Dragonfly knots

This dragonfly was made from knot consists of a double button knot, a virtue knot and a series of flat knots. 

http://shoushizhang.ecrater.com/p/8293071/dragonfly-apple-green 

Chinese Eight Great Reginal Cuisines 2

After introduced about Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, and Hunan cuisines, I will introduce the other four famous cuisines in Chinese traditional cook. They are Jiangsu, Shangdong, Szechuan, and Zhejiang cuisines.

1. Jiangsu cuisine

Jiangsu cuisine is characterized as soft texture, but not to the point of mushy or falling apart. For example, the meat tastes quite soft but would not separate from the bone when picked up. Other characters includes the strict selection of ingredients according to the seasons, emphasis on the matching colour and shape of each dish and emphasis on using soup to improve the flavour. One example is the steamed meatball.

2. Shangdong (Lu) cuisine

Shangdong cuisine is well-known to use local seafood ingredients, such as scallops, prawns, clams, sea cucumbers, and squid. It is somewhat unique for its wide use of corn, peanut crops,  wide variety of small grains such as millet, wheat, oat and barley.Also Shandong cuisine's greatest contribution to Chinese cuisine has been in the area of brewing vinegars. Left picture is sugar and vinegar fish, a very popular dish in restaurants.


3. Szechuan (Chuan) cuisine

Szechuan cuisine is well-known for using garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavor of the Sichuan peppercorn. Peanuts, sesame paste and ginger are also prominent ingredients in Szechuan cooking. The Sichuan peppercorn is is an indigenous plant producing peppercorns which has an intensively fragrant, citrus-like flavor and produces a "tingly-numbing" sensation in the mouth. Common preparation techniques in Szechuan cuisine include stir frying, steaming and braising. One famous dish is double cooked pork, shown in the right picture here.

4. Zhejiang cuisine

Zhejiang cuisine is not greasy, having instead a fresh and soft flavor with a mellow fragrance. It is  characterized by rich variations and the utilization of bamboo shoots. Dongpo Pork is a notable dish in Zhejiang cuisine.  Other representative dishes are beggar's chicken and West Lake fish in vinegar. The picture on the left shows the West Lake fish in vinegar, it is a very classic dish dating back to the Ming Dynasty.

Traditional Dress in China 8

Today I would like to introduce traditional dress for ethnic Salar, Bonan, Yugur, Kazak and Qiang  people.   

16. Ethnic Salar

Women like to wear kerchiefs on their heads and black sleeveless jackets over clothes in striking red colors. They are good at embroidery and often stitch flowers in five different colors onto their pillowcases, shoes and socks. Men wear flat-topped brimless hats of either black or white colors, and wear sheepskin coats without linings and woolen clothing in winter. 

17. Ethnic Bonan

Bonan men wear white jackets with buttons down the front, black sleeveless jackets, long trousers, and brimless flat black or white round cloth caps. They wear robes with buttons on the front-right, along with long waistbands and broadswords on festive occasions, as well as top hats and long riding boots. Women wear jackets with buttons on the front-right, long or short-bordered sleeveless jackets and long trousers. The front rims and lower hems of the jackets, and the bottoms of the trousers are decorated with veins and patterns. They prefer head kerchiefs, with green ones for young women, black ones for married women and white ones for elderly women.

18. Ethnic Yugur

The Yugurs have their own peculiar way of dressing. A typical well-dressed man sports a felt hat, a high-collared long gown buttoned on the left, a red-blue waist band and high boots. A woman of marriageable age combs her hair into many small pigtails which are tied up into three big ones, with two thrown over the chest and one over the back after marriage. The women usually wear a trumpet-shaped white felt hat with two black lines in front, topped by red tassels.

