China RedChinese Cheongsam(Qipao)

The cheongsam is a high-necked dress with distinctive Chinese features. The dress is buttoned on the right side, with a loose chest, a fitting waist, and slits up from the sides, all of which combine to enhance the beauty of the female shape. Easy to slip on and comfortable to wear, the cheongsam perfectly fits the beautiful figure of females.
The Cheongsam, especially the red-colored, is one of the most typical, traditional costumes of Chinese women. Even though Cheongsam is not often appearing in daily life, it is worth collecting, for it reflects the Chinese culture and arts with its national characteristics and strong happy colors and fashion designs. That’s why brides in China choose red cheongsam as their most preferred dress, to perform the traditional Chinese wedding ceremony and create a happy environment.
The cheongsam enjoys a long history and is now enjoying resurgence in popularity in the world of international fashion. After evolvement and development, Cheongsam has become an inspiration for fashion designers. Regarded as a symbol of the Chinese nation, Cheongsam is often seen worn by women on formal or semi-formal occasions. In either case, it creates an impression of simple and quiet charm, elegance and neatness. No wonder cheongsam is so much liked by women not only of China but of foreign countries as well.

The best time to feel China Red

The best way to feel China Red is to stay in China during the Spring Festival or attend a Chinese wedding. To celebrate the Spring Festival – the most important festival in China, people will set off red firecrackers, paste red couplets on doorframes and red paper-cuts on windows, hang and light red lanterns at night, and give out red envelopes to kids.
In contrast to the use of white, especially with wedding dresses, popular in many western countries, a Chinese wedding features the use of red, which is supposed to ensure a happy future for the couple. In a traditional Chinese wedding, you will find red everywhere. Red candles create a cozy and warm environment, and red Double Happiness characters are pasted on doors and walls. Red invitation cards are sent and guests present red envelopes. The new bed is covered with red bed sheets and red quilts. The couple walks down a red carpet, strewn with red flowers. Even at modern weddings, where the bride wears the western white wedding gown for the ceremony, it is customary for her to change into something red for the reception.
In China, red is more than just a color. It carries the ancient history and culture of the Chinese nation. China Red is filled with mysterious charm beyond description and it is right here in China waiting for you to feel, to discover

China Red, the Color of China

From among a world of colors, red stands out the most. The color red is fresh and pure, and in China we call it China Red. Chinese people are fascinated by the color red not only because of its intoxicating vibrancy, but also because of its rich meaning in Chinese culture and history.
It is believed that no country in the world has ever adopted a color in such a thoroughgoing way as China, where red is a symbol that gives color to the soul of the nation. In the past, red stood for dignity and mystery. Even now, we adore the color much more than we love it. It is can be said that ‘China Red’ is an eternal theme for China, and an essential color for the Chinese people. “China Red” has become a quite popular word, attracting the world’s attention.
Shooting red-colored things in China is an easy task, as its powerful presence can be found every-where. All traditional red things have been playing special roles in China: the walls of ancient palaces, the national flag, Chinese knot, lantern, couplet, clothes, traditional paper-cuts for window decorations, and even red tanghulu (sugar-coated haws on a stick). Red is the color of the auspicious, signifying reunion, health, happiness, harmony, peace and prosperity. Only real things and events can fully display and explain its beauty. Only in its relation with people can the color be alive and meaningful. Here we will reveal the cultural significance of China red.

Three Cup’s of Tea in Baizu

There is a tea custom popular in a Chinese nation called BaiZu. If they are visited by someone, however familial or not so familial, they will cheat him with three cups of tea.The first taste bitter，it symbolizes the life’s rule that if you want to success in your business, you should deal with a lot of difficulties.The second is sweet. Because they add some sugar and other sweet into the tea. BaiZu people just pour the cup to it’s capacity’s eight tenths. This stands for the happiness following the hard days.The last cup of tea called aftertaste tea. This time they add honey, pepper, the pulp of walnut and so on, guests drink it when it is hot, they will taste a mixed flavor, include sour, sweet, bitter and hot, this cup of tea remind people remember to aftertaste the things have done, try to find some experience or learn a lesson from it, and remember the philosophy that sweet will always comes after bitterness.

