久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Culture
Home / Culture / Heritage

Cultural roots spread in elegant style

By ZHAO XU | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2024-07-30 08:18
Share
Share - WeChat
A fan painted by Emperor Xuanzong (1399-1435), from Beijing's Palace Museum. CHINA DAILY

One day in the early 1920s, Luo Yinggong (1872-1924), one of China's most talented playwright-cum-Peking Opera impresarios of the time, bought an unpainted folding fan from a powerful collector-official with 40 gold ingots.

The main ribs of the fan are carved out of a special type of bamboo whose round, dark-colored patterns, resulting from microorganism infection, were reputed to have been formed as the sad tears of two bereaved ladies fell on the plant.

They were grieving the death of their husband, the legendary Emperor Shun whom some Chinese historians believe lived between 2200 and 2300 BC.

Equipped with the fan, Luo then knocked on the door of the much-revered painter Qi Baishi (1864-1957), whose brilliantly painted pair of butterflies would later appear on one side of the fan, along with his calligraphic transcription of a butterfly-themed poem by another of his equally renowned contemporaries.

There was now only one thing left to do: to record the event on the other side of the fan, which Luo did himself, noting that the fan "was meant as a birthday gift for Mr Mei" (Mei Lanfang, a master performer of Peking Opera).

Having written in the same inscription that "a thing (of beauty) will certainly be passed down across generations", Luo probably wouldn't be surprised when the fan was put up for bid nearly 90 years later during an auction held in Beijing in November 2011, where it fetched 3.22 million yuan ($444,100).

Yang Danxia, an expert on ancient Chinese painting from Beijing's Palace Museum, was at the auction preview.

"If anything, the story offers glimpses into a rather exclusive circle populated by Beijing's cultural elite at the time," she says.

One gathering place for its members was Lai Jin Yu Xuan Tea House, located today inside the former imperial altar-turned Zhongshan Park in central Beijing. The name of the tea house is a reference to a piece of writing by eighth-century poet Du Fu, on friendship.

"It was no coincidence that the tea house was where the daily activity of dou shanzi (fan contest) took place," says Yang.

According to her, a person entered his fan into this contest the moment he stepped into the tea house, the arrival announced by the crisp snap of a fan opening at a flick of the owner's wrist.

"Think about a Rolls-Royce coming to a halt in front of a luxury hotel, with its powerful engine letting out a deep roar. What that car did for its owner, a fan could do," she says.

A folding fan, apart from fanning gentle waves of cool air, could also be a veritable work of art, a statement accessory testifying to the standing of its carrier, especially in cultural circles.

"That's what set the folding fan apart from other types of fans that had appeared in Chinese history. For example, the circular-shaped tuanshan, or palace fan, was used almost exclusively by women," says Yang.

According to Yang, despite their modern usage, both the folding fan and the palace fan probably originated as items of etiquette.

Held up to face level, they served as small screens between a fan holder and another person who was most likely in a much-higher position, so that the former wouldn't be looking up directly into the latter's eyes during a meeting between the two.

1 2 3 Next   >>|
Most Popular
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 2022国产精品自拍 | 欧美亚洲中日韩中文字幕在线 | 日韩欧美一区二区三区在线观看 | 91香蕉国产亚洲一区二区三区 | 国产免费高清 | 国产4tube在线播放 | 日韩啪| 亚洲视频在线一区二区 | 国产乱码精品一区二区三区中 | 亚洲欧美成人网 | 久久99精品久久久久久国产越南 | 亚洲国产精品日韩在线观看 | 欧美大片毛片aaa免费看 | 黄色欧美视频 | 久久久久欧美国产精品 | 欧美日韩一本 | 国产亚洲精品久久久久久无 | 免费观看欧美一级特黄 | 亚洲精品国产福利一区二区三区 | 国产成人精品一区二三区在线观看 | 中国美女乱淫免费看视频 | 亚洲美女中文字幕 | 美女视频永久黄网站免费观看国产 | 国产精品欧美日韩 | 亚洲 欧美 激情 另类 校园 | 国产上床视频 | 欧美精品v日韩精品v国产精品 | 亚洲视频一区二区三区 | 成年男女男精品免费视频网站 | 亚洲一级理论片 | 一道本久久 | a级毛片在线观看 | 99久久国产综合精品五月天 | 国产午夜永久福利视频在线观看 | 国内在线播放 | 男人天堂男人天堂 | 亚洲国产成人久久一区www | 韩国一级黄色大片 | 最新国产午夜精品视频不卡 | 国产成人精品免费视频大全可播放的 | 久草高清视频 |