Chinese brush painting developed over a period of more than six thousand years.
Figure Painting developed beyond religious themes during the Song Dynasty (960 – 1127 AD), and landscape painting was established by the 4th century.
Another style is flower-and-bird painting, which became independent of other Chinese brush art around the 9th century, gradually developed into two different styles. Asia Art.net
One famous 20th century Chinese brush-painting artist was Chen Zhifo (1895 – 1963).
Chen was born into an educated family. At 23, he went to Japan to learn patterns that later influenced his painting style.
Chen would become a renowned painter in the early 20th century.
His artistic career started in design, patterns and other arts. When he started Gongbi style flower-and-bird painting, he was almost 40, and he revived the declining tradition of Gongbi.
When Chen started painting, he usually sketched his subjects then went through many drafts modifying them before applying colors as he focused on the design of branches, leaves and birds to portray his subjects.
_______________
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.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
Compelling historical evidence suggests that China was visited by UFOs thousands of years ago and the visits continue to this day.
Open Minds says, “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many fascinating accounts of flying machines, unexplained celestial observations and close encounters with strange beings can be found quite extensively in historical and literary works from China.”
For instance, ancient Chinese texts tell of long-lived rulers from the heavens, who flew in “fire-breathing dragons,” and I wrote about descriptions from Chinese history that sounded like UFOs in God, Ancient Astronauts and China’s Yellow Emperor.
A partner of the Huffington Post also reported UFO sightings in China, “four lantern-like objects forming a diamond shape … hovered over the city’s Shaping Park for over an hour … flights were diverted in Hangzhou, also in eastern China, after a mysterious object was seen hovering in the sky.”
In addition, in Tibet there is a book called the Kantyua, which means “the translated word of Buddha”. It tells of flying “pearls in the sky” and of transparent spheres carrying gods to visit man. Source:NetScientia.com
There’s also “The Chinese Roswell” by Hartwig Hausdorf, an author who spent years in China uncovering tell-tale traces of an alien mind which may have passed that way millennia ago.
Conservative state-run newspapers and television media often report UFO sightings, and China has a bimonthly UFO magazine devoted to UFO research, The Journal of UFO Research.
_______________
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.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
In 2008, after checking into our Guilin hotel in Southeast China near Vietnam, we hired a taxi and visited Reed Flute Cave (Ludi Cave), which is in Northwest Guilin.
Photo by Lloyd Lofthouse
Reed Flute Cave was named during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD) due to reeds (Ludi Cao) growing near the cave’s entrance, which are still used to make flutes.
Photo by Lloyd Lofthouse
There are historical stone ink inscriptions inside the cave dated to 792 AD.
Lucky Turtle Photo taken by Lloyd Lofthouse
Millions have walked these paved pathways. Reed Flute Cave has been an attraction for over a thousand years, and the modern tour lasts about an hour.
Photo by Lloyd Lofthouse
During Times of war, the local people would hide in the cave. One grotto, the Crystal Palace of the Dragon King, could hold a thousand people.
Photo by Lloyd Lofthouse
Crown Cave was the second underground attraction, but it was late and the next day we were on our way to the Li River.
_______________
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.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
It’s arguable that the history of democracy in Hong Kong is so short, it never existed.
China never willingly leased Hong Kong to the British Empire in 1842. Instead, China lost Hong Kong during the Opium Wars, and later leased adjacent terrorists to the British under duress when, in 1860, at the end of the Second Opium War, the UK gained a perpetual lease over the Kowloon Peninsula, which is the mainland Chinese area just across the strait from Hong Kong Island. This agreement was part of the Convention of Beijing that ended that conflict
In 1898, the British and Chinese governments signed the Second Convention of Peking, which included a 99-year lease agreement for the islands surrounding Hong Kong, called the “New Territories.”
On December 19, 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which Britain agreed to return not only the New Territories but also Kowloon and Hong Kong itself when the lease term expired on July 1, 1997. China promised to implement a “One Country, Two Systems” regime, under which for fifty years Hong Kong citizens could continue to practice capitalism and political freedoms forbidden on the mainland.
However, for almost all of its history under British rule, executive power in Hong Kong has been concentrated in the hands of the colony governor, a position appointed by the British crown without any democratic input from Hong Kong citizens. The introduction of elected representatives determined by local elections, even limited to the role of “advisory councils,” did not begin until after the 1984 agreements by the British to hand Hong Kong over to China.
In conclusion, democracy in Hong Kong did not exist under British rule, but the British felt it would be acceptable once Hong Kong was returned to China.
But that history hasn’t stopped media critics in the United States from bashing China for the recent student-led unrest in Hong Kong that has been dubbed the “Umbrella Revolution”.
Now, I want to return to the title of this post. It should have said: “The non-existent History of Democracy in Hong Kong”, because Hong Kong has never been a democracy.
Is it possible that the so-called Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong is a deliberate diversion from another truth?
Critics in the United States should be aware of the long history of America’s support for brutal dictators and authoritarian governments, before claiming that the United States supports democracy anywhere.
The previous video is a bit out of date but it still supports the idea that we should never accept what anyone says or claims. Instead, we should pay attention to what they have done and what they are still doing, and the United States has the biggest private-sector weapons industry in the world.
In addition, Global Issues reports: “Heavy militarization of a region increases the risk of oppression on local people. Consequently reactions and uprisings from those oppressed may also be violent. The Middle East is a current example, while Latin America is an example from previous decades, where in both cases, democracies or popular regimes have (or had) been overthrown with foreign assistance, and replaced with corrupt dictators or monarchs. Oppression (often violent) and authoritarianism rule has resulted. Sometimes this also itself results in terrorist reactions that lash out at other innocent people.”
_______________
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.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
China is the oldest, continuous civilization on earth. Ancient records date back to about 2500 B.C. and coincides with the Biblical timeline, which shows that the great flood took place around 2344 B.C. Bible Study – Flood
Ancient Chinese myth has their first king, Fu-hi or Fohi (Chinese Noah) making his appearance on the Mountain of Chin surrounded by a rainbow after the world had been covered with water. Myth says this Chinese Noah also sacrificed animals to God.
According to Silvia Videler, the Miao tribe of Southwest China has a similar myth. The Miao think God destroyed the world by flood because of the wickedness of man. The Miao myth also says Nuah (Noah) had three sons: Lo Han (Ham), Lo Shen (Shem), and Jah-hu (Japheth).
“ShangDi, the Creator-God of the Chinese, surely appears to be one and the same as the Creator-God of the Hebrews.” Answer in Genesis
“One of the earliest accounts of the Border Sacrifice is found in the Shu Jing (Book of History), compiled by Confucius (551 to 479 B.C.), where it is recorded that Emperor Shun (2256 to 2205 B.C.) sacrificed to ShangDi.” Answer in Genesis
ShangDi is the High God of the ancient Chinese. He was worshiped as the Creator God for thousands of years. ShangDi was known as the Heavenly Ruler and the Chinese emperors were known as the Sons of Heaven. No other god was higher or more powerful.
Evidence says that the ancient Chinese understood the nature of God as the ancient Hebrews did after Abraham (1812 B.C. to 1637 B.C.), who is considered the father of the Jews (about 3,000 years old), Christians (about 2,000 years old) and Muslims (about 1,400 years old).
While the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans worshiped many gods, the Chinese worshiped one God above all others, ShangDi. If true, that would mean the Chinese might have believed in God longer than the Jews, Christians or Muslims.
In fact, it appears that the Chinese believed in God (ShangDi) without an organized religion for more than four thousand years.
_______________
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.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
iLook China 