Category: Chinese Culture

The festival is best known for its dragon-boat races, especially in the southern provinces where there are many rivers and lakes. This regatta（赛舟会）commemorates the death of Qu Yuan , an honest minister who is said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a celebration where many eat rice dumplings (zongzi), drink realgar wine (xionghuangjiu), and race dragon boats. Other activities include hanging icons of Zhong Kui (a mythic guardian figure), hanging mugwort and calamus, taking long walks, writing spells and wearing perfumed medicine bags.

Many believe that the Dragon Boat Festival originated in ancient China based on the suicide of the poet and statesman of the Chu kingdom, Qu Yuan in 278 BCE.

Today we will introduce one of China's legendary monster: beast Bai Ze. When the great—supposedly mythical—beast Bai Ze (白泽) showed up at our office door, we knew our prayers had been answered. As our graphic designer passed out from sheer shock, the beast bellowed: “You humans look weird, just as I remembered,” rather rudely seeing himself into the conference room. As to the appearance of the beast itself, we could only really agree on his color: white. I saw him as a giant ox with goat horns and a lion’s mane, three eyes on its head and more on its body. One editor believed him to have an old man’s face with a goat’s body. The beast itself seemed to have some sort of quantum field enabling him to distort perception or, as he put it, “bein’ mythical, like a boss.”

The "wooden fish" is a percussion instrument made of a hollow wooden block originally used by Buddhist priests to beat rhythms when chanting scriptures.

The Three Friends of Winter, also known as Suihan Sanyou, are the pine(松sōnɡ), bamboo(梅méi), and plum(竹zhú). Every year, as the cold days deepen into the winter season, many plants begin to wither, but the pine, bamboo and plum do not was noted by the Chinese. Known by them as Three Friends of Winter, they entered the conventions of East Asian art. Together they symbolize perseverance(毅力yìlì), integrity(完整wánzhěnɡ) and modesty(谦虚qiānxū). They are highly regarded in Confucianismand as such represent the scholar-gentleman's ideal. The accompanying text on the late Qing Dynasty stele illustrated below comments on this association.Today, we will insight into this three plants.

Guyuexuan was an industrial art that originated during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In the Qing Dynasty, vases of many shapes, sizes and styles were made for daily use in palaces, as well as in less exalted surroundings; Guyuexuan is one of the most popular ones.