19. Ethnic Kazak 

In winter, the Kazak men usually wear sheepskin shawls, and some wear overcoats padded with camel hair, with a belt decorated with metal patterns at the waist and a sword hanging at the right side. The trousers are mostly made of sheepskin. Women wear red dresses and in winter they don cotton-padded coats, buttoned down the front. Girls like to sport embroidered cloth leggings bedecked with silver coins and other silver ornaments, which jangle as they walk. Girls used to decorate their flower-patterned hats with owl feathers, which waved in the breeze. All the women wear white-cloth shawls, embroidered with red-and-yellow designs.

20. Ethnic Qiang 

The Qiangs dress themselves simply but beautifully. Men and women alike wear gowns made of gunny cloth, cotton and silk with sleeveless sheep's wool jackets. They like to bind their hair and legs. Women's clothing is laced and the collars are decorated with plum-shaped silver ornaments. They wear sharp-pointed and embroidered shoes, embroidered girdles and earrings, neck rings, hairpins and silver badges.

Chinese Eight Great Reginal Cuisines

Chinese have a long history of cooking. For different area, people cook different. During centuries either great regional cuisines- Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shangdong, Szechuan, Zhejiang, become popular all over the country.  Among them, Cantonese and Szechuan are also well-known Chinese cuisine by people all over the world.

1. Anhui (Hui) cuisine
It is derived from the native cooking styles of the Huangshan Mountains region in China and is similar to Jiangsu cuisine. Anhui cuisine is known for its use of wild herbs, both land and sea, and simple methods of preparation. Braising and stewing are common techniques. Frying and stir-frying are used much less frequently in Anhui cuisine than in other Chinese culinary traditions. Anhui cuisine consists of three styles: Yangtze River region, Huai River region, and southern Anhui region. Anhui has ample uncultivated fields and forests, so the wild herbs used in the region's cuisine are readily available.

 Anhui steam meatball with sticky rice and duck eggs.








2. Cantonese (Yuet) cuisine
Cantonese cuisine draws upon a great diversity of ingredients. Besides pork, beef, and chicken, Cantonese cuisine incorporates almost all edible meats, including organ meats, chicken feet, duck tongue, snakes, and snails. However, lamb and goat is rarely eaten, unlike in cuisines of Northern or Western China. Many cooking methods are used, steaming and stir-frying being the most favored due to their convenience and rapidity, and their ability to bring out the flavor of the freshest ingredients. Other techniques include shallow frying, double boiling, braising, and deep frying.

Wenchang Chicken

3. Fujian (Min) Cuisine
Fujian style cuisine is known to be light but flavorful, soft, and tender, with particular emphasis on umami taste, as well as retaining the original flavour of the main ingredients instead of masking them.The techniques employed in the cuisine are complex but the results are ideally refined in taste with no "loud" flavors. Particular attention is also paid on the knife skills and cooking technique of the chefs. Emphasis is also on utilizing broth/soup, and there is a sayings in the region's cuisine: "One broth can be changed into numerous (ten) forms" and "It is unacceptable for a meal to not have soup".

Fo Tiao Qiang: it is made of 28 kinds of fresh ingredients such as, abalone, sea cucumber, shark’s fin, fish maw, shark's lip, tendons, hams, dried scallop, dried mushroom and Shaoxing Wine etc. Put them into an earthen jar and seal up with mud. It takes more than 10 hours to stew with slow fire. The flavor is delicious and the sweet perfumes are diffused all around. It is a delicacy in autumn and winter.



4. Hunan (Xiang) Cuisine
Hunan cuisine is well known for its hot spicy flavor, fresh aroma and deep color. Common cooking techniques include stewing, frying, pot-roasting, braising, and smoking. Due to the high agricultural output of the region, ingredients for Hunan dishes are many and varied.

Steamed fish heads in chili sauce

     

Traditional Dress in China 7

Today I would like to introduce traditional dress for ethnic Oroqen, Ewenki, Dongxiang and Tu  people. 

