Chinese students place ‘emergency love’ roses with romantic notes attached all over university campus to celebrate youth
- The roses were attached to trees, walls and signs around the campus with a note attached
- The idea was thought of by three students at the Henan University of Technology to show the fun of youth and love
On April 9, on a university campus in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, central China, over 100 rose stalks appeared all over the campus, on the trunks of large trees, on the walls of the lakeside corridor, and on signs by the lake warning people not to feed ducks.
“For emergency use in case of love; it is unavoidable to fall into the vulgar, but the desire for romance will last until death,” read a note attached to the flowers.
Tian Jiaming, a 19-year-old second-year student at Henan University of Technology, and two of his classmates engineered the floral takeover to show the fun of youth and the pursuit of romance.
“We ordered the flowers at noon, picked them up at 3pm, trimmed and prepped them for over an hour, and then headed out around 8pm to place them in various locations around campus,” Tian told the South China Morning Post.
Tian had the idea in his head for a long time before he put it into action.
“During my winter break, I saw in a video that such ‘emergency roses’ were placed in the streets of France, with the phrase ‘in case of love, emergency use’ on it,” Tian said. “The note made an indelible impression on me, and I thought it was the most romantic thing I’d ever seen.”
After nearly three hours of leaving the roses around campus, Tian and his friends hid at a location where they had placed many flowers and secretly observed the students’ reactions.
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“I was happy to see that almost everyone stopped to look, and some of them picked up the flowers,” Tian said.
Tian and his classmates have been confined to campus for most the time since winter break ended and school began in February due to Covid-19 prevention and control.
“I wanted to cheer up my fellow students by letting them see the flowers when they came out for a walk because they were in a really depressed mood due to the control,” Tian explained.
Tian added that his actions were also intended to spread the concept of romance and encourage students to pursue love courageously.
“Even if only one couple got together because of our roses, I believe what we did was meaningful,” Tian said.
He recalled telling one of his fellow students about the plan the day before, but his response was that “the roses will wilt if they are stuck to the trees.”
“I told him, ‘roses wilt and people fall into the vulgar, which is unavoidable, but romance will last’,” Tian said.
Across China’s social media platforms, many people praised Tian’s actions.
“I thought the idea of placing roses for emergency use was more romantic than the roses themselves,” one person said.
“I was super happy when my roommate picked one of the flowers for me,” said another.
