Chinese Embroidery

Choice of image apart, the successful creation of a work of embroidery pivots on stitching methods, coloration, and their combination. These factors are decisive when applying distinct embroidery techniques to the depiction of figures, objects, animals, backgrounds, landscapes and ornaments.
Organic development and accumulation over centuries has made embroidery a complete art of rich patterns and malleable forms that evoke intense aesthetic pleasure. Works fall naturally into different series according to subject matter and technique. They include oil painting, traditional Chinese painting, water towns, flowers, greeting cards, pigeons and flower vases. Examples of practical-use embroidered articles are garments, handkerchiefs, scarves and greeting cards.
On display are scores of embroidered works, including daily-use articles from Suzhou and Hunan. The techniques and artistic accomplishments these works imbue are a true reflection of modern Chinese embroidery.

Chinese Embroidery

Su (Suzhou) Embroidery is crafted in areas centered on Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. It is noted for its beautiful patterns, elegant colors, variety of stitches, and consummate craftsmanship. A needle creates Su embroidery on fabric as a brush paints a picture on canvas. Stitching is meticulously skillful, coloration subtle and refined.Xiang (Hunan) Embroidery comes from areas centered on Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. It is distinct for its starkly elegant black, white and gray coloration. Its emphasis is on contrasts of light and shade that highlight the pattern texture to give a three-dimensional effect. Xiang Embroidery composition combines void and solid imagery, utilizing empty space in the same way as Chinese ink-and-wash paintings.
Yue (Guangdong or Guang) Embroidery includes that crafted in Chaozhou. It is composed of intricate but symmetrical patterns, vibrant colors, varied stitches and a defined weave. Its use of primary colors, light and shade are reminiscent of Western paintings.
Shu (Sichuan) Embroidery comes from areas centered on Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. Its raw materials are satin and colored silk, its craftsmanship painstaking and refined. The emphasis is on even stitching, delicate coloration, and local flavor. Sichuan embroidery is used to decorate quilt covers, pillowcases, garments, shoes and painted screens.

Chinese Embroidery

Embroidery as a Chinese handicraft has long been an important facet of traditional Chinese arts and crafts. Practiced all over the country, China's most famous works of embroidery come from Suzhou (abbr. Su), Hunan (abbr. Xiang), Sichuan (abbr. Shu) and Guangdong (abbr. Yue). Embroidery as a folk art is imbued with the distinct characteristics of its locality. As an art form it features exquisite craftsmanship, immaculate execution and strong aesthetic appeal.

Cut Silk

Silk tapestry with cut designs is one of the most artistic forms of traditional Chinese handicraft. Though many of the artisans who made them are anonymous, their works reveal an exceptional level of skill and patience as well as a considerable degree of artistic cultivation. The National Palace Museum is home to a large collection of tapestries from the ages, and this special exhibition represents a selection of some of the finest works to provide viewers with an opportunity to further appreciate and understand this important art form in traditional China.

Cut Silk

The range of subject matter also blossomed as designs became ever more abundant and complex. The practice of combining tapestry and painting spread, resulting in further variety and beauty for this art form.

Cut Silk

Kesi, or Cut Silk, refeto silk tapestry with cut designs, and is a unique Chinese traditional silk weaving technique. Archaeological evidence indicates that silk tapestries with cut designs were produced in China at least as early as the Tang Dynasty .

Pictures about Tibet Riots, horrible!

The Nobel Foundation should contemplate withdrawing the so-called Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama. He don't deserve it as a riot instigator. This criminal is not a holy man of peace as should be expected of him. Dalai lama is not a lama at all. a lama must love his fatherland and devote himself to the world of peace and stability, while he is the mastermind of the horror in lhasa. he is a politician rather than a religious leader, he asks others to sacrifice for his personal gains. he is urged to apologize for the unrest in the region.

The Marvels of Bamboo Basketry

Hand-woven bamboo articles are favored by many people due to the high-level technique involved and fine designs produced. Simple and elegant woven products can infuse a room with an artistic, natural atmosphere. The craftworks have hard outer skins and are odorless and tasteless, thus reducing pollutants from modern furniture ornaments obtained via chemosynthesis.
Bamboo is widespread and grows rapidly. Since only four-year-old or older bamboo can be used, using bamboo as one kind of material instead of wood is environmentally friendly and good to the sustainable development of rain forest.
Bamboo, as a multi-purpose product for the global marketplace that is easily grown and fashioned into salable merchandise, is what makes the art of bamboo basketry so popular.

