Things

Chinese
antiques s crafts s collectibles

RONALD G. KNAPP
photography by

5 65 5 - & MICHAEL FREEMAN

Household Furnishings 1
Things Chinese
antiques s crafts s collectibles

RONALD G. KNAPP
photography by MICHAEL FREEMAN

5 65 5 - & 1VCMJTIJOH
5PLZP


3VUMBOE
7FSNPOU


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Contents
Foreword 6

Household Furnishings 8
Armchairs 10
Bamboo Furniture 12
Cabinets 14
Canopy and Alcove Beds 18
Couchbeds 20
Lanterns 22
Miniature Landscapes 24
Pillows 26
Pottery Stools 28
Screens 30

Arts and Crafts 34

Scroll Paintings 36
Calligraphy Paraphernalia 40
Cigarette Posters 44
Embroidery 46
Carved Ivory 50
Jade Artifacts 52
Chinese Knotting 56
Lacquerware 58
Mao Memorabilia 60
Papercuts 64
Personal Possessions 66
Scissors 68
Cloth Shoes 70
Ethnic Minority Jewelry 72
Golden Lotus Shoes 74
Opium Pipes 76
Scholars' Rocks 78
Personal Seals 80 Games and
G dAAmusements
t 106
Silk Dresses 82 Bird Cages 108
Snuff Bottles 84 Cricket Cages 110
Kites 112
Eating and Drinking 86 Mahjong Sets 114
Musical Instruments 116
Chopsticks 88
Opera Masks 118
Mooncake Molds 90
Puppets 120
Tea Sets 92
Bamboo Steamers 96
Rice Pattern Chinaware 98 Religious Icons and
Wedding Baskets 100 Paraphernalia 122
Wine Bottles and Cups 102 A
Altar Tables 124
Woks 104 Eight Trigrams Plaques 126
E
Dragons 128
D
Buddhist Figurines 130
B
Scepters 132
S
Fengshui Compasses 134
Fe
Fortune Sticks 136
Fo
Funerary Objects 138
Fu
Guardian Lions 140
G
Joss Sticks 142
Jo

Bibliography and
B
Acknowledgments 144
 Foreword
With a civilization as old and cultures as diverse as China’s,
Chinese “things” are too numerous to be counted and too varied
to be easily sorted. Indeed, “things” as a concept provides such
a capacious and cumbersome umbrella that it shelters not only
physical objects but also thoughts, circumstances, objectives,
tasks, events, and actions. Both Chinese and Westerners have
long been challenged to investigate and catalog the myriad mate-
rial “things” that are quintessentially Chinese, some of which are
quite ordinary and others astonishingly uncommon.
In an attempt to illuminate many of these, James Dyer Ball
published Things Chinese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Con-
nected with China in 1892, the first book on China with such a
title. As foreigners craved increasing their knowledge of China,
Ball’s book grew from some four hundred pages when it was
first published to nearly eight hundred pages in its fifth edition
in 1925. While “neither a glossary or an encyclopedia,” Things
Chinese nonetheless spanned entries from Abacus to Zoology,
with “things” from every possible genre including the “curious
habits and customs” of the Chinese. A century later, two Chinese
authors, Du Feibao and Du Bao, compiled a shorter volume, also
called Things Chinese, with more than three hundred entries of
“cultural things” that they admit “can hardly cover the width and
depth of it.” China International Press has begun a series, Essen-
tially Chinese, with one title, Chinese Stuff, that offers “glimpses
of the Chinese way of thinking” via successful efforts to find
meaning and beauty in everyday “things” found in the house-
hold and workplace. Even the most seasoned resident in China
will find new “things” worth learning about in these books.
While the title of our book, Things Chinese, thus is not origi-
nal, the book is distinctive in how it approaches objects. As
readers peruse the book, they will discover some sixty entries
about objects that are fundamentally representative of Chinese
culture and encountered easily in homes, parks, and workplaces
throughout the country in one form or other. Fine examples of
most of the objects, moreover, are not mere collectibles but are
6 Things Chinese
OPPOSITE With carved wooden panels, polychrome
narrative scenes painted on porcelain tiles, and en-
shrouded with silk curtains and bedding, this ornate
canopy bed is a veritable room within a room.
also found in museum collections worldwide. Even the English
names of some objects—abacuses, fengshui compasses, golden
lotus shoes, mooncake molds, opium pipes, rice-pattern china-
ware, lacquerware, mahjong sets, silk dresses, tea sets, woks—
echo an inherent Chineseness that is understood throughout
the world. Others that seem universal at an initial glance of their
names—armchairs, bird cages, cabinets, chess sets, cloth shoes,
funerary objects, pillows, scissors, wine bottles—reverberate
with their unique Chinese character once one views their in-
imitable images. While some “things” are shared with Japanese,
Koreans, and/or Vietnamese—bamboo steamers, Buddhist figu-
rines, calligraphy paraphernalia, chopsticks, lanterns, miniature
landscapes, musical instruments, puppets, scholar’s rocks, scroll
paintings, seals, snuff bottles—it must not be forgotten that
these objects had their origins in China. Cigarette posters and
Mao memorabilia are, of course, twentieth-century phenomena
that arose out of the globalization of a foreign commodity and
the veneration of a home-grown leader. Only a single entry—
ethnic minority jewelry—hints at the rich material culture of the
fifty-five officially recognized national minorities that make up
some 9 percent of the country’s population and deserve separate
treatment in a book. Through cultural contact and assimilation,
most of the “things Chinese” portrayed in this book have been
incorporated in one way or another into the cultures of all who
live in China, whether the dominant Han or the ethnic minor-
ity nationalities. Indeed, it should not be forgotten that among
those who are classified as Han, their “things” often have pro-
nounced variations from region to region.
Unlike Ball’s Things Chinese, which included neither drawings
nor photographs, our Things Chinese features the masterful pho-
tography of Michael Freeman. The accompanying text presents
information about the historical roots and cultural significance
of each thing, including current scholarly research findings. A
comprehensive bibliography will lead interested readers to in-
depth, yet accessible, materials.
Foreword 7
 Household
Furnishings
Whether wealthy or poor, extravagant or austere, with sophisticated tastes or not,
Chinese households share common furnishings like beds, tables, chairs, stools,
and containers in which to store things. Many of these items, as the chapter that
follows reveals, are timeless in form. Some round-back hardwood chairs and
canopy beds are elegant and refined, while others appear similar in style but are
made of ordinary bamboo and planked willow wood and with only minimal
ornamentation. Even a village residence with a dirt floor and sparse layout strikingly
echoes the formal setting of a prosperous merchant’s home: a rectangular altar
table, a set of chairs alongside a square table, all arrayed in front of a central wall
on which is found a painting or print of a figure known and revered literally by
all Chinese. Lanterns, pillows, miniature landscapes, and screens are also common
objects found in all Chinese homes, even as they differ from one another in the
quality of materials and decorative adornment.

8 Things Chinese
Household Furnishings 9

ABOVE Set before a black-painted rattan wall covering is a pair of Ming
era horseshoe-back armchairs made of rosewood.
OPPOSITE LEFT Low, open-back huanghuali armchair with decorative
stretchers and frames.
OPPOSITE CENTER Folding huanghuali armchair with pierced carving on
the backrest.
OPPOSITE RIGHT Southern “official’s hat” armchair with carved backrest.
10
Armchairs
∘⇜ⰚFúshǒuyǐ
Although it is not widely known in the West, the Chinese, like the
Japanese, for much of their history had a mat culture, utilizing woven
natural fiber mats on the ground or slightly elevated platforms with a
woven pliable cane mat surface inside their buildings. Old paintings,
woodblock prints, and bas-relief rubbings of stones and bricks reveal
that Chinese generally sat cross-legged, kneeled, and reclined on mats
from ancient times until well into the Tang dynasty (618–907), but
by the tenth century the use of chairs and stools had became quite
common. The evolutionary passage to sitting upright with legs pen-
dant on chairs is neither clear nor was it linear. In fact, during earlier
centuries, there are records of simple folding chairs and functional
straight-back chairs being used, mere hiccups on the path to the
elegant armchairs of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the ornate
ones of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911).
Yoke-back and round-back chairs, among other graceful arm-
chair types renowned for their geometric simplicity, reached an apo-
gee of development during the Ming dynasty. During the last half of
the twentieth century, museums and collectors throughout the world
belatedly came to value these Chinese armchairs, which had in the
past been rather unappreciated objects of artisanal craftsmanship.
Widely treasured for the aesthetics of their form and proportions,
the woods selected, and the creative joinery that held them together,
armchairs, like tables, cabinets, and beds, in time became refined art
forms. The most esteemed examples of yoke-back and round-back
chairs are made of dense tropical hardwoods such as huanghuali and
zitan, which are both of the rosewood family, and hongmu, usually
called blackwood. Common people adopted variants of these styles
but had their chairs made of softwoods such as elm or willow with a
black lacquer coating. While many of the early forms of these arm-
chairs had supple woven cane seats, hard wooden panels eventually
replaced them. With both woven and solid seating forms, variations
in humidity led to expansion and contraction that was accommo-
dated well by the mitered, mortise-and-tenoned surrounding frames
that secured the cane or wood.
Yoke-back chairs are formal chairs, usually arranged in sets
and traditionally used in pairs for receiving a guest or set alone in a
scholar’s study alongside a table for calligraphy and painting. With a
tall back, often with a slightly S-shaped backsplat, straight legs, and
sinuous arms, as well as a smoothly curved yoke-like protruding crest
rail with upturned, rounded ends, this chair type is referred to by
Chinese as an “official’s hat” chair or guanmaoyi, since the ends of the
crest rail of the chair resemble the winged hats worn by Ming offi-
cials. The earliest examples of yoke-back chairs are all associated with
Buddhism, since they were considered monastic furniture and used
for meditation. Subsequently, such chairs came to serve as thrones for
emperors and deities, with usually a brocaded silk tapestry piece with
auspicious imagery placed over the back of the chair By the twelfth
century, yoke-back chairs had become quite common, as they still are.
Round-back chairs, which are variously called quanyi and yuan
yi, are always graceful structures with a continuous curve resem-
bling a horseshoe that rises in the rear. Usually three pieces of joined
wood are fashioned together to create the rounded, elevated arc and
downward sloping armrests, altogether a refined and fluid curvilinear
feature. Besides the broad S-shaped backsplat, which is often carved
with Chinese characters, two or three pairs of side posts are used
to support the arms. Although a round-back chair is not as easily
dressed as a yoke-back type, it was sometimes fitted with an ornate
cloth as well. Like the yoke-back chair, a round-back chair is stately
and somewhat austere, literally forcing one to sit in an erect position,
even though one’s back does not touch the backsplat.
It used to be common to classify Chinese furniture into styles
associated with dynasties, such as “Ming style” and “Qing style,”
which indeed correspond to traditional shapes found in China’s
major metropolitan areas. In more recent decades, however, there
has been a shift of interest to include regional and vernacular forms
that echo the high-style forms but evince great variation and are
found readily in the market. Interest in antique Chinese furniture
has also spawned a flourishing industry producing reconstructions
and forgeries, sometimes employing old woods dismantled from
dilapidated furniture but more often assembling brand-new pieces
whose “ancient” patina is pure artifice. According to Karen Mazurk-
wich, “craftsmen have turned faking into an art form, improving
their techniques to camouflage major alterations or prematurely
aging wood” (2006: 215).
Household Furnishings 11
 Bamboo Furniture
䤥ᚯ‫ ؘ‬Zhújiājù

It is a curiosity that both hardwoods and softwoods employed in BELOW An elegant kitchen-style cabinet with open and closed stor-
making furniture are sometimes carved to resemble bamboo, in the age spaces.
OPPOSITE LEFT Short bamboo chairs of this sort are used by chil-
process turning a precious wood into an imitation of what to many dren as well as adults.
is a lesser material. Yet bamboo itself has a long history as a raw ma-
terial that can be fashioned into furniture. If depictions in paintings
and woodblock prints are any evidence, chairs, stools, tables, beds,
and cabinets were common as early as the Song dynasty. No doubt
because of the near ubiquity of bamboo, the sturdy grass is still used
as an inexpensive material in making vernacular furniture for homes
throughout China’s countryside.
A visit to any village home in the southeastern and southwestern
regions will turn up bamboo chairs alongside wooden trestle benches
inside and outside the house. Together, they are often the only
seats available for family and guests. Bamboo chairs are especially
well-suited for the hot summer season. Often seeming intended
for children because of the short legs, low seat, and high back, they
are in fact used as well by adults. Varying slightly in form, bamboo
chairs are almost all constructed following similar principles that
exploit both the strength and the versatility of the medium. With
simple tools, a craftsman is able to give shape to a sturdy and utili-
tarian object consisting solely of slightly dried bamboo stalks.
To form the legs, a pair of bamboo tubes needs to be bent to
form two U-shaped units that will be transformed into the four
legs. To accomplish this, small sections of each tube must be excised
at specific locations, with only a partial sidewall remaining. Bend-
ing is done by heating the bamboo over a fire in order to soften it;
the heating also tempers the tubes once they have cooled. The two
U-shaped forms are then joined/fastened together by means of two
horizontal bamboo tubes, and this leg assembly is strengthened and
stabilized by attaching smaller diameter bamboo tubes running
from front to back and side to side. Bamboo “nails” serve to tighten
the various connections. The backrest is fashioned separately and
connected to the base. The backrest, which is usually slanted, may

12 Things Chinese
be rounded or square, mimicking in some way high-style round-
back and yoke-back chairs. If rounded, the backrest is made using
a long piece of bamboo that is heated and bent in several places to
effect the required curvature. Rectangular backrests are constructed
simply by joining horizontal and vertical pieces. Interwoven slats of
bamboo, supported by thin-diameter solid rods of bamboo, form
the seat.
Bamboo chairs are truly modular pieces of furniture. While
lacking the sophistication of mortise-and-tenon construction, these
chairs can be made easily and cheaply. Even today, they are sold by
itinerant carpenters who carry them piled on their bicycles or carts.
In some areas, bamboo chairs are stacked high along the roadside by
the villagers who made them, in the hope that drivers passing by will
be enticed into purchasing a few to take home. Over the centuries, ABOVE The teakwood chairs were designed by Kai-Yin Lo based on
simple handcrafted country furniture made of bamboo provided the a French design of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries that simu-
inspiration for fashionable forms used even in urban homes. Today, lates the look of bamboo, an ageless style that works well with her
Ming and Qing dynasty furniture collection. The cabinet in the rear
stylish bamboo furnishings are also viewed as being eco-friendly and also simulates bamboo using teakwood.
affordable in that they employ a medium that grows quickly and is BELOW Made of bamboo, this reclining chair includes a retractable
found in great variety. footrest, here shown in a halfway position.

Household Furnishings 13
 BELOW LEFT Set atop this compound
wardrobe is a separate storage chest.
Each component has matching brass
hinges and lock plates.
BELOW CENTER Richly ornamented
along the sides and bottom, this coffer
cabinet contains five compartments.
BELOW RIGHT This sturdy cabinet
has both folding and sliding door
panels as well as three drawers.

ABOVE A pair of tall compound cabinets

with brass accents frames the doorway in
this elegant dining room.

14 Things Chinese
Cabinets
⩥Guì
Boxes and low chests, rather than cabinets, were the earliest con-
tainers for storing possessions in Chinese homes, and they continue
to be preferred even today in village homes and modern apartments.
Black-lacquered lidded boxes of various sizes that held clothing, toi-
letries, and dishes and food have been found in ancient tombs. Al-
though standing cabinets with hinged doors came into fashion dur-
ing the Song dynasty, none from that period survive today, and what
we know of them comes solely from what is portrayed in paintings
and woodblock prints. By the Ming dynasty, cabinets serving to
hold books and painting scrolls in literati studies were also depicted,
a form that seems to have emerged as Chinese adopted chair-level
rather than mat-level seating. Wooden cabinets from the Ming and
Qing dynasties, which are held in numerous museums and private
collections, reveal a stylishness combining form and function that is
sophisticated and, some say, even modern. Scholars and collectors
of Chinese furniture, such as Curtis Evarts, Robert Ellsworth, Wang
Shixiang, Gustav Ecke, George Kates, Sarah Handler, and Kai-Yin Lo,
have written extensively about the changing styles of storage cabi-
nets over time as well as the evolution of woods and joinery.
Although tall cabinets with doors served different purposes in
the kitchen, bedroom, and study, each provided a clean and accessible
location to store items that were needed only seasonally or periodi-
cally. The simplest cabinets, even in the homes of the wealthy, were
those used in the kitchen to store dishes, bowls, pots, and food. Often
made of common softwoods, such as elm or beech, or even bamboo,
many extant cabinets include drawers as well as different types of
compartments, some of which have openings that allow for ventila-
tion. Especially in those found in villages, the design of the carvings is
usually simple, and the pieces are truly vernacular furniture forms.
During the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries of the Ming
dynasty, cabinets, like other furniture, reached a high level of refine-
ment in which minimalism and purity of line flourished as craftsmen
in imperial Beijing as well as other cosmopolitan centers “adhered to
rigid rules governing proportion and size” (Mazurkewich 2006: 20).
Epitomizing Ming elegance and restraint, vertical tapered cabinets,
which often were produced in pairs, are rectilinear in shape and
raised on short legs. They are noted for their polished wood stiles
and panels as well as fine joinery, which together reveal the inherent
TOP This low coffer table can do
double duty as a family altar.
LEFT Simple horizontal cabinet
with four drawers beneath a pair of
double-hinged doors.
Household Furnishings 15
 beauty of the translucent hardwoods selected by the craftsmen. While
the doors pivot on concealed wooden pegs that are an extension of
the door frame, a brass plate with a fitting for a lock and brass pulls
was placed prominently on the two doors. The stile between the two
doors is usually removable so that larger items can be placed easily on
the shelves inside, where there sometimes also are drawers for small
objects. Variations from cabinet to cabinet in terms of the height
of the legs, fluting, grooving, and grain of the particular hardwood
selected give an individual identity to each cabinet. Square-cornered
cabinets, both low and tall and sometimes with metal surface hinges,
were also produced during the Ming period. Sometimes cabinets
were made in two parts, one atop the other to form an armoire-like
compound wardrobe. Multidrawer and multishelf cabinets with
intricate lattice patterns on the front and sides were also built. By
the later Ming period, extravagance had become the norm among
the wealthy and the cultured. Fashionable furniture circulated even
among those without refined taste as rich merchants and others with
means crudely aped the lifestyles of the elite cognoscenti.
During the nearly four hundred years of the alien Qing dynasty,
cabinet and other furniture styles continued to evolve. For the initial
two centuries especially, classic patterns made with fine hardwoods
continued to dominate in metropolitan areas. Over time, however,
lacquered and painted cabinets made of common softwoods came to
fill the markets. With changing tastes, ornamentation was added to
the surfaces of cabinets using mother-of-pearl, glass, jade, and other
precious stones as well as silver and gold. Ornate and fussy carvings
in addition to mixed palettes of color deviated significantly from the
simplicity of Ming cabinet styles in a flush of creativity.
Exemplifying the refined elegance of the Ming period, classical
Chinese furniture made of tropical hardwoods has enjoyed a privi-
leged position among collectors and museums. Yet it is important to
recognize that variant regional and vernacular styles, characterized by
“flamboyance, vigour, and a freedom that led to variations on clas-
sic lines or adherence to earlier forms” (Lo 1998: 19ff), have always
abounded. Over the past two decades, interest in these regional and
vernacular furniture styles has been increasing, as manifested in books
and articles as well as museum exhibitions that have revealed styles
previously unknown to outsiders. The Internet and import shops of
furniture from China have become important conduits for furniture
from a growing number of workshops. While some of these pass off
as “antique” pieces reconstructed from old wood or parts, refurbished
old pieces, and even distressed new pieces, there are nonetheless some
entrepreneurs who are honestly producing storage cabinets and other
furniture that, while new, still follow classical models.

16 Things Chinese
OPPOSITE TOP Slightly tapered cabinet
with a circular brass plate and a pair of
drawers.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Square-cornered
rectangular cabinet with three drawers and
a pair of doors.
ABOVE LEFT Stout cabinet with folding
door panels.
ABOVE MIDDLE Display cabinet with lattice
door panels and cabinet beneath.
ABOVE RIGHT Square-cornered cabinet
with both painted and carved panels.
BELOW LEFT A tapered cabinet whose
sleek lines contribute to its elegant beauty.
BELOW RIGHT Eight drawers surround the
carved arch of this low table.
Household Furnishings 17
 Canopy and Alcove Beds
⨴ᗸᮿ Jiàzǐ Chuáng ؇、ᮿ Bābù Chuáng

Bedrooms in China rarely served only as a place to sleep. Within

this tradition, a canopy or alcove bed functioned as a versatile space,
a veritable room within a room. Although sometimes provided by
the groom’s parents as an investment in ensuring grandsons, such
beds usually were brought by the bride as part of her dowry, along
with embroidered objects, fine textiles, and even cash, as well as a
chest filled with clothes for each season. Traditionally, the bride kept
these items as her own personal property in her room, sometimes in
chests on her bed. As an adaptable and all-purpose space, enclosed
beds dominated the room and served as a locus for a woman’s
daytime activities—chores such as food preparation, weaving, and
embroidery as well as entertaining friends—when the curtains were
held back by hooks and the bed’s quilts were folded along the side.
At night, with curtains down, these bed provided intimacy in a pri-
vate cubicle.
Unlike open couch-type beds, canopy and alcove beds are large
and imposing, often ornate, and built on a raised platform, either
with tall bedposts and a covering or enclosed within ornamented
panels. Chinese beds are placed with a side along a wall, unlike West-
ern beds in which often the head is along a wall. A sturdy piece of
furniture made by a carpenter using mortise-and-tenon joinery, each
enclosed bed is an irreducible nucleus within the nested structure of
a dwelling. With a railing, four or six posts supporting a frame on top,
and a shroud of gauze or brocade curtains, a canopy bed became “a
cocoon of privacy—the ultimate love nest” (Mazurkewich 2006: 116).
Sumptuous beds from the Ming and Qing dynasties are well-known
and held in museums throughout the world, but remains from as far
back as the fourth century BCE have been found in excavated tombs,

LEFT Richly ornamented canopy bed with painted porcelain inserts.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM This Ming dynasty canopy bed is accompanied
by a tapered cabinet and a garment rack.

18 Things Chinese
including one with a “bed, found disassembled and folded . . . an early ABOVE LEFT This antique canopy bed has been repurposed as a
example of knocked-down furniture,” with black lacquered wood and comfortable settee.
ABOVE RIGHT Ming dynasty bedchamber with a canopy bed, two
railings of bamboo and wood (Handler 2001: 140). garment racks, and a storage box, step stool, and drum stool.
Over time and especially during the Ming dynasty, canopy
beds evolved to include an extended platform in front as well as a
proliferation of side panels with profuse openwork ornamentation
forming partial “walls.” This evolved type is called an alcove bed, for
it incorporates a vestibule-like space behind the front “wall,” some-
times even with chair-like seating before the bed itself, which re-
mained similar to the classic canopied bed. Sometimes door panels
were added that made it possible to fully close off the recessed alcove
and bed from the room.
The curtains used with both canopy and alcove beds vary ac-
cording to the season: gauze netting helped impede bothersome
insects without lessening a breeze, while heavier cotton and silk were
used in the winter to insulate the space from external cold and con-
tain the heat provided by a brass container holding hot coals. Both
the wooden panels and the textiles traditionally were richly adorned
with auspicious emblems and didactic ornamentation. In southern
China, in addition to carved wooden panels, the surrounding panels
are often ornamented with mother-of-pearl mosaics and painted
porcelain pieces.

Household Furnishings 19
 RIGHT Inlaid with
mother-of-pearl, the
wooden frame of this
couchbed has marble
inserts along its sides
and base.
BELOW In a modern
setting with other
Chinese accents, this
couchbed is comfort-
able day and night.
OPPOSITE With dis-
tinctive feet and clean
design, this antique
couchbed fits well in a
modern home.

20
Couchbeds
傂ㅩᮿ Luóhàn Chuáng
Couchbeds, also sometimes called daybeds, were utilitarian pieces
of furniture generally used by men for both leisure and sleeping,
hence the conjoining of the words couch and bed. The English terms
couchbed, daybed, and platform bed confuse their nature and use,
since in fact each can be distinguished from the other in ways that
differ from Western usage. A daybed and a platform bed, both re-
ferred to as ta, are essentially long, flat, rectangular, and relatively
light, with the surface elevated slightly above the floor or ground
on solid legs. Larger ta could accommodate several individuals. In
ancient China, well before chairs were introduced, people sat on
low platforms such as these. Because they were light in weight, they
could be carried into the garden or courtyard to meet the spontane-
ous need of a place for individual contemplation or gathering with
friends. Of the two, a daybed usually had a more fragile structure
and could be knocked down easily so it could be moved.
In a formal sense, the ta is a precursor of the couchbed, a basic
piece of furniture differentiated from the daybed by its three confin-
ing sides, more substantial weight, and use mainly for reclining and
sleeping rather than sitting. Still, with a woven soft-mat surface,
either of these pieces of furniture would provide a cool and comfort-
able place to sit alone or with someone else to play a game, such as
chess, or to read or listen to music. Solid panels along the three sides
of many couchbeds provided the advantage of protection from drafts
when the occupant was in a supine position or support for the back
when sitting. Some couchbeds have an open, lattice-like set of railings
that lets the air flow freely, but even these do offer some support for
the back or head. Adding soft bedding helped translate the bed into
a place to sleep. Unlike with chairs, it was common when sitting to
place an armrest, pillow, small table, vase of flowers, or stack of books
on the flat surface.. Whether in lattice or in solid form, the side rails
and apron of a couchbed were often carved with auspicious charac-
ters as well as abstract representations of clouds and dragons.
In a scholar’s studio, the couchbed was an indispensable multi-
functional piece of furniture. The only other furniture would be ta-
bles of sufficient size for calligraphy and painting as well as to hold a
qin, a musical instrument of the zither family, and perhaps a standing
case for books and scrolls. Even after chairs became common for for-
mal use, couchbeds continued to be preferred for informal relaxation.
Woodblock illustrations, paintings, period writings, and extant pieces
held in museums and private collections reveal not only the great
variety of forms but also their many uses. Wen Zhenheng, the cel-
ebrated Ming dynasty scholar, painter, and landscape designer, waxed
poetic about the value of old couchbeds while decrying the loss of
taste among new users: “There is no way in which they were not con-
venient, whether for sitting up, lying down, or reclining. In moments
of pleasant relaxation, they [gentleman-scholars] would spread out
classical or historical texts, examine works of calligraphy or painting,
display ancient bronze vessels, dine or take a nap, as the furniture was
suitable for all these things. The men of today make them in a man-
ner which merely prefers carved and painted decoration to delight the
vulgar eye, while the antique pieces are cast aside, causing one to sigh
in deep regret” (Clunas 1991: 42).
Household Furnishings 21
 RIGHT The lantern-like lamps atop
the side tables are made of wood
and red silk.
Lanterns 㟣䦆Dēnglóng
Lighted lanterns, whether simple or complex in form and structure,
are essential components of periodic celebrations and annual festi-
vals. Red lanterns in the form of globes are obligatory at birthdays
and weddings, where they are displayed in daylight and shine on
into the evening. The fifteenth day of the first lunar month marks
the end of the New Year festivities, and on this day falls the celebra-
tion known as Yuan Xiao Jie by the Chinese and the Lantern Festival
by foreigners. The Lantern Festival coincides with a full moon. It is
said that the souls of ancestors who were present for the arrival of
the New Year need to be guided back to the netherworld by the light
of ubiquitous lanterns that imitate the celestial light of the moon.
Today, parks throughout China on this date become a sea of eye-
catching lanterns, most of which are traditional in form although
nowadays there are many large mechanical lanterns lit with neon.
Lanterns can be found in a variety of shapes, including spheri-
cal, cylindrical, cubic, hexagonal, and octagonal, even mimicking
animal forms, and there are compound structures that combine
different shapes. Most lanterns are crafted of thin bamboo splints
that are then covered with waxed paper, gauze, or silk before being
embellished with ornamentation. By the latter part of the nineteenth
22 Things Chinese
century, thin plates of glass began also to be used for lanterns. Colors
and decorative motifs on these surfaces vary considerably from region
to region. At no time during the year are lanterns more complex than
during the Lantern Festival, when families, villages, and neighbor-
hoods vie with each other to produce decorated lanterns. Many of
these cleverly fashioned lanterns have an interior circular panel that
rotates because of the heat of the flame, which makes it possible for
the animals depicted there to gallop and children to dance.
The word deng by itself means “lantern” or “light,” and a homoph-
onous association suggests the word fengdeng, meaning “abundant
harvest,” thus “prosperity.” When a lantern is depicted in a painting
adjacent to the ears or kernels of the “five grains”—an all-encom-
passing set phrase that includes even legumes—this forms the pun
“May there be a bumper harvest of the five grains.” Sometimes wasps
or bees, both pronounced feng, are added to make the associational
meaning clear. A pair of lighted lanterns traditionally was placed
adjacent to the marital bed, one for the bride and one for the groom.
It was considered especially auspicious if both went out at the same
time. The act of “lighting the lantern,” pronounced dian deng, further
suggests the meaning “adding a son,” which is a propitious wish.
LEFT The lanterns in the back
hall of Chengzhi Hall in Hong-
cun, Anhui Province, are set in
wooden frames with painted silk
inserts.
BELOW LEFT Globular lanterns
are carried here in a procession
at the Puji Temple, dedicated
to the goddess Guanyin, on
Putuoshan Island off the coast
in Zhejiang Province.
BELOW RIGHT Celebratory
lanterns are hung throughout
Zhenchenglou, a circular
tulou or earthen structure
in Yongding County, Fujian
Province.

