivid combination of classical traditions fused with a western approach to colour. Like all Chinese art these paintings and sketches are ethereal and beautiful, they aim to catch the essence of these flowers and plants and also tell something of their relationship with the seasons and environment they grow in.

All the flowers featured in the book have a full page colour painting with an accompanying text which explains their significance to Chinese culture, the sometimes important role they have played in art (think of the Chrysanthemum) and also the flowers development itself, from a horticultural view point.

This mixture of art, history and botany is very typically Chinese and shows how complex these paintings can be, but Qian’s easy on the eye style also allows the causal reader to pick up the book and be wafted away to the Yangtze River valley and watch the blossoms come into flower.

With China becoming a more important part of our lives in every way this ‘Discovering China’ series of books is an innovative cultural way of engaging the reader on many levels at once.  The writing is a little staid and proper too, which for me, only added to the enjoyment.

I learned a lot from this book, but in the gentlest way possible, it was like taking a walk in the garden of my old Chinese aunt and being shown how to look at the familiar in a whole new way.

Out now: £9.99
From the publishers here: 
Or from all good bookshops.