The Marvels of Bamboo Basketry

China is home toabout one-third of the world's 1,300 species of bamboo. For centuries, its tough, pliable stalks have been deftly woven into a wide variety of objects combining utility with remarkable artistic expression.
Ancient Fashion
Bamboo, pine and plum -- known as "three good friends in the cold years" -- have always been popular among the Chinese people. Whether strong, light, smooth or straight, bamboo is one of the most favorable materials used by handicraftsmen in China.
Bamboo basketry , an art of weaving or coiling and sewing flexible sawalis to form vessels or other commodities, has a long history in China. In primitive society, ancient people had mastered the skills of basketry using grass, bamboo, straw, etc, which is proven by the unearthed relics from the Liangchu Culture Period. The bamboo basketry has been employed by primitive people to make crude huts, articles of dress and adornment, granaries, traps, boats, cooking utensils, water vessels, and other utensils.
These hand-woven craftworks, which were light, convenient and cheap, later became favorites in people's lives, including daily articles, articles for cultural use and entertainment, cooking utensils, mats, shoes and caps, craftworks for ornaments, and so on. Today, many bamboo basketry products are exported to various countries and regions.

The Marvels of Bamboo Basketry

Color: Bamboo with elegant green and speckle-free stalks is of the best quality.
Once gathered, the materials are cleaned and prepared via various techniques, including cutting, splitting, scraping, dividing, weaving, dyeing, and lacquering. Weavers have to size their materials so that they are uniform in width and diameter -- a meticulous, time-consuming task necessary to ensure the regular and even appearance of the finished craftwork.

The Marvels of Bamboo Basketry

Bamboo basketry is widespread in China and features different local flavors in different places. It is remarkably diverse in terms of technique, form and method of decoration. The techniques range from the delicate and graceful to the rustic and bold.
Weavers gather and carefully choose bamboo materials in accordance to the following principles:
Maturity: Bamboo aged four to six years is most suitable. Younger bamboo is prone to shrinkage and is often worm-eaten; that over six years, on the other hand, is very mature and cannot be easily broken.
Production area: Bamboo grown in mountains is better due to its softness, tenacity and flexibility from the high humidity in mountains.
Length between nodes: The longer and the flatter, the node rings the better.
Calibers of both ends: The less disparity there is between the two calibers the better.

Hair Embroidery

The origin of hair embroidery can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when girls cut their long hair and used it to weave the image of Buddha to show their piety. However, this skill declined during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). In the 1970s, the ancient skill was revived and has since been explored and studied in detail. Today, the art has by far surpassed its past attainments in color and variety. The color is no longer limited to black. Others, such as blonde, amber, auburn, white and grey of various shades are also used, totaling dozens of tones mostly collected from ethnic-minority areas. Occasionally, to give the lips of an ancient beauty their usual rosiness, white hair may be dyed red. But, on the whole, works embroidered with hair retain their natural hues.

Hair Embroidery

Hailed as a "unique skill of the world", hair embroidery is one of the gems of Chinese embroiderart, together with Su embroidery, Xiang embroidery, Yue embroidery and Shu embroidery. As the name indicates, hair embroidery refers to embroidery where human hair is used as a thread instead of other materials. Since Chinese people generally have black hair, embroidery is also called "Moxiu" (black embroidery).

Culture of Chinese Drum2）

As an old and wonderful form of art, the drum finds application in almost every aspect of Chinese social life, including sacrificial and worshiping ceremonies, farming, and warfare, and throughout the centuries it has been imbued with profound cultural implications.
The history of the popularization of the Chinese drum is also the history of its continuous borrowing and assimilation of other artistic forms and expressions. During the process, Chinese drum performance arts have undergone a lot of regional as well as ethnic variations. As a result, today they produce different visual impacts and bring to the viewers different senses of beauty 。

Culture of Chinese Drum

The drum occupies a prominent place in Chinese culture. Though the exact origin of the Chinese drum is still subject to debate, ancient literatures show that it is about as old as Chinese history itself. The earliest documentation of its application in ancient China occurs in Oracle Inscriptions (Jiaguwen) of the Shang Dynasty , that is, inscriptions carved on tortoise shells and animal bones.