“Bamboo combines upright integrity with accommodating flexibility. When the storm comes, it bends with the wind. When the storm ceases, it resumes its upright position. Its capacity to bend, and still maintain its true and original nature through adverse circumstances, is inspirational to a nation which has constantly suffered natural and man-made calamities.

Bamboo is admired for its self-propagation and simple life cycle; it is ubiquitous to China and needs little care to grow and flourish. It is used in every phase of Chinese living; the Chinese cannot live one day without touching bamboo. It produces neither flower nor fruit. This, to the artist, represents the spirit of purity. Cheng Pan-ch'iao frequently compared himself to the bamboo. "I will not grow flowers, so that I avoid tempting the bees and butterflies to disturb me," he wrote.

The artist finds philosophical meaning in the bamboo trunk. Its sections are methodically and cleanly arranged, its surface smooth and body slender. All of these qualities indicate a sense of being well-kept, a spirit of self cultivation. The hollow trunk symbolizes a spirit of humility. Artist Lin Yung commented: "Bamboo, who understands humility by emptying his heart, is my teacher." The bamboo branches grow from each section of the trunk in rotation. The young branches at the top will not grow at the same angle as the older branches below. The artist perceives this as the spirit of the young respecting the old by reserving space to allow sunlight for its elders. When the young shoots emerge from the roots, they are protected under the shade of the older bamboo.

The spirit of bamboo, as recognized by the Chinese, is summarized appropriately by Lee Ch'ien, the gentry painter under Yuan (1271-1368 A.D):

Bamboo as a subject...when spread, reflects the order of the old and young. As a group, it contains the affections of the father and son. When it is thick, it does not result in confusion. When it is thin, its does not show inadequacy. It symbolizes integrity, humility, simplicity, and tranquility. It represents the wonder of nature's mystery and adjoins the soul of nature's spirit. It is the equivalent of a gentleman with perfect virtues.

When I was a kid, my best friend and I used to explore an area of land behind the Santa Ana River Bed. It was an entire field of giant bamboo. My friend Jeff and I called it "Bamboo Forest." The tall bamboo curved over to form a complex series of tunnels. We would run through the tunnels pretending we were spies on a secret mission. We would bounce off the bamboo tunnel walls, hang like monkeys off of curving bamboo trunks, and bang on larger trunks to make noises like drumming.

We know that bamboo is strong and that its strength comes from its flexibility. In fact bamboo is even stronger than steel and can produce structures that are much more likely to survive an earthquake. Perhaps we should give Superman a new nickname. Then again "The Man of Bamboo" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "The Man of Steel." There is quite a profound life lesson embodied in the spirit of bamboo. It is important to ponder the meaning of true strength and realize that often our ability to be flexible while still maintaining our internal integrity is often the true measure of our strength. Rigidity is often adopted in an attempt to display the appearance of strength when inside we are actually weak. I know that by studying and painting bamboo we may learn to develop this inner strength that produces the spiritual fruit of flexibility.

• Calfee Design, a company in California makes custom, racing quality bicycle frames out of bamboo


• Thomas Edison's first successful incandescent lamp (light bulb) used a filament made of carbonized bamboo. It was patented in 1880. This light bulb still burns today in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.


• Thomas Edison also used bamboo as rebar for the reinforcement of his swimming pool. To this day, the pool has never leaked.


• Alexander Graham Bell used bamboo for the first phonograph needle.


• Bamboo survived the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and provided the first re-greening after the blast in 1945.


• With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (withstands up to 52,000 pounds of pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength ratio surpassing that of graphite, bamboo is the strongest growing woody plant on earth.


• There is a suspension bridge in China 250 yards long, 9 feet wide that rests entirely on bamboo cables fastened over the water. It doesn't have a single nail or piece of iron in it. Used in ladders, scaffolding and construction, bamboo is twice as stable as oak, walnut, and teak.


• Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on this planet and provides the best canopy for the greening of degraded lands. (Some species of Bamboo grow as much as 4 feet a day). Its stands release 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of trees. Bamboo can also lower light intensity and protect against ultraviolet rays.


• Bamboo has thousands of uses including airplane "skins," aphrodisiacs, blinds, brushes, crafts, desalination filters, diesel fuel, fly-fishing poles, flooring, food, furniture, medicine, musical instruments, ornaments, paper, rope, scaffolding, umbrellas, walking sticks, wind chimes and many, many, more.


• Bamboo is harvested and replenished with no impact to the environment. It can be selectively harvested annually and is capable of complete regeneration without need to replant.


• Bamboo is an enduring natural resource and provides income, food, and housing to over 2.2 billion people worldwide.