 The Cultural Revolution was started by a Dazibao at Beijing University in May of 1966, which as greatly confirmed by Mao. Mao himself wrote one Dazibao titled as “Bomb the Capitalist Headquarters” to mobilize people to follow suit. Billions of Dazibao were overwhelming in the ten years of the Cultural Revolution. They were posted on walls all over China, especially in school campuses, offices and workshops. Many Dazibao follow a similar format, starting with a Mao quotation written in red. Dazibao were usually signed and dated by their author. On Dazibao, names crossed out with red color ink indicate criticism. Numbers indicate either a series or having been recorded already. Dazibao were protected by the Cultural Revolution Law, and nobody dared to destroy or keep them. The content would be denouncing people or things opposing Maoist ideology. People wrote against their father, teacher, friend and even themselves. Each poster is so bound up with fear, violence, paranoia and chaos. Some Dazibao was overwritten on the top. Usually the second writing was done by the person who was attacked by the first writing. Overwriting also means destroying, so the second writing was finished in a rush and the calligraphy was very powerful. 
From a modern art view point, Dazibao is simply a street art or political graffiti. Mao himself was a poet as well as a brush calligraphy artist, but he never expected that he was the curator for the biggest street art movement ever happened in the human history.
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 Hulusi is a wind that is only possessed by the ethnic minorities in Yunnan Province. Young men and women play hulusi to express their adoration, love and yearning, and it's also used to accompany dancing. The timbre of hulusi is "subtle, elegant and gentle", and the tune is "mild, harmonious and indirect". All these above are the distinguishing features of hulusi. Hulusi can be used in both ensemble and solo, and itself is delicate art work.
With the development of the times, hulusi has been introduced to the whole world and is loved, commended by people in Southeast Asia, Hongkong and Macao. It has been known as the oriental saxophone among westerners. Please enjoy the song below in which every note contains deep feeling, arouses sweet memories and makes you moved.    Shanghai Lady Posters used to be known as Calendar Poster as they were used commercially to promote the western goods such as cigarettes, medicine, wine and so on in 1930’s and 1940’s. The fashionably dressed ladies in the posters are so beautifully painted, the iconic graphic style marrying art deco with Chinese brush painting, that until today they are still the symbols of Shanghai romance. The lavish image of beaming young women dressed in the signature qipao, unmistakably Chinese yet clearly bearing the influence of cosmopolitan Western tastes, captured the mood of the city at that time.
Today Shanghai is soaring at magic height after such a long sleep over half a century, but these lady posters bring back the sweet memories of old Shanghai as the Paris in the Far East and the paradise for the adventurists.  Happy Buddha is always represented as very stout, with the breast and upper abdomen exposed to view. His face has a laughing expression, and he is also known as the Laughing Buddha. Happy Buddha usually stands in the first hall of the Buddhist monastery.
Happy Buddha is the incarnate image of Maitreya Buddha in Sanskrit term "the Merciful One" which is rendered into Chinese as mi-le. This name is said by some to be derived from the a King, Syriac Molekh. Maitreya is a Bodhisattva, the principal one, indeed, of Sakyamuni's retinue, but is not counted among the ordinary disciples. It was in the Tushita heaven that Sakyamuni met him and appointed him as the successor, to appear as Buddha after the lapse of 5,000 years. Maitreya is therefore the expected Messiah of Buddhists, residing at present in Tushita. Therefore, as opposed to the Past Buddha (Bhaisajyaguru Buddha, or Medicine Buddha) and Present Buddha (Sakyamuni Buddha), Maitreya is the Coming Buddha.  "Liushu" refers to six basic formation rules of Chinese characters that were firstly summarized in the book "Shuowenjiezi" (Analytical Dictionary of Characters) by Xu Shen, a famous literateur and linguist who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 BC). In Liushu theory, four rules that define the formation of Chinese characters are the most important: - pictographic - indicative - indicative compound - pictophonetic compound Among these, the first two apply to the characters of single structure while the other two to the characters of complex structure. The early Chinese characters that were carved on the animal bones were sketched pursuant to the forms of the objects which people saw or visualized logic. Thus, the first characters, mostly of single structure, were created in pictographic and indicative rules. To distinctly represent more concepts that were barely accomplished by mere pictures, many more characters were created later over time in other rules, such as indicative compound and pictophonetic compound, which give birth to characters of complex structure. The majority of Chinese characters in use nowadays belong to complex structure. The foundation of Chinese characters are traditional version of characters that were created and used until the Republic of China (1949 as the last year). In middle 1950's, in order to popularize the literary of population, the simplied version of characters was introduced to people across mainland of China. In that process, some other customary rules were employed together with traditional "Liushu" to form the characters in ubiquitous use nowadays in China mainland. Illustrated below are the characters that demonstrate the application of each of the major formation rules: Single Structure - Pictographic Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
Single Structure - Indicative Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
Complex Structure - Indicative compound Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
Complex Structure - Pictophonetic compound Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
 Ascending the Guanque (Stork) Tower The setting sun behind the mountain glows, And towards the sea the Yellow River flows, You can enjoy an endless sight by ascending to a greater height The processed tea leaves of Tie Guan Yin Tea are variegated due to special processing methods. A random pinch of the tea leaves puts on suggestive forms with my personal perception as follows: Second Left: Swan Middle: Goddess of Mercy (Boddhisattva of Compassion) Second Right: Chinese Auspicious Lion The two on both ends are left to your imagination:  What's Tie Guan Yin Tea?
