Tag: Traditional Chinese

Today I will introduce the Shaoxing Opera. Shaoxing Opera, also called Yue Ju (越剧 yuèjù), is one of the Five Operas in China, just second to Peking Opera and has been listed into the first national non-material cultural heritages in 2006. As the most popular local opera in the country, Shaoxing opera originated from Sheng County, Zhengjiang Province from local folk songs in later Qing Dynasty (1636-1911), and prospered in Shanghai City in 1920s.

The traditional Chinese auspicious motifs(吉祥图案jíxiáng tú’àn) first appeared in the Zhou Dynasty, nearly 3,000 years ago. They later became widely popular among the general public. On every Spring Festival or other holidays, people would decorate their rooms and articles with these auspicious motifs to express their wishes for happy life and to celebrate the happy holiday. As a key component of traditional Chinese culture, the auspicious motifs are one of the symbols used to identify national spirits and goals. The silk auspicious motifs in the Ming and Qing dynasties covered a wide range of subjects that included trees, flowers, stones, insect, fish and birds. The seemingly(if something is seemingly the case, you mean that it appears to be the case, even though it may not really be so) ordinary motifs contained profound meanings and deep feelings. Generally, the motifs are in three forms: 1) motifs; 2) homophonic words; 3) illustrations in words.