China Clay Figurine Museum will Open to Public in the Coming May

As reported recently, China Clay Figurine Museum lied in the "Clay Village" – Wuxi in China will complete construction soon and well be officially opened in May of this year.

Wuxi Huishan Clay Figurines

Currently, the museum has recruited one thousands pieces of clay figurine treasures throughout the country for exhibition, so tourists in domestic and came from overseas can enjoy the artistic charm of Chinese colored clay in the entertainment experience.

The recorded history of clay figurine in China can be traced back from four thousand years ago, clay figurine is one of the most ancient and common folk arts in China, in domestic Tianjin, Beijing, Shaanxi, more than a dozen provinces and municipalities, all has its own representative heritage genre of clay color figurines.

Wuxi Huishan Clay Figurines

Among them, Wuxi Huishan clay figurines, Tianjin clay figurine Zhang, Beijing Han’s color clay figurines and so on, all have a history more than one hundred years, and since the Ming Dynasty, Wuxi have been reputed as "Huishan Street, five miles long, return with riding flowers and fragrant soles” to praise the fragrance of the soil of Wuxi.

As the main genre of clay figurine art in China, Wuxi Huishan clay figurines was been listed in the first batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China.

Wuxi Huishan Clay Figurines

It is understood, The China Clay Figurine Museum that located in Huishan ancient town Beitang District, Wuxi city Museum composed by four exhibition halls, a temporary exhibition hall, a clay figurine workshop and a multi-media theater, the exhibition area has an area of 8,000 square meters.

The Museum equipped with 10 masters studios, among them, there are 8 studios for clay figurine masters, and the other two for masters of tin embroidery and bamboo carving.

Wuxi Huishan Clay Figurines

The more than one thousand pieces of clay figurine works for show collected by the museum, a part of them were obtained from China clay figurine exhibitions, and the other batch were reproductions of fine clay figurines in all ages and reproduced by national & provincial grade industrial arts masters invited by the museum.

The staff worked in the museum introduced that, this time the China Clay Figurine Museum built in Wuxi and China Academy of Clay Figurines, will change the traditional way of heritage transferred in workshops, they will reunion all clay art resource in domestic China, thus to create a cultural and creative industry park with modern aesthetic spice and entertainment elements, and the related clay art industry chains will also be developed since that.

Wuxi Huishan Clay Figurines

It is also reported that the three old workshops of former Huishan Clay Factory now have been get a renewal repair, and will worked as the sales area of clay figurines as well as clay figurine workshops, which is used to show "living specimen" of the production process of clay figurines livingly, thus to enrich the art content of the clay museum.

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts

Celebration of Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Festival) in China is Coming

Celebrated two weeks after the vernal equinox, the Tomb Sweeping Day is one of the few traditional Chinese holidays that follows the solar calendar-- typically falling on April 4, 5, or 6.

Its Chinese name "Qing Ming" literally means "Clear Brightness," hinting at its importance as a celebration of Spring. Similar to the spring festivals of other cultures, Tomb Sweeping Day celebrates the rebirth of nature, while marking the beginning of the planting season and other outdoor activities.

Qingming Festival in Ancient Times of China

In ancient times, people celebrated Qingming Festival with dancing, singing, picnics, and kite flying. Colored boiled eggs would be broken to symbolize the opening of life. In the capital, the Emperor would plant trees on the palace grounds to celebrate the renewing nature of spring. In the villages, young men and women would court each other.

Tomb Sweeping Day Celebrated Today in China

With the passing of time, this celebration of life became a day to the honor past ancestors. Following folk religion, the Chinese believed that the spirits of deceased ancestors looked after the family. Sacrifices of food and spirit money could keep them happy, and the family would prosper through good harvests and more children.

Today, Chinese visit their family graves to tend to any underbrush that has grown. Weeds are pulled, and dirt swept away, and the family will set out offerings of food and spirit money. Unlike the sacrifices at a family's home altar, the offerings at the tomb usually consist of dry, bland food. One theory is that since any number of ghosts rome around a grave area, the less appealing food will be consumed by the ancestors, and not be plundered by strangers.

