China has always been a very strong Aquascaping nation in the past 10 years, their IAPLC average ranking were often below 50 - a remarkable achievement only few countries can match. However, although their IAPLC result is always fantastic, they enter their golden era in 2015: from 2015 to 2017, they managed to achieve such glorious results that not even the mighty Japanese can do so far, an average ranking of 6.6, 8.2 and 7.4 in that 3 years span! These 3 years results, are 3 best ever achievement in IAPLC history, no other country has ever achieved a sub-9 average ranking in the past 10 years! It is also worthy to mention that China has won the IAPLC Nations Challenge 4 times in the last 10 years, sharing the honor with Japan (also 4 times), with Hong Kong and Vietnam being the only 2 other nations that ever been crown World Champion as a nation in the last 10 years Nations Challenge history!
The main reason, if not the ONLY reason for the tremendous achievement of China in IAPLC Nations Challenge, is none other than their local aquascaping club: China Aquascape Association, or better known as CAA. The emergence of CAA is propeling CHINA from a strong aquascaping nation to a super powerhouse in the world of aquascaping! CAA as a team, is arguably one of the strongest aquascaping club today, the shear amount of talents in this group is frightening - CAA consists of a "general group" which has hundreds of members serving as a "talent farm", and a core group that has 23 core members, each capable of getting into the top27 or even top7 with a snap of their finger - yes, it is easy like that! Just to give everybody a perspective what this "23 core members" means (as 23 might not sound like a big number): CAU in Hong Kong currently have 2-3 core members that are still active in competition; Little Green Corner in Malaysia and Singapore have 5 core members combined;
Aquabase Layout Team from Brazil probably have 5-6 core members that can contribute to their nation's ranking; after many top scapers retiring from competition, the senior core members of Rocks and Roots France are maybe less than 6. If we add up all the so-called core members from these important aquascaping clubs in every country that can influence their respective Nations Challenge ranking, we are getting less than 20 core members combined, but in CAA alone, they have 23. Now that is the context we need to understand. Not forgetting, there are still a lot of raw talents in their farm system!
One fun facts: The CAA members has contributed more than 80% of top5 scapers from China in the last 5 years.
Aquascaping style of China is predominantly wood with occasional mountain/rock layouts. One might noticed that using stem plants or colorful plants are not something the top Chinese scapers do. Layouts from China are very often using mainly shade plants, especially various mosses, ferns or riccardia (mini pelia). Boldness, futuristic and sophisticated concept with high visual impact are common characteristics of Chinese aquascapes. We also notice that layouts from China placed a lot (or too much) of focus on hardscape arrangement and tend to overlook the importance of plants and long term maintainence issue. Many layouts, including some top ranking works, are looking rather "new" without going through passage of time.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The main strength of China in the Nations Challenge is quite similar with a few nations introduced before this: their local aquascaping club. In the case of China, as mentioned earlier, CAA's influence and contribution is incredibly huge! Without this club, China may still be a great aquascaping nations, but it will not achieve the same height.
The readily available layout materials (woods and rocks) is another huge advantage for the Chinese scapers, not only that they can get these materials in abundance, they are getting it at enviable prices too0, as China is one of the largest (or simply the largest) producer and exporter of the layout materials.
Their local ADA distributor, located in Beijing, is doing a marvelous job in introducing this hobby to the general public. They have one of the most complete and beautiful ADA showroom/NA gallery outside of Japan, introducing and influencing more Chinese people to this hobby!
Speaking about weakness, there isn't any obvious one but we do see a few "potential" threats to the aquascaping development in China.
Most of the top scapers from China, are directly or indirectly involved in aquascaping related businesses, this has diverted the attentions and energy of their top scapers from competitive scaping. The recent 2018 result is an indication of such scenario: many of their top scapers either submitted a "half-hearted" layouts due to lack of focus, or totally absense from the contest. If this situation continue or worsen, it will adversely affect the ranking of China as a nation.
The 2nd potential threat is the popularity of terrarium, paludarium and rain forest setup that is gaining ground in China. A lot of players, including some of their top scapers, are diverting their expertise away from aquascaping. The development of terrarium, paludarium and rain forest set up in China has given the Chinese more choices to be close to the "mother nature", in contrast to let say 5 years ago where aquascaping is still the main option when someone would like to have some green in their home.
Author: IAPLC Nations Challenge
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