Household Furnishings 23
 TOP LEFT Set on a table in
the corner of a contempo-
rary home is a gnarled tree
in a shallow pot.
TOP RIGHT This old speci-
men tree is displayed as
part of an exhibition in
Gulin Park in Nanjing,
Jiangsu Province.
LEFT Dominated by soaring
rock formations that simu-
late mountain peaks and
accompanied by a sugges-
tion of forest, this minia-
ture landscape is displayed
in the Suzhou Museum,
Jiangsu Province.

24 Things Chinese
Miniature
Landscapes
䈨⡍Pénjǐng
The Japanese word bonsai—literally “tray cultivation” or “tray
plant”—is well-known throughout the world, leading some unin-
formed writers to speak of “Chinese bonsai” as if it were a variant of
a horticultural tradition that originated in Japan. However, “bonsai”
is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese term penzai and is a
tradition with roots literally in China. The practice of shaping min-
iature plantings of trees in pots was introduced from cosmopolitan
China to Japan as one form of cultural borrowing during the Tang
dynasty (618–907). These practices had their precursor forms in
China in the magical miniature versions of sacred sites developed by
Daoist mystics and then Buddhists, who began by the mid–second
century to create meditative landscape objects in China. Over time,
the Japanese refined the forms they imported from China, creating
in the process a distinctive national art form centering on the fash-
ioning of a single perennial woody plant into a miniature version of
a mature tree. By utilizing cultivation techniques that inhibit root
development and involve pruning, leaf trimming, wiring, and graft-
ing as well as other ingenious techniques, the Japanese have created
a container-grown aesthetic of exquisite beauty.
In China today, visitors can see potted plants in Chinese gar-
dens and homes that are reminiscent of Japanese bonsai, yet close
inspection will reveal that they are for the most part clearly differ-
ent. Chinese penjing—literally “tray landscapes” or “tray scenery,”
though a better translation is “miniature landscapes”—incorporate
a range of elements that go well beyond a single specimen minia-
ture tree and reveal a different, more comprehensive aesthetic. The
ABOVE Visitors admire the variety of miniature landscapes
on display in one section of Gulin Park in Nanjing, Jiangsu
Province.
essence of penjing is that each is a complete diminutive landscape,
with rocks, pebbles, moss, even tiny pagodas, bridges, and figurines
that give scale to the scenery, all sometimes set within a tray of
shallow water. The presence of a living plant is not obligatory. Each
small-scale penjing is an aesthetically pleasing landscape portrait
comparable to the composition one might find in a landscape
painting, where sizes, angles and density are important consid-
erations. Like a Chinese landscape painting, a penjing is a study
in stylistic contrasts in terms of textures and colors that include
a broad palette of artistic devices. Penjing have been described as
three-dimensional poetry, evocative pieces for meditation. When
without a living plant, a completed penjing spares its owner the
continuing attention that a bonsai requires.
During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution between 1966
and 1976, many fine examples of old penjing were abandoned or
destroyed throughout China, and interest in the art languished as
many considered it merely a bourgeois fancy. Over the past quarter
century, though, there has been an escalating renaissance of interest
in the art of penjing. Exhibitions, associations, Web sites, and gar-
dens have flourished in number and variety. In the United States, the
U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., established the Na-
tional Bonsai & Penjing Museum that underscores the distinctness
of Japanese bonsai and Chinese penjing. In time, the term penjing
will certainly enter the English language as a common term, just as
has been the case with bonsai, a word that was essentially unknown
in the West a half-century ago.
Household Furnishings 25
 Pillows
⨈ᇋ Zhěntóu
Chinese traditionally preferred to sleep on hard beds with their
heads lifted by rigid pillows. Carefully chosen stones, logs, or blocks
of wood were probably among the earliest pillows or headrests used
by Chinese to elevate the head when sleeping. In the countryside,
village folk made do with rigid pillows of woven bamboo or other
plants, a tradition that continues even to the present. Another
simple pillow type involves stuffing bamboo shavings and perhaps
chaff into a sheath made of rough leather that has been coated with
lacquer to further stiffen it. In former times, travelers and wealthy
merchants sometimes carried a lacquered or leather-covered
wooden box in the shape of a concave pillow with a slightly sloping
lid that could do double-duty as a safe repository for their valuables
as they slept. Rudolf Hommel, the chronicler of China at Work,
26 Things Chinese
bluntly exclaimed in that book, “There is a large variety of Chinese
pillows, with however one characteristic inherent in all: namely
that they are extremely uncomfortable for Occidentals” (1937: 312).
Indeed, throughout China even today, one can see individuals rest-
ing in the open with their head on a brick, a pair of shoes, or even
a stone.
Over time, pillows were crafted by artisans from wood, bronze,
jade, and, most impressively, porcelain. By the Tang dynasty, porce-
lain pillows were being mass-produced, but among the finest ex-
amples of porcelain pillows held in museums are those of the Song
and Yuan dynasties, which span the tenth through fourteenth centu-
ries. Chinese found these pillows cool to use during the humid sum-
mer months. Hollow ceramic pillows with a plug on one end could
be filled with hot water to provide warmth in winter. Soft pillows
stuffed with fabric or other materials are only a relatively recent phe-
nomenon in China, becoming common in urban areas only during
the late imperial period. Funerary pillows similar to those used by the
living were sometimes placed in tombs to accompany the deceased in
their next life.
Whatever the material used to make the pillow, the shape is usu-
ally rectangular, although some are oblong, oval, octagonal, or leaf-
like, and others even square, with a sculpted, curved top sometimes
lower in front and higher in the back. While many are solid, others
have a hollow core. Many porcelain pillows are sleek and plain, but
others are either heavily ornamented or given the realistic shape of a
cat, tiger, or other animal. Among the most celebrated forms is that
of a baby or young child lying on its stomach on a couch, which is
said to have been preferred by young couples desirous of having a
boy. The small of the child’s back provides the support for the resting
person’s head. In some rare cases, the child lies on his back and lifts a
curved plate that will cradle the head of the person using it.
 Kilns all over the country produced porcelain pillows, each with
specific characteristics, some for the imperial family and others for
sale in local and distant markets. Pillows and other articles of daily
use also made of sturdy ceramic stoneware were among the most
distinctive objects produced at the Cizhou kilns in Hebei Province.
Here, the pillows were noted especially for the paintings on them,
each done with bold, dark brush strokes on a white field under a clear
glaze. The designs on some Cizhou ceramic pillows are incised or
stamped into the surface before glazing with glazes of different col-
ors. The Longquan kiln in Zhejiang produced green-glazed pillows
that were raised on a pedestal, while the Ding kiln in Hebei favored
white-glazed pillows. Among the most refined porcelain pillows are
the celadon ones from the Jingdezhen potteries in Jiangxi and the
Longquan potteries in Zhejiang. Most of these pillow forms were
produced using molds.
Reproductions of old-style porcelain pillows are common in
markets throughout China today. Many are being made by the same
historic kilns that produced some of China’s finest porcelain in the
past. Most often these pillows are explicitly sold as replicas, although
some unfortunately are offered to unwary tourists as antiques. Por-
celain pillows today are principally used as curious decorative objects
in various rooms rather than as an essential object in the bedroom.

OPPOSITE TOP This lacquered pillow box opens to reveal a cavity in

which to store valuable objects.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Both of the lacquered pillows on this page have only
a slight indentation to cradle the head.
TOP AND MIDDLE Types of porcelain pillows.
BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT The ends of these lacquered pillows are painted.

Household Furnishings 27
 ABOVE LEFT Detail along the side of a pottery garden stool.
ABOVE Set in a garden, these four blue-and-white garden stools
surround a large stone column base with a circular glass table atop it.
BELOW LEFT Fashioned of wood and brass with a lid that lifts off,
this stool mimics common pottery stools.
BELOW Garden stools arrayed around a vat that serves as the base
for a table top.

28 Things Chinese
Pottery
Stools
癬㻺‫ێ‬ᗸTáocí Dèngzi
“The ubiquitous stool, a multishaped seat without walls, roams
indoors and outdoors as the modest wanderer of Chinese furniture.
And, like a wanderer ready to journey anywhere, it normally faces
all directions at once. Always ready to move and never fussy about
its orientation, the stool is one of the most convenient surfaces for
supporting people and objects. Often it is a poor person’s seat—
purely utilitarian, at home or on the street. But when it is made of
hardwood, lacquer, or ceramics, it can be both costly and elegant”
(Handler 2001: 82). Stools predate the use of chairs in China and
continued to be used by all classes even as chairs evolved into their
various forms. “However degraded today, the stool was not always
the inferior cousin of the chair” (Mazurkewich 2006: 75). While
both wealthy women and men utilized stools, as can be seen in
many paintings, whenever chairs and stools were both present seat-
ing was determined on the basis of social status and age. Children
and servants typically used stools, while the raised chairs were re-
served for adults and the elderly. The sheer variety of Chinese stools
is staggering. Among them are square, rectangular, octagonal, and
circular ones supported on legs as well as oval openings. In addi-
tion, there are folding stools, barrel stools, and drum stools made of
wood, cane, and pottery.
Pottery stools were traditionally deployed in Chinese garden set-
tings as part of a set that included a round table, since pottery would
not weather as severely as wood. The terms pottery, ceramic, and
RIGHT Although this stool
looks like it would fit in a
garden, it is for indoor use
since it is made of wood with
a lacquered coating.
porcelain are sometimes used interchangeably, but it is best to differ-
entiate them. Pottery is a broad term that includes any ceramic ware
made by potters, while ceramic is a generic term used to describe an
object made of clay mixed with specific minerals and water, which
is then covered with a glaze before being fired in a kiln. While the
composition of porcelain varies, it usually largely consists of kaolin, a
rich clay material that vitrifies completely at high temperatures with
or without glazing. Both cruder ceramic stools and refined porcelain
stools have a long history of manufacture in China and are found in
many forms within China’s classical scholar gardens.
Today, Chinese pottery stools are marketed internationally as
“garden stools,” but they also serve as versatile utilitarian objects
that can be accent pieces inside and outside of Western homes. Such
stools may be used for sitting but also as foot rests and convenient
pull-up tables or plant stands. Most stools manufactured nowadays
are cast in molds with embossed detailing that ranges from the
simple to the complex, either in a monochromatic color or with
elaborate ornamentation that evokes traditional styles. Whatever the
overall pattern, many pottery stools include two pairs of intersecting
circular coins with a square hole in the center that are on opposite
sides, which can be used to lift the stool. Symbolizing riches, the two-
coins motif, which is called shuangqian, also has a homophonic as-
sociation with shuangquan, meaning “both complete,” a blessing for
good fortune and longevity.
Household Furnishings 29
 Screens
BELOW This perforated screen is not only a decorative accent but
can be moved to shield an area from view.
RIGHT Although the Wu Family Reception Hall in the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts is adorned with fine furniture, art-
work, and decorative objects, it is dominated by this twelve-panel
folding screen incised with intricate wood carving.
឴穔Píngfēng

Literally “to shield from the wind,” Chinese pingfeng or folding

screens have a long history as portable multifunctional furniture,
practical objects that function to shield, conceal, or divide as well
as to ornament. Miniature and full-size multipaneled screens
with elaborate ornamentation have been found in several Chinese
provinces in excavated tombs that date back more than two mil-
lennia. Stone engravings also portray large screens. Although no
actual screens have survived from the Han dynasty, written texts
and wall paintings in tombs depict screens made of solid wood
with paintings either directly on their surfaces or on silk, as well as
some inlaid with jade and precious stones (Sullivan 1965: 239-40).
The earliest extant painted wooden screen, dating to the Northern
Wei dynasty (386–534 CE), was excavated from a tomb in northern
Shanxi Province, where it was protected by the semi-arid condi-
tions. It has five panels, which were set on stone bases and arrayed
with two side wings, all of which are covered with red lacquer and
painted with didactic pictorial and textual narratives about exem-
plary women and virtuous men (Handler 2001: 268-73).
During the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), literary accounts re-
cord many instances of landscape scenes and calligraphy on folding
screens. Rather than applying paint directly to the wooden surfaces,
it became more common to paint on silk or paper, which then
would be mounted on the panels. Mounting itself is an art that had
reached a certain degree of refinement by that time. In subsequent
periods, handscrolls reveal screens being employed to isolate nar-
rative themes as they are spread across a series of panels. Aging
and faded panels were sometimes replaced on the screen by newly
mounted paintings, while in other cases deteriorating paintings on
screens were remounted and hung as scrolls on the wall as a way of
preserving them. “Tang screens are all comparatively low because
they stood on top of platforms and beds or around people seated

30 Things Chinese
Household Furnishings 31
 a hot summer day, a gentleman would place behind his couch a snow
landscape to make him feel cool, while as the days drew on he might
try to combat the coming frosts with a leafy summer scene” (Sullivan
1965: 251).
Throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, large standing screens
continued to evolve, with fewer serving as a medium to hold paint-
ings and more made of fine hardwoods like rosewood and black-
wood. Vertical and horizontal surrounds for each panel commonly
were comprised of openwork carving as well as three-dimensional re-
lief carving, where each of the elements, whether openings or motifs,
were presented in a symmetrical fashion. While zigzag arrangements
continued to be common, many Qing screens merely approximated
a curve since they were fitted with metal hooks and rings rather than
pintle-type pivoting hinges.
During the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, black
lacquered screens and chests with heavy Chinese-style ornamenta-
tion were the rage in Europe among the wealthy, who used them

ABOVE Located in Beijing’s Forbidden City, this Nine Dragon

Screen, which dates from the late eighteenth century, is made of
polychrome glazed tiles and was positioned to provide privacy
for the Palace of Tranquil Longevity.
RIGHT This four-panel vermillion screen is a modern adaptation
of a general Chinese type.

on the floor. It was only later, when Chinese began to sit on high seats
and use high tables, that large floor screens became popular. Then,
large folding screens might stand on the floor to protect from drafts
and prying eyes the guests seated on long benches in a wine shop”
(Handler 2001: 277).
Painted landscapes on folding screens reached a peak of artistic
achievement during the Song dynasty, as prominent painters saw
multipaneled screens as an appropriately large format to express
their expansive yet unified landscape compositions. “The screen’s
zigzag form, folding in and out, at once reveals and obscures the
scenery” (Handler 2001: 278). Enormous screens were painted for
halls in the imperial palaces and Buddhist temples, as well as for large
residences, while smaller screens were created for placement on a
table or a scholar’s desk. “While Chinese collectors will often display
paintings appropriate to the season, they also use them to counteract
uncomfortable extremes of heat and cold. Lying out in the shade on

32 Things Chinese
 LEFT As a backdrop for the statue of the goddess Guanyin, this
ten-panel black lacquer screen is covered with gilded calligraphy.
BELOW This example of a polychrome lacquered Coromandel
screen is replete with painted and inlaid pictorial compositions.

to redefine space in the large rooms of their residences. Although

produced in China, they were called Coromandel screens after the
location along the southeastern coast of India where the Dutch, Por-
tuguese, French, and British had established ports that transshipped
Chinese exports to Europe. Similarly, other screens were misnamed
Bantam screens after a Dutch transshipment port on the island of
Java in today’s Indonesia. Coromandel and Bantam screens typically
were brilliantly decorated, sometimes with gold leaf inserted into the
many layers of lacquer, which resulted in a glowing surface on the
screen, and embellished with relief carvings and inlaid work depict-
ing pavilions, gardens, pools, trees, rocks, birds, flowers, and human
figures in a pictorial composition. Coromandel screens usually have
low quality wooden cores that were coated with a composition of
clay and pig’s blood before the first layer of lacquer was applied. After
being polished, the outlines of the pictorial design were drawn on
the surface layer to guide the artisan in carving into the underlying
composition. Additional layers of lacquer built up the surface so that
different depths could be cut and painted to create polychromatic
pictorial Coromandel screens. Many such screens depict leisure activ-
ities, providing glimpses of many of the “things Chinese” portrayed
in this book.
Folding screens remain a prominent element of furniture in Chi-
nese halls and residences today, especially where the rooms are large
and in need of both decoration and a focal point, a setting for such
activities as receiving guests and taking photographs. Reproductions
of old screens as well as fresh designs are commonly seen in shops
throughout China. While painted scenes on multipaneled folding
screens are rare these days, brightly colored lacquered screens as well
as carved openwork screens are not hard to find.

Household Furnishings 33
 Arts and Crafts
Calligraphy and painting, the two quintessential Chinese arts, share the
use of brush and ink in their execution, with brushwork first done on
silk and later on paper as well. Whether the result is hung on the wall as
a mounted scroll, unrolled section-by-section as a scroll on a table, or
viewed as a fan or album held in the hand, both calligraphy and paint-
ing are among China’s most revered artistic traditions. The carving of
jade and ivory, which are rare and precious natural materials, as well as
of common stone, brick, wood, and bamboo, has bequeathed countless
unique objects, many of which are featured as masterpieces in museum
collections, just as they once were found in abundance in the imperial
palace collections. Tourists today find replica trinkets, crude copies made
with baser materials, readily available throughout the country. While both
lacquerware and embroidery can be enjoyed as art, they also comprise
utilitarian objects crafted for use at home. Knotting and paper cutting are
decorative folk arts, handicrafts whose appeal ranges from villages to pal-
aces. Cigarette posters, a symbol of twentieth-century modernity, and Mao
memorabilia, emblems of revolutionary fervor, were mass-produced com-
modities that over the decades have become objects of pop art and highly
prized collectibles. In recent years, Chinese authorities have highlighted
the need to preserve such arts and crafts as embroidery, painting, and
papercuts as noteworthy components of China’s intangible cultural heri-
tage, which also extends to music, painting, dance, medicine, and rituals.

34 Things Chinese
Arts and Crafts 35
 Scroll
Paintings
㽹रHuàjuǎn

Hanging scrolls and handscrolls, as well as albums and fans, are

distinctive forms of Chinese painting that can be conveniently
stored yet quickly made available for viewing. While Western paint-
ings are hung flat on a wall to be enjoyed by a group or individual,
those painted by Chinese artists are usually best viewed by only
one or two persons, sometimes with the painting in hand. Whether
hung vertically or horizontally, a hanging scroll typically has a lim-
ited theme when compared to the complex narratives possible with
handscrolls, which must be manipulated to be enjoyed. With a hang-
ing scroll, a viewer can move close to scrutinize detail or move away
to grasp the full image, while a true connoisseur will only examine a
section of a handscroll at one time.
Until the invention of paper, silk was the preferred medium for
Chinese painting and calligraphy. Both paper and silk vary signifi-
cantly in texture, absorbency, and receptivity to the ink held on a
Chinese brush, among other qualities. As discussed above, papermak-
ing in China traditionally utilized a range of plants as raw material
including hemp, mulberry, reeds, rattan, bamboo, rice, and various
trees, and their diverse fibers produced paper of differing quality.
Painters and calligraphers since the Tang dynasty have acclaimed
Xuan paper, whose essential raw material is a type of elm bark found
in Xuanzhou in today’s Anhui Province, as China’s highest quality
medium for painting and calligraphy. Xuan paper is sometimes erro-
neously called rice paper, even though the rice plant contributes only
some minor portion to its manufacture. Shengxuan or “raw xuan” is
noted for its ability to absorb water and ink, allowing artistic blur-
ring. Shuxuan or “ripe xuan” paper, by contrast, is made with a thin

36 Things Chinese
OPPOSITE This tiger with two cubs appears to pounce forward
from the recesses of this vertical scroll painting.
BELOW Receding landscapes that evidence great spatial depth
are a common theme in Chinese paintings.
coat of a concoction of potassium alum and crushed bone that resists
moisture absorption. Banshuxuan, literally “half-ripe xuan,” is a par-
tially processed paper that absorbs at an intermediate level.
While a Chinese artist might execute a painting directly on paper
attached to a pair of wooden end pieces, it is more likely that a paint-
ing be done independently of the scroll on which it is later mounted.
The mounting of a painting is a multistep process that involves af-
fixing paper to silk brocade using an adhesive paste applied with a
smoothing brush. If done poorly, creases, even bubbles, will form and
the painting will deteriorate. The first step is to affix a larger backing
paper to the painting in order to stiffen and reinforce it. Next, silk
strips, compatible in color and texture, are attached to the adjacent
sides and top of the painting before another backing is attached to
strengthen the overall form. A semicylindrical rod placed at the top,
together with a silk ribbon in the shape of a triangle, facilitates sus-
pending a hanging scroll. At the bottom, a heavier cylindrical roller
rod provides weight that will help keep the hanging painting straight
and flat. The bottom roller rod is at the core of a hanging scroll when
it is rolled up.
All scrolls are fashioned to be rolled up for storage. While of
course hanging scrolls must be unrolled for display, with handscrolls
the action of unrolling is part and parcel of the enjoyment of the
painting, both visually and physically. In museums today, handscrolls
are usually displayed fully extended, a practice that underscores
their length and narrative complexity yet masks the traditional way
of viewing them. Moreover, exhibiting them this way obscures the
delight that occurs as one or two people slowly unroll a painting
to take it in. Each handscroll presents a continuous narrative that
embodies both time and space, encapsulated in a length that varies
from three feet to almost fifty feet. Within this narrative, the artist
can display activities occurring simultaneously across a far-flung area
or a journey that traverses the represented space progressively over a
time period. A handscroll is unrolled from right to left so that only
a shoulder’s-breadth portion is visible at one time. As one enjoys
the emerging visual narrative of the painting, the previously viewed
section is rerolled and concealed. In some ways, one encounters a
handscroll in the way one does a book. With a handscroll, one sec-
tion is revealed as another is rerolled, while in a book a page is turned
to move a narrative forward. With both a handscroll and a book,
there is a fixed beginning and end, a characteristic very different from
Arts and Crafts 37
 LEFT With firm grasp of the brush, this calligrapher is able to adjust
the intensity of the stroke as he writes each Chinese character.
BELOW The pussy willow–like plant in this painting is an auspi-
cious motif that is especially appropriate to hang at the New Year.
NEAR RIGHT Birds and flowers are a common subject matter in
Chinese painting, not only portraying naturalistic scenes but also
suggesting deeper meanings.
TOP RIGHT With examples of his paintings and calligraphy behind
him, this artist adds ink to his brush before beginning.
BOTTOM AND MIDDLE RIGHT Fans, like handscrolls, provide a
means to manipulate a scene for viewing.

a relatively static hanging scroll. Some handscrolls in fact are cal-

ligraphic texts that should be read sequentially. At the beginning of
most handscrolls is a title panel, while at the other end is a colophon
panel made up of inscriptions and the seals of the artist as well as
others who have owned or admired the painting.
Museum conservators and collectors today agree with Ming
dynasty connoisseurs like Wen Zhengheng, who argued in his
seventeenth-century Treatise on Superfluous Things that scroll “paint-
ings should be stored in caskets of fir wood, with absolutely no use of
lacquer or glued paper linings internally, lest they seep out and stain
the picture. In the fourth or fifth month, you should unroll every
piece and give them a brief sight of the sun, then return them to their
boxes at a distance of ten or so feet from the ground level, to prevent
foxing. Generally, when displaying pictures, they should be changed
every three to five days, to prevent both fatiguing the eye and damage
by dust. When taking them down, first whisk the dust off both sides
of the scroll, so that the surface will remain undamaged” (Clunas
1991: 42).

38 Things Chinese
Arts and Crafts 39
40 Things Chinese
Calligraphy
Paraphernalia
OPPOSITE This Studio of Gratifying
Discourse in the Minneapolis Institute of
Arts includes on the table objects such
as a small screen to block blowing air
and an armrest needed to avoid smudg-
ing while doing calligraphy.
⛢↿ไᙽ Wénfáng Sìbǎo ABOVE Brushes used to execute washes
on large paintings.
BELOW A porcelain container in which
to store brushes.
The writing brush (bi), ink stick (mo), ink slab or ink stone (yantai), and
paper (zhi)—indispensable paraphernalia for calligraphy and painting—are
known by all Chinese as wenfang sibao, “the four treasures of the study.”
Although these items are produced throughout China, Huizhou, a remote
prefecture in southern Anhui Province, gained fame as early as the twelfth
century for the high quality of its scholarly equipment. The importance of
the civil service examination system from the Song dynasty (960–1279) on-
ward spurred the demand for these products. Many of the old firms produc-
ing wenfang sibao are still active, even drawing Japanese and Korean artistic
connoisseurs to their shops.
Chinese writing brushes are usually made of a bamboo shaft with a
pointed tip of animal hair and whiskers from rabbits, goats, horses, ermine,
mice, or tigers, among many others, including humans. Brushes vary in size
and hardness, and instead of bamboo some have handles made of wood,
lacquer, porcelain, ivory, and jade. Calligraphers and painters have always
developed individual writing and painting styles and consequently pay great
attention to the sharpness of the tip and its responsiveness to the force they
exert on it.
Traditionally, ink was not initially in liquid form, making ink sticks and
ink slabs complementary elements to the brush, The solid rectangular ink
stick needs to be rubbed against the slab to produce a fine ink powder, which
is then mixed with water to produce fluid ink. By means of this practice, the
artist is able to adjust the density of the ink, varying either the ink powder
or water. The manufacture of ink sticks is a specialized craft that begins
usually with soot from old tung oil or pine trees, which is generally called
lampblack. This basic ingredient is bound with diverse substances according
to secret recipes that vary from place to place—animal glue produced from

Arts and Crafts 41

 boiling connective tissue, deer horns, varnish, pork fat, musk, lotus
root—before being kneaded and molded into sticks, octagons, ovals,
and round shapes. Drying takes at least a month and sometimes even
a one year before gold or silver calligraphic and pictorial engraving
is added directly onto one side of the stick. The Hu Kaiwen Ink Stick
factory, in operation since the eighteenth century in Tunxi, is said to
be the oldest continually operating workshop producing ink sticks.
However, most of the ink sticks found elsewhere in shops throughout
China today are low in quality, merely serviceable and without either
the luster or the endurance of high quality ink. Bottled prepared ink,
termed dead ink, is in fact more popular than freshly prepared ink
using an ink stick and stone, which by contrast is called live ink.
An ink slab, while essentially only a container on which to grind
an ink stick and mix the powder with water, is usually a richly orna-
mented and elegant object. Stone is the most common material for
the slab, but some old ink slabs are made of pottery, roof tiles, fired
bricks, celadon, and precious stones like agate and black jade. The
material used must not only be hard but also sufficiently dense that it
does not absorb the liquid. Each ink slab is usually much larger than
42 Things Chinese
functionally necessary and has a carved cover. Huizhou ink slabs are
said to have a ringing sound when they are knocked, while another
renowned type from Duanzhou in Guangdong Province has a purple
hue said to remind artists of clouds.
Paper, which is considered as one of the “four great inventions”
of ancient China, comes in infinite variety. Before the discovery of
paper early in the first millennium CE, tortoise shell, bone, bamboo
slips, and silk, among other materials, were pressed into service for
writing and painting. The fibers of ramie and hemp were probably
the first materials used in making paper, followed by tree bark, cloth,
rice, mulberry, and bamboo. Xuan paper, known for its strength,
luminosity, texture, and durability was produced by the time of the
Tang dynasty, eventually becoming the preferred medium for cal-
ligraphy and painting. Initially made of elm bark, it was later mixed
with rice, bamboo, mulberry, and other ingredients in a multistage
process that is still secret. There are different grades of Xuan paper
due to variations in the ingredients and production processes, which
contribute to differences in water absorbency as well as the bleeding
and fastness of the ink.
OPPOSITE LEFT, CENTER Inkstones from Shexian, Anhui province are
noted for the detailed carving along their sides and top.
OPPOSITE RIGHT An array of brushes, each with a different purpose.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Set in a hexagonal case, this ink block incorporates
calligraphy and a scene.
LEFT An artisan gilding the ornamentation along the sides of ink sticks,
Anhui.
BELOW Going beyond the traditional black ink sticks, today it is possible
to buy sticks in a variety of colors for watercolor painting.

ABOVE Shallow jade

vessel for mixing ink
and water.
BOTTOM LEFT A
calligrapher or painter
will use his personal
seal, such as is shown
here, to “sign” his
artwork.
BOTTOM RIGHT Blank
paper scrolls are
stored in this tubular
vessel for later use by
the calligrapher.

Arts and Crafts 43

 Cigarette Posters
箵㡾ᮩ੝Xiāngyān Guǎnggào

The 1920s and 1930s were a glamorous era in Shanghai, then a

cosmopolitan metropolis populated by foreigners from many na-
tions as well as Chinese urbanites who were yearning for China’s
advancement as a modern nation. So new and powerful was the
word modern that it was absorbed into the Chinese language as the
two-character word pronounced “modeng,” just as lipstick, high
heels, bobbed hair, and cigarettes, among other innovations, became
necessary components of Shanghai fashion. Consumption of what
at first were foreign imports surged as local production increased
and as advertising enticed even the most reticent to become con-
sumers of products identified as glamorously modeng.
The popularity and ubiquity of cigarettes—even in rural areas
and small towns—stemmed in large part from their promotion via
advertising campaigns that have bequeathed us with a distinctive
class of collectibles—cigarette cards, cigarette posters, and cigarette
calendars. One measure of the success of advertising is that cigarette
consumption in China swelled from 300 million in 1900 to 87 billion
in 1928; by comparison, in the United States the growth was only
from 2.5 billion to 100 billion during the same period (Cochran
1980: 234). Although cigarettes were new to China, the smoking
of tobacco in pipes was not. In fact, tobacco, like other New World
imports such as rice, peanuts, and potatoes, became a staple crop
throughout China from the sixteenth century onward. The replace-
ment of supposedly “coarse” pipe smoking with suave cigarette
smoking was one mark of Shanghai’s burgeoning consumer culture
between the two world wars.
During the first three decades of the twentieth century, the Brit-
ish-American Tobacco Company (BAT), a multinational corporation
with headquarters in New York and London, dominated the cigarette
market in China, competing with Chinese-owned firms such as
the Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company. Both of these companies ABOVE AND RIGHT Examples of antique cigarette posters found
created extensive distribution networks, deploying agents and sales- in Shanghai.

