Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (1998)

Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief explores the world of orchid obsession through the story of John Laroche, an eccentric orchid hunter caught stealing rare ghost orchids from a Florida swamp. Through Laroche’s passion and the broader culture of orchid collectors, Orlean uncovers how orchids have long been objects of human desire, status, and fixation. She blends botanical history, personal narrative, and investigative journalism to show how orchids evoke emotions that often border on obsession.

This exploration is relevant to my research, which considers how Phalaenopsis orchids in Taiwan are not only plants but cultural artifacts shaped by colonialism, commerce, and visual representation. Orlean writes that "orchids seem to drive people crazy" (Orlean, 1998, p.15), framing the orchid as a symbol onto which people project longing, control, and identity. Similarly, Phalaenopsis in Taiwan have been subject to systems of classification, trade, and aesthetic display that reveal much about Taiwan’s colonial past and postcolonial identity.

Orlean’s detailed attention to place, particularly the ecological complexity of Florida swamps, also resonates with my interest in landscape and spatial narrative. In my work, Taiwan’s orchid farms and mountainous regions are not merely scenic backdrops but sites of layered history and meaning. Like the swamp in Orlean’s story, these spaces are both productive and contested as sites where nature, power, and cultural memory converge.

Furthermore, the book touches on questions of legality and ethics in plant collection. The blurred boundary between scientific exploration and exploitation is mirrored in Taiwan’s history, where orchids were collected, classified, and exported as part of imperial botanical projects. My research seeks to reflect critically on this legacy by asking what it means to visualize orchid data today in ways that resist these extractive histories.

Ultimately, Orlean’s book helps frame the orchid not just as a plant but as a cultural lens. Her storytelling reveals the emotional and historical depths beneath botanical beauty. In my project, I draw on this approach to question how we look at orchids, what is made visible, what is hidden, and how these acts of looking relate to broader histories of power, representation, and care.