- The name of Tie Guan Yin derives from Boddhisattva of Compassion, or Goddess of Mercy, a Buddhist deity with feminine features who is the embodiment of mercy, compassion, benevolence or salvation in Chinese Buddhism. - Tie Guan Yin Tea, originated in the early 18th century in Anxi County of Fujian Province, is one of the most popular types of tea in China, especially in south and southeast regions such as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Taiwan. - Homogeous to Oolong tea, the trait of Tie Guan Yin Tea is half fermented, in between Green tea and Black tea which are light fermented and deep fermented respectively. - The smell and taste of Tie Guan Yin is distintively mellow and refreshing with natural aroma of orchid flower. Owing to the property of it to a degree of oxidation, Tie Guan Yin Tea is very enduring in flavor, earning its reputation of "The fragrance lingers after seven times of infusion". Thus, it's also known as Kungfu Tea in regard to more complexity of infusing and appreciationg. - Tie Guan Yin Tea also boasts of multiple health-cultivating functions with a bunch of nutritious substance contained including amino acid, mineral, vitamin, tea polyphenol and alkaloid. Its anti-aging, cancer-fighting, lowering blood fat, sterilization and anti-diabetes functions all render Tie Guan Yin to be the most favored tea among people in China. Infusing Steps of Tie Guan Yin Tea: 1, Put 5-10 grams (about 1/3 - 1/4 the total volume of the tea cup) of Tie Guan Yin in the teacup 2, Infuse with boiling water 3, After the tea steep for about 15 seconds, dump the soup to filter the impurities 4, Fill the cup with boiling water and let the soup stay for progressively longer time (never excessively long, otherwise the taste sours) in the following steeps up to the 7th Proper Way to Keep: In the cold storage of refrigerator (not in the freezing part) In Chinese Buddhism , the Four Heavenly Kings are four protectors of Buddhist doctrines, each of whom watches over one cardinal direction of the world. In Chinese they are known collectively as the implication of "Fēng Tiáo Yǔ Shùn" (风调雨顺)  Feng Tiao Yu Shun (Moderated Wind and Favorable Rain) - Peaceful Life, Bumper Harvest Feng (风) means wind, homophone of the edge of SWORD, the token of Southern King Tiao (调) means moderated, homophone of plucking of PIPA (Chinese lute), the token of Eastern King Yu (雨) means rain, implication of UMBRELLA, the token of Northern King Shun (顺) means favorable, pun of smoothness of red SNAKE, the token of Western King Western King Northern King Eastern King Southern King 
Proclaimer: The markets referred to in the article are fake markets where fake products are traded with much efforts of the bargaining involved. This type of the markets are usually designed exclusively for foreigners  "Compare prices in three shops before any decision" cited as a Chinese saying:
- Don't stick to anything you are interested - Don't hesitate to leave if you are not happy with the price as there are many similar or the same products you can find in other shops - The much better price is available when you are leaving and being called back - Offer back with very low price (10-20% of the proposed starting price or so) so that you have proper excuse to leave, and adjust your price up in the second or the third shop, which actually means you get closer and closer to the possible best price. See through gimmicks and frauds: Vendors in the fake market are not serious salespersons. They go for foreigners and suppose they could take advantage by all means. You get fleeced if you are not into it, or you get nice-looking sleazy-in-nature stuff even you know you are good bargainer. Sellers know their business always better than buyers. So be realistic, it's better just to buy crafts, souvenirs and goods that could be expected to be cheap, while not be so serious to purchase anything of brands that they claim as high quality or 99% imitated or so. In a nutshell, people there are never serious, and fake market is like what it indicates. If you are serious, you lose. Conclusion: Although you get way higher starting price in those markets, you could actually get a good deal as much as a local does, or even better as I know often. For more instructions about how much you should fairly pay for fake products, you may refer to this article: Consolidated List of What You Should Pay for Fake Products. |
AuthorHarris Gu Archives
January 2017
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