44 Things Chinese
men to market their products. Their advertising campaigns utilized
printed material to help promote cigarettes, with Western managers
preferring newspapers, posters, and cards. Chinese managers, on the
other hand, exploited “a variety of other advertising media—scrolls,
handbills, calendars, wall hangings, window displays, attractive and
strong cigarette packing cases (whose wood and nails were reused
by the Chinese), cotton canvas covers for the tops of carts, and small
rugs to serve as footrests in rickshaws” (Cochran 1980: 35). In “sell-
ing happiness,” as discussed by Ellen Johnston Laing in her book of
that title, the British-American Tobacco Company employed a stable
of artists who “produced inventive, attractive, and, at times, lavish
advertisement calendars and posters” (2004: 172)
Chinese cigarette posters especially have become a popular col-
lectible in recent years, partially because of their ubiquity but mainly
because of their beauty. While Westerners created some of the early
advertisements, both Chinese commercial artists and fine artists
were enlisted to create culturally appropriate forms. Sensitive to what
would resonate with Chinese of all classes, these artists at first often
featured legendary figures generally known by most Chinese, such as
personages in historical novels and operas, as cultural touchstones
and backdrops. Original designs featuring women and cigarettes
became the norm and the conjoined symbols of modernity, pre-
sented in a manner that complied with local tastes. With coiffed hair,
delicate makeup, high heels, and a stylish dress, an elegant woman
required a lighted cigarette between her fingers. Yet, in many cases,
the mere presence of a beautiful woman wearing a chic dress and
poised playfully without a cigarette in hand was sufficient to draw
attention to the cigarette packages in an adjacent panel. Sometimes
posed seductively, the woman would be shown with a man who
was treating her as an apparent equal. To print these fantasies of
the modern, Chinese workers were trained to operate the imported
lithographic presses that were employed in the mass-production of
paper advertisements.
Besides posters, illustrated calendars called yuefenpai increasingly
became a popular medium to advertise cigarettes, partially because
they were freely given as gifts by merchants at the turn of the new
year. They then were hung on walls in homes and often kept there
as decoration even after the coming of the following year. Hanging
Western-style calendars with modern themes was an extension of
the tradition of woodblock-printed pictorial calendars. In addition
to calendars, small “cigarette cards” were placed inside soft packs
of cigarettes as objects to collect, swap, and sometimes accumulate
in order to exchange for prizes. Cigarette cards have also become
contemporary collectibles. Posters advertising other goods such as
soaps, sugar, medicines, makeup, perfumes, oil, whiskey, cloth, teas,
and meats, while often as sophisticated as those popularizing smok-
ing, are available in various markets but strangely are less admired as
current collectibles.
Arts and Crafts 45
 Embroidery
ܹ俱 Cìxiù
Embroidery is one of a number of Chinese arts and crafts with a
millennia-old history. Many believe embroidery developed subse-
quent to silk production. Whether its techniques originated first in
the homes of villagers as a handicraft or were begun and refined by
skilled artisans within palaces or the sumptuous homes of wealthy
merchants or officials is impossible to determine, and indeed is prob-
ably irrelevant. What is undeniable is that the Chinese today continue
to produce matchless embroidered articles, some of which are ex-
pensive high quality pieces of art for display while many others are
simply beautiful utilitarian cloth objects. The quality of Chinese em-
broideries varies significantly, ranging from those that are exquisitely
hand-embroidered, appearing like fine paintings, to others produced
by computerized machines that crudely mimic hand embroidery,
sometimes even with printed backgrounds. The range of embroi-
dered items is incredibly broad, including cloth-enshrouded cases,
boxes, handbags, slippers, hats, lamp shades, bracelets, pillows, and an
46 Things Chinese

array of curios, including Christmas ornaments in addition to cloth-
ing, scarves, framed wall hangings, freestanding screens, and tabletop
displays in many sizes. To meet the demand from foreigners, embroi-
dered linen and linen-like tablecloths, napkins, place mats, and table
runners are now common in the embroidery shops in China.
There are four major centers of embroidery production in the
country, each with characteristic stitches, distinctive themes, and
unique textures that are employed by artisans with skilled hands,
fine eyesight, and enhanced powers of concentration. All are in areas
where villagers not only grow mulberry bushes and breed silkworms
but also weave cloth and ornament it with embroideries. In each
center is an Embroidery Research Institute and Museum dedicated to
preserving traditional techniques while innovating with products that
meet the needs of contemporary consumers.
While as many as forty different stitches are sometimes claimed,
there are actually four common ones with many variants: the satin
OPPOSITE, TOP AND BOTTOM Dragons and birds are common
themes in Chinese embroidery.
LEFT, ABOVE AND BELOW As in Chinese painting, bird and flower
motifs employ colors that are even more vibrant than in nature.
ABOVE Double-faced embroidery renders a lifelike portrait of a
young Miao woman. Tiny, nearly invisible stitches with thread that
is often split to create shading is among the techniques employed
by the artist.

Arts and Crafts 47

 RIGHT An unfinished piece of double-side embroidery on the frame.
BELOW Embroidered pillows with a stylized shou or longevity character.

stitch, couching stitch, stem stitch, and seed stitch. The satin stitch
is preferred when the intent is to create a smooth surface with at-
tention to simulating a kind of surface shading. A couching stitch,
which is essentially invisible, is one whose purpose is to anchor
other stitches, especially gold and silver threads that cannot be sewn
directly onto the fabric. Stem stitches involve the looping of a thread
around another thread to heighten its presence, as for example in
creating a prominent flower stem. The intricate seed stitch, which
appears in many variants, is referred to as the Chinese knot and
sometimes the forbidden stitch or blind stitch because it is said to
have ruined the eyes of young girls. This intricate stitch involves
wrapping silk floss around a needle and then stitching it down on
the fabric. The Chinese knot rarely appears alone but instead is
worked in rows or patterns so as to leave a finely textured surface
of small rings. While the base cloth to be embroidered traditionally
varied in weight from satin to gauze, today synthetic materials are
often used as well.
It is not surprising that the best-known of the four centers
of Chinese embroidery is in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, an area
renowned for its production of silk. Here, the specialty is silk em-
broidered pictures, which are usually referred to as thread painting
and embroidery painting, since many resemble the textured surface
one sees in an oil painting. Some of the pictures actually look like
fine photographs because of their shading. Double-sided embroi-
dery, also a well-known art in Suzhou, is accomplished by skilled
artists who split individual thin threads of silk into even thinner
filaments, or floss, that are then threaded into needles employed
for various stitching patterns. “Suzhou embroidery is famous for its
flat surfaces, neat edges, delicacy, closely packed stitches with even

48 Things Chinese
thickness and spacing, and harmonious colors,” all executed
with meticulous craftsmanship (Stalberg and Nesi 1980: 148).
Hunan embroidery emphasizes shading in the creation of
realistic depictions of landscapes and life-like images of animals,
especially tigers and lions, usually on a base of transparent chif-
fon silk. With hair-thin silk floss in colors that range from black
to white, animal fur is rendered in true-to-life textures that are
three-dimensional owing to the mixing of stitches and knots. A
special type of Hunan embroidery replicates traditional mono-
chrome ink-and-wash paintings by deploying silk floss in shades
of black, gray, and white. Guangdong embroidery is judged by
many to be showier than either Suzhou or Hunan styles. With a
palette of principal colors such as vibrant reds, yellows, and blues,
in addition to black and secondary colors, as well as gold and
silver, it should not be surprising that peacocks, butterflies, and
floral arrangements are common themes. Sichuan embroidery
flourishes in the western region of the province around the city of
Chengdu. Here, colored silks are used as the base material since
many of the embroidered objects serve as heavily ornamented
quilt covers and pillowcases. The most common embroidery
themes seen in shops throughout Sichuan are a group of pan-
das enjoying a meal of bamboo and a school of varicolored fish
swimming in a pond.
Ethnic minorities, among them the Bai, Miao, Zhuang, and
Tibetans, are also skilled embroiderers, each with their own style.
Tibetans are known for their embroidered wall hangings with
sacred Buddhist symbols on them. Thanka, which usually depict
a deity, mandala, or scene within a geometric frame, are generally
painted on silk or cotton but also are sometimes embroidered
or appliquéd. The Bai generally embroider on cotton cloth us-
ing cotton threads. Zhuang embroidered balls are seen often in
shops as well as dangling from sticks held by itinerant merchants
in southern China. Made of colored silk cloth sewn over a core,
these once were made by young girls to present to a prospective
suitor. Today, they are essentially showy ornaments. The Miao,
who are found in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hunan Provinces, em-
broider their jackets with narrative tales. Using techniques em- ABOVE Heavy metallic thread was used to embroider
ploying two needles simultaneously as well as braids of multiple the scenes shown here.
threads, their auspicious designs on jackets, bags, blankets, and
baby carriers are quite bold in both color and texture.

Arts and Crafts 49

 Carved Ivory
㫝眖Yádiāo
Excavations in northeast, northwest, and western China reveal that
elephants and rhinoceroses once roamed widely throughout the
country, although by the second millennium CE, elephants were only
found in southern China, where there still was tree cover. Mark El-
vin’s environmental history of China chronicles the Chinese struggle
against elephants and other animals over 4,000 years as peasants
cleared old-growth woodlands and domesticated their landscapes.
In the wake of frontier settlement, elephants and other wild animals
were slaughtered, forcing those that remained to retreat into rugged
50 Things Chinese
marginal habitats. Today, only some 300 wild elephants still roam the
uplands between China’s Yunnan Province and neighboring areas of
Laos and Burma, where they enjoy the status of a protected species.
Yet, even as elephants and rhinoceroses competed with humans
for limited land for several thousand years and thus faced extermi-
nation as a result of pressures from humans, they also were natural
resources that contributed to enriching human life as food, medicine,
transport, and clothing. In addition, the tusks and horns of these
creatures provided an extraordinary medium from which exquisite
artifacts were fashioned (Elvin 2004: 15–16).
Ivory carving is an age-old art practiced in China as well as else-
where in the world, such as in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and In-
dia. Using elephant tusks brought from Africa, even artists in Europe
created exquisite liturgical, devotional, and everyday items during the
Middle Ages and Renaissance that are prominently displayed in mu-
seums today. It should not be surprising that the Chinese similarly
valued the glossy sheen, malleable surfaces, and pleasing feel of the
elongated, creamy incisors of elephants, which we call ivory tusks.
Carved ivory pieces in China date back 7,000 years to the Neo-
lithic Hemudu site in Zhejiang. However, it was from the Yuan pe-
riod onward that artisan households began to create ingenious ivory
objects ranging in size from those that could be held in one hand to
larger-scale panoramic scenes. During the Ming and Qing dynas-
ties, utilizing tusks imported by ship in great numbers from India
and Africa, ivory carving reached an aesthetic high point that led to
an explosion of ornamental ivory curios. In addition to the age-old
method of shallow intaglio carving on the surface or in the round,
new techniques were developed. Interlaced lattice-like fretwork,
cleaved slices that could be plaited, as well as the inlaying of carved
ivory with other materials all became common methods of trans-
forming ivory into ornamental objects. Employing these methods,
lithe figures of women, cylindrical filigreed tubes, concave wrist rests,
 OPPOSITE TOP Ivory figurines and scepters.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Carved ivory card case.
ABOVE Carved in ivory, a lifelike pair of young children
with painted features.
RIGHT Two pages of an illustrated book with tiny Chinese
characters on one leaf are carved on this curved ivory tusk.
sturdy folding screens, delicate flower baskets, and true-to-life mod-
els of boats and buildings, among many other themes, all became
common. From the sixteenth century onward, the Portuguese and
others introduced Chinese carved ivory objects to European connois-
seurs, a process that accelerated during the final century of Qing rule
in the nineteenth century.
Beijing and Guangzhou are the two principal ivory carving
centers today in China, each with its own history and style. Lifelike
human figures, often with a curved back that replicates the natural
arc of a tusk and painted with colors, are a specialty of Beijing as are
realistic landscapes. Guangzhou artisans have long specialized in pro-
ducing concentric spheres made up of multiple layers of hollowed-
out rotatable balls, each carved with fine fretwork, as well as elaborate
flower boats and ornate landscapes. Although most of the concentric
balls have less than ten layers, some have many more. Working on the
creation of free-moving spheres involves drilling diagonal holes into
the solid piece of ivory, and then working layer-by-layer from the
inside out. Once each layer rotates freely, the artisan returns to carve
the surface of each of the spheres with relief sculptures. Where once
artisans used only hand tools and worked for months, even years, on
perfecting a fine object, craftsmen today turn out mass-market bric-
a-brac collectibles using electric tools.
Ivory carving thrived in China until the Convention on Interna-
tional Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) led to a moratorium on
the exporting of elephant tusks from Africa beginning in 1990, which
was subsequently relaxed. As can be witnessed in shops throughout
the world, however, the production and sale of expensive ivory art
objects, principally from China, persists at high levels. Yet, because of
limited supply and elevated prices, there is much fakery. Newer pieces
are transformed to appear like antiques, so that what seems aged is
sometimes nothing more than ivory exposed to smoke or bathed in
strong tea or coffee. Tourists searching for inexpensive ivory carvings
are likely to find only objects made of bone, imitation man-made
“ivory,” and even treated wood.
Arts and Crafts 51

Jade
Artifacts
㲫අ Yùqì
Confucius valued jade highly in comparison with soapstone, stat-
ing: “A gentleman always carries a jade pendant.” Indeed, the at-
tributes of jade corresponded with the virtues expected of a junzi, a
gentleman, whom Confucius considered a noble human, an exem-
plary person:
Soft, smooth, and glossy, it appeared to them like benevo-
lence; fine, compact, and strong—like intelligence; angular,
but not sharp and cutting—like righteousness; hanging down
(in beads) as if it would fall to the ground—like (the humil-
ity of) propriety; when struck, yielding a note, clear and
prolonged, yet terminating abruptly—like music; its flaws not
concealing its beauty, nor its beauty concealing its flaws—like
loyalty; with an internal radiance issuing from it on every
side—like good faith; bright as a brilliant rainbow—like
heaven; exquisite and mysterious, appearing in the hills and
streams—like the earth; standing out conspicuous in the sym-
bols of rank—like virtue; esteemed by all under the sky—like
the path of truth and duty. (Legge 1885: 464)
The term jade is a capacious descriptor for a versatile ornamen-
tal gemstone that exists in many forms. Jade is rare, revered, and
52 Things Chinese
BELOW Pieces of polished imperial jade.
thus costly but paradoxically is found in such abundance in count-
less Chinese street stalls as trinkets that the stone is often perceived
as commonplace and cheap. While Westerners usually seek out
luminescent green jade as being the only authentic form, Chinese
connoisseurs appreciate a broader range of colors, including black,
blue, pink, and a translucent white or light yellow form known as
“mutton fat” since it is said to resemble lard, in addition to various
shades of emerald green. The Chinese word yu is usually translated
into English as jade, but this single character alone does not distin-
guish between the two metamorphic rocks with interlocking crystals
that are commonly called jade—nephrite and jadeite, which differ in
their chemical composition, crystalline structure, translucence, and
colors. The Chinese refer to common nephrite as ruanyu, “soft jade,”
even though its value on the Mohs scale of hardness is quite close to
that of jadeite, which is called ying yu, “hard jade.” This distinction
has been known only since the nineteenth century.
Nephrite jade has long been the dominant form found in
China from Neolithic times to the present, a vast span of time dur-
ing which artisans crafted it into items ranging from ceremonial
and ritual artifacts to common utilitarian objects of great beauty.
Called the imperial stone and the stone of heaven, and said to be
more precious than silver, gold, and other gemstones, nephrite tra-
ditionally was mined in the lower Yangzi watershed and gathered ABOVE White jade carved into a bottle shape with removable cap, a
from streams in remote areas of Xinjiang in the northwest portion swirling fish, and a flower.
BELOW This single piece of multihued jade was carved into the
of the country. Jadeite jade, which is rarer than nephrite, is prized shape of a reclining horse with mottled markings.
for its iridescent emerald and pale apple-green color, which the
Chinese refer to as feicui or “kingfisher feathers jade.” Strange as it
may seem, jadeite is not mined within China but only began to be
imported into the country during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries from neighboring Burma, where it is found in a remote
area in the shadows of the Himalayas along the Thai-Burma border.
Over a short period of time, however, the imperial court came to
prize jadeite. Thus, most of the vivid emerald-green artifacts seen
in museums today date to no earlier than the late Qing dynasty in
contrast to the very old pieces of jade that have different colors.
Even in the present, remote mines in Burma, now renamed Myan-
mar, are a major source of the world’s jadeite, painstakingly exca-
vated from pits by heroin-addled workers.
Whether made of nephrite or jadeite, traditional jade objects
comprised both small ornaments to be worn as charms and amulets
and larger ceremonial and ritual objects with cosmological signifi-
cance. Pendants, hairpins, and belt hooks, among other decorative
items, in addition to statues of Buddhist deities in time expanded
the creative utilitarian repertoire.

Arts and Crafts 53

 Although at one time only textual references suggested that jade
burial suits were once considered a means of preserving the dead,
the discovery of at least six complete suits in various areas of China
since 1968 has led many archaeologists and historians to conclude
that they were probably quite common during the Han dynasty.
Even today, among Chinese there is an aura surrounding the owner-
ship and wearing of jade. Worn next to the skin, jade is a cool stone.
It is said to bring good fortune to those wearing a wrist bangle as
the bangle becomes smoother. Some Chinese in the past consumed
powdered jadeite in the belief that doing so fostered longevity, while
to the same end others favored carved jade for the mouthpieces of
opium pipes.
Many tours to China include visits to workshops where jade
artifacts of many types are fashioned using modern equipment to
recreate traditional designs. Even the casual tourist will stumble
across markets replete with faux jade artifacts fashioned out of other
stones, especially soapstone, serpentine, quartz, and even manufac-
tured glass. It is not unusual for inexpensive “jade” objects to have
been enhanced by chemical bleaches and impregnated with stains
and dyes. When purchasing inexpensive decorative objects said to
be carved pieces of jade, a buyer must assess several factors before
making the purchase: Is it really jade? Is it old? Was it created by an
artist or an amateur? Connoisseurs assert that the best way to tell
true jade is by handling it, since the “feel” is key, but this takes much
experience to perfect. Since both nephrite and jadeite are compara-
tively hard, they do not nick or scratch easily, whereas most pseudo-
jade articles can be scored with a sharp blade. Although many jade
pieces in the marketplace appear old, most are actually new, and
often crude, reproductions. Whether an intentional copy or a fake
fraudulently passed off as ancient, any jade curio must first satisfy
the buyer in terms of design, craftsmanship, and price. Athletes who
excelled at the 2008 Beijing Olympics discovered that their medals
included jade inserts on the back: pure white nephrite for the Gold
Medal, pale green nephrite for the Silver Medal, and a dark green
nephrite for the Bronze Medal. Gram for gram, the finest jade out-
paces even gold in monetary value.

LEFT, TOP AND BOTTOM Carved jadeite beads, triangles, and

circles are set with precious metals to produce a necklace and
earrings.

54 Things Chinese
BELOW AND RIGHT A tiger and a resting water buffalo are
carved from variegated dark jade.

BOTTOM, LEFT AND RIGHT Detailed carving along the side of a

large jade boulder.

Arts and Crafts 55

 RIGHT Hanging with double tassels, this is a
variant form of the Good Luck knot.
BELOW A selection of ornaments in various
media using knotting as inspiration.

Chinese
Knotting 信૿Jiépǐn

Knotting, like so many Chinese folk arts that evolved into a fine
art, had its roots in antiquity. Because of the perishability of fibrous
plant and animal materials, however, the best archaeological evi-
dence of this handicraft is old needles as well as images on bronzes,
sculptures, and later paintings. Jade pendants, scepters, and beads
with holes merely suggest the complexity of knots that once bound
them together. Glossed by Chinese dictionaries as “the joining of
two cords,” knotting evolved from being simply a functional product
to multifaceted forms of decorative embellishment. During the Qing
dynasty, knotting reached an apex of creative ingenuity, technical
skill, and refined aesthetics before sliding into relative obscurity
in the second half of the twentieth century. A revival of interest in
Taiwan in the late 1970s led to a renaissance in the art form not only
on the island but more recently throughout East Asia at about the
same time that decorative macramé gained renewed popularity in
the West.
Chinese knots are normally tied using a single red cord about
three feet in length and are fashioned into a symmetrical body that is
tightly bound, three-dimensional, and complete on both sides. Cords
traditionally were made of cotton, flax, silk, and leather, in addi-
tion to gold and silver. Knotting guides today typically present more
than a dozen basic designs, each of which has many variations and
permutations: cloverleaf knot; round brocade knot; pan chang knot;
constellation knot; good luck knot; Buddha knot; double connection
knot; plafond knot; flat knot; creeper knot; double coin knot; button
knot; cross knot; and tassel knot. Four fundamental techniques are
employed to tie them, including pulling and wrapping outer loops;
using single flat knots; overlapping outer loops; and, knotting semi-

56 Things Chinese
outer loops (Chen 2007: 17ff). Rudimentary knots become complex
by duplicating the original knot or by adding a different knotting
sequence. While knowing the sequence of tying a knot is fundamen-
tal, it is the tightening of the knot in order to even out its structure
that elevates the resulting form to an art object.
Knotting provides a means to communicate a full range of auspi-
cious ideas at weddings and birthdays. Propitious designs were com-
monly used in bridal chambers, where the knots were strung together
alongside canopy beds as a form of ornamentation. Mentioned in
poems and novels, a specific conjoined knot came to symbolize love
and was used often in the marriage ceremony, on sedan chairs, and
in the bedroom. Traditional men’s and women’s garments employed
button knots and ornamented sashes to fasten pieces of cloth. In mu-
seums, it is often easy to overlook knots since they are usually subor-
dinate to other objects on display, appearing only as accoutrements
on frayed and faded tassels.
Traditional knotting simply required the dexterity of two hands,
nimble fingers, and a cord. Today, many also use pushpins, tweezers,
sewing needles, and nail polish to facilitate their knotting. In addition
to traditional knots, craftspeople in China and abroad have become
creative in fashioning nylon knotting cord into three-dimensional TOP Crafted of color stones, this knot enhances the irregular pave-
objects as tabletop centerpieces and large wall hangings that diverge ment in a Suzhou garden.
significantly from the smaller, exquisite traditional forms. ABOVE The tight button knot is both decorative and functional once
stitched to a garment.
BELOW LEFT This perforated window along a corridor in a Suzhou
garden is in the shape of a knot.
BELOW RIGHT The Pan Chang knot is here set within another knot.

57
 Lacquerware
Lacquer is an ingenious raw material—a naturally occurring poly-
mer—that can be used to create objects said to equal porcelain in
durability and lightness as well as lustrous appearance. Archaeolo-
gists have unearthed lacquer-covered black pottery objects from the
Neolithic period, which gives Chinese lacquerware a history of more
than four thousand years. Some of the most remarkable examples
of lacquerware in China were excavated between 1972 and 1974 at
Mawangdui in Hunan Province at a site that was exposed when the
People’s Liberation Army was building a factory. The tomb of the
Marquis of Dai and his wife, which dates to the fifth century BCE,
included not only exquisite silk garments, banners, and maps but
also an extensive array of lacquerware that included nested coffins,
artifacts that highlight the skill levels at that time.
Lacquerware was among the most esteemed products carried
by Portuguese and Dutch traders back to their home countries from
the fifteenth century onward. As these products became increasingly
fashionable, Europeans learned the secrets and formulas of their
manufacture, thus permitting them to imitate the Chinese forms.
The eighteenth century was a golden age for lacquer production in
Europe, especially in Italy, Germany, and France, where the products
expressed an evolution of tastes, especially for lacquered furniture.
Lacquer is first a clear sap harvested from the trunk of the appro-
58 Things Chinese
㖊අ Qīqì
priately named lac or lacquer tree, a species found in China, Japan,
Korea, and Southeast Asia, where the production of lacquerware
objects is well developed. In its initial state, the sap is watery, but after
being stirred and excess moisture is evaporated to thicken it, raw
lacquer turns into a darker, viscous liquid. Thinning with oils, such as
tung oil, imparts new properties to the liquid, while the addition of
natural pigments multiplies the color possibilities. Lacquer is applied
to a core of wood, bamboo, or cloth layer-by-layer, either by brush
or by dipping the object. Each layer is allowed to dry in the dark,
forming a hardened skin on the surface, which becomes even more
durable as additional layers are added and cured. Lacquerware ob-
jects have always been made in workshops, because their production
requires multiple steps, each involving the techniques and tools of
specialized craftsmen, many of whom did not possess the full range
of secrets involved in the craft.
Lacquerware includes objects for daily use such as plates, bowls,
cups, spoons, chopsticks, ladles, pillows, and lidded boxes as well as
musical instruments, chariots, furniture, thrones, and even coffins,
besides a broad range of purely decorative objects. While much lac-
querware is smooth with a pearl-like luster that some say is as radi-
ant as porcelain, other pieces are richly ornamented, either through
painting or engraving. Incised or engraved lacquerware emerged
as exquisite craftwork during the Yuan and Ming dynasties and
remained popular throughout the Qing dynasty. After scores and
perhaps even a hundred coats of lacquer were applied by dipping or
by brush, three-dimensional scenes could be carved into the object.
In order to accentuate the pattern, the color of different lacquer
coats could be varied. Sometimes incised lines were filled with silver
powder or gold leaf. While most incised lacquerware objects are ver-
milion in color, which results from employing cinnabar, many others
are green or yellow, while still others reveal diverse colored layers,
especially alternating red and black
Lacquerware embedded with lustrous mother-of-pearl, sea
shells, ivory, coral, jade, gold, silver, and copper is called hundred-
treasures inlays. This embedded ware provided a rich medium for
the artist to mix textures and colors to create images that appear life-
like. Employed not only on small objects to be displayed on a table
or desk, this technique is also used for folding and hanging screens,
cabinets, and benches. Bodiless lacquerware is a unique form pro-
duced only in Fuzhou, Fujian. Remarkably light and delicately
ornamented, bodiless lacquerware begins with a slight inner body
made of plaster, wood, or clay, which is covered with several layers
of cloth that are first stiffened with clear lacquer and then coated
with lacquer having the desired color. Once the lacquer is dry, the
inner body is excavated before the object is coated with more layers,
thus making it far lighter than those objects where the solid interior
remains. As the additional layers of lacquer are applied, allowed to
cure, and polished, a lustrous finish emerges that can be left as a
single color or painted in multiple colors. Fuzhou lacquerware is
usually also carved with patterns.

OPPOSITE LEFT Engraved lacquer vase reveals levels of incision.

OPPOSITE CENTER Polished lacquerware pitcher.
OPPOSITE RIGHT Lacquerware with inlaid woods and stones.
ABOVE WITH CLOSE-UP Incised lacquerware screen with a trio of
writing dragons.
LEFT Polished lacquerware plate.

Arts and Crafts 59

 ABOVE With his arm raised, Mao is surrounded by adoring workers, peasants, and
soldiers as well as figures representing oppressed peoples around the world.
BELOW A small selection of the hundreds of different types of Mao pins and
statues, with a Red Guard armband, above.
RIGHT The “Little Red Book,” the Quotations of Chairman Mao,
in Chinese, English, French, and German.
OPPOSITE Mao at rest in a pensive mood.

60 Things Chinese
Mao Memorabilia
ダ㉪Ĥ无Ṉ૿ Máo Zédōng Jìniànpǐn
During the ten-year Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, as
with other Chinese mass movements, not only were propaganda
posters produced in prodigious numbers, but also statues, pins,
books, wall hangings, and myriad other objects were created to pro-
mote an ideology focused on glorifying Mao Zedong. It is safe to say
that no other individual, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol
Pot, Che Guevara, Idi Amin, and Kim Jung Il, has received the same
order of sustained adoration as a cult figure as Mao, and certainly
none has been the object of a crazed revival. The Quotations from
Chairman Mao, a little red book published in a format small enough
to fit into a pocket, was so popular that upward of five billion cop-
ies are said to have been printed, exceeding any other book in the
twentieth century. While Mao was alive, statues, busts, lapel pins,
badges, and plates served as mementos celebrating his physical form
and revolutionary vision, while thermos bottles, caps, bags, tea cups,
flower vases, key chains, watches, lighters, windup clocks, ash trays,
and other objects, each emblazoned with images and words to ex-
press the “fervent love for Chairman Mao,” brought his persona into
the utilitarian realm.
Respecting the prevailing politics of the time, it was more com-
mon to view the left profile of Mao rather than the right. Badges, the
larger the better, were to be pinned over the heart. While some of
these objects were available for sale, most were distributed by work
units as prizes or as symbolic additions to uniforms. Especially as
young Red Guards traveled widely, items were swapped among their
peers, creating a veritable national market. Some fervent believers
became avid enthusiasts of the mementos, amassing amazingly rich
collections. When Mao died in 1976, it is likely that billions of such
items were stored in drawers or closets at home, circulating in mar-
kets, or still being worn and used. In 1980, the government issued
a directive warning that Mao badges and other items should not be
improperly disposed of. Some observers believe as many as 90 per-
cent of badges were turned in and recycled by 1988.
As the centenary of Mao’s birth loomed in 1993 and continuing
through the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the PRC in 2009,
Mao fever, as the Chinese call it, also surged. For some, the wear-
ing of a Mao badge, hanging of a Mao portrait, or use of an object
containing an image or saying of Mao expressed an explicit longing
for the period in recent history when society was more egalitarian
and morality was promoted. While authentic pieces are still found in
enormous quantity today, there is also a cottage industry turning out
replicas and fakes to help satisfy and capitalize on the demand. Most
of the original Mao-era products were manufactured using recycled
Arts and Crafts 61
 RIGHT Collection of unpainted Mao figurines and plaques on display in a
Singapore apartment.
BELOW Contemporary Chinese sculptor Sui Jianguo fabricated a series
of freestanding and hollow Mao jackets of iron and candy-colored fiber-
glass, which, without heads, torsos, or hands, serve as ironic metaphors
of times past.
OPPOSITE LEFT In this sophisticated Shanghai bedroom of the designer
Kenneth Grant Jenkins, the sofa holds pillows with images of pop icons
such as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and even Che Gue-
vara as well as nine portraits on one pillow of the Great Helmsman, Mao
Zedong.
OPPOSITE RIGHT Here, the bust of Chairman Mao is a mere accent in a
modern apartment in Singapore.

or scrap materials such as toothpaste tubes, packaging, and boxes.