12. Ethnic Oroqen

The Oroqen people used to live on hunting. The long history of hunting life influenced the creation of their unique dressing culture. Clothing of the Oroqens, including hats, shoes and socks, are made of animal skins, of which the roe deer skin takes an important position. The clothing for summer, autumn and spring are made of skins of roe deer captured in summer, which is characterized by sparseness and shortness of its fur. The skin of the winter roe is made into winter dress. The leggings, which are worn by men and women, are made of two or three kinds of skins. Some leggings have laces on them and are fastened at the waist with a leather rope. It can protect the trousers when they are hunting or cutting firewood. The leather trousers are made of skins of roe deer captured in autumn or winter. Fur clothes were convenient for wearers to climb mountains and go through forests. However, now that they have entered a modern life and cloth has taken the place of fur, they only dress themselves in fur clothes in some important occasions, such as festivals. 

13. Ethnic Ewenki 

Due to the different occupation they engage in, the costume of the Ewenki people vary. Herdsmen often wear loose cloth buttoned down on one side. In winter, they wear jackets and pants made of long haired, thick rawhide, together with boots, hats and gloves all made from animal skin. Men's hats are conical, with red tassels on the top, and the surface sewn with blue cloth. Women's headdresses are made by stringing together two black-cloth tubes decorated with silver laces. Ornaments like earrings, fingerings and bracelets are also part of the Ewenkis' traditional dress.

14. Ethnic Dongxiang

The Dongxiang people’s traditional costumes are very different from what they are wearing today. In the past, most of the men’s clothes were large gowns, belts with dagger and tobacco pouch hanging on it. Women had their coats with wide sleeves, embroidered wristband and collars. Even the cuffs of their trousers have embroidery on them. On festivals, they often wore embroidered dress, embroidered high-heel shoes, with all kind of silver adornment in their hair and in front of them. But in recent decades, their garment and adornment have changed a lot, and are becoming similar to those of native Hui. Generally, men have white or black horn caps, white shirt, black vest and large blue trousers. Women have veils, which are long enough to reach their waists and cover their hair. Usually, the maid and newly-married women have green veils; the frail and middle-aged women have blue ones; and the old women have white ones. Young women love wearing red or green clothes, with large coat and vest, and their trousers, mostly blue, are long enough to reach the ground.

15. Ethnic Tu 

The clothes of the Tu people are unique in their colors and styles. Both men and women wear delicately embroidered clothes with high collars.

Tu men like to wear dark robes on top of a white short gown, with a green waistband and a felt hat. Felt hats with brocade brims are popular.

Women's clothes are more colorful than men's. Their usual costume is a short jacket with buttons down the side, with a black sleeveless garment worn outside. Their jackets have sleeves made up of cloth in the five colors of the rainbow: red, yellow, green, blue and violet. Young women often wear colorful skirts in reds while middle-aged women prefer blue ones.

Traditional Dress in China 6

Today I would like to introduce traditional dress for ethnic Manchu, Korean, Hezhe and Daur  people.

8. Ethnic Manchu

The traditional costumes of male Manchus are a narrow-cuffed short jacket over a long gown with a belt at the waist to facilitate horse-riding and hunting. They let the back part of their hair grow long and wore it in a plait or queue. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) the queue became the standard fashion throughout China, eventually becoming a political symbol of the dynasty. Women coiled their hair on top of their heads and wore earrings, long gowns and embroidered shoes. Linen was a favorite fabric for the rich; deerskin was popular with the common folk. Silks and satins for noble and the rich and cotton cloth for the ordinary people became standard for Manchurians after a period of life away from the mountains and forests. 

9. Ethnic Korean  

The traditional Korean dress is white, a symbol of simplicity and serenity. Men wear baggy trousers fastened at the ankles and a jacket which fastens on the right; sometimes they wear a high-crowned black horsehair hat. Women wear voluminous skirts and a tight jacket which reaches just below the armpits. 

10. Ethnic Hezhe

Traditional Hezhe clothing is made of fish skins and deer hides. The decorations of the clothes consist of buttons made of catfish bones and collars and cuffs dyed in cloud-shaped patterns. Women wear fish-skin and deer-hide dresses decorated with shells and colored strips of dyed deer hide in cloud, plant and animal designs. Bear skins and birch bark are also used to make thick boots which everyone wears in winter. Unmarried girls used to tie their hair in one braid, while married women wore two. Bracelets were common ornaments for all women, but only old women wore earrings.

