Topics Results for: Play  Found: 41 Results

Stories: Chinese Shadow Play depicts an assortment of stories, ranging from traditional folk tales, comedies, scary stories, love stories, and stories of war and battle.  Contemporary theaters often show traditional stories as well as newer, modern stories within their plays. ...

Chinese Shadow Play was first seen during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) and grew in popularity within the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), during which time shadow puppetry spread from Northern to Southern China.  Qibao Shadow Play was the earliest form ...

This book is a woodcut picture collection featuring twenty-four stories about xiao, or filial piety, a love and respect for parents and ancestors, which is one of the most important virtues in Confucian thought. For example, the fifth story of ...

In Lang Village, the children couldn’t play because there were too many dangerous wolves. This folk tale describes what the villagers did to make the Lang Village safe for their children. Click and drag the pages from the lower corners ...

Pu hui paintings differ from woodblock prints in that all painting is done by hand. Also, woodblocks are limited to five colors, whereas pu hui paintings may contain many more. The artist uses burnt willow twigs to draw the outline ...

Pu hui posters are unique to Gaomi, Shandong Province and are influenced by the half-drawn, half-printed folk art technique and wood-block New Year posters. The ability to produce multiple prints at once makes pu hui a highly efficient art form ...

Examples of decorated gourds are found nearly everywhere in the world. In China the gourd is associated with longevity and fecundity, and is used as a charm to ward off negative influences. Shou Lou, the God of Longevity, carries a ...

Wang Shu Hua learned the pu hui craft at age fourteen from her grandfather, a farmer who painted New Year pictures as a hobby. Pu hui paintings are Wang’s primary source of income. She has two children and anticipates that ...

Symbolic of good fortune in China, crickets have been admired for at least two thousand years for both their song and their fighting prowess. A dried and hollowed-out gourd with a perforated lid for ventilation is a common way to ...

View the carefully drawn and hand painted scenes by Lu Zhen Li below.

Build your own colorful cloth tiger with this interactive game.

Folk Art Transmission Ha’s great-grandfather and grandfather made kites to support their families. Ha’s father made kites for this reason, but he also considered kite making a family treasure and tradition, and so he focused on how to transmit this ...

The Beijing style of kite making involves very intricate decorative patterns with symbolic meanings. There are eight types of kites, each with a different structure and purpose, and suited to different conditions for flying. Kites like those made by Ha ...

Families have used yo-yos for fun and recreation for over two thousand years. Although they are called “yo-yos” in the West, the traditional Chinese name for them appropriately means “empty bamboo.” According to one story, the yo-yos that Mr. Zhang ...

Variety is key to yo-yos, and their sizes and shapes have grown more diverse with time. While yo-yos were originally made solely from bamboo, other materials are often used now. Since 1990, the diameters of yo-yos have increased. Zhang makes ...

China is the birthplace of the kite, specifically in the Henan and Shandong provinces. Historically the people of these areas worshiped birds as well as the sun. The traditional Chinese word for the kite is hao, which also has the ...

Chinese butterfly kites are some of the most popular kites in the world. Historically these kites were made by hand thus ensuring that no two kites were exactly the same. Prior to being mass-produced, mainly children made the kites with ...

When kites were first invented in Chinese culture some 2,500 years ago, they were intended to be a sky-reaching symbol that signified a geometric code for perpetual life. Referred to as “paper eagles,” these simple structures were first made of ...

Nie Xiewei begins the process of making mud dolls (or, as they’re sometimes called, clay dolls) of tigers by digging 1½ meters into the ground outside of the village. The mud he digs up is then pressed thin, mixed with ...

The Peking Opera is popular, and its characters are often portrayed on gourds. Dough flower characters are also often related to the opera. Villagers often participate in the operas, which are held in the markets where there is a lot ...