Today, Mao objects are produced either en masse on factory assembly
lines or in smaller numbers in household workshops, sometimes us-
ing recycled materials as in the past. In recent years, moreover, kitschy
new Mao products such as refrigerator magnets, bobblehead dolls,
seat cushions, T-shirts, yo-yos, mouse pads, beer mugs, playing cards,
and cuff links are found on market stalls throughout China.
Once symbols of revolutionary zeal and relict artifacts from a
tumultuous period, Mao memorabilia have morphed into a com-
modity and collectible not only in China but worldwide. Mao today
is a marketable brand with a new generation of consumer goods
attached to his name. Nowhere in China is identified more with
Mao than Shaoshan, his birthplace in Hunan Province. Building
on a long history of revolutionary cult sites, Shaoshan has become

62 Things Chinese
a mecca for Red Tourism by masses of Chinese. During the sixtieth
anniversary of the establishment of the PRC 2009, more than 3.5 mil-
lion pilgrims—old revolutionaries as well as those born after Mao’s
death—came to Shaoshan. Responding to the increasing number of
shoddy mementos being sold with Mao’s likeness, local officials have
become more vigilant in ensuring that the souvenirs for sale are of
better quality. From July 1, 2010 on, according to the national news
organization Xinhua, “all Mao statues sold in Shaoshan must meet
new technical criteria or could be confiscated and destroyed.”
Tucked away along a small lane in Chengdu, Sichuan, is a clut-
tered and eccentric private museum chockful of more than fifty
thousand Mao badges, pins, and other ephemera. Wang Anting’s
“Little, Little Mao Exhibit Hall,” which opened in 1989, has entered
the Guinness World Records, but in 2009 the ramshackle structure
with its unparalleled collection was up for sale by its aged, infirm, yet
ardent owner. Theme restaurants have been opened in many cities
in China (and indeed in other Asian cities, such as Singapore where
two branches of the House of Mao welcome locals and tourists alike),
with furnishings, decorations, and even Mao’s favorite Hunan food.
Moreover, temples that honor Mao have been constructed, where,
as with other gods, folk of all classes come to light incense and burn
paper money. Throughout China today, taxi and other drivers dangle
multicolored trinkets with images of Mao from their rearview mir-
rors as a protective talisman. An odd permutation on Mao memo-
rabilia emerged in 2009 as President Barack Obama was preparing
for his state visit to China. In stalls throughout Beijing, “Oba Mao”
merchandise began to appear, in which Obama was dressed in a
green Red Army uniform with the Chinese characters for “Serve the
People” emblazoned beneath his image on T-shirts, magnets, key
chains, even pajamas.
Arts and Crafts 63
 Papercuts
‫ހ‬俆Jiǎnzhǐ
The tradition of papercutting dates back some two thousand years
and continues to be a popular folk art form in countless Chinese
homes, especially in rural villages. While it is not possible to pre-
cisely date the origins of this craft, its development likely followed
the “invention” of paper, which tradition places in 105 CE during
the Han dynasty, although remnants of crude paper made from
vegetable fibers have been found that date from even earlier. The
earliest excavated examples of papercuts—with geometric as well
as animal motifs—were discovered in 1959 in Xinjiang, where their
fragility was overcome by the dryness of the climate. Silver, pounded
thin into foil, like black paper, also has a long history of being cut
into intricate designs suitable for ornamentation in women’s hair.
There are regional differences in the styles and uses of paper-
cuts; indeed, variations exist from village to village, and families
hand down their favored patterns from generation to generation.
Throughout China, papercuts are principally associated with two
events, the annual New Year festivities and periodic celebrations
attending marriages. Both are a time of joy, renewal, and family
gathering, as well as an opportunity to prepare fine food and display
favored ornamentation. The New Year, which falls in January or Feb-
ruary during the depths of winter, is often a bleak time with rather
subdued and monochrome colors of nature except in southern Chi-
na. Thus, the presence of colorful New Year papercuts, prints, and
lanterns in their many forms adds a bright, even ostentatious, qual-
ity to the occasion. With harvesting long over and spring planting
yet to begin, families pass time by diligently preparing for the arrival
of the New Year. Women especially are busy with the production of
handcrafted ornaments as well as the cleaning of the home, an es-
sential obligation as the lunar New Year approaches. Replacing the
translucent paper that covers lattice wooden window frames is part
of the New Year ceremony of renewal, and the stark white spaces
64 Things Chinese
that are left invite fresh ornamentation. Small papercuts, which the
Chinese call chuanghua or “window flowers” even though they are
not always flowers, are pasted into the open squares so that they face
into the rooms and can be enjoyed as sunlight projects them onto
interior surfaces. At night, when viewed from the outside, each deli-
cate papercut appears like a puppet shadow cast on a screen by the
illumination of an electric bulb or oil lamp.
Another form of New Year papercut is called guajian or “hanging
papercuts,” which, because of a near homonymic relationship with
the Chinese word for cash, are also called “hanging money” gua-
qian. Usually red in color, but sometimes multicolored, they are small
rectangular sheets cut into ornamental fretwork, which are then hung
alone or side-by-side in sets on the lintel above the doorway of the
dwelling or the outer gate. These complement New Year’s couplets
that surround the door and pictures pasted on the door panels as
well as the “window flowers.” Whether there are three, four, five, or
six guajian depends on how fulsome is the message inviting good
fortune. Inside the home during the New Year, it has been common
to affix paper cutouts also along the walls surrounding a bed and
even on chests, basins, and teapots.
Over the course of a year, it is rare for there not to be at least one
wedding in a Chinese village or neighborhood. During this time of
celebration and showiness, papercuts play a prominent role and are OPPOSITE AND ABOVE Fish are a common cut-paper motif because
called xihua or “joyous flowers,” whatever their form. No papercut of a homophonous association with the word for “abundance.”
BELOW Using a pair of scissors, an artisan deftly cuts paper into
is more in evidence than the dyad shuangxi or “doubled happiness,” decorative patterns.
which is expressed by a Chinese character not found in any diction-
ary but known by all Chinese. Formed by writing together a pair of
characters meaning “joy,” or xi, the pseudo-character shuangxi is one
of the most commonly seen “words” in and about many Chinese
dwellings—above the gate, on doors and windows, on the ceiling
above the bed. With an uncomplicated symmetry, the shuangxi fig-
ure papercut is sometimes made complex with the addition of other
emblems that amplify its meanings to include wishes for sons and
other hopes for happiness and long life.
Papercuts traditionally were crafted using scissors to cut either
a single sheet of thin paper or a small pile fastened together. Sharp,
pointed scissors, discussed elsewhere, work well whether they are
being operated freehand or following a stencil printed using a wood-
block. Papercuts given shape with scissors are often bold, sometimes
not more than a silhouette, and are usually done from memory,
without a pattern. Cutting complex patterns with fretwork is virtu-
ally impossible using scissors except in the hands of a master able
to manipulate a very small pair. Using a scalpel-like knife to make
papercuts is a later development and more popular today. Multiple
layers of thin sheets of paper beneath a pattern are attached with
pins to a wax- or tallow-covered board, so that the sharp knife, held
vertically like a brush, can cut through all the layers. For simple
designs, as many as forty layers of thin paper can be stacked and cut
reasonably well, while intricate patterns may not exceed a half dozen
sheets. A skilled practitioner usually has a set of knives that facilitate
the cutting of squares, curves, and circles.

Arts and Crafts 65

 Personal
Possessions
Most of the objects found in a traditional Chinese home were not indi-
vidual belongings but property shared by the household and passed from
generation to generation. One notable exception was the dowry brought
into a marriage by a new bride. Among those with limited resources, it was
rare for there to be truly personal possessions, yet those with wealth enjoyed
more personal effects. While clothing and shoes can vary from simple to
elaborate, serving both utilitarian and decorative needs as well as sometimes
even being shared, other objects are truly personal, individualized to meet
the requirements of the owner. Nothing Chinese is more personal than a
seal, which has carved into its base Chinese characters representing the “sig-
nature” that serves to certify one’s identity. Like jewelry, snuff bottles, schol-
ars’ rocks, and ruyi scepters are sometimes masterpieces in miniature, with
aesthetic and tactile qualities that are appreciated most by those who choose
them. Golden lotus shoes and opium pipes, which represent vestiges of per-
sonal practices now viewed as loathsome, today are mere collectibles.

66 Things Chinese
Personal Possessions 67
 Scissors ‫ ۣހ‬Jiǎndāo
Whether tiny and used for embroidery or large and employed to
make clothing as well as for other purposes, traditional Chinese scis-
sors are distinctive in shape: what defines them is a pair of bulbous
loops that leave plenty of room for the fingers and are connected by
a hammered iron rivet set between them and their matched blades.
Scissors were once hand-forged by a Chinese cutler, who also made
metal knives, razors, tweezers, gravers, and carving tools in his
blacksmith shop. While associated with the cutting of threads and
cloth, scissors of a slightly different form are used in the kitchen to
gut fowl, devein shrimp, and trim beans, among other uses. Some
scissors used by women have the loops wound with strips of rattan
or cane. Today’s scissors, often made of steel rather than iron, are
fabricated in larger workshops using a mixture of traditional and
modern methods. These workshops produce a range of all-purpose
implements said to be able to cut anything from sheet metal to fine
silk without ever getting dull. When made of iron, they must be
dried after use.
No scissor manufacture in China is more famous than the Zhang
Xiaoquan Scissors Factory, founded in 1663 in Hangzhou, and which
68 Things Chinese
today produces some 45 million pairs of 120 different styles each
year. Production is said originally to have required 72 steps, but these
have been reduced to 24 as some 90 percent of the process is now
mechanized. One hallmark of the Zhang Xiaoquan brand is that
elaborate landscapes and images of birds, flowers, and animals are
still carved by hand along the surface of each pair. Factory workers
take great pride in the fact that the company’s scissors won inter-
national accolades in various expositions such as the San Francisco
Expo in 1915 and the Philadelphia Expo in 1926, besides having been
designated “Imperial Palace Scissors” by the Qing emperor’s court.
In modern times, Zhang Xiaoquan has been designated a laozihao
or “heritage brand,” one of numerous centuries-old crafts products
identified as worthy of protection.
Although scissors are sometimes packaged in beautiful boxes,
they are rarely offered as gifts because of gift-giving taboos. Just as
with the taboo about giving a clock because the Chinese word zhong
is homophonous with the character for “termination” or “end of life,”
scissors recall for many the idea of splitting apart and cutting rela-
tionships, an unlucky portent.
Antique hand-forged scissors in various shapes and sizes.

Personal Possessions 69
 Cloth Shoes
᫪砽 Bùxié

Nineteenth-century Christian missionaries in China remarked

that peasants in the countryside and laborers in towns functioned
remarkably well with hardened bare feet, without the need for foot-
wear. Yet, the Chinese have for millennia been producing shoes that
range from the purely utilitarian to those that are remarkably beau-
tiful. Making footgear of woven straw is a craft that used to be prac-
ticed in villages throughout the country. If one looks carefully in old
residences, it is sometimes possible to spot a typical bench once used
for this purpose. (Examples are illustrated in Knapp 2005: 227 and
Hommel 1937: 202.) Visitors to some of China’s sacred mountains
may find available for purchase old-style straw sandals that are more
comfortable than leather shoes or even sneakers when climbing.
Leather shoes, which today are worn by men and women through-
out the country, have become popular only over the past century.
Cloth shoes of cotton or silk, on the other hand, have a long his-
tory as footwear for those who could afford them and whose lives
were generally more comfortable than those of the laboring classes.
Whether the uppers were plain cotton or embroidered silk, the soles
and insoles traditionally were made either of felt, a non-woven cloth
produced by compacting woolen fibers and animal hair, or cotton
rags, a component arising out of Chinese notions of thrift. To pro-
duce the latter, irregular pieces of old rags and fibrous hairs as well
as other materials of vegetable origin were first glued together in as
many as twenty or more thin layers before being stitched all around, ments of Bibles, so enthusiastically accepted by the local Chinese,
trimmed, and then bound by a custom-cut perimeter welt. Young had gone straight into saving their soles instead of their souls” (Aero
women sometimes prepared embroidered insoles with auspicious 1980: 213). Even Pearl Buck in her Good Earth wrote that a sheet of
designs that could be slipped into the shoes of their husband on their paper from a religious tract showing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
wedding day. was used by Wang Lung’s wife to strengthen a shoe’s sole. Yet, in
Among the poorest in China, scavenged strips of paper without seeking confirmation of such alleged practices, one can turn to the
writing were used in place of rags for insoles. Some have asserted 1888 Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal for a spirited exchange
that “missionaries from the West were startled to find that their ship- among missionaries on the topic. While a few missionaries claimed

70 Things Chinese
that such practices occurred in various areas of China at that time,
many others expressed skepticism, because their experience was that
even destitute and illiterate Chinese usually expressed reverence for
paper that had written or printed Chinese characters on it.
Apart from cotton or paper soles, which were frequently hand-
crafted at home as were many of the cotton and silk uppers, the com-
bining of the components was usually accomplished by an itinerant
shoemaker. The tools he carried included a wooden shoe last, clamps,
awls, needles, thread, and knives, all required to fashion a wearable
shoe. Traditionally, there was no differentiation of shoes for the right
and left feet, since the fabric was expected to quickly assume the
shape of the foot that wore it. In villages and small towns throughout
China today, one can still see roadside cobblers who not only repair
leather soles and heels but also mend all types of cloth shoes.
OPPOSITE Common black cloth shoes contrast with richly embroi-
Black cloth shoes seen in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century dered women’s silk slippers. The pair of hand-embroidered insoles
photographs evidence a variety of styles even as they present for the include the calligraphic dyad shuangxi, meaning “doubled happi-
most part rather straightforward and uncomplicated shapes. Most ness,” a blessing worn in the shoes of a newlywed.
ABOVE In Weishan in Yunnan Province, a shoemaker uses a pair of
are slip-ons that cover the toe and grasp the heel. Some cotton shoes
scissors to cut the parts that will comprise a cloth shoe.
for women have relatively simple embroidery on their uppers. Silk BELOW Mothers traditionally made children’s shoes in the shape of
slippers, on the other hand, provide a medium for elaborate embroi- animals to frighten off dangerous spirits. The generous whiskers on
dery on the toes as well as the sides and also a varied palette of colors, these tigers lend a playful touch.
including basic black. Hand-embroidered portrayals of writhing
dragons, floral arrangements, butterflies, and birds, among many
other objects, are common patterns still found on silk slippers, many
of which also have a cotton lining. Chinese brides even today often
wear ornamented silk or satin shoes with auspicious meanings em-
broidered on them. A special type of cloth shoe was made for babies
and young children, and still can be seen worn in villages throughout
the country. Some are merely playful and have a shape resembling an
animal, like a pig or fish, but most are covered with protective and
propitious emblems. For example, the image of a tiger—believed by
Chinese to be the king of beasts—on shoes, a cap, or a smock con-
tinues to be viewed as capable of protecting a child’s health and of
dispelling evil generally.
China today is the world’s leading producer and exporter of both Jane Chinese shoes”—as well as a variety of Kung Fu shoes with
leather shoes and athletic footwear, although market share is shifting cotton soles. Capitalizing on China’s current preeminence in manu-
toward other Asian countries. Chinese companies, moreover, also facturing shoes and wishing to promote the fact that “shoe wearing
market widely in the West the affordable and sturdy Chinese-style and making in China can be traced back 4,000 years,” a private “shoe
cotton or velvet shoes that have either plain black uppers or bright culture” museum, said to be “a shoe fetishist’s dream with over 1,000
embroidery, a strap, and non-slip rubber soles—advertised as “Mary pairs on display,” opened in Tianjin in May 2010.

Personal Possessions 71
 Ethnic Minority Jewelry
᝞⚾ㄛ❠箌૿Shǎoshù Mínzú Shìpǐn

When the arts and crafts of China are written about, the material ob-
jects created by artisans and craftsmen of China’s fifty-five ethnic mi-
nority groups are all too often either overlooked or disregarded. Sadly,
minority nationalities are frequently dismissed as a collection of back-
ward and inferior, even primitive, peoples yearning to be transformed
by a civilizing process brought to them by the dominant Han. Yet, as
nineteenth-century European explorers and more recent travelers have
discovered, many of these supposedly “lesser” cultures have created dis-
tinctive jewelry, clothing, musical instruments, and buildings, among
other material objects, that are aesthetically sophisticated, technically
advanced, and strikingly different from those of the Han. Westerners
know many of these objects in variant forms found to the south of
China in the northern parts of neighboring Thailand, Laos, Vietnam,
TOP LEFT The back of an ornate headdress worn by a Hani woman at the Xiding
and Burma rather than as forms found in China.
market in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province.
Although one could select the material objects—things—of virtu- TOP RIGHT Women’s silver cuff bracelets, embellished with silver wire, silver
ally any national minority for discussion, the images shown in this granulation, and enamel.
chapter highlight the silver jewelry produced by the Miao, Blang, and ABOVE The three most common designs of silver neck rings—solid, torque
(twisted), and flat—popular with Miao, Hani, and Lahu. Torques are
Hani, who are all upland ethnic minorities. The Miao are found prin-
worn particularly by the Miao, and flat rings particularly by Hani women.
cipally in Guizhou, Hunan, and Yunnan Provinces, while the Blang and OPPOSITE TOP Miao women’s silver headdresses, for weddings and other
Hani are concentrated only in Yunnan Province. Other ethnic minor- special occasions, are elaborate and varied but are typically constructed of
ity groups, such as the Bai, Dai, Dong, , Lahu, Shui, Tibetans, Yao, and thin plates cut into various shapes, prominently birds and flowers, often with
a frieze of horsemen on the headband. A common feature is that many of these
Yi in southwestern China and the Kazaks, Kirghiz, Mongols, and Uy- shapes are set en tremblant, on protruding wires, for a dynamic effect.
ghurs in northwestern China also are well-known for their jewelry. OPPOSITE BOTTOM Dragon-head bracelets are favored by Hani men.

72 Things Chinese
 Like other ethnic minority groups, the Miao, Blang, and Hani have
vibrant traditions involving music and dance that are connected with
periodic festivals, and their customs include dowries and engagement
presents related to marriage. Together with funerals, these provide
occasions for displaying sumptuous ornamentation and festive at-
tire. Moreover, even in daily activities, such as going to market, ethnic
minority women often wear eye-catching jewelry. While such jewelry
largely adorns women, men traditionally have been the artisans work-
ing silver into objects of beauty. Silversmiths rarely practice full-time;
rather they are farmers who craft seasonally, especially to meet the
demand during the intense period of courting that takes place in April
and at the time of weddings, held in November (Star 2006: 10).
While high-grade silver jewelry is notable and possessed by fami-
lies of some means, it should be recognized nonetheless that most
marginalized upland minorities are poor. Thus, it is common also to
see cruder, less expensive, and lower quality jewelry made of silver
alloys, such as alpaca, which is a copper alloy that includes nickel and
often zinc. There are also reports of replica-like flashy jewelry worn
by poor village girls that is made of aluminum. In the past, the source
of silver was common trade, but for many decades the main source
has been government-regulated shops that sell silver sheets to ethnic
minorities. The practice of melting down old and new silver coins,
often from neighboring countries such as Thailand, in order to create collars, torques, pendants, hairpins, chaplets, rings, back ornaments,
jewelry, also continues. and anklets, among other ornamental and occasionally utilitarian ob-
While some traditional Miao jewelry is cast in lead molds, it can jects, in addition to stacked headdresses and adorned clothing. Many
also be handcrafted out of worked wire, producing both filigreed and of these ornaments are bright in lustre and jangling in sound. When
openwork patterns, linked chains, hoops, spirals, and layered motifs fully ornamented for celebratory occasions, young Miao girls can be
that sometimes involve enameling, the embedding of gemstones and weighted down with jewelry totaling more than twenty pounds.
glass, and even the addition of gold. Ornamental silver jewelry includes Among the accessible areas to witness and purchase ethnic minor-
dimensional and flat metalwork such as earrings, bracelets, neck rings, ity jewelry and clothing is the Xishuangbanna (Sipsongpanna) area
of southern Yunnan, especially during the weekly markets in Xiding
town, as well as in Kaili in southern Guizhou Province. The markets
attract Miao, Hani, and Blang buyers and sellers in addition to other
ethnic minorities living in the surrounding hills and valley bottoms.
Seen in the market stalls are both simple handicraft ornaments such as
buttons and studs and delicate and elaborate jewelry made by skilled
artisans. While most traditional ornaments were once handmade only
by individual silversmiths, today small workshops or even factories
have been set up to meet the demand from both domestic and inter-
national tourists.

Personal Possessions 73
 TOP AND ABOVE Taken at the end of the imperial era, these old photo-
graphs reveal the diminutive shape of the constricted foot.
RIGHT TOP The bony structure of a regular and a bound foot are con-
trasted in this schematic drawing.
RIGHT MIDDLE An antique pair of Golden Lotus shoes with low heel.
RIGHT BOTTOM Soft booties to be worn when relaxing, but not for walking.

74
Golden Lotus Shoes
ċ᜸濠垲Sāncùn Jīnlián
Golden lotus shoes are objects that fascinate even as they engender
in many a sense of revulsion because they are associated with the tra-
dition of altering the feet of young girls by binding them. Portrayed as
one element in the oppression of women in China, the transformation
of a normal foot into a grotesquely crippled one has been a common
theme in popular treatments of the practice. Binding feet, which be-
gan in China in the tenth century during the late Tang dynasty, was
primarily a painful activity engaged in by upper-class elite women as a
component of the Confucian cult of domesticity. The practice gradu-
ally spread to lower classes and by the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries was shared by common women both in the countryside
and in cities. The classic novel Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus) of the
late sixteenth century includes depictions of singing girls with bound
feet and discussions of elegant golden lotus shoes. During the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century, campaigns were waged against
footbinding largely by foreign missionaries and Chinese reformers.
Yet, in some areas of China footbinding persisted until the 1950s, even
though it was first banned in 1912, until the practice was forbidden
and the ban enforced by the new government. The last factory in China
making small shoes for bound feet shut down in 1999. Yet, to meet on-
going needs, handcrafted shoes continue to be made in the twenty-first
century by elderly women whose own feet were bound more than a
half-century earlier.
More than anyone, Dorothy Ko has brought a revisionist perspec-
tive to Chinese footbinding, arguing that neither male fetishism nor the
pursuit of feminine beauty are sufficient for understanding the prac-
tice. Without condemning or defending the practice, Ko argues that
“footbinding was an entirely reasonable course of action for a woman
who lived in a Confucian culture that placed the highest moral value
on domesticity, motherhood, and handwork. The ideal Confucian
woman was one who worked diligently with her hands and body, and
those who did so were amply rewarded in terms of power in the family,
communal respect, and even imperial recognition” (2001: 15). Indeed,
“embroidery was more than a skill that daughters learned from moth-
ers; it was a conduit for a female culture that one generation of gentry
women passed on to the next along with their emotions and dreams”
(87). Between the age of five to eight, a “daughter’s first binding took
place in the depths of the women’s quarters under the direction of
the mother, sometimes assisted by grandmothers and aunts; no men
were privy to the ceremonial purpose. It was a solemn occasion, the
first step of her decade-long grooming to become a bride. The pain of
footbinding anticipated the pain of childbirth, the blessing and curse
for a Chinese woman” (54).
While footbinding is no longer practiced in China, beautiful tiny
shoes, some antique but many more new, can be purchased in markets
throughout the country and viewed in museum exhibits as well as
sumptuously illustrated books. Unlike the repulsive photographs of
unwrapped bound feet popularized a century ago by anti-footbinding
zealots, one can gaze today on a multiplicity of exquisite examples of
shaped textiles, principally made of silk, satin, or cotton embroidered
with gold thread and multicolored silk floss. Historical documents
now reveal that there was great regional variation in technique, rituals,
and styles concerning footbinding and three-inch golden lotus shoes.
The earliest known lotus shoes, actually six pairs made of silk with a
hemp sole and a decorative motif with silk ribbons, were unearthed
in 1975 from the thirteenth-century tomb of Lady Huang Sheng in
northern Fujian. Shoe making normally involved at least eight steps,
including using a cutting-paper pattern, delicate stitching, and fussy
finishing. Girls not only made shoes for themselves; they also created
meaningful birthday gifts of shoes for other women. As with ceramics
and paintings, golden lotus shoes were adorned with auspicious imag-
ery via symbols and puns, but instead of using a brush, women took
up thread. A nineteenth-century textbook on embroidery admonished
women to practice with sincerity: “The needle is your writing brush;
the length of silk your paper; the silk floss your ink. . . . No wonder
embroidery is the art of writing for women” (88).
Personal Possessions 75
 Opium
Pipes 㡾⨤Yānqiāng
In the United States, drug paraphernalia brings to mind crude
makeshift objects needed to carry out the illicit consumption of
drugs such as heroin and marijuana. In China by the end of the
nineteenth century, “opium was a luxury for the upper and upper
middle classes, an aphrodisiac for courtesans and prostitutes, a liveli-
hood for the lower classes and a ‘pain-killer’ for those who chose to
end their pains” (Zheng 2003: 30). As opium use spanned all levels of
society, so the accessories associated with it reflected economic status
and taste. The poor made do with basic paraphernalia and ordinary
76 Things Chinese
venues, often lying on simple bamboo mats in public opium dens
to enjoy their escape. For those who had wealth, on the other hand,
luxurious private rooms with couchbeds provided the setting for
enjoyment. Those with means also employed a set of objects whose
forms and ornamentation went far beyond the utilitarian.
An assemblage of objects was necessary because the smoking of
opium in China involved much more than placing the raw material
in a pipe before lighting and smoking it, although such a method
was used by unsophisticated addicts. As can be seen in faded photo-
graphs and in rare collections of antique pieces, a basic set of opium OPPOSITE TOP As glimpsed in a late imperial etching, these men
accoutrements included three essential items—an opium pipe with a are enjoying opium while reclining with all the necessary accoutre-
ments nearby on the bed.
pipe bowl, opium lamp, and opium needle. Additional objects, such OPPOSITE BOTTOM Although opium pipes vary in materials, size,
as small containers to hold raw opium before it was rolled into pills, and complexity, each includes a knob-like bowl in which to vaporize
small brushes and scrapers to remove opium ash from inside the the opium globule.
BELOW Two opium pipes on this tray are accompanied by objects
bowl, were also arrayed on an ornamented tray made of tropical hard-
necessary for preparing the globule and cleaning the instrument.
wood—perhaps inlaid with mother-of-pearl—or lacquered wood,
that was placed in reach of a reclining smoker. Boxed kits containing
the full array of the necessary objects were available to travelers so that
it was unnecessary for them to frequent public opium dens.
Each step in preparing opium for consumption had its objects,
and each object afforded different opportunities for aesthetic embel-
lishment. A standard opium pipe, which is usually at least sixteen
inches long, is made of carefully selected bamboo chosen for its
mottled appearance or special tactile quality. Other materials, such
as porcelain, jade, cloisonné, horn, and ivory have also been used to
create the pipe stem. Set astride the stem is a metal saddle with an
attached but removable pipe bowl, which has a knob-like appearance
and is often made of ceramic or metal. Both the saddle and the pipe
bowl vary in ornamentation and shape. The opium needle, made of
thin steel, is employed to skewer a rolled ball of opium, which then
can be heated over a lamp before being placed into the pipe bowl.
The smoker, who lies on his or her side, then maneuvers the bowl of
the pipe over the chimney of a small oil lamp to vaporize the opium.
With the pipe stem clasped between the lips, the smoker can inhale
the opium fumes. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centu-
ries, “the process of heating up a tiny globule of opium paste until it
bubbled, scooping it up with a small needle, putting it on the bowl of
a long-stemmed pipe and holding it above the oil-burning lamp until
it was smoked turned into a craft and became a means of livelihood
for lower-ranking prostitutes and female servants in general” (Zheng
2003: 27).
While for many in late imperial China, the smoking of opium
was viewed as both a personal scourge and a sign of China’s national
weakness, for some it was a practice enjoyed with elegance and style
as they pursued bliss. Because of the suppression of opium addiction
during the twentieth century, much of the extant authentic parapher-
nalia was destroyed. While today there is an abundance of opium
paraphernalia in markets throughout China, most are not antiques
and only rarely are acknowledged as fakes.

