One of the symbols of Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan. 28 this year, is the narcissus plant, intricately grown to form symbols of luck and good fortune.
“There’s an old story involving a magic orb in a swirl of smoke,” said Cyrus Won, 64. “You can sometimes see statues of dragons holding a ball in its claws. The ball of narcissus represents the orb, and the leaves are the smoke or dragon fur.”
Left to grow on its own, a narcissus bulb will send out tall stalks topped with delicate white-and-yellow flowers and upright leaves like blades of grass. The intricate multistep process of carving and training a bulb over a month as it blooms can create a beautiful, though ephemeral, swirl of blossoms and leaves.
After years of taking, and then teaching, classes on how to carve narcissus, Won wrote a new guidebook detailing each step in the process, illustrated by his photographs.
“I need to recognize Gilman Hu and the late George Zane, who started the revival of narcissus carving in Hawaii,” Won said. “George lived near my house and shared tips with me. I think he would have gotten a kick out of seeing it.”
Won has taught small classes of up to 10 people once a year in a biology lab at ‘Iolani School.
“We’d meet one evening for four consecutive weeks before Chinese New Year, so we’d go from beginning carving to bloom,” he said.
Many of his students would repeat the class each year just for the camaraderie that develops when people work side by side on difficult endeavors.
Won graduated from ‘Iolani in 1970, went on to earn a degree in art from Yale University and came home to teach at his alma mater.
“I semi-retired from ‘Iolani after 38 years, about half of them teaching art in the lower school, where I learned to explain things carefully,” he said.
The book is written in a straightforward, descriptive tone, almost as though the reader were sitting in class listening to a patient master teacher.
“Resist the temptation to open the pouches manually,” the text says. “But once the buds break out on their own, you can carefully peel back dried pouch skin with tweezers after a day or two.”
Yes, the process is that delicate.
The self-published book is called “Clyde’s Guide to Carving the Crab Claw Narcissus.” A longtime friend mistakenly thought the author’s name was Clyde and, though she eventually figured out her error, persisted in calling him Clyde as a joke.
“I used Clyde because it rhymes with ‘guide,’ and ‘Clyde’s Guide’ is easier to remember than the full title,” Won said.
“If I ever write another how-to book, I can use ‘Clyde’s Guide’ again, and people will know what to expect.”
The book includes an afterword that speaks to the “why” of taking on such a difficult challenge:
“If you carve bulbs long enough, you will experience setbacks and frustrations along with joy and satisfaction,” Won writes. “Nonetheless, persisting through these setbacks can develop: more patience, flexibility when you encounter the unexpected, a greater appreciation for small, fleeting pleasures … and acceptance of things you can’t control.”
———
“Clyde’s Guide to Carving the Crab Claw Narcissus” is available for $20 at the Foster Botanical Garden gift shop, 180 N. Vineyard Blvd. View examples of carved narcissus at an exhibit Jan. 17-28 at Bank of Hawaii’s Chinatown Branch, 101 N. King St.
