At the age of 24, with his confidence in beauty and carrying a loan, Alife Lin founded CNFlower with his partner. He does not follow any school of thought, does not emphasize on the uniqueness and costliness of the flower materials, and bends down and lowers his head to find out the stories of locally sourced materials from nature at the creation sites all over the world.

He takes heaven and earth as his teachers and observes the gestures of plants in nature for creation. Over the past 22 years, Alife Lin and the CNFlower team have created unique landscapes for boutique or hotel brands such as HERMES, LV, Cartier, AMAN, ParkHyatt, W Hotel, and ALILA, etc., based on the "native aesthetics".　

Although he is already a master florist in Asia, few people know that Alife Lin was born in a grocery store, did not receive a formal education in aesthetics, and taught himself by delivering flowers to his younger brother. This book includes 80 representative works of Alife Lin, and 24 essays to share his unique creative concepts and life stories.

[Alife Lin's Aesthetics: Telling Stories with Flower Materials]
The more we can interpret the weight of local materials, the more we can connect with global aesthetics.
The focus of choosing the main character is not whether the material itself is beautiful or not,
Rather, it is about whether or not the creator can tell a story with the flower material.
Over the past 22 years, he has realized the "philosophy of beauty" from nature little by little, and have amazed the world:

★Created an "ink painting" with olive trees, green oak, kudzu, and phalaenopsis orchids at a world heritage site in Spain.
★Designed a totem using the 200-million-year-old double fan fern, a living fossil in Taiwan's botanical world.
★Created a living "Karst Garden" in Yangshuo using locally available castor, plantain, lotus, and bamboo.

[Frameless Aesthetics, you can do this too ......]
＊The versatility of the three elements-
In every work, there must be a "protagonist," a "supporting actor," and a "special guest," and installations with as little as three materials or as many as dozens of materials are arranged and combined accordingly. The use of color to create a sense of conflict gives the work a distinctive flavor.

＊Finding the finishing touch to enhance the flavor-
There is no plant in the world that has to be the protagonist or can only play a supporting role, the star can also be the protagonist, the use of a strong sense of presence, but also different from the traditional floral materials used in floral art, you can play a "flavor" effect for the work, such as pumpkin.

＊Grounded style development-
From a flower delivery boy, to an assistant, to a florist, to a business owner…Style is formed little by little along the journey of life. A florist's "groundedness" means that he or she is in touch with the earth, and with intuition about the land and plants, he or she can reproduce the beauty of nature in buildings. The viewer will surely understand the passion and appreciation for space, life, and nature that he or she puts into the work.

＊[Aesthetic Relativity] Fantastic and Elegant Dialogue: Alife Lin vs. Contemporary Life Aesthetes
‧The Capriciousness and Reality of Beauty (＋Life Aesthetician Ye Yilan)
‧The More Local, the More Global (+Michelin Chef Jiang Zhencheng)
‧Authenticity is Competitiveness (+Restorer of Museum Paintings, Cai Shunren)

Features of the book

Beauty, can be self-taught

He had no formal education in aesthetics, had never studied under a master,
CNFlower × HERMES／LV／Cartier／AMAN／Park Hyatt／W Hotel／ALILA
Alife Lin
Analysis of 80+ Works of Alife Lin's Original Aesthetics

The son of a grocery store and a flower giver, twice invited to speak at TED.
Asia's top flower artist, first time in 22 years to publicize the "self-learning method of beauty".

Alife Lin

Born in 1973, he is well known for his floral works at the Fuchun Mountain Resort in Hangzhou and has won many international awards for space design. He is the founder and director of CNFlower.
His floral creations are inspired by the observation of the environment, presenting the essential beauty of natural materials, forming a very natural style, minimalist, fresh and elegant. His unique aesthetic thinking has made him known as the "New Oriental Floral Aesthetics Master", and his works have been featured in renowned international hotels such as Park Hyatt Vietnam, Hangzhou Fucun Mountain Residence, Hangzhou Aman Fayun, Yangshuo Sugar Shack Alila, etc., and he has also been the royal wedding florist for a number of renowned corporations and international superstars.
He once built a Shiodome mountain hut which is the predecessor of the famous private restaurant "Food and Nourishment Mountain House". And together with his wife, photographer Ivy Chen, he built the "Counting Trees - Private Residence" in the Jiufen mountainous area, where he enjoys the mountain life from time to time. He now lives in Taipei and spends most of his time traveling around the world for work. He has published the book "Floral Masters to Your Home: Alife Li's Floral Taste, 65 Hotel-Level Proposals from Entrance, Guest Dining Room, Workspace, and Private Bedroom".

2015 TED x Taipei Talk - "Into the Land and Nature to See the True Beauty of Taiwan"
2016 TED x Shanghai Talk - "The Power of Flowers"

PART I The Path to Self-Taught Aesthetics
Grocery Store Son
The Flower Deliverer
Convince Me with Beauty
Dream Bigger
From Minimalist to Colorful
Where Are the Flowers? They're Everywhere!
The Consensus of Beauty
The Price of Innovation Two Million Dollar Gains
When Opportunity Knocks
Mastering Nature
My Three Elements of Floral Art
Where to Find the main character?
Where to Find inspiration?
Telling Stories with Flowers
Sense of Time
Perspectives on Flowers
Big and Small
A Constrained View of Aesthetics
What is the New East?
Taking Things in their place
Beautiful Relationships
Don't Be Afraid of Change
Postscript

PART II [Aesthetic Relativity
Alife Lin vs. Ye Yilan - A capricious pursuit of beauty and a full understanding of reality.
Alife Lin vs. Jiang Zhencheng - How to create a discourse that explains life?
Alife Lin vs. Cai Shunren - Imitation is not our competitiveness, truth is!