Personal Possessions 77
 ScholarsÕ Rocks
⛢Ǿ䏹Wénrénshí
Valued for their grotesque shapes, variegated colors, and irregular
textures, certain stones have been treasured and collected since at
least as early as the Song dynasty. Four criteria—thinness (shou),
openness (tou), perforations (lou), and wrinkling (zhou)—came to
be used by connoisseurs in judging their aesthetic quality, especially
in relationship to how the rocks mimicked shapes found in magical
Daoist grottos as well as sometimes in their resemblance to living and
mythical creatures. A symbol of longevity because of their supposed
indestructibility, fantastic rocks became essential elements in a genre
of expressive paintings that included other images with emblem-
atic meaning, especially the evergreen pine tree, in the creation of a
suitable gift for a birthday. In addition being called scholars’ rocks
(wenrenshi), they are also referred to as spirit stones (gongshi) and
grotesque rocks (guaishi). Suiseki or “water stones” is the term the
Japanese use to express their own appreciation of stone art, which
Koreans refer to as suseok, “longevity stones.”
Large, tall, and craggy stones have prominent positions in Chinese
gardens, where they are placed as accent pieces, natural sculptures to
be admired, as well as joined together in an assemblage to form jiashan
or “artificial mountains” as critical elements of an imagined landscape.
Within gardens, large rocks of this type are usually called Taihu rocks,
since their source often has been the bottom of Lake Tai, located to
the west of Suzhou, where subsurface erosion gave them their idiosyn-
cratic shapes. There is a long history of human intervention in giving
78 Things Chinese
shape to these stones. Even today, one can see local artisans quarrying
rocks, then chiseling them to achieve a desired shape and dimension,
after which the enhanced stones are placed again under water so that
wave action and dissolution will complete the shaping and polishing.
Smaller stones have also been praised and valued for indoor
enjoyment in the scholar’s studio for centuries. Here they range in
size from those that can be placed on the desk to larger, freestanding
ones set in a privileged position for contemplation. As miniature, even
portable, expressions of nature, scholars’ rocks thus serve as objects of
meditation and concentration. Elevated on a polished wooden stand,
the rocks provide a focus for a scholar as he approaches writing a
poem or creating a painting. The most outstanding diminutive rocks
come from the Lingbi area of Anhui Province as well as from nearby
Lake Tai. Lingbi stones, which are generally calcareous in composi-
tion, black in color, and quite hard, are also known as resonant rocks
(bayin shi) since they give off a ringing-like metallic musical sound
when tapped. Small Taihu rocks are usually tall and thin with per-
forations, hollows, and multiple furrows and creases. Stones from
Guangdong and Guangxi Province, while also considered limestone,
are usually dark, even black in color with sometimes white streaks,
with open gaps. Although black stones are most valued, other out-
standing specimens include white, yellow, and red colors. Many
Western observers remark that scholars’ rocks, whether large or
small, are natural sculptures that resemble Modernist abstract art.
Varying in size, color, and stone type, the array of scholars’ rocks
shown here evidences the specific criteria used by connoisseurs in
selecting objects of timeless beauty.
BELOW LEFT The marble inset in this hanging panel, while not a
scholars’ rock, is similarly evocative of grotesque rockery.

Personal Possessions 79
 Personal seals come in a variety of materials and
shapes and sizes that range from purely utilitarian to
intricately artful.

80 Things Chinese
Personal
Seals थ䣲 Yìnzhāng
Seals once were the possessions only of imperial officials who used
the impression of the engraved Chinese characters on paper to attest
the legitimacy of documents. When personal seals became popular
is not known, but over time they came to be used as a “signature”
that confirmed correspondence, secured the closure of packages,
provided identification in a bank, and authenticated the work of
artists and collectors. While the word yin expressly refers to the im-
print of the engraved shapes, the addition of jian or zhang refers to
the object itself, which is grasped in the hand, as well as the action
of imprinting. Chop is usually used in English to describe personal
seals both as a noun and as a verb, using a sound adapted from the
Malay word cap that was borrowed from Hindi word chap.
Chinese seals take many shapes and are made of a variety of ma-
terials, including traditional ones like stone, wood, ivory, and metal
as well as common synthetics like plastic. Depending on the pur-
pose, the bottom, top, and sides of the object may be carved. While
many seals are simply utilitarian in that the engraved characters on
the bottom are just the characters of a person’s name, others are
exemplary objects of art with a complex sculpture on the top and an
engraved shallow relief scene or calligraphy on one side. Some con-
noisseurs value the natural grain, texture, and coloring of traditional
natural materials and have little interest in other embellishments,
but the addition of two- or three-dimensional carvings can give the
seal special artistic depth and sophistication that make it worthy of
display and appreciation.
The characters carved into the base of a seal are, of course, en-
graved in reverse so that the impression is correct. Since most Chi-
nese names include three distinct characters, the addition of a fourth,
yin, meaning “seal,” creates a sequence that is read from the top
down, first from the right and then the left in traditional calligraphic
order. For some two thousand years, a special calligraphic style, called
seal script in English and zhuanshu in Chinese, has been used as the
standard form for engraving names on seals. Even though common
people today have difficulty “reading” such characters, the form en-
dures because of its historical associations and presumed difficulty
of forging. Of course, many Chinese prefer using easily recognizable
calligraphic styles for their names.
In order to use a seal, the engraved bottom must be pressed into
a special red paste made of powdered cinnabar, a compound of mer-
cury and castor oil that is bound together either with cut strands of
silk or the dried mugwort herb, called moxa. When bound with silk,
the thick paste appears smooth and has an oily appearance, while,
bound with pulverized mugwort, it appears mottled like a sponge.
Different techniques are required with each of these to obtain a clear
impression with a distinctive hue and luster. The vermilion seal paste
is usually held in a two-part shallow porcelain container, which itself
is sometimes kept with the seals in a box lined with padded silk cloth.
Seal engraving stalls are found in towns and cities throughout
China, even in Chinatowns abroad, to meet ongoing needs. Increas-
ingly, they are also located in shopping malls as well as in hotel lob-
bies, since foreign tourists have come to view the specimens on dis-
play as novelties or unique souvenirs that can be personalized, with
names either engraved in the tourist’s own language or translated
into Chinese.
Personal Possessions 81
 Silk Dresses
቙ሯĥ倆⥂쭜Fùnǚ Sīchóu Fúzhuāng
Sericulture is the arduous process that eventually results in the
creation of a lustrous fiber known as silk. Unlike the production of
cotton, linen, flax, or jute—all textiles derived from plant materials—
silk, like wool, has its origins in the animal kingdom. The production
and processing of wool from the hair of sheep and goats into cloth is
rather straightforward when compared to silk, whose fibers originate
in the cocoons of the larva of a domesticated moth called a silkworm.
More than three thousand silkworms must be painstakingly fed fresh
mulberry leaves under prescribed temperature and light conditions
to generate two pounds of silk filaments. It is thus not surprising
that silk, with its softness, strength, and luminosity, early on became
a preferred material for the regal garments of the imperial family as
well as for fashioning elegant clothing worn by the less exalted.
Museums may exhibit sumptuously ornamented imperial dragon
robes and court attire made of silk from the Qing and earlier dynas-
ties, but it is the fashionable silk dresses of modern women that have
82 Things Chinese
come to be viewed as quintessentially Chinese apparel. Before the
second decade of the twentieth century, the formal and semiformal
attire worn by wealthy women married to noblemen, mandarins, or
merchants consisted of a mang’ao over a mangchu, and a matched
“dragon” jacket and skirt, with a xiapei or stole and a detachable col-
lar yunjian. On her head was a prominent coronet called a phoenix
crown, similar to those worn by empresses. Fabricated from various
silks with elaborate embroidery, this sophisticated costume fell out
of fashion with the collapse of the Qing imperial system at the begin-
ning of the twentieth century, when it was considered outdated.
While a few Chinese women in large cities adopted Victorian and
Edwardian ensembles, a distinctly Chinese style of modern dress con-
tinued to evolve for emerging middle-class and upper-class women
that was increasingly stylish and trendy. As described by Valery Gar-
rett, “the ao upper garment became slimmer and longer, reaching to
below the knee; the sleeves narrowed to the wrists; the side slits were
shortened, reaching to the lower hip, and all the edges of the ao were
trimmed with narrow braid instead of the wide bands of embroidery
popular in the past. . . . The ao was worn over an ankle-length skirt,
usually black, which had now become a one-piece garment with pan-
els at front and back attached to pleats or godets at the side” (2007:
136). Throughout the 1920s, this new style underwent continual
modification, which included new silk weaving patterns made pos-
sible by the popular mechanical Jacquard loom, an early nineteenth-
century French invention still seen in some textile mills in China.
In time, the qipao or “banner gown,” which in southern China
is called the cheongsam, literally “long dress,” emerged as the em-
blematic Chinese dress for chic women. It has endured to the present
because of its elegance and versatility. “The cheongsam fell straight
from the shoulders to the hem in an A line, stopping just below the
knees, corresponding to the shorter dresses worn in the West at the
time. The narrow stand-up collar opened on the right to form a
diagonal slit to the underarm, which continued to the hip, and was
fastened with press-studs, or more usually with loops and ball but-
tons.” As with Western fashion at the time, hemlines dropped and
the fit became tighter, resulting in a styles that were “provocative
and accentuated a woman’s sexuality, emphasized by legs clad in silk
stockings (a recent innovation) and high heels” (Garrett 2007: 147).
A distinctive feature of the silk qipao or cheongsam is the presence
of side slits, which sometimes are modest but often are quite daring,
even reaching high on a woman’s thigh.
OPPOSITE LEFT A visitor to Beijing’s Forbidden City has her photograph
taken wearing the silken garments of a Qing dynasty courtier.
OPPOSITE RIGHT Three examples of the qipao, also called cheongsam.
BOTTOM LEFT The qipao is usually fitted tightly to the body of a young
woman.
BOTTOM CENTER An elderly lady in Yunnan Province examines an em-
broidered silk dress she wore as a young woman.
BOTTOM RIGHT Detailed view of the knotted closures on the front of two
of the qipao shown on the previous page.
Personal Possessions 83
 Snuff Bottles
When tobacco, a crop native to the Americas, found its way to
China via Portuguese and Spanish traders in the early seventeenth
century, imperial authorities banned its planting, distribution, and
use. While smoking, chewing, and snuffing all emerged as ways to
enjoy tobacco, the use of snuff and chewing tobacco—smokeless
practices—peaked in China in the nineteenth century, then declined
by the 1920s. Today, however, China leads the world in both the pro-
duction and consumption by smoking of what was once called “this
terrible weed.”
Snuff, a generic term for pulverized tobacco in the form of a fine
dust that can be inhaled into the nostrils, gained currency in China
because of perceived medicinal qualities that could dispel sinus
problems, stave off colds, and even prevent constipation. Unlike the
decorative and functional snuff boxes that became popular in Europe
and America, small bottles, like those used for other medicines, were
initially used in China to limit the exposure of snuff to air and mois-
ture that would lead to its degradation.
The range of materials used to make Chinese snuff bottles is
staggering, including porcelain, precious and semiprecious stones,
ivory, tortoise shells, metal, and bone as well as blown and cut glass.
While most snuff containers are emblazoned with external orna-
mentation having auspicious themes, glass bottles with scenes and
brushwork calligraphy painted inside them especially amaze even
those who are not connoisseurs. To accomplish this feat, the artist
84 Things Chinese
蒵㡾ᅳ Bíyānhú
uses a fine bent brush that reaches into the neck of the snuff bottle to
paint a mirror image of what is visible through the glass. Working in
reverse involves not only this skill but also painting a face by starting
with the dark pupils of the eyes before sketching in the eyes them-
selves, eyebrows, and eyelashes before the other features are added
that result in a very tiny visage peering out. With scenes or poems less
than two inches in size, this is a daunting task for the artist.
Since snuff bottles were made to be held in the palm of the
hand, most have a superb tactile quality to them. With their carved
exteriors as well as interior miniaturized scenes and poems, small
stuff bottles came to be seen by Chinese as objects of adornment
that conferred status on those who owned and displayed them. For
easy access, snuff bottles usually were carried in the sleeve of a robe.
Sometimes they were held in a form-fitted space in an elaborately
embroidered box. Like the skilled artisans who crafted these diminu-
tive objects, connoisseurs fulfilled the Chinese aesthetic ideal of “see-
ing something important in something small” (y xi ojianda). While
this art form reached an apex in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, it was only in the last quarter of the twentieth century that
collectors of Chinese art began to value snuff bottles as inspired dec-
orative art objects. These objects are more common today than in the
past. Visitors to China will see countless artists in hotel arcades and
airport corridors producing tourist-grade knockoffs of what until
recently were acquired only as cherished antiques.
Each with its own tactile quality, this collection
of snuff bottles illustrates some of their varied
forms, using porcelain, stone, and glass as
materials. Shallow carving takes full advantage
of the variations in natural coloration in some
while other bottles have polychrome paintings
of miniature landscapes executed inside.

Personal Possessions 85
 Eating and Drinking
Socializing around food and drink with family or friends is central to Chinese life through-
out the country as well as in the diaspora. Chinese cuisine can be quite sophisticated in
technique and complex with respect to ingredients, yet, at its most basic, for its preparation
it relies principally on the humble wok and bamboo steamer, and for its consumption on a
pair of chopsticks and a small chinaware bowl. A cook, whether at home or in a restaurant,
is always attentive to pairing textures, flavors, and colors in order to produce a meal that is
balanced and healthy. Breakfast in the countryside is often a quiet, solitary activity, with a
bowl and chopsticks in hand while squatting at the front gate and watching the arrival of
morning and the passing of neighbors. Among those speaking Cantonese, weekend mornings
center on yum cha, “drinking tea,” an opportunity for multigenerational families to share
myriad delicacies served on small plates or in bamboo baskets while surrounded by other
boisterous families enjoying their own favorite savories. Eating and drinking customs differ
somewhat from region to region. Yet everywhere in China, the quantity and the quality of
food surpasses that of daily fare during annual festive events like the Chinese New Year and
on other periodic joyful occasions, such as betrothals and weddings, as well as at funerals.

86 Things Chinese
Eating and Drinking 87

Chopsticks
䧕ᗸKuàizǐ
Nothing is associated more with the enjoyment of Chinese cuisine
than a pair of nimble chopsticks. Even to many Westerners, Chinese
food tastes better when eaten with slender chopsticks, just as fine
coffee is more enjoyable sipped from a chinaware cup than from a
Styrofoam container. A versatile device, chopsticks are suitable for
eating whatever is served: meat, fish, vegetables, rice, or condiments,
even soup and noodles. For a common meal in the countryside—
breakfast, lunch, or dinner—a pair of chopsticks, a bowl for rice
as well as soup, and a flat-bottomed porcelain spoon are sufficient
whether one is eating at a table or squatting at the doorway of one’s
home. For more formal occasions, small plates, saucers, and cups
supplement the bowl, sometimes in quick succession, while the
single set of chopsticks continues to do service throughout the meal.
Chopsticks are more than a mere alternative to fingers and forks,
since their form complements Chinese cuisine, where ingredients
are normally cut into bite-size morsels and rice is rather sticky. Held
between the thumb and fingers, each pair of matching tapered sticks
serves as a sleek and adaptable utensil for eating small pieces of food
without the need for a tableside knife or accompanying fork. In the
kitchen, moreover, chopsticks become a multipurpose gadget for
stirring, whisking, and separating whatever the cook is preparing.
88 Things Chinese
ABOVE LEFT A pair of jade chopsticks, which were designed by Pearl Lam
of the Contrasts chain of art galleries, placed on a chopstick rest in the
shape of a reclining baby boy.
ABOVE RIGHT A set of bamboo chopsticks.
OPPOSITE TOP Pairs of slender silver chopsticks, each held together with
tie chains. In the past, it was believed that the silver would turn black if it
came into contact with poisoned food, thus alerting the eater.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Place setting with the chopsticks resting on a carved
piece of stone adjacent to a covered bowl that likely contains a rich broth.
The English word chopsticks is derived via a convoluted etymo-
logical sequence of language associations. The traditional word for
what we call chopsticks was zhu, a character still used in some south-
ern Chinese dialects. This sound zhu is homophonous in northern
China with characters meaning “to stop” or “be stuck,” which in time
became a sound deemed unlucky. In order to avoid an inauspicious
association, the eating utensil pair came to be called kuaizi, a two-
character word with the homophonous meaning “fast-moving thing.”
The fact that the characters for zhu and kuai both employ a bamboo
radical is one piece of evidence that the earliest source material for
them indeed was bamboo. The first use of the term chopstick in refer-
ence to China appeared in 1699 in William Dampier’s A New Voyage
around the World: “In their Entertainments, and at their ordinary
Eating, instead of Forks and Spoons, they use two small round Sticks
about the Length and Bigness of a Tobacco Pipe. They hold them
both in the right Hand, one between the Fore-finger and Thumb; the
other between the Middle-finger and Fore-finger. . . . They use them
dexterously, taking up the smallest Grain of Rice with them … they
are called by the English Seamen Chopsticks.” Many believe that the
word chopstick reflects an association with “chop-chop”—kuaikuai—
based on the Chinese Pidgin English expression for “to hurry” and
“be fast.”Although it is not known for certain when chopsticks were
used first, Chinese consider them one of their ancient inventions that
then spread to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and beyond. The earliest sur-
viving pairs excavated from Shang dynasty (1600–1100 BCE) archae-
ological sites are made of metal and bone, but it is likely that perish-
able wooden and bamboo chopsticks predated them by a thousand
years. Chopsticks are made from different kinds of materials: wood,
bamboo, metal, ivory, bone, stone, and plastic. Silver chopsticks were
sometimes used by the imperial family, since it was believed that
silver turned black when it came in contact with poisonous food. It
is common for auspicious phrases and symbols to be carved on the
upper half of each chopstick, sometimes in such a fashion that they
can be understood best when the two pieces are beside each other.
Chinese take great pride in the fact that those who share their civi-
lization utilized a refined eating utensil well before the fork became
commonplace elsewhere in the world.
Hu Yaobang, the General-Secretary of China’s Communist
Party, in 1984 publicly suggested that Chinese abandon chopsticks,
replacing them with Western washable cutlery in order to “avoid con-
tagious diseases.” Most Chinese saw this notion as quirky and unre-
alistic, whose purpose could be realized simply by utilizing gongkuai,
“serving chopsticks,” a practice often used at banquets, rather than
dipping one’s own chopsticks into a common dish at home.
In a foray into “green taxation,” the Chinese government an-
nounced new tax levies on disposable wooden chopsticks, first in
1986 and then again in 2006 in order to slow the deforestation of
birch and poplar stands as well as to move toward a sustainable utili-
zation of natural resources. It was reported that the 45 billion pairs of
wooden chopsticks used and discarded each year in China consumed
some 25 million mature trees. This tax even impacted Japan, which
imported from China nearly 97 percent of the simple wooden chop-
sticks called waribashi used each year in sushi and noodle restaurants.
Nonetheless, in spring 2010, People’s Daily reported that disposable
wooden chopsticks “remain as ubiquitous as ever,” concluding that
“many Chinese will fight their way through a sandstorm to get to a
restaurant where they will dine using disposable chopsticks, a well-
known cause of deforestation.” Eco-friendly, biodegradable dispos-
able chopsticks made out of cornstarch have now entered the mar-
ketplace but at present are still too costly to replace wood.

Eating and Drinking 89

 Mooncake
Molds
⤼箘ⷱ‫ ؘ‬Yuèbĭng Mújù
Given a decorative shape by a wooden mold, small cakes, which
come in infinite variety, have long been treats in China. Even to-
day in country markets, one can see cake vendors in stalls with a
coal stove preparing freshly baked or fried cakes, each shaped in
a wooden mold and bearing its embossed pattern on top. While
molded cakes are available year-round, none are better known than
mooncakes, round pastries that are eaten during the Mid-Autumn
Festival. Often called the Moon Festival and held on the fifteenth day
of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, in late September or early
October, this celebration is second to the Chinese New Year as an
important time for family togetherness. On this day, which centers a
three-day legal public holiday in China, it is said that the moon is at
its roundest and largest, a phenomenon to be observed with the eat-
Wooden mooncake molds vary widely in shape and
ing of shiny mooncakes that often have a golden egg yolk inside. decorative detail. Each imparts an individualized
Mooncakes vary regionally in terms of the texture and consis- embossed pattern to the baked cake, one of which
tency of the pastry, the nature of the filling, the top design, and their is shown at the top of the opposite page. To its right
is a cut cake with the fine lotus-root filling exposed.
overall size. Typical mooncakes, which are often fashioned with a
Below is a box for giving mooncakes as gifts.
scalloped edge, traditionally are formed in handcrafted wooden
molds. The base of each mold is carved by hand into an ornamental
pattern that includes not only calligraphy but also auspicious im-
agery as well as sometimes even the name of the bakery. The dough
usually is of two types, flaky and short, both of which have flour and
lard as their main ingredients but in different proportions. The stuff-
ing at the center, besides egg yolks, may include mashed red beans,
lotus paste, mashed jujubes, mixed nuts and fruits, or cassia blooms,
among many other ingredients. Once the dough and filling have been
prepared and the mold lightly floured, a large ball of the doughy
mixture with the filling folded into it is gently kneaded into the mold

90 Things Chinese
with sufficient force for the pattern to be transferred to the cake. The
mold is then inverted and struck on the edge of a table, releasing the
uncooked cake with the embossed design on the top, to be trans-
ferred to a baking sheet. Midway during the baking, the top of each
cake is brushed with an egg yolk glaze and/or a red dye food coloring
to give each its characteristic golden blush.
Today, mooncakes are rarely made at home, since few Chinese
have ovens. Instead, they are made in bakeries of all sizes, including
some street-side ones, where mooncakes packaged in elaborate tins
and boxes are offered as gift items for families and friends. Moon-
cakes continue to evolve. Most today are mass produced in bakeries
using a muffin pan–type set of molds, though some are handcrafted
in specialty houses to meet the needs of gourmets, the health con-
scious, and those who are seeking a distinctive gift item. Some shops
offer miniature, bite-size mooncakes that can be consumed without
being sliced. While some bakeries boast that lard is no longer used,
that theirs are fat-free, and that the sugar content is low, others herald
the fact that their mooncakes have inventive centers such as tart cran-
berries, soft cream cheese, smooth ganache, translucent Champagne
truffles, even succulent Peking duck.
Western franchises in Asia have also created mooncake variants
with exotic flavors and textures. Starbucks, for example, offers small
mooncakes, each with either its own logo or a flowery design em-
bossed on top, and with stuffing concoctions like Columbian coffee
with hazelnut, Italian tiramisu, Caramel Macchiato, Cranberry hibis-
cus, and Earl Grey tea with lemon zest. Häagen-Dazs makes moon-
cakes fashioned out of a cookie-dough-like crust with a variety of
ice cream or sorbet fillings and the corporate logo either screened on
top or imprinted on a chocolate medallion. While these novel moon-
cakes are described in blogs as having an “awesome taste” and being
“an improvement over traditional mooncakes,” it is as certain as the
harvest moon is round that none are made in traditional wooden
molds, which are more likely hung in the kitchen for decoration than
pressed into service as utilitarian objects.
Eating and Drinking 91
 ABOVE An ambidextrous hostess makes tea in a resort near
Kunming, Yunnan Province.
BELOW LEFT Carved boxes used to carry teapots.
BELOW RIGHT Freshly brewed tea is poured from an Yixing teapot.
OPPOSITE TOP A compact portable tea set with service for four.
When inverted, the lid becomes a tray. Shown below is the closed
box and satchel that hold the set when stored or traveling.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Fine porcelain tea set.

92 Things Chinese
Tea Sets
国‫ ؘ‬Chájù

Tea outranks coffee and cocoa in popularity as a beverage through-

out the world and is second only to water. Native to southern China,
tea—chief among herbal plants—has long been viewed medicinally
as capable of relieving fatigue, awakening thought, preventing leth-
argy, and even improving eyesight, in addition to satisfying thirst
and keeping one awake. More than a drink to be consumed, Daoists
considered tea an elixir, a remedy to cure various ills such as melan-
choly and to ease the bowels. Crushing tea leaves and adding pure
water and other ingredients to form a paste has traditionally been
considered a therapy to assuage rheumatism. Referred to as “liquid
jade” or yuye, green tea began to be used as a beverage only in the
fourth or fifth century, even though it had a millennium-old history
as a medicinal potion. During the Tang dynasty, tea drinking spread
throughout the empire, some say via monks who carried the prac-
tice from one temple to another. Frothy green tea, which was made
with young leaves ground to a fine powder with a mortar and then
briskly whipped with a split bamboo whisk, was fashionable during
the Song dynasty but subsequently faded from fashion. Nonetheless,
it is this method, brought by Zen Buddhists to Japan in the ninth

Eating and Drinking 93

 The poet Lu Tong, a Tang contemporary of Lu Yu, evoked the
spiritual effects of drinking seven cups of tea (original translation):

The first cup moistens my lips and throat.

The second cup banishes my loneliness.
The third cup searches my barren intestines, readying me to read
the characters in five thousand books.
The fourth cup brings a slight perspiration so that all of life’s
injustices pass through my pores.
At the fifth cup, my flesh and bones are cleansed.
The sixth cup connects me to the spirits of the immortals.
The seventh cup—ah, but I could take no more!

Throughout China today, both the preparation of tea and tea sets
are generally much simpler than in the past. Aside from tea prepared
century, that continues to be central to chanoyu, the traditional at home and in places of work and while traveling, teahouses abound
Japanese tea ceremony. throughout the villages, towns, and cities of many parts of China,
The Classic of Tea, the earliest treatise on a beverage, was written especially in the south. At home, where the method of preparing tea
by the scholar-official Lu Yu in the eighth century. In addition to seri- is most informal, leaves are placed in a teapot followed by the ad-
ous musings about the origins of tea, its horticultural characteristics, dition of hot water that is replenished from a thermos as the liquid
and regional differences, the book describes the practices involved tea is consumed. At workplaces and when Chinese are traveling, it is
in the picking and processing as well as the steeping and drinking common to put tea leaves in a jar or thermos from which sipping is
of tea—making it a vade mecum of Chinese tea connoisseurship. done directly, with hot water being added as needed.
Lu Yu describes all the components of tea equipage, the set of items Teahouses for many years were principally the domain of the
required in its preparation: a tripod brazier and a cabinet to hold a elderly, a place to meet and chat, play cards or mahjong, or even read
teapot, cups, and water bottle as well as utensils like a kettle, charcoal a newspaper alone accompanied by a bottomless cup of tea. The
splitter, sieve, brush, roller, filter, water ladle, bamboo pincers, and methods of tea preparation in teahouses vary regionally. In areas
fire tongs, among many others. Rippling mountain water, even river
water, has always been considered better quality than that drawn
from a well. Lu Yu called special attention to boiling, emphasizing
that there should be no more than three boils: the first, “like fishes’
eyes and gives off but the hint of a sound”; the second, “a bubbling
spring and looks like pearls innumerable strung together”; and
the third, “when it leaps like breakers majestic and resounds like a
swelling wave, it is at its peak” (Lu 1974: 106). Any further boiling
“exhausts” the water, but a pinch of salt is recommended during the
first boil. Lu considered blue-glazed cups called Yue ware superior,
since the glaze heightened the greenish color of tea, while white cups
made the liquid appear washed out. Liquid tea was to be sipped and
savored, not merely drunk.

94 Things Chinese
where Cantonese is spoken, yum cha or “drinking tea” and eating a
variety of savory dim sum dishes is a popular pastime early in the
day. Each table has a single teapot in which the tea is brewed, with a
simple open cup at each place setting. It is customary to acknowledge
the pouring of tea into your cup by tapping two fingers on the table
as a sign of gratitude.
In the famous teahouses of Chengdu, Sichuan, some of which
are found in temples and gardens, a tea setting includes a metal
tray, called a tea boat, as well as a thin-walled porcelain cup with a
flared lip and a lid, both set on a matching saucer. Here, tea leaves
are placed in the bottom of each drinker’s cup. A notable feature
of Chengdu teahouses is how the waiters skillfully lift high a long-
spouted brass teapot from which an arc of hot water falls directly
into each receiving cup without splashing or spilling. Manipulating
the cover, the drinker is able to adjust the steeping speed and can also
strain the tea leaves as the cup is brought to the lips.
Throughout southern Fujian, adjacent areas of Guangdong Prov-
ince, and in Taiwan, gongfu tea, which uses the same word kung-fu
popular in the West to describe martial arts, is a refined method of
preparation that has the literal meaning “tea brewing with great skill.”
Unlike in the Japanese tea ceremony, where hand gestures and ritual
are prominent, in the serving of gongfu tea the stress is on maximiz-
ing the chemical and thermal properties of the tea with only minimal
attention to theatrics. Only darker oxidized Pu’er (Pu-erh), called
by the Cantonese Bolay and said to aid digestion, and semi-oxidized
Oolong teas, rather than minimally oxidized green teas, are used in
gongfu tea preparation, a style that had its roots in the Ming dynasty.
Small, rather miniature teapots from Yixing in Jiangsu Province
that are made of a type of clay called purple sand, which imbues the
vessel with a dark reddish hue, are preferred in the preparation of
gongfu tea. Yixing teapots are usually soaked in freshly made tea for at
least three months before being used. Aside from being beautiful ob-
jects, often in odd shapes and inscribed with colorful calligraphy and
sculpted objects, Yixing teapots have the property of absorbing some OPPOSITE TOP A pair of covered teacups.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM An octagonal blue-glazed teapot.
of the flavor and color of the tea, unlike porcelain teapots. When TOP Yixing teapots, here displayed for sale, are very common in
preparing gongfu tea, the first batch is used only to rinse out the tiny China.
cups; it is only the second and later rounds that are served. Chinese ABOVE An attendant preparing Pu’erh tea in Yunnan Province.
tea is usually served in small cups without handles quite unlike West-
ern teacups. Some Chinese pour tea from Yixing pots directly into
their mouths, without the aid of a cup.