Qingming Fesitival Custom: Honoring Ancestors

Honoring ancestors begins with proper positioning of a gravesite and coffin. Experts in feng shui, or geomancy, determine the quality of land by the surrounding aspects of streams, rivers, trees, hills, and so forth. An area that faces south, with groves of pine trees creates the best flow of cosmic energy required to keep ancestors happy. Unfortunately, nowadays, with China's burgeoning population, public cemetaries have quickly surplanted private gravesites. Family elders will visit the gravesite at least once a year to tend to the tombs.

While bland food is placed by the tombs on Qingming Festival, the Chinese regularly provide scrumptious offerings to their ancestors at altar tables in their homes. The food usually consists of chicken, eggs, or other dishes a deceased ancestor was fond of. Accompanied by rice, the dishes and eating utensils are carefully arranged so as to bring good luck. Sometimes, a family will put burning incense with the offering so as to expedite the transfer of nutritious elements to the ancestors. In some parts of China, the food is then eaten by the entire family.

Qingming Fesitival Custom: Flying Kites

Besides the traditions of honoring the dead, people also often fly kites on the Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Festival). Kites can come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors. Designs could include frogs, dragonflies, butterflies, crabs, bats, and storks.

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts

Special Report on The Crisis in Japan: A Fresh Explosion Rocked Reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant

A fresh explosion rocked reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan - 250km (155 miles) north-east of Tokyo - in the early hours of Tuesday.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has urged those living within 30km (18 miles) of the plant to stay indoors.

The crisis was sparked by a 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami on Friday.Thousands of people are believed to have died.

"Now we are talking about levels that can impact human health," said the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

In his televised address , Prime Minister Kan said: "There is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out."He added that the last remaining people within a 20km (12 mile) exclusion zone around the plant had to leave, and that those living between 20km and 30km from the site should remain indoors.

Radiation levels around Fukushima for one hour's exposure rose to eight times the legal limit for exposure in one year, said the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco).

A fire which briefly broke out at the plant's reactor 4 on Tuesday is also believed to have led to radioactive leaks.

Higher radiation levels were recorded on Tuesday south of Fukushima, Kyodo news agency reported.

Levels in Tokyo were higher than normal, but officials said there were no health dangers.

Shares on the Tokyo stock exchange plummeted 14% before recovering slightly. The leading Nikkei index ended the day 10.55% lower. It had already fallen by 7% on the previous day.

On Monday, a hydrogen blast at the Fukushima plant's reactor 3 was felt 40km (25 miles) away. It followed a blast at reactor 1 on Saturday.

All explosions have been preceded by cooling system breakdowns. Engineers are trying to prevent meltdowns by flooding the chambers of the nuclear reactors with sea water.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said it suspects Tuesday's blast may have damaged the vessel that holds reactor 2.

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says that would make it a more serious incident than the previous explosions, which were thought just to have damaged the buildings that housed the reactors.

Meanwhile, five days after the tsunami triggered by the earthquake, the relief operation is continuing.

The latest official death toll stands at about 2,400 - but some estimates suggest 10,000 may have been killed.

Thousands are still unaccounted for - including hundreds of tourists - while many remote towns and villages have not been reached.

More than 500,000 people have been made homeless.

The government has deployed 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort.

The UK Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan. British nationals and friends and relatives of those in Japan can contact the Foreign Office.