11. Ethnic Daur 

The women have always been renowned for their needlework, decorating their clothing with fine patterns. Men wear straw hats in summer or simply tie a piece of white cloth around their foreheads. In winter they wear leather caps with ear flaps. Women wear white cloth socks and patterned shoes in summer, donning leather boots and long gowns in winter.

Traditional Chinese Festivals - Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival, also called Double Fifth Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar. It's on June 16th, 2010. 
It is one of the most important Chinese festivals, the other two are the Autumn Moon Festival and Spring Festival (Chinese New Year).
The origin of this summer festival centers around a scholarly government official named Chu Yuan. He was a good and respected man, but because of the misdeeds of jealous rivals he eventually fell into disfavor in the emperor's court.
Unable to regain the respect of the emperor, in his sorrow Chu Yuan threw himself into the Mi Luo river. Because of their admiration for Chu Yuan, the local people living adjacent to the Mi Luo River rushed into their boats to search for him (the origin of dragon boat race) while throwing zongzi (pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves) and eggs into the waters to appease the river dragons.

Although they were unable to find Chu Yuan, their efforts are still commemorated today during the Dragon Boat Festival. 


Find out this interesting book about what happened with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 
because you really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo.

Traditional dress in China 5

Traditional dress in China 5

5. Ethnic Miao 

Miao women's dress has distinctive features from villalge to village. some women wear jackets buttoned on the right and trousers, with decorations embroidered on collars, sleeves and trouser legs. In other areas, women wear high-collared short jackets and full- or half-length pleated skirts. They also wear various kinds of silver jewelry on festive occasions. Miao men usually wear linen jackets with colorful designs, and drape woolen blankets with geometric patterns over their shoulders, or short jackets buttoned down the front or to the left, long trousers with wide belts and long black scarves. In winter, they usually wear extra cloth leggings known as puttees.  

6. Ethnic Yi

Yi costume is great in variety, with different designs for different places. In the mountain area, men wear black jackets with tight sleeves and right-side askew fronts, and pleated wide-bottomed trousers. Men in some other areas wear tight-bottomed trousers. They grow a small patch of hair three or four inches long on the pate, and wear a turban made of a long piece of bluish cloth. The end of the cloth is tied into the shape of a thin, long awl jutting out from the right-hand side of the forehead. They also wear on the left ear a big yellow and red pearl with a pendant of red silk thread. Beardless men are considered handsome. Women wear laced or embroidered jackets and pleated long skirts hemmed with colorful multi-layer laces. Some women wear long skirts reaching to the ground, and women of other social ranks wore skirts reaching only to the knee. Some women wear black turbans, while middle-aged and young women prefer embroidered square kerchiefs with the front covering the forehead like a rim. They also wear earrings and like to pin silver flowers on the collar. Men and women, when going outdoors, wear a kind of dark cape made of wool and hemmed with long tassels reaching to the knee. In wintertime, they lined their capes with felt.

7. Ethnic Bouyei

The Bouyeis are skilled in arts and crafts. Their colorful and beautifully-patterned batik dates far back to ancient times.Young Bouyei men generally wear short buttoned jackets and long trousers, with scarves on their heads. Women wear jackets buttoned on the right (although some young women prefer lace-trimmed jackets buttoning down the middle), and long trousers or pleated skirts. They also wear scarves and a variety of silver jewelry.

     

Traditional dress in China 4 - Ethnic Tibetan

Traditional dress in China 4 - Ethnic Tibetan

All Tibetans, men and women, like to wear hats and ornaments. Men usually wear a queue coiled on top of the head. The Tibetan robe worn by men is broad and is normally fastened under the right arm, while the women's are slightly narrower with or without sleeves.  Men typically wear white shirts with high collars,  while women wear various colors with turn-down collars. Both men and women wear trousers and woolen or leather boots. 