Eating and Drinking 95

 Bamboo Steamers
䦆ឬLóngtì
Bamboo, often viewed in the West merely as an exotic wood, is
actually a perennial and fast-growing evergreen, a versatile and ex-
traordinary plant in the grass family whose shoots are edible, stalks
are strong enough to be used as building material, and fibers are
sufficiently supple that paper and textiles can be made from them.
While countless objects made of bamboo are found in Asian homes,
no room has more than the kitchen, where bamboo baskets, sieves,
trays, cups, chopsticks, plates, measures, and steaming trays are com-
monly found.
Circular bamboo steaming trays, also called steamers, and metal
woks are iconic Chinese cooking implements that work well together.
Until recent years, circular steamers were always made of bamboo,
with sides comprising narrow sheets of pliant bamboo wrapped
tightly to form a firm ring; a base made of parallel bamboo slats set
wide enough apart to let steam freely pass upward; and a domed
cover of woven strips, sufficiently dense to contain steam while suit-
ably porous not to fully trap it. Although a bamboo steamer is not
as versatile as the wok, one of its strengths is that it can be stacked
so that a variety of dishes can be cooked simultaneously, thus saving
both precious fuel and time. Steamers vary in size from small ones
that hold only several small morsels to larger ones that can contain
a whole fish. Bamboo steamers are usually stored on a kitchen wall
above the stove in order to dry completely and deter the formation
of mold. One of the strong points of metal steamers is that they are
96 Things Chinese
easier to wash and dry, thus, according to some, more sanitary than
the bamboo variety.
Cooking with steam is rather simple and effective in prepar-
ing fish, fowl, meats, vegetables, rice, buns, cakes, and dumplings.
Steaming obviates the need for oils and fats and generally produces
cooked food that retains the nutritious characteristics of fresh food.
In preparation, each steamer is lined with a layer of lettuce or cab-
bage leaves, a wet cheesecloth, or a piece of paper with holes punched
through it to reduce sticking, before the food to be cooked is placed
inside. Water is then added to a wok and the temperature raised to
the boiling point. As the water boils, either a single steamer or a stack
of bamboo steamers with the food arrayed inside is set on a bamboo
frame or snuggly fitted a short distance above the water. As the hot
water vapor rises through the perforated layers of each steamer, the
food cooks. The various textures that comprise the bamboo steamer
facilitate the circulation of the steam, while letting some of the mois-
ture escape in order to inhibit sogginess.
Food that is steamed is said to be succulent and to preserve its
original colors. Chinese bamboo steamers are convenient for steam-
ing different types of food as well as cooking large amounts of food
all at once. Towers of small bamboo steamers—each called a long—
are commonly used in Cantonese dim sum restaurants, where mobile
carts circulate them in stacks directly from the cooking stove to the
tables of hungry patrons.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT AND CLOCKWISE Commonly found
in restaurants and street stalls, bamboo steamers are used to
cook rice wrapped in lotus leaves, buns stuffed with meat, dim
sum delicacies, and corn-on-the-cob.

Eating and Drinking 97

 Rice Pattern Chinaware
䭧噄㻺අ Mǐhuā Cíqì
Jingdezhen in the northeastern area of Jiangxi Province is syn-
onymous with Chinese porcelain. Once a town whose economy
centered principally on producing ceramics to meet utilitarian and
artistic needs, Jingdezhen has become a major city with a diversified
economy and a population exceeding 1,500,000. While there were
many imperial kilns throughout China producing fine ware, the
region surrounding Jingdezhen is noteworthy because it is blessed
with abundant resources of an exceedingly fine white clay material
called kaolin. Kaolin is a Chinese word that has entered many lan-
guages, since it is recognized by ceramicists worldwide as denoting
a unique substance. Indeed, with regard to loan words, the descrip-
tors for porcelain in English—china and chinaware—underscore the
association between the source country and this exquisite product.
Porcelain made in Jingdezhen, which is a vitrified and translucent
type of ceramic ware, is described boastfully by Jingdezhen market-
98 Things Chinese
ers as being “as thin as paper, as white as jade, as bright as a mirror,
and with a sound like a bell.”
It is said that Marco Polo used the Italian word porcellino, which
suggests the piglet-like shape of a glistening cowry shell, to illustrate
the translucent quality of the many types of Chinese porcelain.
Among the most famous porcelain products in Jingdezhen is that
known as rice pattern or rice grain chinaware, a type that evolved
during the Ming and Qing dynasties and is still very popular today.
Luminous white porcelain reached an apex during the seventeenth
century as thin, smooth, and translucent glazed objects were pro-
duced sometimes with precisely incised or raised patterns. While the
rice-grain-like open cells appear sometimes in the shape of flowers,
water drops, butterflies, or other ornaments, the most common style
is a repeating star-like decoration around a bowl, pot, plate, saucer,
cup, or vase. By the middle of the nineteenth century, foreign-style
dinner sets with this Chinese motif were being made for sale abroad.
The addition of a continuous blue banded diaper border around the
lip and base was originally applied by hand but today is more likely
stenciled on.
Some sources continue to report erroneously that the rice pattern
is realized by embedding actual grains of rice in the clay chinaware
before it is fired, with the result that the grains are vaporized by the
intense heat within the kiln, thus producing translucent kernel-like
openwork. Instead, the pattern actually emerges from the skill of
craftsmen who patiently work with an individually formed clay
object in order to transform its solid shape to one with translucent
apertures. Their method involves a tedious, repeating process of tak-
ing each, somewhat crude clay object one-by-one after some minimal
drying, then skillfully carving a sequence of rice-grain-shaped gaps
using a flexible lancet-like instrument. Once the scores of shaped slits
have been completed, the object is either dipped or painted by brush
with a thin glazing fluid, then left to dry before the procedure is re-
peated up to six times in a day for a total of some thirty times over
many days. Gradually, the gaps are minimally closed by the layering
of the clear glaze while retaining a semi-transparent quality. After fir-
ing, the slightly filled openings appear as semi-transparent designs.
The production process to create rice-pattern chinaware obvi-
ously demands skill, patience, and time to complete to a high level.
Early in the twentieth century, news reports commented on how
careless workmanship had become, especially in comparison with the
delicate examples of earlier times. For several centuries, chinaware
of this type was considered a quintessential example of fine Chinese
ceramics used not only by the imperial family but also by wealthy
Chinese in general. Today, however, the domestic and foreign mar-
ketplace is awash with cruder forms of mass-produced rice-grain
“chinaware,” including some made of plastic, which are heralded as
both dishwasher and microwave safe and ideal for everyday use.

OPPOSITE TOP A quintessential and very popular chinaware pat-

tern clearly shows the shape of grains of rice aligned between the
bands of blue.
RIGHT TOP AND MIDDLE Here the translucent patterns have been
incised into the five petals of a repeating series of plum blossoms.
RIGHT BOTTOM Although lacking the cut-away pattern, these fine
porcelain bowls are translucent.

Eating and Drinking 99

 Wedding
Baskets
毭ᆼ䗬⇄䪏 Guòdàlǐ Piānlán

Archaeological evidence from impressions on pottery affirms that

baskets of many types were made and used during the Neolithic
period in China. Excavations of tombs from later periods have
bequeathed to us fine examples of distinctive baskets varying in
the materials used, plaiting techniques, and surface ornamentation.
Illustrated handbooks demonstrate a continuity of techniques,
styles, and uses over the centuries, and today, perhaps not surpris-
ingly, baskets similar in form to those of the past can be found in
rural markets throughout the country. Yet there are in fact differ-
ences from region to region, due principally to varying climates
that nurture different species of bamboo, wicker, and reeds, the raw
materials for most baskets. In the villages of northern China, bas-
kets are generally practical and plain, with only limited ornamenta-
tion to meet everyday needs—coops for containing fowl; traps for
snaring animals; containers for moving earth or manure; utensils
for washing and steaming rice; sieves for many purposes; imple-
ments for winnowing and storing grain; contrivances for trapping
fish; vessels for ritual, and so on. While similar functional woven

This selection of what are popularly called wedding baskets—

although betrothal baskets is more accurate—reveals similarities
in that they are all round, multitiered, and with a loop at the top for
carrying with a matching basket on a pole. However, each is distinc-
tive in terms of the weaving, coloration, and ornamentation.

100 Things Chinese

objects are made in the villages and towns of southern China, here
you can also find exquisite exemplars of handicrafts that have been
transformed into art, where “baskets became more than baskets”
(Watt 1985: 17).
Among the refined examples are lacquered and ornamented
multitiered baskets that are often referred to by foreigners as “wed-
ding baskets,” though in fact they traditionally have been employed
during a betrothal or engagement—rather than wedding—ritual.
Usually circular in shape, baskets of this type are sometimes square
or even octagonal. In some areas of southern China, ornamented
lacquered boxes rather than baskets have been the norm for the
purpose of carrying betrothal gifts. On the other hand, similar,
but plainer, non-lacquered and non-ornamented multitiered bas-
ket sets are still used to carry lunch to farmers working in their
fields, and these shouldn’t be confused with betrothal baskets.
Whether stacked baskets or boxes, whether unadorned or ornate,
they usually come in pairs so that they can be carried on the ends
of a balanced shoulder pole. In some areas of China today, rather
than purchasing a set, one has the option of renting them from a
wedding-cake shop.
A betrothal basket is prepared with gifts for the family of the
bride-to-be by the prospective groom and his family. What is in-
cluded in these baskets differs from place to place but always comes
in even numbers: peanut or rice candies, red rice cakes, oranges,
dragon and phoenix bangles and candles, dried seafood, wine, dried
fruits, tea, and red packets containing money. Doubling the number
of gifts, and the items in themselves, are auspicious portents for a
fecund and prosperous marriage. It is common for the prospective
bride’s family to return a portion of the gifts or even to place some
new goods in the baskets before they are carried back to the future
groom’s family.
Betrothal baskets are commonly made of thin strips of split
bamboo woven into a variety of rigid but separate compartments
that fit together. Ming dynasty gazetteers marvel at both the pliancy
and strength of gui bamboo, which continues to be prevalent in
both Fujian and Zhejiang Provinces (Watt 1985: 22). Even today,
these two provinces, together with Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Hunan,
are the principal source regions for newly made “wedding baskets,”
which are frequently wrongly passed off as antiques. The cover on
the top of a tiered basket set often includes a Chinese character
such as fu for “happiness” or shuangxi for “doubled-happiness”
either woven into the design or painted on with exuberant colors.
In addition, colorful paintings of fruits and animals along the sides
have symbolic meanings associated with conjugal harmony and nu-
merous progeny. A brass handle or loop at the top with reinforced
straps facilitates carrying.
Eating and Drinking 101
 Wine Bottles and Cups
滬㻷Jiǔpíng 滬⧌Jiǔbēi
To many in the West, fine Chinese wine is an oxymoron. Yet, the
Chinese themselves are filled with pride for their several-thousand-
year-old “wine culture.” “Wine” has enriched vital rituals for gods
and ancestors, celebratory events such as weddings, funerals, and
other banqueting occasions, besides serving to inspire the works of
cultured literati. In Chinese thought, the term jiu, which is usually
translated into English as “wine,” actually embraces much more than
alcoholic beverages made of fermented grapes, wild berries, and
other fruits. Indeed, the word jiu, with some appropriate modifiers,
also comprises medicinal tonics, distilled or fermented beverages
such as “yellow wine” (huangjiu) and “white wine” (baijiu), made
from grains—millet, wheat, barley, sorghum, corn, and, of course,
rice—and even beer. The Shuowen Jiezi, a second-century dictionary,
indicates that the jiu character was a pictograph portraying a wine
jar, adding that the beverage was “the joy and misfortune of man-
kind” (Lindqvist 1991: 198).
There is now archaeological evidence that dates Chinese grape
wines and other grain-based alcoholic beverages back nearly five
thousand years, and there is a long history of grape wine production
in the dry region of Xinjiang and neighboring Gansu in northwestern
China. Chinese lore boasts that General Zhang Qian brought grape
102 Things Chinese
stock from Asia Minor during the Han dynasty, some two hundred
years earlier than it reached the celebrated wine regions of France.
However, Western-style grape wine production was initiated in China
only in 1892 with the hiring of vintners and the importation of grape
root stock from Europe and the United States, accompanied by the
construction of extensive underground wine cellars and a magnifi-
cent European-inspired château. Today, the path-breaking Changyu
Pioneer Wine Company, which is centered in the Yantai area of Shan-
dong Province, is the tenth-largest winery in the world. Grape wines
produced in China have begun appearing in wineshops in the United
States and Europe, where some critics disregard them in much the
same way they once treated Chilean and Australian wines.
Shaoxing wine is among the most heralded in China, a broad
type that varies in terms of aging as well as the resulting quality.
Produced in a water town in Zhejiang Province, this rice wine, which
some say resembles a fine dry sherry made from white grapes, is
amber-colored and is imbibed warm or used as a marinade. As with
the tea ceremony, the serving of Shaoxing wine involves several steps
and specific vessels. To raise the temperature of the wine, it is poured
from a jug into a “water bath flask” that is set in boiling water until
its temperature reaches the range of 104–113˚, which helps release
its bouquet. After being decanted into a small tin pot with a spout,
the wine is poured into thimble-sized porcelain cups for sipping
and savoring. Shaoxing wine is well-known for moving quickly into
the bloodstream, warming the body even though its alcohol content
of 15–18 percent is far below that of the so-called “white liquor” or
baijiu, sometimes erroneously called “white wine,” which in fact is a
distilled liquor exceeding 80 proof, with at least 40 percent alcohol.
Chinese connoisseurs assert that drinking Shaoxing wine expels
“cold” energy from the body as it soothes the stomach and blood.
There is a tradition in Shaoxing of burying several jugs of a vari-
ant of Shaoxing wine called nu’er hong, literally “daughter red,” when
a daughter is born, which then is to be excavated and enjoyed on her
wedding day. The containers traditionally had only semi-finished
carved surfaces showing floral and avian patterns as well as human
figures, landscapes, and calligraphy, which would be painted brightly
after excavation and just before the nuptials. Today, few buy the
crude versions or are willing to wait several decades before consum-
ing the wine. Instead, canal-side shops do a brisk business selling
only slightly aged Shaoxing wine in brightly painted vessels, branded
as huadiao jiu, “flowery carving wine,” to Chinese and Western visi-
tors searching for unique mementos to take home.
In English, what are called Chinese “wine” cups and “wine”
bottles are usually vessels that hold beverages other than those made
of grapes. As with teapots, these “wine” vessels—jugs, bottles, pitch-
ers, bowls, goblets, and cups—are often imaginatively shaped and
ornately decorated objects made of various materials, including un-
fired clay, bronze, lacquer, stone, metal, and ceramics. Because of the
originality and beauty of old, even ancient, Chinese “wine” vessels,
reproductions are readily available in the markets throughout the
country and are favored by tourists.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, large bronze vessels for
storing as well as smaller ones for serving and consuming wine were
common; today they are widely exhibited in museums, revealing
ornamental patterns of swirling clouds, wild animal masks, and
bold geometric shapes. Bronze drinking vessels come in a variety of
shapes, including tall, cup-shaped forms supported on three or four
splayed legs. Some of the vessels have a projecting U-shaped spout to
direct the drink into one’s mouth. Shallow lacquered wine cups with
projecting flanges have been excavated from Han dynasty tombs in
such numbers and in such widely separated locations that it is certain
OPPOSITE LEFT Wine bottle in the shape of a stylized shou or longevity
character.
OPPOSITE CENTER Wine decanter with blue ornamentation.
OPPOSITE RIGHT Shaoxing yellow wine being poured into silver cups.
ABOVE LEFT On this cracked-glaze wine bottle, the characters read “Aged
for ten years.”
ABOVE RIGHT The characters Huijishan mark this bottle as having yellow
wine produced in the city of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province.
they were produced in large workshops. During the Tang dynasty,
wine cups typically echoed Western shapes, since they likely were pat-
terned after stem cups brought by merchants from Persia and Central
Asia. By the Song dynasty, Chinese artisans began to create wine cups
that were naturalistic sculptured objects, including floral forms, and
those with pictorial ornamentation. Porcelain wine vessels and cups
appeared during the Han dynasty, reaching their peak in the Song
period. Most of these are in the shape of small bowls with high sides,
although some are stem cups.
Among the most imaginative drinking vessels were those sculpt-
ed during the fourteenth century from pounded silver, such as ones
exhibited in the imperial collections in Taipei and Beijing. Some in-
clude a human figure, usually a known poet or an unknown recluse,
seated on a gnarled log said to be floating like a raft. The wine is held
in the hollow log, which is filled from the top and drunk from the
bottom. On one exhibited in the Beijing’s Palace Museum, there are
four lines, each with five characters, that read (Wilson 1994: 384):
Crazy Li Bo could drink a hundred cups,
And old Liu Ling was ever seeking intoxication,
Only those who know the joy of wine,
After death seem to leave their name behind.
Eating and Drinking 103
 A hammered circular iron wok, while simple in design, becomes
an instrument of varied utility in the hands of an accomplished
cook as oil, water, and fire are coordinated in the preparation of
vegetables, meats, and fish.

104 Things Chinese

Woks
璐 Guō
Shaped like a shallow half-sphere with a concave bottom and one
or two handles, the wok is indispensible in a Chinese kitchen. As a
multipurpose cooking vessel—indeed, the only vessel for cooking
in some country kitchens—a wok is practical and essential for most
types of food preparation because of its shape, size, and ability to
maintain heat: it can be used for stir-frying, braising, deep frying,
smoking, boiling, and steaming. It is likely that the circular form of
the wok arose because of the need to conserve fuel, a necessity that
complements the design of a traditional Chinese stove. Convention-
al stoves, which are still extensively used in China’s countryside, have
a flat work surface with open holes that can hold a wok snugly. The
bottom of the wok thus juts into the stove’s firebox, which is fueled
with sufficient amounts of branches, wooden strips, and sometimes
coal to reach the very high temperatures required for quick cooking.
In Chinese restaurants today, natural gas feeds burners that are re-
cessed beneath the wok to achieve these high temperatures. Electric-
ity, unfortunately, cannot reproduce the intensity of heat needed for
cooking with a wok.
Traditional woks were hand-hammered from a flat sheet of iron,
but today they are usually made of carbon steel, cast iron, aluminum,
and stainless steel. Each of these materials has different properties,
and there is no consensus among cooks as to which is best. All too
often, however, superior well-seasoned iron woks are being replaced
by mediocre nonstick, lightweight cookware when the aesthetics of
the kitchen trump taste. Hand-hammered woks are still preferred by
professionals, since the process of hammering creates small dimples
along the sides of the wok that help to create what Cantonese call
wok-hei, a complex aromatic flavor that comes from the infusion of
burnt elements into the cooked food. This is often a byproduct of
bursts of flame caught in the wok during stir-frying. Using a wok,
the stir-frying technique saves time, is economical on fuel, and does
not require as much oil as cooking in a Western frying pan does. In
the small area at the bottom of the wok, both meat and vegetables
can be seared quickly before being moved upslope for final cook-
ing. Although called stir-frying in English, the technique is not mere
stirring. Chinese chefs use a tossing or flipping motion that involves
either a long-handled ladle or a spatula. While the dish being pre-
pared determines the sequence of ingredients in a wok, most cooks
begin with freshly chopped ginger and garlic, which are placed in the
heated oil to flavor it. A metal lid and bamboo slats or round steam-
ers make the wok useful for braising, smoking, and steaming as well
as stir-frying.
Eating and Drinking 105
 Games and
Amusements
For Confucius, the company of friends engaged in lively conversation
was sufficient to define leisure. In pursuit of pleasure, contentment,
and happiness—yet rarely explicitly for fun—and usually in the company
of others, Chinese adults and children have enjoyed board games, musical
and puppet performances, flying kites, and the companionship of birds
and crickets for millennia. While even a dabbler can pursue any of these
games and amusements, each is nonetheless a challenging activity
demanding skill in order to master and enjoy it fully. Once technique is
perfected and tradition is inculcated, both Chinese opera] and puppetry
are elevated above the level of a mere hobby. Although these traditional
pastimes have evolved over time, in today’s China they retain a significant
degree of popularity even as they compete with the appeal of globalized
hobbies, sports, and entertainment that all too often entice the young to
dismiss traditional amusements as personally unsatisfying.

106 Things Chinese

Games and Amusements 107
 Bird Cages
苏䦆 Niǎolóng

It has been said that China is the only place in the world where
people walk their birds and eat their dogs. In truth, dogs as well as
cats today are no longer considered either a foodstuff or a bour-
geois indulgence and have joined birds and crickets as favored pets.
Yet, birds as pets remain prized in China, especially among senior
citizens, because of the ease of caring for them and the pleasure
gained from interacting with them.
Every morning throughout China, as has been the case for cen-
turies, old men saunter leisurely toward parks, other open spaces,
and even teahouses with a birdcage or two, each cage draped with
a cotton cover. The walk provides exercise for the bird as well as
the man, because the cage is usually swung vigorously, forcing the
bird to grip its perch securely while tightening its wings. Sometimes
bird cages are attached to the back of a bicycle or tricycle for the
journey to a distant venue. Upon arrival in a shaded location, each
cover is removed and the cages hung by hook near the cages of
other bird lovers, either directly on tree branches or on wires strung
among the trees. Almost immediately, with the fresh air, the clus-
tered birds commence singing in chorus while the old men begin myna, melodious canary, and colorful parakeet, as well as various
to talk. Besides chatting nostalgically, gossiping, and teasing each singing thrushes, skylarks, nightingales, and grosbeaks.
other, bird fanciers often swap stories relating to their birds. When Birds must be caged in a structure large enough for them to
they return home, attention turns to the birds as they are fed small have some freedom to fly but small enough to carry. While bird
meals throughout the day and sprayed with water in summer to cages in the West are typically made of metal, those in China are
keep them cool. Countless hours are spent patiently training birds usually crafted of varnished bamboo, wicker, and wood. Simple
to do tricks, speak, and sing, with rewards often nothing more than cages are square or rectangular, while others are tubular in shape
a seed. An important aspect of maintaining birds is talking to them, with an arched top. In southern China, bird cages are frequently
especially in the hope that they will mimic pleasant phrases. works of art, including multitiered pagodas and polygonal struc-
Bird singing contests are often held on Sunday mornings in tures that are virtual palaces and cannot be carried outside the
some cities, sometimes in parks but also in designated flower, bird, home. Bird-breeding cages usually have two tiers with a divider
fish, and insect markets. Among the most common caged songbirds between that can be removed so the birds can mate. Birdcage acces-
are Mongolian and Zhili larks, which, while plain in color, have a sories for holding water and food are usually made of ceramics with
boisterous voice. Other popular caged birds include the intelligent auspicious ornamentation.

108 Things Chinese

Bird cages crafted of bamboo, wood,
and metal wire come in a vast array of
shapes and sizes. Most of those shown
here are hung outside as their owners
participate in a morning bird singing
competition in Shanghai.

Games and Amusements 109

 Cricket Cages
幔幃䦆 Xīshuài Lóng
The Chinese fascination with “singing” and “fighting” crickets,
fragile insects that are phenological harbingers marking the change
of seasons, is matched by their efforts to house them in handsome
containers and cages. Moreover, because of the homophonous re-
lationship between the common word for crickets and “joy,” both
pronounced xi, crickets have a long history as propitious decorative
visual motif, in paintings, on porcelain, and embroidered on cloth.
Yet, it is the maintenance of crickets at home as auspicious objects of
enjoyment and companionship—pets—that underscores the Chi-
nese affection for the living creature.
In the past, common people as well as literati and royalty trapped
crickets in the wild during the evening or purchased them in markets
or from itinerant peddlers. Even today, between May and the end of
July in many parts of China, crickets, cicadas, katydids, and grass-
hoppers, in great variety and distinguished by their forms, colors,
and sounds, are available for purchase. Sought after by connoisseur
hobbyists and the general public, insects are kept in a variety of con-
tainers that include not only simple cages made of bamboo, but also
pottery jars covered with lids to keep them cool in summer, and spe-
cially fashioned gourds, which are sometimes painted or engraved,
with perforated covers for use in autumn and winter. Gourds are
110 Things Chinese
trained to grow into a mold while on the vine, thus creating a desired
shape that will provide suitable acoustics and amplify the chirping.
Traditional covers have always been intricately decorated pieces of
sandalwood, ivory, coconut shell, and even jade, with open work as
well as high relief. According to a report by Dun Lichen in 1900, the
infatuation with expensive gourd containers for crickets led to the
impoverishment of some nobles, proving that “. . . the ways in which
they squander their riches do not stop merely with music, women,
and precious stones” (82).
Besides the clay and gourd containers, miniature show cages
fashioned out of bone, bamboo, wood, horn, brass, and even walnut
shells, in myriad shapes, have long served as accessories to display
and transport prized crickets. Each handcrafted cage includes verti-
cal openwork slats with a sliding door and a knotted handle on top
for hanging and carrying. Other paraphernalia to coddle the insects
include ceramic feeding and watering plates, boxes for sleeping, and
saucers for bathing, while scales are used for weighing, bowls serve as
pits for fights, and ticklers made of rat whiskers or fine hair stimulate
either melodic singing or active aggression.
The pleasant “singing voice” of crickets is actually produced by
the motion of their wings as they rub against each other, which cre-
 ates a “chirp,” the onomatopoetic word for the sound in English.
Immature crickets chirp in short spurts, while adults produce sounds
continuously. In recent years, cricket singing contests in which loud-
ness, timbre, and resonance are judged have been held in many
Chinese cities. Cultivating fighting crickets was a pastime for fanci-
ers in imperial China, a blood sport that continues even today, with
flourishing underground gambling dens. Although cricket fighting
was banned after 1949, the activity has been revived and has in-
creased in popularity. The Shanghai Star reported in 2003 that about
ten million people throughout the country were raising crickets for
fighting. Web sites offer guidance concerning suitable diets, including
ground worms, blood-fattened mosquitoes, tofu, water chestnuts,
apple pieces, and crushed calcium tablets and ginseng, to strengthen
the bodies of the fighters. Breeders focus on developing large heads,
robust maxillae, and strong mandibles as the necessary weaponry for
these aggressive male gladiator crickets.

Cricket cages sometimes mimic birdcages, even though they are much
smaller. Canisters and jars with a perforated end keep crickets warm in
winter. Markets in many Chinese towns and cities offer cricket aficionados
opportunities to purchase and trade crickets as well as grasshoppers for
enjoyment as well as competitive fighting.

Games and Amusements 111

 Whether triangular, lozenge-shaped, face-shaped, or articulated, kites are
employed for solitary pleasure or competition with others. The elaborate
dragon kite shown here has a heavy head and a “body” reaching upwards
of fifty feet. Lift is created by extended tail segments, with feathered stabi-
lizers added along the sides.

