Of more than 20,000 comments it collected, more than 60 percent chose peach flower, 16 percent voted lotus flower, 5 percent with bauhinia flower, 2 percent with bamboo flowers other opinions.

Dr. Le Quy Duc, from the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Development and Prof. Ngo Duc Thinh, former chief of the Institute of Culture, questioned that is it necessary to select the national flower when Vietnam has too many problems need to do as soon as possible.

Prof. Thinh said the selection of the national flower is very difficult and this task should need a long time to come to a final decision, because opinion polls and consensus of the people are needed. And what's more, each region has a flower attached to life and consciousness of the local people, so the selection of a typical flower, as a symbol of the nation, is very difficult and requires a lot of time.

Dr. Le Quy Duc said that the national flowers must be the one that is ingrained into the subconscious, blended into Vietnamese people’s soul and it must be the icon for all 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, the symbol of consensus and cohesion. The national flower may be not only one but several and it is up to the people.

Each region has a typical flower that is stuck with the people in that region, such as peach flower for the northerner, apricot flower for the southerner, bauhinia flower for the northeasterner. The urban people like lotus while the rural people prefer paddy flower… Therefore, to choose the National Flower, sociological surveys and referendums are necessary to ensure impartiality.

However, the biggest concern is it the right time for choosing the national flower? It is said that selecting the national flower can enrich the symbolic value of the national culture. However, to express the identity, the culture, the core soul of the nation through the national flower, it needs a lot of time to explore the feelings and aspirations of the people and this task should not be done impatiently.

Vietnamnet