It is popular for Tibetan women to wear aprons. There are two kinds of aprons wide stripes ones and narrow stripes ones. The wide stripes one is with contrast, bright colors, as beautiful as rainbows. The narrow stripes one is with harmonic colors, elegant and graceful.

Traditional Dressing in China 3- Ethnic Hui

3. Ethnic Hui
The clothing of Hui ethnic group has distinctive national features. Headdress is the most typical and characteristic dressing. Men usually wear white hat, Dasdar and women wear headscarf. Waistcoat is made of cloth, silk, thin silk, linen and has types of two-layer, cotton and single-layer. It can be worn both in summer and winter and can serve as underwear and coat.

The Karate Kid should happen in Japan

The Karate Kid released in theater this Friday, it's a great movie. I just thought karate is actually developed from Japan; it would make more sense to learn and master it there.

So what are the best martial arts you can learn in China? There are four great places to go: Shaolin Monastery, Wudang Mountains, Mount Emei, and Kunlun Mountains.

The Shaolin Monastery is a Buddhist temple at Song Shan near Zhengzhou city Henan Provide in China. The monastery is long famous for its association with Chinese martial arts and particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu which is best known to the Western world. The famous style includes Tongzigong-Shaolin child training, Long-dragon technique, Luohan quan-arhat fist.

The Wudang Mountains is located in the northwestern part of Hubei Province of China. It’s the original source of Taoist monasteries. One of the widely spread practice is Taijiquan (Tai chi chuan), which focus on awareness of the spirit, mind, qi (energy) and the use of relaxed (song) leverage. Popular movies include Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Tai Chi Master.

The Mount Emei sits at the western rim of the Sichuan Province of China. The martial arts developed there called Emei Sect, the best suitable martial arts for women. Emei’s skills are dual-natured attacks with elements of roughness/softness and long/short-range. The most famous fictions include The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (Ming Pao, 1961), The Return of the Condor Heroes (Ming Pao, 1959), Sword Stained with Royal Blood (Ming Pao, 1956). 

The Kunlun Mountains is one of the longest mountain chains in Asian, are believed to be the Taoist paradise. The associated martial arts are Kunlun Mountain Fist and Kunlunquan. 

Traditional Dressing in China 2

There are 56 ethnic groups in China, each group has its own unique dressing that represents their life style. I have already showed the ethnic mongols traditional dressing. Here I will show more examples:

2. Ethnic Uygur
The Uygurs, old and young, men and women, like to wear a small cap with four pointed corners, embroidered with black and white or colored silk threads in traditional Uygur designs.Men sport a long gown called a qiapan, which opens on the right and has a slanted collar. It is button-less and is bound by a long square cloth band around the waist. Women wear broad-sleeved dresses and black waist coats with buttons sewn on the front. Some now like to wear Western-style suits and skirts. The women's favorite decorations include earrings, bracelets and necklaces. Some paint their eyebrows and fingernails on grand festive occasions. Girls in the past combed their hair into a dozen pigtails, and regarded long hair as part of female beauty. After marriage, they usually wear two pigtails with loose ends, decorated on the head with a crescent-shaped comb. Some tuck up their pigtails into a bun.

Traditional Dressing in China 1- Ethnic Mongols

There are 56 ethnic groups in China, each group has its own unique dressing that represents their life style.

1. Ethnic Mongols
Mongolian costume is generally red, yellow or dark blue in color. A red or green waistband, flint steel, snuffbox and knife in an ornate sheath for cutting meat are accessories common to all men and women. Knee-high felt boots are a type of common footwear. Mongolians, men and women, wear cone-shaped hats in winter; they wear fur coats lined with satin or cloth or nothing at all in winter and loose, long-sleeved cotton robes in summer. Girls wear their hair parted in the middle, embellished with two large beads and agate, coral and green jade ornaments.