112 Things Chinese

Kites
穔䦬 Fēngzhēng
Chinese kites are not merely toys for the amusement of children.
Indeed, kites emerged in China more than two thousand years ago,
first as instruments of warfare, including even a man-lifting kite
that made it possible to soar high above the enemy for spying and
signaling. It wasn’t until the Tang dynasty that commoners and the
elite discovered the enjoyment and challenges involved in flying
kites. Over the centuries, kites have evolved, with a multiplicity of
forms, materials, and ornamentation. Few would deny that virtually
all Chinese kites are impressive works of folk art, with respect both
to their ingenious structures and aesthetic qualities. To most adults,
kite flying is a seasonal activity that peaks during the transition to
spring each year.
Chinese kites are almost always more varied than the diamond-
shaped, single-plane flat kites common in the West. Kites can be clas-
sified using a variety of basic categories, including fixed or collapsible
frames, rigid or flexible wings, and single unit or multiple articulated
units. Each of these can be subdivided by subject matter and size into
distinct regional traditions. Large composite kites are often several
hundred yards long, while small ones can fit into one’s hand. Kites
may be flown throughout the country, but it is in Weifang, Tianjin,
Beijing, Xi’an, and Nantong that one finds the most illustrious histo-
ries and some of the country’s most prominent kite craftsmen. These
cities also celebrate their cultural heritage with annual kite festivals.
Among the most celebrated and ingenious Chinese kites are those
that replicate articulated centipedes and dragons, both of which have
a dramatic three-dimensional head followed by a trailing set of inter-
connected disks as well as a host of leg-like outliers. More common
are flexible kites that mimic the shape of a huge variety of living fish,
birds, dragons, lizards, and myriad insects, while some recall fantasti-
cal creatures from Chinese myths and legends.
Pliant split bamboo is the material of choice for the delicate
framework of a modular kite. Tying and gluing of the bamboo joints
must be done with meticulous care in order to insure the integrity of
the airborne kite as it encounters the aerodynamic forces that chal-
lenge the control of the person holding the line that tethers it. The
joints of some kites are reinforced with small copper rings. Once the
frame is completed, its components are covered with silk or paper,
although today sometimes nylon is used. Most kites are painted with
saturated colors and covered with depictions of auspicious images
such as bats, gourds, peonies, and peaches. It is common for a series
of fabric streamers to trail off the end of a Chinese kite.
Weifang in Shandong Province boasts the world’s largest kite
museum as well as an international kite festival held in April each
year, a time of changing seasons when the air is most turbulent. In
Beijing, the ideal place for flying life-like swallow-shaped kites is the
spacious expanse of Tiananmen Square, where locals and tourists
marvel at the size, complexity, and drama of soaring kites that often
crowd the sky. At night, some kites flown there trail neon-lit tails.
Smaller kites are sent skyward within the precincts of temples and
alongside lakes in the capital. A few of the kite makers in Beijing are
said to be descendants of craftsmen who made kites for the imperial
family. From atop the old city wall that surrounds Xian, where noth-
ing obstructs flight, kites provide spectacular displays of swooping
and diving in an incomparable setting. Nantong town in Jiangsu
Province, which is close both to the East China Sea and Yangzi River,
is famous for the unique “singing” of its kites, an acoustic effect aris-
ing from the placement of a series of small bamboo whistles with
different voices along its surfaces. It is commonly remarked that the
skill required to fly a Chinese kite is more significant than the crafts-
manship of the kite itself.
Games and Amusements 113
 Mahjong Sets
It is reasonable to assume that mahjong is an ancient Chinese game
that has evolved over many millennia like other quintessentially
Chinese traditions and practices. Even though there are those who
espouse the idea that Confucius himself devised mahjong, scholars
have found no written record of the game before the nineteenth
century. Strangely, even missionaries who chronicled the customs of
the Chinese during the late imperial period did not mention it, al-
though they wrote about other Chinese games of chance. Yet, when
Stewart Culin, whose knowledge of “games of the Orient” was leg-
endary, wrote about mahjong after the tile game had already become
popular in the United States, he asserted that it had a “remarkable
114 Things Chinese
莲ᝍ Májiàng
ancestry” linked to cards and dominoes and “may be numbered with
silk, printing type, porcelain, tea and paper money among China’s
important contributions to Western civilization.” The older prede-
cessor card form employing “narrow strips of flexible cardboard
from three-sixteenths to three-eighths of an inch in breadth” with
“three money-derived suits of nine cards each and three extra cards”
was still being used by Chinese immigrants in America in the early
twentieth century (Culin 1924: 153-154).
The shift from woodblock-printed paper cards to solid engraved
bamboo, bone, and ivory tiles was less an inspired invention than
a gradual evolution. Whatever the catalyst, by the beginning of the
twentieth century a “new” game had emerged, spreading first to
Korea and Japan before reaching both the United States and Europe
in the 1920s, when it became a rage. Abercrombie & Fitch, a vener-
able New York outfitter of sporting goods and indoor games with
a thriving mail-order catalog business, is credited with scouring
Chinese villages for authentic mahjong sets that fed a burgeoning
American market, selling some 12,000 in their stores. Besides numer-
ous display ads throughout the 1920s, the New York Times published
articles with such titles as “China’s Fascinating Super Game” (Sep-
tember 3, 1922), “Mah Jongg Taking Place of Bridge” (January 28,
1923), and “Newport Plays Mah Jongg: Popularity of Chinese Game
Leads to Formation of a Club” (July 21, 1923), with many minor ar-
ticles highlighting the entrance of the game into the world of society
women and charity events.
An auxiliary catalyst came about somewhat fortuitously. Joseph
Park Babcock, a civil engineer, was sent to Suzhou in Jiangsu Prov-
ince in 1912 as a representative of Standard Oil. While there, he and
his wife were introduced to what was then an exotic game, which
LEFT This mahjong set with 144 pieces is stored in an elegant
wooden box with brass fittings that is easily transportable.
 LEFT This undated lithographic print shows a group
of women enjoying a game of mahjong.
CENTER A set of mahjong tiles includes three
groupings of nine that are referred to in English as
circles or dots, characters, and bamboos; direc-
tional pieces called winds and red, green, and white
dragons; as well as four flowers and four seasons.
RIGHT This boxed mahjong set includes four slid-
ing drawers and a front panel that slides into place.

they enjoyed to the degree he wrote a brief booklet called Babcock’s
Rules for Mah-Jongg: The Red Book of Rules. Published first in 1923 by
the Mah-jongg Sales Company of America, located in San Francisco,
his 117-page book simplified the game, thus increasing its accessibil-
ity to the public even as variant forms emerged. One variation, called
American mahjong, was popularized by the National Mah Jongg
League, which was formed in New York in 1937 with 32 members.
Today, according to the organization’s Web site, it has 275,000 mem-
bers, who play a game that is now commonly called Maajh and differs
from Chinese and other international forms in various ways.
In spring 2010, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York
City mounted an exhibition titled “Project Mah Jongg” that ex-
plored “the history and meaning of the beloved game that became a
Jewish-American tradition.” Although some in the earlier days had
criticized Mah Jongg as a vice because of its association with gam-
bling, the game “became a fixture in the Jewish communal world,” as
it offered “relaxation, companionship, and a way to raise money for
worthy causes.” Described as “an entertainment ritual in suburban
Jewish homes,” “a leading device in Jewish women’s philanthropy,”
and “an inspiration for fashion, jewelry, music, food, parties, and
pageants,” the simple game played within China and in the Chinese
diaspora has become entrenched in American popular culture (Proj-
ect Mah Jongg, 2010).
Mahjong remains popular in China, especially in the south.
While there are many who play the game on a daily basis as a form
of relaxation in senior citizen centers as well as in teahouses and
temples, others encounter the game only during wedding banquets
and New Year celebrations. Addiction to mahjong is frequently
reported in Asian newspapers, especially with respect to gambling
losses. The press in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan also periodically
report that scientific studies show that playing the game is benefi-
cial to those with memory problems or suffering from dementia.
Because of such reputed links to the improvement of cognitive func-
tion in the elderly, some hail the institutionalization of “mahjong
therapy” as an exercise for the brain. On the mainland since 1998,
mahjong has been accorded the status of a “team sport,” a whole-
some activity to be practiced without smoking, drinking, or gam-
bling. Wildly popular in Japan, mahjong is featured in both anime
and manga as well as in online competitions. Virtual mahjong is
played on a touch screen, with only the simulated clack of tiles but
none of the unique tactile qualities of the traditional game played
on a table covered with a cloth.

Games and Amusements 115

 LEFT Enjoying quiet time in a Kunming park, this amateur musician is
playing a yueqin, a moon-shaped lute with four strings that are plucked.
OPPOSITE TOP This five-man group of musicians includes those play-
ing the erhu (fiddle), yangqin (dulcimer), dizi (transverse flute), sanxian
(three-stringed lute), and dahu (bowed lute).
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Two of the three children shown in this late imperial
photograph are playing instruments, the pipa (pear-shaped lute) and erhu
(two-stringed fiddle).

Musical Instruments
Ŧඅ Yuèqì

Sometime during the Zhou dynasty (1046–221 BCE), the various
types of Chinese musical instruments, which numbered in the hun-
dreds, were classified into eight categories, using evocative words that
suggest both their different materials and sounds: metal, stone, silk,
bamboo, gourd, earth, leather, and wood. These “eight sounds” or
ba yin, with roots in the natural world, are brought alive as sound-
producing devices when a human being activates them by plucking,
bowing, striking, or blowing. Some believe there is a cosmic reso-
nance that links the natural world from which the instruments take
shape and the music that humans are able to extract from them. As in
the West, Chinese value very old instruments. However, unlike other
antiques, musical instruments are more than a curiosity that can
be appreciated only visually, since they sometimes can be played to
bring enjoyment to a contemporary listener with music from times
past. Those who are educated as well as the less sophisticated living
in the villages enjoy Chinese music played solo or in small ensembles.
Employing similar instruments, the folk music heard at weddings
and funerals and in local operas in the countryside echoes that expe-
rienced in imperial palaces and in the cities.
Instruments made of metal, usually bronze, include cymbals as
well as bells and gongs that can be played individually or arrayed in
sets. In 1978, an array of sixty-four elliptically shaped bells called bian-
zhong, which had been cast in bronze, was excavated from the tomb of
the Marquis Yi in Hubei Province. The largest bell is some 60 inches
tall, while the shortest is only 14-1/2 inches; altogether they weigh 5,500
pounds. Mounted on three-tier-high racks, which intersect at a right
angle, these percussion instruments were once played by a team of six
musicians. Underground for more than 2,400 years, they still were ca-
pable of producing melodies after being cleaned and have been played
publicly using both traditional Chinese and Western scores. Of similar
significance in court ritual were L-shaped instruments made of stone,
which in English are referred to as chimes and in Chinese as bianqing.
Suspended on ropes from a beam as a set, bianqing are struck with a
mallet in the same way that a xylophone is played.
The “silk” classification for instruments referred to the strings
that give them voice. This group contains the greatest variety, includ-
ing instruments that are bowed, plucked, and struck. Among the ones
that are bowed is the erhu, often called a two-stringed fiddle, which
is in a large family of string instruments called huqin, each with dif-
ferent sound boxes covered with snakeskin or delicate wood. Python
skin traditionally was used to cover the sound box of erhu. Since
1988, when China became a signatory to the United Nations Conven-

116 Things Chinese


tion on the International Trade of Endangered Species, the sourcing
of python skin has been tightly regulated, with most of the pythons
coming from farms rather than the wild. A pair of pegs threaded
into the neck provides the musician with a means to tune the erhu.
Since there is no fingerboard on the instrument, the player stops the
vibration by simply pressing the strings. Held by the performer with
an underhand grip, the bow, which is made of horsehair, is threaded
between the two strings. Thought to have originated in Central Asia,
the erhu today is a staple solo and ensemble instrument in variety
shows as well as in traditional opera performances.
No Chinese “silk” instrument is more celebrated than the seven-
string qin or guqin, usually referred to in English as a bridgeless
zither. Considered a refined instrument, its unparalleled sound is
produced by plucking both open strings and stopped strings. While
various thicknesses of silk were traditionally used for strings, steel
strings are used widely today in China with these instruments.
Bamboo musical instruments are almost all woodwinds. Indeed,
the Chinese sense of “bamboo” is as broadly encompassing as the
English term “woodwind.” Wind instruments made of wood, even
stone, for example, are also classified as “bamboo” just as they would
be called woodwinds. The dizi, like the Western classical flute, is an
instrument that is held sideways and horizontally for the musician
to blow across the holes. Unlike simple flutes that have finger holes
and blowing holes, a dizi has one additional hole covered with a thin
membrane, whose purpose is to add a resonating effect. In contrast,
the end-blown flute, called xiao, is held vertically at an angle of 45
degrees from the body. Some are thicker than others, and the num-
ber of finger holes is either six or eight. Both dizi and xiao, as well as
other named flutes, differ from one another in the type of bamboo
used in their manufacture.
The most prominent instrument characterized as “gourd” is the
sheng, which consists of multiple bamboo sound tubes of different
lengths inserted into a base. It is often called by Westerners a Chi-
nese mouth organ. At one time, sheng bases were exclusively made
of specially shaped gourds, produced through the time-consuming
procedure of placing a young gourd inside a mold in the shape of
the instrument’s base until it grew into the desired form. Most sheng
bases today are made of metal, with finger holes drilled into the wind
chamber. Playing a traditional sheng, the musician activates sound by
pressing his fingers directly on the open holes.
Instruments made of earth or clay, such as the xun, are flute-like
in that they are blown and have holes to control sound, but are egg-
or globe-shaped. Instruments made of leather or hide are almost all
drums, called gu, which vary in size from those held in one hand to
those that must be supported on a stand. Gu are usually played with a
pair of sticks or a beater of some type. Wooden instruments are usu-
ally of the percussion variety, either as a wooden box or blocks that
must be struck.
While J. Dyer Ball at the end of the nineteenth century felt com-
fortable stating that “The Chinese do not appreciate our music any
more than we do theirs” (1892: 269), today this is much less true.
Moreover, modern Chinese music often incorporates both Western
instruments and traditional Chinese ones, creating a welcome blend
of musical styles. Well-known composers like Tan Dun and perform-
ing artists like Yo-Yo Ma have played important roles in expanding
the worldwide acceptance of a blended Chinese-Western instrumen-
tal repertoire.
Games and Amusements 117
 Opera Masks
While Chinese opera and Western opera are similar in that both
combine vocal and instrumental music with dramatic acting, Chinese
opera is a unique art form that also incorporates choreographed
acrobatics and martial arts, stylized movements, and well-defined
pantomime in creating an auditory and visual spectacle. Traditional
string and percussion instruments provide a boisterous rhythmic ac-
companiment to all of the action onstage, including suggestive mime
actions such as riding a horse or opening a door. There are many
regional forms of Chinese opera, each with distinctive characteristics
yet common narrative themes, but the best-known is Beijing (Peking)
opera, or, as the Chinese call it, Jingju and Jingxi. Beijing opera has its
roots in Kunqu opera in central China, having been brought to the
imperial capital only in 1790 as part of the birthday celebration for
the Qianlong Emperor. Over the past two hundred years, Beijing op-
era has served as a medium for transmitting traditional values as well
as, more recently, revolutionary ideology. As popular interest declined
after 1949, efforts were made to reform traditional approaches and
techniques, including altering the slow pace of the performances and
restyling staging for television.
One notable characteristic of Chinese opera is that faces are vividly
painted with makeup to express the personality traits of individual
characters, whose multitude of roles can be resolved into four prin-
cipal types: sheng, dan, jing, and chou, all of them traditionally played
118 Things Chinese
Ǥ‫ݼ‬參晡 Jīngjù Liǎnpǔ
by males. Sheng are the main characters in an opera. When appearing
with a red face and lush beard, he is easily identifed as Guan Gong
(also, Guan Yu), a general known for his moral qualities and good
deeds. Guan Gong’s exploits are legendary and have been a fixture
of Chinese popular culture for centuries, chronicled not only in the
fourteenth-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms
but also in contemporary films and TV series. Dan characters are
women, whose roles were played by men with body types and pro-
nounced gestures suggesting a lithe and innocent younger woman, a
lively female warrior, or a wise older woman. A jing character is a sup-
porting male role wearing an enriched painted face with more colors
and lines than a sheng character, while the chou actor adds levity to
the narrative with humorous pantomime and quick movements.
The painting of opera masks not only follows conventions of
line and coloring but also must be adjusted to the contours of indi-
vidual actors’ faces. Audiences expect to grasp quickly the nature of a
character by glimpsing the painted clues that will aid in following the
opera’s plot. While there are literally hundreds of discrete faces in the
Beijing opera catalog, there are also similarities between them based
on color and composition that are both exaggerated and nuanced.
Those characters whose faces are dominated by the color red are
known for their loyalty, righteousness, and courage. Black similarly
represents loyalty and uprightness, while purple symbolizes wisdom
and resourcefulness. White faces are differentiated by whether the
color is a “watery” white, in which case the individual is known for his
trickery and malevolence, or an “oily” white, which exposes the indi-
vidual as domineering and conceited. Blue suggests a character who is
unyielding, while green represents someone with a chivalrous charac-
ter. Those with predominantly yellow faces are cruel, vindictive, and
ambitious. While one color usually dominates, faces also have clearly
marked black lines and dark shading, especially around the eyes, that
help to accentuate the main color as well as any complementary col-
ors. A clown will have a pronounced white spot in the middle of his
face, usually on his nose, while a frustrated character will be marked
by an arrow shape on his forehead. The application of facial makeup
is a tedious process accomplished by a skilled artist. Hats, helmets, OPPOSITE The faces of opera performers—as with their cos-
garments, and hairstyles also underscore the distinct personality of tumes, the items they hold, and their gait—identify clearly who
each character. Although painted masks are normally not worn by the characters are. Left to right are Cai Shen, the God of Wealth;
Dian Wei, loyal bodyguard to the legendary Cao Cao; and Kong
performers, vivid hand-painted papier-mâché or plaster masks are Xiu, general under Cao Cao. Cao Cao, Dian Wei, and Kong Xiu are
available as decorative collectibles for hanging on a wall or placement featured in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
on a shelf. Some Beijing opera masks are reproduced widely in China ABOVE As depicted in an early twentieth-century print, this toy
seller in Beijing carries a rack on his back filled with small ob-
on T-shirts, kites, scarves, ties, lanterns, mugs, toys, key chains, ball-
jects made of paper, cardboard, tin, and scrap wood, including a
point pens, bottles, bottle openers, paperweights, and slippers. There prominently placed opera mask hanging on the side.
are even hand-painted wooden combs whose serrated teeth represent BELOW LEFT The face of a dan, a young woman without a promi-
the beard of the opera performer, and in some cosmetology shops in nent role; and Jiang Wei, a military general who served under
Zhuge Liang.
China, it is possible to have one’s nails painted with a full series of ten BELOW RIGHT Two women performing in a Chinese opera with
elongated opera masks. minimal identifying facial adornment.

Games and Amusements 119

 Puppets
⥳ѴMùǒu
Puppetry—the animating of inanimate objects to narrate a story—
is an ancient folk art with roots in India that has a history of at least
2,000 years in China, where it has evolved into several distinct forms.
In the West, puppets bring to mind a performance geared toward
children, while in China puppetry always has been a theatrical expe-
rience principally for adults. This is because most of the themes are
related to Chinese opera, a quintessential form that unites vocal and
instrumental performance with dance and acrobatics and a popular
repertoire drawn from traditional stories known by all. Because
puppet theater generally flourished in Chinese villages and in poorer
urban neighborhoods where funds were insufficient to engage an
opera troupe, it has sometimes been called the opera of the poor.
Puppets vary in form from region to region and can be roughly
classified as string, rod, shadow, and glove puppets. As in Chinese
120 Things Chinese
opera, where music is an essential component, most puppet perfor-
mances include four musicians, one playing various wind instru-
ments, another strings, a third percussion instruments, and a singer
who assumes all the dramatic roles by mimicking the phraseology of
characters of different age and gender.
While Quanzhou in Fujian Province is known as the marionette
capital of the country, string puppetry is widely performed through-
out southern China and is found in northern China as well. It is
common to see small-scale string puppets at temple festivals. On the
other hand, the Quanzhou Marionette Troupe, which includes some
thirty manipulators and a full orchestra, performs in an auditorium
and has toured internationally. Some twelve to sixteen inches tall,
each string puppet is made of multiple wooden pieces, including a
head fashioned out of a block of camphor wood, a torso, and limbs.
Chinese marionettes are manipulated by anywhere from a dozen to
thirty-six strings, some of which are attached even to the mouth,
eyes, nose, and ears in order to bring the puppet to life. The long
strings are directly attached to the manipulator’s hands or to posi-
tions along bamboo strips rather than to articulated panels that are
common with Western marionettes.
Puppets manipulated using wooden or bamboo rods are found
throughout China. They vary greatly in size, from those approxi-
mately three feet in height that are activated directly in front of a
person to those famous in Sichuan that are fully human in size. In
the simplest rod type, one of the puppeteer’s hands directly controls
the head while the other hand manages two rods, sometimes hid-
den in the puppet’s sleeves, that give motion to arms and hands. In
other cases, three rods are used, including not only articulated rods
attached to the elbow and wrists but also one to the head. Indepen-
dent mechanisms within the head make it possible to move both the
mouth and the eyes, essentially by flipping the wrists. Puppets of this OPPOSITE TOP Side-by-side, three master puppeteers perform with
traditional rod puppets at the China Puppet Theater in Beijing.
type normally do not have feet but only loosely hanging legs that can
BOTTOM LEFT With his stage on one end of a carrying pole and
be thrust up to suggest kicking. boxes stuffed with puppets and props on the other, this itinerant
Two-dimensional shadow puppets, called piying, or “shadows puppet master wanders the lanes of Beijing.
of hides,” appear as solid silhouettes on a white backlit screen. BOTTOM RIGHT Three rod, or stick, puppets.
ABOVE The audience has no difficulty understanding that the pup-
Originally made of paper, for centuries they have taken shape from petry story is that of the classic tale Journey to the West, because
the hides of buffalos, donkeys, and sheep. The northern Chinese of the presence of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, and Zhu Baijie,
tradition employs thin translucent hides with smaller figures, while usually called Pigsy in English.
puppets of the southern tradition are generally larger and formed
from thicker hides. Cut into multiple pieces that are connected at the costumed personalities with wooden hands, wooden legs with boots,
wrist, elbows, waist, and knees by threads, each shadow figure typi- and heads capped with elaborate headdresses that rival those on the
cally has a large head and smaller tapered body. Three sticks, one at Peking Opera stage. A master puppeteer manipulates the puppet by
each wrist and the third at the back shoulder, provide the only means using only three fingers—index finger for the head and thumb and
of manipulation. As with other puppet types, elaborate and colorful middle finger for the arms. Only through exercise and practice is it
costumes hint to the audience of the figure’s character, which typi- possible to bend the index finger to the degree that exaggerates head
cally is also conveyed by the symbolic colors of the face, following the movements for maximum effect. It is not uncommon for a glove
traditions employed in Chinese opera: red, uprightness and loyalty; puppet to leave his master’s hands in order to somersault in midair
black, selflessness and fidelity; white, treachery and craftiness; and before returning to the hand, or even to juggle dishes. Today’s glove
green, sinister and threatening. A shadow puppet troupe is made up puppets, which have grown in size in comparison to traditional ones,
of five individuals, including a single puppeteer who may manipulate are now featured on television as well as at temple fairs. With plots
up to five puppets simultaneously, with his ten fingers controlling as that are fast-paced and action-packed, as well updated sound design,
many as fifteen threads. lighting, and special effects, conventional stories have been enhanced
In Taiwan, Fujian, and Guangdong, hand or glove puppets have with even sci-fi themes, for example, in order to draw in younger
evolved from simple cloth bags with a wooden head to magnificently viewers. This has helped keep the traditional art alive.

Games and Amusements 121

 Religious Icons
and Paraphernalia
While the principal beliefs and practices of Buddhism and Dao-
ism as religions can be delineated with some clarity, the forms
in which they exist in the day-to-day lives of ordinary Chinese
are as often as not mixed with regional folk traditions. Whether
in temples or in the home, and whether during such festivals as
the Lunar New Year, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, and
Double Ninth Festival or on other occasions, one is likely to
encounter most of the things discussed in this section—altar
tables, bagua plaques, Buddhist statues, dragons, guardian lions,
and joss sticks. One must go to a temple to use fortune sticks in
order to divine one’s future. Funerary objects, of course, accom-
pany rituals related to death, which in much of China are public
occasions. While a fengshui compass is utilized in determining a
propitious site for a residence, it also is employed in selecting a
suitable burial site and by long tradition is calibrated to account
for the particularities of the living as well as the dead.

122 Things Chinese

 Altar Tables
̧⬀Gòng Zhuō

Whether grand or merely designated for this purpose in an

otherwise common room, what is referred to as the main hall of
a traditional Chinese home is symbolic of the family’s unity and
continuity. It is in this space that members of a household perform
routine rituals on a daily, semimonthly, and seasonal basis. Impor-
tant events, such as weddings and funerals, as well as festivities at
the New Year are centered here. Apart from symbolic meanings and
ritual implications, many rooms of this type also have mundane
uses and are multipurpose family spaces. The furniture in a main
hall typically follows a set of conventions, with modifications that
reflect a family’s budget, taste, and status.
Most homes include an obligatory piece of furniture that is usu-
ally called an altar table in English, although many such tables are
in fact formal side tables without any ritual function. Depicted on
ancient bronzes and in paintings, these nearly ubiquitous tables are
high, long, and narrow, with upturned ends as well as carved aprons
and spandrels. Placed against the back wall of the main hall, usually
between two passageways, they hold ancestral tablets, images of gods
and goddesses, and ritual paraphernalia, all arranged in a prescribed
order, as well as family treasures, trinkets, and plants. Today in China
it is rare to find on an altar table an ancestral shrine with tablets
commemorating deceased family members inside, although, before
their destruction during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
between 1966 and 1976, these once were common. Today, one is
more likely to find photographs of recently deceased relatives, es-
pecially parents and grandparents. While, in the past, special foods
were offered with ancestral rituals, especially on the anniversary of
the death of a parent, today only pared down, sometimes only rather
perfunctory, rituals are carried out. Above the altar table on the wall
is usually found a pair of calligraphic couplets, with classical quota-
tions framing a large central painting having an auspicious theme.

124 Things Chinese

 OPPOSITE Although lacking the accoutrement of household wor-
ship, the tall, rectangular altar table holds valuable art objects in the
Hall of Thirty-six Pairs of Mandarin Ducks, Humble Administrator’s
Garden (Zhuozheng Yuan), Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.
LEFT Displaying family treasures, the altar table behind this pair of
chairs and square table is shown in a formal setup. For ritual pur-
poses, the furniture and objects would be moved and embroidered
panels, censers, and offerings would take their place on the tables.
ABOVE This altar cloth, which would be placed in front of the lower
square table, features an awe-inspiring dragon and four of the Eight
Immortals.
BELOW A simpler depiction of a dragon on an altar cloth.

Two other tables are often found in front of an altar table: one
a lower long table and the other a square table. Both of them may
be necessary for holding bountiful offerings of food, incense, and
lighted candles for specific rituals during the year in addition to
other, more ordinary family requirements. The square table, which
is referred to as a baxian, or “Eight Immortals,” table, is a versatile
piece of furniture with many uses that go beyond ritual functions.
Carried to the middle of the room, this all-round table can be used
for family meals, doing handicrafts or schoolwork, or playing games.
Depending on the family’s resources and taste, these tables may be of
high quality, elaborately carved hardwood or fashioned out of lesser
woods as merely serviceable pieces of family furniture.

Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 125

 Eight Trigrams Plaques
؇ख Bāguà

The number eight, an especially auspicious number, is used with
many collective groupings, but none is more common than the Dao-
ist Eight Trigrams, or bagua, which is considered a symbol of the
origin and connection of all things as part of yin/yang cosmology.
As a pictorial plaque, the octagonal bagua is imbued with profound
meanings even as it is a pervasive, somewhat generic motif found in
Chinese decorative arts. The word bagua indicates that the plaque is
comprised of eight trigrams, each of which is a different three-lined
symbol comprising groupings of unbroken or broken lines. Unbro-
ken lines represent yang, the creative principle, and the broken ones
yin, the receptive principle. As shown below, each trigram is associ-
ated with an aspect of nature—heaven/sky, lake/marsh, fire, thunder,
wind, water, mountain, and earth—which themselves have corre-
spondences with directions, seasons, astronomy, anatomy, animals,
colors, and even family members.
八卦 Bāguà—The Eight Trigrams
乾 Qián Heaven/Sky 天 Tiān
兌 Duì Lake /Marsh 澤(泽) Zé
離 Lí Fire 火 Huǒ
Taken together and then multiplied by eight, these eight trigrams
form the sixty-four hexagrams that are at the core of understanding
the Yijing, the venerable Book of Changes known by many in the West
as the I Ching, which is used for divination. Each hexagram com-
prises two stacked trigrams, one on top of the other, and is associated
with a cryptic explanation analogous to a parable.
At the center of any bagua plaque is the geometrical taiji dia-
gram—the Supreme Ultimate—a circle consisting of a symmetrical
spiraling black-white pattern, with each wing of the spiral bearing a
dot of the opposing color. The circle represents that which is whole
and from which all existence emanates, while the black and white
shapes, which fit together, embody the complementarity of op-
posites, the paired manifestations of the whole. The white segment
corresponds with yang, the male principle, which rises and broadens
on the left, while the compatible black, which represents the female
principle, on the right descends. Together, these are said to be in con-
tinuous transformation, with yang is motion and yin tranquil, each
the source of the other without interruption.
Besides constituting a fundamental component of Yijing cos-
mology, the bagua is also employed in China as a utilitarian instru-
ment necessary for the practice of fengshui as well as a charm that
can be used to repel “evil influences” and drive away “malevolent
spirits.” In fengshui, there are two different bagua, one employed in

震 Zhèn Thunder 雷 Léi

OPPOSITE LEFT Whether carved and painted on wood or rendered
巽 Xùn Wind 風(风) Fēng in other materials, bagua plaques, with sets of broken and unbroken
lines surrounding a yinyang diagram, are both a representation of
坎 Kǎn Water 水 Shuǐ Chinese cosmological thinking and a potent amulet.
OPPOSITE RIGHT This bagua or Eight Trigrams plaque includes an
艮 Gèn Mountain 山 Shān inverting mirror, said to be appropriate for diverting evil influences
from entering if hung above the lintel of a front door of a dwelling.
坤 Kūn Earth 地 Dì OPPOSITE BOTTOM A protective tiger accompanies the Eight
Trigrams on this amulet. Shengxian, Zhejiang Province.

126 Things Chinese

siting residences of the living (homes) and the other for residences
of the dead (graves). The Eight Trigrams are also usually placed in
one of the first rings surrounding the central pool of a luopan or
geomancer’s compass.
Bagua are commonly found attached to the lintel of the main
gate or placed directly on the leaves of the door in villages through-
out the country, but especially in the south. Sometimes the amulet is
disguised as a functional part of the door, serving as metal door pulls,
for example. Bagua are also often found on the ridgepole inside old
dwellings, having been placed there during construction when the
timber was ceremoniously raised. One Western observer has noted
the professed power of a bagua charm against evil is effective “to
the same extent as Holy Water is abjured by the Prince of Darkness”
(Burkhardt 1953, 130). However that may be, it is common in China
today to see a bagua hanging from the mirror of a taxi or private car
as a defensive charm, and sometimes a child can be seen wearing a
protective bagua as an antispectral charm attached to clothing.

Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 127

 Dragons
蕠 Lóng

The serpentine dragon is among the most common motifs embel-

lishing both fine art and handicrafts in China and a familiar form
found on Chinese objects of many types. A symbol of imperial
authority synonymous with the emperor himself, the dragon has
also insinuated itself into traditional lore and popular culture as a
multifaceted mythical creature that serves both densely symbolic and
purely decorative purposes. While the myriad forms of dragons are
often self-evident even to unsophisticated viewers, many are found
in shapes that only specialists recognize as dragons. Indeed, using
a linguistic analysis, Michael Carr identified in excess of a hundred
types of dragons in Han dynasty texts, each with a distinct zoological
draconym or “dragon name” associated with the Chinese word long
or some similar term. Carr distilled these into seven representative

Dragons, which are honored as highest-ranking in the hierarchy of

Chinese animals, are distinguished in several ways. They are said to
inhabit three areas—sky, oceans, and marshes—and are differenti-
ated in nine basic types.
LEFT The dragons shown on the Nine Dragon Screen in Beijing’s
Forbidden City all have five claws, which indicates that they are
reserved for the imperial family.

types with distinctive animal-like characteristics: rain-dragons, flying

dragons, snake-dragons, wug [worm or bug-like]-dragons, crocodile-
dragons, hill-dragons, and miscellaneous dragons (1990:87 ff).
Some scholars have speculated that there is such a multiplicity of
dragons because they are believed to copulate with any animal, thus
producing a diverse multitude of spawn. Whatever the form, Chinese
dragons are viewed as composite creatures, with body parts that sug-
gest other animals. In the early twentieth century, the French sinolo-
gist Henri Doré declared that a Chinese dragon had the horns of a
deer, head of a camel, a demon’s eyes, the neck of a snake, viscera of a
tortoise, claws of a hawk, palms of a tiger, and ears of a cow, with the
power of hearing through its horns rather than its ears (1917: 681).

