November 22, 2009
Beijing Tour Guides Take You To Discover Amazing Chinese Ivory Carvings Offered In The Local Shops
White as milk, touch as rock, and delicate as jade, ivory carving is considered one of the most exquisite art forms of ancient China. Items with excellent quality and exquisite, marvelous craftsmanship have been one of art fans’ favorites for many thousand years. In the pre-historic period, over 7,000 years ago, when elephants still roamed the regions around Yellow River, ancient Chinese started to practice this art, and made a large number of gorgeous, imaginative artworks. As the supply of the raw material for ivory - elephant tusks - decreased as a result of the ban on ivory trading placed by Chinese government in early 1990s, ivory carvings quickly rose in value and prices, and for art collectors, buying such works became a lucrative investment. In Beijing, take a Beijing day tour with a Beijing tour guide to discover exquisite ivory carvings in the local shops.
It is very difficult to underestimate the value of a great ivory carving: the beautiful, milky white color immediately catches your eyes, the bright, smooth surface appear more delicate and elegant the longer you look at it, and the marvelous craftsmanship shown by every one of its tiny, exquisitely made detail convinces you completely that few artwork ever made by men could achieve this level of exquisiteness and delicacy.
Archaeological find from the Hemudu culture site in Zhejiang province suggests as early as 7,000 years ago ancient Chinese already started making and using ivory items with both practical and ornamental functions. A mysterious item called “Two Birds Flying Towards The Sun” became famous for its incredibly exquisite craftsmanship and beautiful, fascinating design.
Throughout China’s history, ivory works enjoyed a high status among officials and wealthy people. Beginning from the Zhou dynasty, ivory ornament became a fashionable item among imperial court officials, and wearing them symbolized having a high rank in the government. Such works became even rarer after the main source of ivory - elephants - disappeared from central China, and this cemented their status as a sign of privilege. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the art of ivory carving developed to a climax.
Traditionally, Guangzhou, Suzhou, and Beijing were the centers of the production of ivory carvings. Products made in these regions had their unique local characteristics and were cherished by art fans all over the world.
Guangzhou Ivory Carving: The warm, humid climate of Guangzhou favored the production of complex ivory works that required a long time to complete. For this and other reasons, over the years Guangzhou produced some of the most famous, exquisite ivory carvings highly prized by art collectors. A good example was the multi-layer ivory balls famous for their mysterious, exquisite designs.
Suzhou Ivory Carving: Suzhou was historically a region with an influential literati culture. Ivory works produced here showed culture, depth, and good taste, a trend obviously influenced by the demand of the local scholar class. The designs of the works included famous figures, animals, trees, and flowers.
Beijing Ivory Carving: As the capital of China for the last hundreds of years, Beijing had a sophisticated art culture built upon the contribution of some of the best artists from across China. The art of ivory carving flourished here during the early Qing dynasty, and the works made were famous for sophisticated craftsmanship and exquisite, lifelike figures with vivid expressions.
There are many amazing local shops in Beijing that offer unique, beautiful ivory carvings from different periods in China’s history. Find a personal shopping assistant to help you discover these spectacular products.
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Hairy monkeys are a charming folk art of Beijing. Developed from traditional Chinese herbal medicine, this art is known for its incredibly small size, exquisiteness of details, and a combined sense of real life and whimsical ideas. Made from only two simple types of material - shed cicada skin and dried magnolia bud, it is highly applauded for its special, and sometimes complex designs. An almost lost art 60 years ago, it was revived in the 1970s by a Beijing native called Cao Yijian, an innovative folk artist who has developed this art to a new high level over the last three decades. When in Beijing, go on a Beijing city tour with a Beijing tour guide to discover unique hair monkeys in the amazing local shops.
Hairy monkeys are as bizarre and unique as they are beautiful and delicate on a closer look. Art fans are often amazed by how parts of a cicada’s skin can be perfectly combined with a dried flower bud to create lifelike figures that seems to have a unique spirit of their own.
Though differing in their designs, most works are created based on people in real life. Ever since the beginning, this art was developed with an emphasis on imitating real people and giving them an air of mockery. Monkey bear close resemblance to humans, and hair monkeys are able to make humans look incredibly funny.
