Bonsai Society of Australia spotlights Chinese penjing at June meeting

At the Bonsai Society of Australia Inc.’s June meeting at West Pennant Hills Community Centre in Sydney, Allan Harding put Chinese penjing in front of members as more than a variation on a standard bonsai demo. The point was not just technique, but composition, mood and landscape storytelling, the things that make penjing read differently from a tidy display of wired branches and refined foliage pads.

Harding came to that role with long practice behind him. The society says he began learning bonsai about 20 years ago, then deepened his focus on Chinese penjing through three years of weekly classes that took him to an advanced level. His studies also included regular tours to China, and in 2015 he won first prize in the inaugural penjing competition at the Chinese Gardens of Friendship in Darling Harbour.

That experience matters because Harding’s work has been tied to some of the most visible penjing spaces in Sydney. The Chinese Garden of Friendship is a heritage-listed 1.03-hectare garden in Darling Harbour modeled on classic Ming-dynasty private gardens, and the society has noted Harding’s earlier role maintaining bonsai and penjing there. A 2019 club post also placed him in the Penjing Institute of Australia with Kingston Wang, and said he teaches at community colleges and bonsai clubs internationally.

The society has used those details to frame Harding as a bridge between local bonsai practice and a much wider penjing conversation. Its own note on the upcoming talk pointed members to the Penjing Australia Facebook group, which it describes as having more than 7,000 members in more than 100 countries. A 2024 club post said Harding is a key person for the page and has presented on the relationship between penjing and Australian native species, another sign that his perspective extends beyond imported formulas.

That broader reach fits the society itself. Founded in August 1965, the Bonsai Society of Australia says it publishes a monthly bonsai newsletter and provides educational and support services to the bonsai community. The June meeting made that mission visible in a practical way: by giving members a chance to compare penjing with the trees they already know, and to see how a neighboring art form can change the way a composition is built, read and remembered.