128 Things Chinese

Chinese tourist guides embroider this list with other amalgamated
anatomical characterizations relating to eagles, rabbits, carps, and
clams, among other animals, often to reach nine attributes. Dragons
are believed capable of transforming themselves into other forms as
well as to have the ability to become invisible.
Dragons are often related to the number nine, a digit reserved for
the emperor. Nine is viewed as powerful and auspicious. The “nine
resemblances,” mentioned above, also multiply with other numbers.
Dragons are said to have 117 scales, 81 of which are yang and 36 yin,
the sum of the digits in each of these numbers equaling nine. Mul-
tiples involving nine and the sum of the resulting digits in the prod-
uct also always involve the number nine. For example, 5 x 9 = 45 and
4 + 5 = 9; 6 x 9 = 54 and 5 + 4 = 9, etc. There are three well-known
Nine Dragon Screens in China, one in Datong and two in Beijing.
Sprawling across each are nine three-dimensional coiling dragons
and countless smaller dragons, each sculpted out of colored glazed
tiles and bricks. Chinese regularly speak of nine “dragon sons,” each
with identifiable characteristics that vary from authority to authority
ABOVE, BELOW, AND OPPOSITE TOP Although expressed in
(Welch 2008: 122-3; 149). These nine spawn of the dragon function different media—cloth, metal, and porcelain—each of these
as totem-like ornamentation beneath columns, at the end of a roof dragons is a common one, as shown by their four claws.
beam, as a handle on a bell, above a lintel, as a keystone on a bridge,
on the handle of a sword, atop a censer, or as the face of a door pull.
Majestic dragons of many types are found on ceramics and textiles.
Imperial dragons, that is, those found on the clothing, chinaware,
and objets d’art of the emperor, must be depicted with five claws or
toes. Those whose status was lower were entitled to depict dragons
with only three or four claws on their personal objects.
As the fifth of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac, the drag-
on is said by some to include specific attributes of all of the others:
rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.
Those born under the dragon sign are said to be vigorous and strong,
proud and self-assured, decisive and intellectual, yet sometimes ar-
rogant and demanding.
Unlike winged Western dragons, which are depicted as breathing
fire and embodying malevolence, Chinese dragons are viewed gener-
ally as benevolent creatures that are associated with water and said to
have supernatural powers to protect and enhance fertility. Residing
in a palace in the seas and rivers, they are said to control the arrival of
rains and to be the regulator of floods. Dragons are usually depicted
facing forward with splayed legs or in undulating profile, often amid
stylized clouds and waves.

Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 129

 Buddhist
Figurines
TOP This contemporary crystal artwork by Taiwan's Liuligongfang
workshop represents the enlightenment of the Buddha, who is iden-
itfied by the protuberance on the top of his head and an aura behind.
ABOVE The bodhisattva Wenshu, known in India as Manujsri, rides
a lion and holds a sutra on a small lotus in his left hand.
130
ˎԋ Fóxiàng
Buddhism as a religion originated in ancient India as an outgrowth
of the life, teachings, and enlightenment of its fifth-century BCE
founder, Siddhārtha Gautama, who is also known as Śākyamuni
Buddha, the historical Buddha acknowledged by all adherents of the
faith. As the religion spread northward and eastward throughout
Asia, many schools emerged that led inexorably to a multiplication
of religious images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and lohans (also called
arhats), among others, who are represented as statues or depicted in
paintings. Given the fact that there are many variations from region
to region and from time to time, it is not surprising that both lay
believers and those casually interested in Buddhism are frequently
confused about who exactly a Buddhist statue is portraying. Because
of the limited number of representative figurines found in shops, the
casual viewer is sometimes left with the impression that Buddhism
is not complex, but a visit to any Buddhist temple or even a compre-
hensive museum collection reveals quickly the multifaceted nature
of its iconography and symbolism.
However, there should be no mistaking images of Śākyamuni
Buddha, who is easily recognizable seated in a lotus position with
hands held in one of the many meditative gestures called mudra. His
countenance includes elongated ears, tight, spiral-shaped hair with
a protuberant tuft atop it, a dot on his forehead above half-opened
eyes, and a simple draped robe with one shoulder exposed. Knowl-
edgeable devotees understand from specific mudra, figural style, and
even body shape, what the historic period and national origin of the
depiction is. Dominating one of the main halls of most Buddhist
temples, a contemplative statue of the Śākyamuni Buddha is often
accompanied by disciples. Subsidiary halls behind and to the side
are devoted to other buddhas, bodhisattvas, protective deities, and lotus position, and in a painting, she usually wears a flowing, some-
lohans. Although this is rare in China, elsewhere in Asia Śākyamuni times colorful robe. Devotees in China make offerings to Guanyin
is found in standing, walking, or reclining positions in addition to for both spiritual enlightenment and practical matters, such as the
being seated. birth of a son or good health. Guanyin is venerated especially in
Only a specialized book on Buddhist figures could do a proper southern China as a protector of women and the unfortunate. She is
review of the seemingly indistinguishable iconography, but a couple sometimes confused with Mazu, the Daoist Goddess of the Sea who
of Buddhist figures should be mentioned here. Maitreya, called in is also known as Tianhou (Tin Hau), to whom fishermen, seafarers,
Chinese Milefo, is considered a future Buddha, thus is a bodhisat- and coastal settlers in Fujian, Guangdong, and Taiwan Provinces are
tva who will appear on Earth at some later time and achieve true especially devoted.
enlightenment. Outside of China, he is shown usually seated with
legs crossed or pendant and wearing a headdress with a small stupa ABOVE, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT Arhat/Luohan, Guanyin, unidentified
inserted into it. In some folk traditions in China, Maitreya is called bodhisattva, Guanyin.
Budai (in Japan, Hotei), which translates as “Cloth Sack,” a reference BOTTOM The bodhisattva Guanyin, who is generally referred to as
the Goddess of Mercy, is said to have originated in the South Asian
to the coarse bag filled with precious things carried by the figure.
tradition as Avalokitesvara.
Because of his rotund body, shaven head, and cheerful, smiling face,
many refer to him as the Laughing Buddha, who is said to bring
wealth and happiness to any who rub his belly. Those who practice
fengshui often position a happy Budai statue made of porcelain,
pewter, plaster, or wood at some location in their homes in order to
attract good fortune and contentment into it.
Among the most elegant statues found is that of Guanyin, the
bodhisattva of compassion and mercy. While considered a bodhi-
sattva by Buddhists, that is, an enlightened being capable of helping
others to reach enlightenment, Guanyin is held by many folk believ-
ers in China to be a specifically Chinese Goddess of Mercy. This
figure is known in Sanskrit in South Asian traditions as a male god
named Avalokiteśvara. Daoists revere Guanyin as an immortal. As
a statue, Guanyin is usually portrayed standing or meditating in a

Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 131

 ABOVE This censer with its removable perforated lid is in the shape of a
ruyi scepter.
BELOW AND OPPOSITE With a head that resembles the fungus of immor-
tality and an arched handle on which good wishes could be carved, a ruyi
scepter was a suitable birthday gift for an elderly man or woman.

132 Things Chinese

Scepters
቎ΊRúyì
What is called a ruyi scepter, a somewhat flattened S-shaped
ornamental object considered highly auspicious, long had been
thought to have originated in India where it served as a humble
backscratcher carried by Buddhist monks. While archaeological and
scholarly evidence now reveals a parallel and independent Chinese
origin as a secular article as important for emperors as for common
people, many continue to view the ruyi scepter as being associated
with Buddhism. For the imperial court, ruyi scepters became a
symbol of power; for literati scholars, an object to hold while think-
ing and talking. For Buddhists, while ruyi remained as devotional
objects, a monk would hold one when involved in a debate as a
marker of authority. From the late Ming dynasty through the four
hundred years of the Qing dynasty, ruyi lost many of the functions
it once enjoyed, becoming simply an elegantly beautiful object
embedded with powerful auspicious meanings—“a collector’s
item—merchandise for the leisured and the snobbish” (Kieschnick
2003:152).
By itself, the two-character word ruyi means “as you wish” and
“may everything go as you wish,” which explains why the ruyi is of-
ten called a “wish-granting scepter.” When combined with specific
pictorial images carved on a ruyi, the wishes may relate specifically
to a birthday, wedding, or other celebration, or may be simply a
general expression in the sense of “May all your wishes be fulfilled.”
Granted the Chinese love for puns and rebuses involving the num-
bers three and nine, as well as flowers and animals, the possible
homophonous associations are extraordinarily rich. When seen on
a table in a painting, cradled in the arm of a figure, or arrayed as
a motif on a piece of porcelain, a ruyi indeed is more than a mere
decorative object. While some ruyi are made of common materials
such as wood, bamboo, and twisted roots with little ornamentation,
others are carved from single pieces of jade, ivory, rhinoceros horn,
coral, or agate or formed of gold, silver, porcelain, iron, crystal, or
enameled or lacquered wood. It is not unusual for precious gems to
be inlaid or relief carving to be added to ruyi.
The bulbous head of a ruyi is usually described as having a
billowing cloud shape that is said to resemble a lingzhi, the Daoist
fungus of longevity, thus a further symbolic attribute. While a single
ruyi expresses a wish, multiple ruyi can amplify this meaning. A
common set of nine suggests the Chinese word for “nine,” also jiu,
which is homophonous with “endless.” At the sixtieth birthday of the
Qianlong Emperor, a set of sixty was presented, yet at the Empress
Cixi’s sixtieth birthday eighty-one were offered to represent “ever-
lasting,” since the number is the product of nine times nine.
From a device to relieve an itch to an aesthetic object imbued
with propitious meanings and highly valued as a gift, the ruyi
underwent many transformations indeed. In 1793, when George
Macartney, the plenipotentiary sent by England’s King George III,
visited the Qing court, the Qianlong Emperor presented him with
what Macartney’s journal recorded as a eu-shee, “a whitish, agate-
looking stone, perhaps serpentine, about a foot and a half long,
curiously carved, and highly prized by the Chinese, but to me it
does not appear in itself to be of any great value.” In return, Mac-
artney presented the Emperor with “a pair of beautiful enameled
watches, set with diamonds” (Barrow 1805: 133). It must have been
as difficult for the Chinese emperor to fathom the value and mean-
ing of two mechanical devices for telling time as it was for Macart-
ney to grasp the significance of the ancient symbol of the ruyi as a
precious, tasteful, and respectful gift.
Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 133
 Fengshui Compasses
穔ㅐ傂䉀 Fēngshuǐ Luópán

Fengshui is a colloquial expression literally meaning “wind and

water” that is usually, but inappropriately, translated in English as
“geomancy.” In China, the practice of fengshui is for the most part
a practical activity far removed from its reinvention in the West as a
New Age trend. There are two basic approaches to fengshui, one of
which privileges the compass in assessing cosmic patterns and their
manifestations on the Earth’s surface, while the other doesn’t. The
latter is called the forms school, also configurations school, of feng-
shui and is intuitively and visually structured based upon topographic
features on the Earth’s surface. The former, and younger, approach
is called the analytical school, also compass school, and draws on
complicated calculations using a compass. Both schools originated in
southern China. In Jiangxi Province, the emphasis was on the nature
of the terrain, especially the nature of mountains and watercourses,
while in Fujian Province, the stress was on using calculations tied to
the rings of the luopan. For most Chinese today, these once distinct
approaches are blurred and commingled. Fengshui practices often
appear idiosyncratic and lacking in consistency but always focus on a
search for equilibrium and harmony in order to avert misfortune and
ensure good fortune.
A luopan, or fengshui compass, which is the prime instrument
used by fengshui practitioners of either school, is a saucer-like block
of wood within a square base, with at its center a magnetized needle
that at one time was mounted in a pool of water. While in the West
attention is paid to the fact that the nose of the needle points toward
the North, in China South is the direction of concern. The central
“Heaven Pool” containing the needle is surrounded by at least five
and as many as forty or so concentric rings, each of which is sub-
divided into meaningful sectors that are the operational units for
diagnostic purposes. The rings represent symbolically the ordering
of Chinese metaphysics, with the sectors being identified by engraved

134 Things Chinese

 OPPOSITE This “wind and water inter-
preter” studies a fengshui compass,
which is set on a folding stool, as his as-
sistants carry out other measurements—
all necessary activities in selecting an
auspicious building site.
RIGHT This fine round fengshui compass
is inset into a square lacquered frame
and thus can be rotated. With a magnetic
compass at the center, this complicated
luopan includes many layers of cosmo-
logical meaning that can be manipulated
in order to ascertain a proper site for a
dwelling, temple, or burial.

or painted Chinese characters. The Chinese characters written on
the interrelated circular rings refer to a host of cosmic variables and
correspondences, such as the taiji symbol and the duality of yin and
yang, the four seasons, the five agents, the Eight Trigrams, the nine
constellations, the ten heavenly stems, the twelve earthly branches,
the duodenary and sexagenary cycles, and the twenty-eight constella-
tions (Skinner, 2006). Fengshui practitioners consider the cosmologi-
cal correspondences among the rings to be complex and focus espe-
cially on various numerical and correlative correspondences between
them in order to determine appropriate building sites for residences,
temples, and graves.
Although abstruse principles and esoteric terms abound in feng-
shui, its essence can be distilled into several essential elements. Both
fengshui schools set out to discover xue, an analogical term meaning
“lair,” “cave,” or “hole” that is used also for critical acupuncture points,
where qi, “life force” or “cosmic energy,” concentrates. Xue are located
at the converging focus of a clearly demarcated serpentine chain of
hills or mountains and within the protective embrace of an armchair-
like set of lesser topographical features. They exist on different scales
to meet the specific needs for the placement of graves, houses, vil-
lages, and indeed whole cities. At one level, each place exemplifies
either yin or yang characteristics in that it faces away from or toward
the sun and is considered essentially female or male, yet in actuality
all places usually exhibit both traits simultaneously. Falling away from
the sun to the north or northwest, yin sites, which are optimal for
burial, are said to exemplify the female aspect, passivity and darkness,
as well as the Earth and moon. Yinzhai, or “abode for the dead,” is a
common expression for a grave or tomb. Selecting a suitable gravesite
is carried out to “comfort” those who will occupy the yinzhai, but
also to insure good fortune to those descendants who continue to
live. Locating a building site for a house for the living, a yangzhai, or
“abode for the living,” is also a quest for benefits and comfort. Indeed,
there are sometimes remarkable resemblances in the outward appear-
ance of yangzhai and yinzhai in terms of layout and structure. More-
over, often there is an aesthetic component to sites chosen by fengshui
practitioners in that good, auspicious sites are felt to be “comfortable”
and “suitable,” to use the English translations of the common Chinese
terms, but also poetically sublime and aesthetically picturesque.

Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 135

136 Things Chinese
Fortune
Sticks
㟬䧞Língqiān
Qian, commonly called fortune sticks in English, are slender piec-
es of inscribed bamboo used as a vehicle for divination and fortune
telling. Those seeking guidance using this medium typically visit a
local temple, where on a side table will be a bamboo canister filled
with a set of qian numbering from as few as twenty to more than a
hundred. Held together tightly in the tube, each of these sticks has
at least a number on it and often as well a poetic statement. After
lighting incense, and while keeping in mind at least one query, a
seeker after advice grasps the container, kneels on a cushion, and
shakes it in an up-and-down motion until one stick emerges from
the others or falls to the floor.
In most cases, the individual then takes a pair of wooden
blocks, each in the shape of a kidney with one side rounded and
the other flat, in hopes of getting quick concurrence from a deity.
Holding the pair of crescent divining blocks high and letting them
drop to the floor reveals whether the fortune stick “answer” is accu-
rate. If the blocks fall so both flat sides are down, the answer is “no.”
If both flat sides face up with the rounded sides down, the answer is
indecisive and it is necessary to recast the blocks. If one is flat-side
is up and the other flat-side down, then the answer is yes.
Once a yes answer appears, the procedure is to ask an atten-
dant to consult a booklet or chart, which contains a terse message,
usually rendered in cryptic, poetic form, that provides an answer.
Other books are sometimes available for elaborations on the an-
swer, if necessary. However, in many temples, there is also at least
one person, and often there are several people, sitting nearby on
a stool or in a stall who specializes in interpreting these cryptic
meanings, which often take the form of allusions to myths. For a
fee, the interpreter will assess the message in relationship to the
original query in an attempt to provide an explicit set of answers
that will satisfy the seeker. In order to insure a level of accuracy
of the interpretation, it is critical for the seeker to know his “eight
characters” or bazi, which are the pair of characters related to the
year, month, day, and time of birth. Taken together, these discrete
markers allow the interpreter to personalize what on the surface
appears to be only a generalized fortune. Many of these fortune
tellers also read palms and faces, which help them literally to flesh
out their diagnosis.
Today, there are Web sites in Chinese and English associated
with various deities, including Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy), Mazu
(Goddess of the Sea), Guan Gong (God of War), and Cai Shen
(God of Wealth), that provide a virtual experience for those willing
to obtain their fortunes by shaking a virtual fortune-stick tube on
their computer monitor, without visiting an actual temple.
OPPOSITE AND ABOVE Grasping a cylindrical bamboo cup between
his palms, the kneeling man at left is thinking or whispering a
question that requires an answer while shaking the numbered sticks
within the cylinder. After one stick falls to the ground, it is picked
up and the number on it noted. This number corresponds to a num-
bered answer on a sheet of paper, which may need interpretation by
a priest or temple volunteer.
Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 137
 Funerary
Objects
癙壐૿ Péizàngpǐn

Some connoisseurs of Chinese art collect figurines called mingqi, of this genre of Chinese folk craft, including the production process
three-dimensional clay objects unearthed from tombs, which, like the and range of paper funerary objects, and a small number of Western-
layout of the tomb itself, pictorial carvings on the tomb walls, and ers have begun to collect them.
aboveground figures, share ritual and cosmological purposes. Muse- Photographs from the nineteenth century reveal life-size figures
ums throughout the world typically exhibit examples, focusing on ob- of humans, horses, carriages, boats, and sedan chairs fashioned out of
jects said to offer comfort and be needed by the deceased in his or her bamboo and colored paper leading funeral processions. Scale models
new “life,” including figures of humans and animals as well as a host of automobiles began to be noted by Westerners early in the twenti-
of functional items recalling daily life—court ladies, attendants, en- eth century. Carl Crow in 1939 labeled shops selling such parapher-
tertainers, grooms, heavenly kings, polo players, soldiers, merchants, nalia “Ghostly Department Stores,” and he summed up the contents
dogs, horses, chickens, beasts, tools, pigsties, furniture, banqueting of one as follows:
scenes, and even multistoried buildings. The life-size terracotta war-
riors, horses, musicians, and acrobats in addition to bronze chariots, There are, of course, tables and chairs, perhaps a couch if the dead
and weapons associated with—but found at some distance from— man had been accustomed to his opium pipe. Chests are packed
the celebrated necropolis of the first emperor of the Qin dynasty with paper clothing for all seasons and occasions. And other more
(221–206 BCE) are merely exceptional examples of funerary objects intimate things, such as washbasins, urinals, and the Chinese
at large scale. Archaeological excavations reveal that these traditions equivalent of a chamber pot. As modern inventions make life on
date from the Shang dynasty (1523–1028 BCE) and continued until earth more luxurious, these comforts, by means of paper replicas,
near the end of the first millennium, when paper began to replace clay
for funerary objects, a tradition that continues today. Paper funerary
objects, however, have never been buried but instead are consumed by
fire in order to supply the deceased with their needs.
Because of the ephemeral nature of paper offerings, which are
reduced to ash and smoke during the process of combustion, and per-
haps because their destruction often goes unnoticed since it frequent-
ly occurs at night, little attention has been paid to them as beautiful
art objects Funerals remain the most robust events for consuming
paper offerings, yet over the course of the year offerings are also made
to the ancestors, gods, and ghosts. Several scholarly books in recent
years (Laing and Liu 2004; Scott 2007) have provided detailed studies

138 Things Chinese

 are made available to the dead. They now include such things as
telephones, electric heaters, electric fans, ice-boxes, lamp shades,
thermos bottles, and sometimes a motor car. These larger objects
are not stocked, owing to the limitations of space, but are made to
order. Radios are quite common and doubtless airplanes will be
added when private flying is developed in China (236–237).
Today, visitors to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and especially in south-
eastern China, as well as to Chinatowns overseas, can still find abun-
dant examples in funerary shops, where they are made and sold for
use at different points in funeral rituals. While many paper models
replicate traditional forms, such as foodstuffs, money in ingots and
cash, chests of clothing, and shoes, many others have been updated
OPPOSITE TOP Clay figures of humans, as well as buildings
and useful objects, were buried with the dead throughout the
early imperial period.
OPPOSITE BOTTOM Each urn containing the ashes of a decedent in
a Hong Kong columbarium includes on its face a photograph etched
in black, a name beneath, and a red ribbon around the urn's neck.
ABOVE LEFT Modern objects like this automobile, which has been
fabricated of colored paper and bamboo strips, are carried with the
coffin to the grave site, where they are burned in order to accompany
the deceased as he leaves this world.
ABOVE RIGHT Twelve female musicians arrayed in three rows were
found in an excavated tomb.
BELOW Jade, which included carved ornamental pieces such as
these and plugs to block nine body apertures, were buried with the
deceased during the early imperial period. It is said that this custom
was observed because they would prevent the corpse from decaying.

as styles change. Shops typically provide a convenient list of about

thirteen standard items, basic offerings that are viewed as essential, as
well as a second list of personalized, sometimes unique items such as
a modern multistory villa, pets, snack foods, golf clubs, air condition-
ers, credit cards and bank savings books, computers, iPhones, den-
tures, cigarettes, fine liquor, and fashionable clothing, among many
other favored items.
The production chain relating to the craft of paper funeral
offerings includes not only the fabricators of the funerary objects—
who are specialist artisans in workshops—but paper supply shops
that provide raw materials and funeral parlors and temples that re-
ceive them for ritual purposes. Utilizing basic tools like scissors and
knives and simple materials, including thin bamboo strips, paste,
and paper, as well as straightforward techniques—cutting, folding,
pasting, painting, and printing—craftsmen assemble functionally
significant and aesthetically imaginative objects, essentially paper
sculptures, that are usually brilliant in color and replete with auspi-
cious symbolism. Inexpensive machine-made paper objects are also
finding their way into the shops as both artisans and customers
adapt to changing conditions.

139
 Set in pairs in front of sumptuous halls, guardian lions vary in
detail even as they represent either a male with a paw placed upon
a ball or a lioness with a paw on top of or adjacent to her cub.

140 Things Chinese

Guardian
Lions
䏹㮶 Shíshī
The idea of a guardian lion was introduced into China by mer-
chants traveling the Silk Roads from Central Asia and came as well
with the spread of Buddhism from South Asia, both areas where this
imposing animal was symbolically associated with royalty and the
protection of gods. Smaller and slimmer than their African cousins,
wild lions were found in India and Persia but were not indigenous
to China, arriving only as living tributes that were placed in imperial
zoos in the first century CE during the Han dynasty. Over the centu-
ries since, the protective lion form became an increasingly recurring
motif as a symbol of strength and power on antique textiles and
pottery in addition to being freestanding sculpture.
The Chinese in time created several “original” forms of the lion
as it was transformed from a real beast to a popular protector with
a variety of distinguishing characteristics. Known collectively by
the Chinese as shishi or stone lions since most are made of granite,
limestone, or marble, although they may be made of other materi-
als such as cast iron or bronze, lions traditionally were seen as a
pair of guardians in front of palaces, tombs, or temples, and even
outside the gates of homes of officials. However, not all lions are
found in pairs. Four lions accompany five other types of real and
mythical animals along the Sacred Way leading to the Ming tombs
to the north of Beijing. Some 120 individually carved lions sit
atop the balustrade of the Seventeen Arches Bridge in the imperial
Summer Palace, while more than 600 stone lions in different poses
are found atop individual columns along the edge of Beijing’s
Lugou Bridge, a structure that dates to the twelfth century.
Whenever one encounters a pair of majestic guardian lions
facing outward and seated on their hind legs atop a plinth or ped-
estal, the one on the left is usually female, while the one on the
right is male. The two thick-bodied figures may look quite similar
in that they have gaping jaws and wide-opened eyes on their raised
heads, each shrouded with a curled mane. However, differences
can be confirmed by looking carefully at what one paw of each
figure is coddling. While it is most common for the right paw of
the male lion to be supported by an ornamented ball, sometimes
it is the left paw. Whatever the case, the opposite paw of the lion-
ess always rests playfully atop a lion cub reclining on its back. Be-
sides being guardians, a pair of lions is seen as an auspicious duo.
Small-scale reproductions of gigantic sculptures found in palaces
and temples, which are suitable for display, are readily available in
shops throughout the country.
Today, pairs of lions, sometimes carved of stone but more
likely molded of plastic resin, are ubiquitous features in front of
restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, and banks in China. Moreover,
in Chinatowns throughout the world, pairs of guardian lions are
the iconic partners of Chinese-style roofs and ceremonial arches
that together represent Chineseness. Small-scale replicas of lion
pairs are marketed as authentic Happiness or Good Fortune Lions
but are nothing more than mass-produced knickknacks. Although
sometimes referred to as Foo or Fu dogs and even erroneously
conflated with Japanese and Korean lion-dogs, Chinese guardian
lions are nonetheless fundamentally enhanced lions.
Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 141
 ABOVE LEFT Hollow censer of one of the Eight Immortals, Zhang
Guo Lao, astride his mule.
ABOVE RIGHT Hollow censer with a wizened sage sitting atop a
water buffalo.
BELOW FROM LEFT TO RIGHT Four ornamented candles and
three different containers that are affixed to the front wall of
homes in order to burn joss sticks.
OPPOSITE Bundles of incense are lit using candles and then
placed standing up in an ash-filled censer.

142 Things Chinese

Joss Sticks
Joss sticks, also called incense sticks, are used in rituals at home,
in temples, and in roadside shrines, at the base of sacred trees, and
at graves. Describing a substance that smolders when ignited, the
pidgin-English word joss is said to derive from a corruption of the
Portuguese word Deos, meaning “God.” Westerners early on referred
to temples as “Joss-houses,” since they housed Chinese deities before
which paper with charms and amulets were burned as joss paper.
Daoists and Buddhists believe that the rising smoke from burning
joss sticks lifts their petitions to the deities. Moreover, in the past,
calibrated joss sticks of fixed length and composition often were
used in temples as a timekeeping device, because they burned evenly
and could mark the passage of the hours.
Joss sticks once were only made by hand, but today many are
machine-made. In an early twentieth-century survey by an American
consul in the city of Canton (Guangzhou), it was determined that the
pasty mixture, at the time called punk in English, included sandal-
箵 Xiāng
wood, cedar, rhubarb, cloves, and sugar as well as several ingredients
that were not clear. All of the ingredients were reduced to a powder
by various means, including rasps and millstones, mixed with friable
clay, then moistened with wine and thoroughly kneaded. The paste
was troweled onto the upper portion of bamboo sticks and rolled,
whereupon the evaporation of the alcohol in the wine led to quick
drying. Aromatic agarwood from Southeast Asia also found its way
to China as a substitute for sandalwood. In northern areas of China,
the bark of the elm tree traditionally was used as the basis of the
mixture, with perfumed sandalwood added. Whether made by hand
or machine-made, the lower portion of a joss stick is first held in the
hand before being stuck into a censer filled with ashes, where it burns
slowly while giving off both curling smoke and a fragrance, hence its
Chinese name. Sometimes joss is formed along a continuous wire in
a spiral form, which when hung as a cone and lit at the bottom will
last for many hours as it burns slowly toward the apex.
Religious Icons and Paraphernalia 143
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Thanks also to: Ghislaine Bouillet-Cordonnier, Yomei
Chang, Lina and Talal Kanafani, Constantine
Acknowledgments Koutzaroff, Mimi Lipton
All photographs are by Michael Freeman unless Additional Photo Credits
otherwise noted. The following are the sources The following photographs are courtesy of or
for some of the objects shown in Michael from:
Freeman’s photographs:
74 (top left); 117 (bottom): U.S. Library of Congress
Gregg Baker Prints and Photographs Division.
140-142 Kensington Church Street 74 (top right): Edwin Reischauer and John King
London W8 4BN, England Fairbank. East Asia: The Great Traditions. Boston:
+44 (0) 20 7221 3533 Houghton Mifflin, 1958.
www.japanesescreens.com/ 74 (bottom left): Mrs. Archibald Little. Intimate China:
The Chinese as I Have Seen Them. London: Hutchin-
Elisabeth de Brabant son & Co., 1899.
299 Fuxing West Rd, 76: Harvard College Library, Widener Library olvwork
Xuhui 394100.
Shanghai, China 111 (bottom left), 133: Patricia Bjaaland Welch, from
+86 2164667428 Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery.
www.elisabethdebrabant.com Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle Publishing, 2008.
112: © Bin Zhou / Dreamstime.com
Henry Brownrigg 119 (top); 120 (bottom left): Samuel Victor Constant.
Stands 2&21, 287 Calls Sounds and Merchandise of the Peking Street
Westbourne Grove Peddler. Peking: Camel Bell, 1936.
London W11 2QA, England 127 (top left, bottom): Ronald G. Knapp.
+44 (0) 7381 5407 134: Sun Jianai, ed. Qinding Shujing tushuo [Imperially
hcqbrownrigg@hotmail.com Prescribed Illustrated Classic of History]. Beijing:
Daxuetang, 1905. juan 32.
Robert Hall
+44 (0) 207624 9300
www.snuffbottle.com