Hair monkeys are an invention of the late Qing dynasty. It is said that there was a drug store called “South Qinren Hall” on an old street in Beijing. One day a sales clerk working there was scolded by the shop owner, and felt very angry. That night, when fiddling around with some herbal medicine, the clerk made a surprising discovery: parts of cicada’s skin could be mixed with magnolia buds to create vivid monkey-like figures. So he made a funny-looking figure to make fun of the shop owner. The shop owner discovered this, and instead of feeling angry, he was amazed by how special it was, and decided to start selling such monkeys in his shop. Later he earned quite a lot of money from selling these new artwork.
According to Cao Yijian, the Beijing folk artist who re-invented hairy monkey after decades of disappearance, the key to making an excellent work is being creative. In the last 30 years after reviving this art, Cao has created a great number of exquisite monkeys that are not only creative, but also reminiscent of the old Beijing and its old way of life so famous many years ago.
There are a few fantastic shops in Beijing that offer unique hairy monkeys made by the great local folk artists. To find these shops and buy some excellent items for yourself, you need a personal shopping assistant who specializes in Beijing’s local business.
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October 21, 2009
True Beauty Of Beijing: Take A Beijing City Tour To Find Exquisite Chinese Calligraphy
A spectacular achievement of eastern Asian art, Chinese calligraphy is almost as old as Chinese characters. Considered as one of the three “essential skills” for ancient Chinese to master in order to enter the scholar class, it was developed throughout China’s history by innovative artists and scholars striving to create new styles based on a number of established, well-developed models. Even nowadays, the mastery of this art is regarded as a great achievement in the Chinese society that is sure to win praise and admiration. In Beijing, a Beijing tour guide can take you on a Beijing city tour to shop for exquisite Chinese calligraphy works in the city’s amazing local shops.
Chinese calligraphy is as beautiful as it is mysterious and profound. Characters on a work, especially those written in cursive or semi-cursive script, usually represent a calligrapher’s personality, aspiration, outlook of life, and inner state of mind. Beginners of this art often find the exercise restricting and unfulfilling, since there are a number of strict rules to follow. But it is generally agreed that once a certain level of proficiency is achieved, a calligrapher is able to express any idea in almost any style he/she desires.
Chinese characters were already written in a stylistic way on oracle bones dating back to the Xia dynasty, about 3,000 years ago. In the ancient Yangshao culture site of China, archaeologists discovered 6000-year-old pottery items with primitive patterns that looked like simple symbols with meanings, which were considered by some as the origin of Chinese characters and the art of calligraphy. 2,000 years ago, Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of China, standardized the use of Chinese characters. After which the development of Chinese calligraphy began to follow a stable trajectory, with artists and scholars inventing new styles in each dynasty.
Chinese calligraphy, like ink and wash painting, is done by using four basic tools collectively called the “Four Treasures of Study”: brush, ink, inkstone, and paper. Each of these tools is an art in itself with a long history of development. A master calligrapher can use these four items skillfully to write beautiful, excellent works with high quality.
New styles of writing Chinese characters kept springing up throughout China’s history, but most of them could be traced back to the five major scripts: regular script, seal script, clerical script, cursive script, and semi-cursive script.
Regular script: This is a standard form of script for Chinese characters. It is a popular practice for beginners of Chinese calligraphy to imitate exemplary works of master calligrapher written in this script. Appearing late in the history of the development of this art, it was developed from a semi-curisve form of clerical script.
Seal script: One of the oldest styles of Chinese calligraphy, it was imposed by Qin Shi Huang Di as the standard script in the Qin dynasty. Nowadays very few people can read this script, which has become an undecipherable code of a few scholars and seal experts. But it is still the popular script used on Chinese seals. So its English name is called “Seal”.
Clerical script: A style that appears flat and wide with a tendency toward a square form, clerical script is believed be have been invented during Warring States period or Qin dynasty as an alternative style to seal script. As a high artistic type of writing, it is generally used in advertisement and artistic calligraphy.
Cursive script: Cursive script is a way of fast writing that developed in the Han dynasty. A style known for its omission of parts and lack of complicated strokes, it is popular with experienced calligraphers who wish to fully express their ideas and emotions in an unrestrained way. With irregular forms and random strokes, it is generally unreadable for a person untrained in the art of Chinese calligraphy.
Semi-cursive script: Of all styles of writing, semi-cursive scripts bears the most resemblance to normal hand writing. A style that borrows elements from both regular script and cursive script, it can be read by most people who understand Chinese characters.
In the fantastic local shops of Beijing, there are excellent, beautiful Chinese calligraphy works done by some of the best artists in all of China. Go with a Beijing travel guide to discover these wonderful, high-value products.
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