Chinese Cloisonné Vases

March 14, 2010

On our way back from the Great Wall at Mutianyu, we stopped at a factory and showroom where we learned about the manufacturing techniques for Cloisonné brass vases. First, we went on a tour where we watched men and women creating vases. Once the tour was over, we went into the showroom.

The vases I bought (after negotiating a price) are yellow with a blue trim.  One has a blue dragon on it, the second a phoenix beside a chariot, and the third running horses. Each one is about the size of my hand.

The cloisonné process is enamel on copper craftwork. It first appeared in Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and continued during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Cloisonné vases are crafted by using a copper porcelain process. The vase is made from copper with brass wires soldered to the body. Then a porcelain glaze is applied to cells between the brass wires.

After a series of complex procedures, such as burning, burnishing and gilding, the cloisonné vase is done.

Chinese name: 景泰蓝（jǐng tài lán)

If you are interested in the arts, discover Chinese Yu Opera

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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4 Comments | China, Chinese arts and music, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, education, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Mao Weitao and Yue Opera

March 14, 2010

Mao Weitao is considered a living treasure in China. She imitates men in the opera roles she plays—a reversal from Imperial China when women were not allowed on stage so men played female roles.

Mao Weitao is on the left

I was introduced to Yue Opera in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province about a decade ago. Mao Weitao and her husband have their own theater company near the shores of the famous Westlake. My wife translated while I watched the live-opera performance in fascination.

The costumes were lavish and the acting and opera was dramatic with a backdrop of classical Chinese music.

The challenge today is to keep this form of Chinese opera alive. The audience for opera is shrinking dramatically in China while remaining popular with the older generation. Television, movies and the Internet are claiming the shorter attention spans of the younger people.

Mao Weitao, considered an innovative genius on stage, adapts and works to keep the art form alive. According to her husband, no two performances are exactly alike.

Discover The Orphan’s Life

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Chinese literature, Chinese women, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Tolerance to Infinity Guest Post by Bob Grant

March 13, 2010

Originally published at Speak Without Interruption on February 17, 2010 by Bob Grant — publisher/editor for Speak Without Interruption. Posted on iLook China, 3/13/10 at 08:00

(Note: There are more photos at the original site. The Nanjing Road photo here does not appear at Speak Without Interruption.)

Wherever people normally congregate in groups—shopping areas, elevators, subways, airports, city streets, and the like—there are a lot more people in China congregating in those same places.  Again, I can only use my own experiences – in these types of crowds in China – but I was amazed how tolerant people were of each other.  In some cases I was squeezed to the people next to me so closely that I could almost feel their hearts beating.  In these situations – personal space was at zero.  I was crammed into a subway once and could literally stand – without holding on to anything – because we were packed so close together (not that I really had anything to hold on to anyway).  The exit from this subway was orderly and people were polite to each other – and me.  At our stop, we had to ask people to move, which was difficult for them, but we got off with no problems or delays.

Nanjing Road, Shanghai - this is the normal crowd

 I am not certain the Chinese people have a choice living – and working – among that many other people.  However, I saw it as another attribute of China and its people.  As a “Westerner” I could have easily been accosted by anyone in these large crowds as most of the time I was the only non-Chinese among them.  But this never happened.  No one stared at me or otherwise acknowledged me as anything other than one of them.  Perhaps I am reading too much into these situations, but I will go with my feelings here and believe this is a nation of extremely tolerant individuals. 

 Places I went did not always have these types of crowds, but in the locations where large crowds congregated, I was always impressed by the politeness of my fellow “Crowdies”.  I can’t say the same for other crowds, in which I have found myself, in the US and other parts of the world.  I think China is unique in this area and its people have Tolerance to Infinity.

 Read China Trip 2008 at  http://wp.me/pN4pY-c

 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Pearl of China

March 12, 2010

“From the bestselling author of Red Azalea and Empress Orchid comes the powerful story of the friendship of a lifetime, based on the life of Pearl S. Buck.”

“In this ambitious new novel (Pearl of China), Anchee Min brings to life a courageous and passionate woman who is now hailed in China as a modern heroine. Like nothing before it, Pearl of China tells the story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, from the perspective of the people she loved and of the land she called home.” Source Bookbrowse

At Bookbrowse, thirty-five early, reader reviews rated Pearl of China an average 4.5/5 stars.

In the southern town of Chin-kiang, in the last days of the nineteenth century, two girls bump heads and become thick as thieves. Willow is the only child of a destitute local family. Pearl, the headstrong daughter of zealous Christian missionaries, will become Pearl S. Buck, Nobel Prize-winning writer and activist. Their friendship will be tested during decades of great tumult, by imprisonment and exile, bloody civil war and Mao’s repressive Communist regime.

Pearl S. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932, the Howells Medal in 1935, and the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.

Read International Women’s Day where Anchee Min was a guest speaker http://wp.me/pN4pY-ft

 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

International Women’s Day

March 12, 2010

March 8, marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Nations that officially honor women, range from China and Russia to Macedonia and Vietnam.

In Imperial China, women could not hold positions of power. They were considered “objects” to be sold into marriage or to serve men as concubines or prostitutes. However, while men ruled the world outside, women ruled the home. The head wife dictated who went where, how much money was spent on household needs, what education the children received, and ultimately the fate of the lives of the other wives and concubines beneath her.

When the Kuomintang ruled China, rural women were expected to stay home and care for the family, while women in the major cities were given a chance to have a formal education. When Mao came to power, he eliminated these differences between men and women. Afterwards, many women marched beside their fellow comrades in the same uniforms. They went to school and worked at jobs.

Today, Chinese women can be seen in all aspects of life. They are famous actors, accomplished musicians and skilled scientists. They are award-winning writers and politicians. Two successful Chinese women will be speaking at the Women in the World Summit  (starting the evening of March 12 to 14). The schedule of speakers and events shows that these two notable Chinese women will be speaking Saturday afternoon, March 13.

Wei Sun Christianson

Wei Sun Christianson, head of Morgan Stanley China manages all aspects of the firm’s China business. She has helped start many of the landmark privatizations critical to China’s economic progress.

Anchee Min

 Anchee Min is the author of the bestselling memoir Red Azalea, the story of her childhood in communist China. At age 17, Min was sent to a labor camp during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. In 1984, with help from a friend, Min went to America. At the time, she spoke no English, but within six months taught herself the language. Her next novel, Pearl of China, is a fictional account covering the 40 years Pearl S. Buck lived in China. The novel will be released in April by Bloomsbury.

Hillary Clinton will also appear. She said, the world “can’t solve problems of financial crisis, climate change, disease and poverty if half of the population is left behind.” The International Women’s Day doesn’t get much attention in the United States.

Discover China’s Modern Women

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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