Paper Umbrellas
The best oilpaper umbrellas are generally thought to be those from Fujian and Hunan provinces, with a good reputation for its delicate craftsmanship and vivid pattern. Their bamboo frames are treated against mould and worms. The paper covers are hand-painted with flowers, birds, figures and landscapes and then coated with oil so that they are not only practical but also pretty and durable.
Though it is only a small paper umbrella like other arts, the producing craft is without any carelessness. Take Fuzhou paper umbrella for example. The rib must be made of five-year-old bamboo produced in northern Fujian Province to make it have strong tenacity and elasticity, and possess mould resistance, antiseptic property and resistance to insects by special manufacturing. An umbrella is finished via over 80 processes, and traditionally has five independent parts -- the rib, the umbrella, the head of umbrella, the shaft and painting. The umbrella surface is made of refined cotton paper with strong pulling force. Then it is treated with pure paint, again tung oil which has strong stickiness, designed with flowers and birds, figures, landscape and scenery.

Chinese Umbrellas

China is believed to be the home to umbrellas, which are still widely used in the country. The earliest umbrellas are known to have existed at least two thousand years ago, first made of silk and later popularly paper. The Chinese waxed and lacquered their paper parasols because oil repels water. In ancient times, the frames of the umbrellas were made of mulberry bark or bamboo. Red and yellow umbrellas were used by royal families, and blue umbrellas, by the common people.

Making Butter Sculptures

Butter sculptures are traditionally made with yak butter, but in exiled Tibetan communities, as the weather is usually warmer, they are made with ghee, fat, and wax.

Butter Sculptures

Butter sculptures symbolize impermanence, (a main tenet of Buddhism,) along with more ritualistic components, and are usually destroyed in anywhere from a day to a few years. Butter sculptures are displayed on altars and shrines in monasteries or family homes. They are traditionally made every Losar, the Tibetan New Year, and for the Butter Sculpture Festival, part of the Great Prayer Festival, or "Monlam Chenmo" that is held soon after Losar. In it, monks made huge, story high butter sculptures displayed outside the Jokhang in Lhasa, the holiest temple in Tibetan Buddhism.

Butter sculpture

Butter sculpture is another Tibetan Buddhist artistic visual impact. The sacred offering is made from mainly butter and other mineral pigments. The size of butter sculpture varies from several centimeters torma to several meters tableaux, covering a variety of subject including deities, butter mandalas, flowers, animals and Buddhist motifs. Traditionally, butter sculptures are displayed on monastery altars and family shrines as offerings. In the session of the Great Prayer Festival, there will be a butter sculpture display and competition before the Jokhang Temple.Butter sculptures are modeled by hands. Since butter melts easily, monk artists making butter sculptures need work in cold conditions, they have to dip their hands into cold water to make their fingers cold enough then can they start to model. Monks take great pride to do the religious work. A few tools, such as hollow bones for making long threads and moulds for making leaves and alike, are applied.The butter sculptures in Taer Monastery enjoy the highest reputation in the Tibetan world. The monastery has a butter sculpture museum housing a collection of fine butter sculptures.

lotus shoes

lotus shoes

The custom of foot binding was at first a sign of wealth, as the woman with a properly bound foot could do very little. This remained a custom of the royalty, nobility and very rich until the beginning of the 17th century. By the end of the 1600抯, millions of women from all classes were binding their feet in order to imitate the upper classes. Though the custom was outlawed in 1911, footbinding was not completely abandoned until the Communists。

The Lotus Shoe

The Chinese custom of breaking and binding a little girl抯 feet began over one thousand years ago. Since that time, millions of Chinese women from all classes have experienced the excruciating pain involved in achieving the extraordinarily tiny lotus foot. Foot binding began in the royal palaces in the mid-10th century. There are several stories surrounding how this strange custom began. Myths surrounding the gods and goddesses of China include a story about a fox who, in an attempt to disguise himself as an empress, concealed his feet by binding them. Another story suggests that the last empress of the Shang dynasty had a club foot and persuaded her husband to make the compression of the feet obligatory for young girls. The generally accepted theory, however, credits Prince Li Yu, who ruled one of ten kingdoms in southern China. It is said that he had a favourite woman in his concubine, who was a suburb dancer.