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts

The Best Song You Must Listen in the Women's Day

Song：I'm a Woman

Singer: Delta Goodrem

I worked late but you don't wait up
My bones ache and I'm cleaning the place up
Sometimes I don't even know i care

I sit down take off my make-up
I lay down but you don't wake up
Sometimes i wonder if you know i'm there

I can't remember the last time you
Told me i'm beautiful, and I can't remember
Last time you said anything at all

I'm a woman
A woman with a heart
And i deserve your all
I'm not some girl who don't know what she wants
I'm a woman
And I need to be touched
And I need to be loved
'cause being just your woman is not enough

Now i hope that you don't wake up
When it's too late to make up
You'll be the one that's alone and that's sad

In time you'll find somebody
The truth is she'll never be me
And that's when you're going to miss what we had

When all i really needed to hear was "you're beautiful"
All i really needed to hear was anything at all

I'm a woman
A woman with a heart
And I deserve your all
I'm not some girl who don't know what she wants
I'm a woman
And I need to be touched
And I need to be loved
'cause being just your woman is not enough

I'm not your friend who only needs you sometimes
And if i'm your lady
You got to treat me like...

I'm a woman
A woman with a heart
And i deserve your all
I'm not some girl who don't know what she wants
I'm a woman
And I need to be touched
And I need to be loved
'cause being just your woman is not enough

A woman needs your heart
A woman needs your all
A woman needs your everything
I'm a woman
And i need to be touched
And i need to be loved
And i deserve your everything
I'm a woman
I'm a woman
I'm a woman

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts

Happy the Chinese Lantern Festival!

Falling on the 15th day of the first month of the Lunar Year, the Lantern Festival takes place under a full moon, and marks the end of Chinese New Year - Spring Festival festivities. So this day for Chinese people has special significance, guess riddles, eating rice glue balls and viewing lantern lights to become the main theme of the festival in China.



Legend of the Lantern Festival's Origin

The Lantern Festival dates back to shrouded legends of the Han Dynasty over 2000 years ago.

In one such legend, the Jade Emperor in Heaven was so angered at a town for killing his favorite goose, that he decided to destroy it with a storm of fire. However, a good-hearted fairy heard of this act of vengeance, and warned the people of the town to light lanterns throughout the town on the appointed day. The townsfolk did as they were told, and from the Heavens, it looked as if the village was ablaze. Satisfied that his goose had already been avenged, the Jade Emperor decided not to destroy the town. From that day on, people celebrated the anniversary of their deliverance by carried lanterns of different shapes and colors through the streets on the first full moon of the year, providing a spectacular backdrop for lion dances, dragon dances, and fireworks.

The Modern Lantern Festival in China

While the Lantern Festival has changed very little over the last two millennia, technological advances have made the celebration moreand more complex and visually stimulating. Indeed, the festival as celebrated in some places (such as Taipei, Taiwan) can put even the most garish American Christmas decorations to shame. They often sport unique displays of light that leave the viewer in awe.

Master craftsman will construct multicolored paper lanterns in the likeness of butterflies, dragons, birds, dragonflies, and many other animals; these accentuate the more common, red, spherical lanterns. Brilliantly-lit floats and mechanically driven light displays draw the attention of the young and old alike. Sometimes, entire streets are blocked off, with lanterns mounted above and to the sides, creating a hallway of lamps. Some cities in North China even make lanterns from blocks of ice! And just as in days gone by, the billion-watt background sets the scene for dragon and lion dances, parades, and other festivities.

One local Chinese woman said “Here in China, no matter how far away from our homes we are, during the Spring Festival we make it a point to travel to be reunited with our family members again. The Lantern Festival is one of the most significant holidays in our culture here in China. The lantern is something unique and most representative of our Chinese culture."

The Lantern Festival has remained a Chinese tradition, kindled over the centuries by China's affection for elegant beauty and detail.



Lantern Festival Custom I: "Guess Lantern Riddles"

"Guess lantern riddles" is also know as "playing riddles", it is an activity increased after the Lantern Festival and initially appeared in the Lin’an, the capital of Southern Song Dynasty. At the beginning, there were independent investigators who wrote riddles on scrips and pasted them on resplendent lanterns with bright colors to attract viewers to guess, as riddles are very interesting and the same time it can edify people’s wisdoms, so this custom was welcomed by people in all sectors of the society and spreading wider and wider.

"During the Lantern Festival, there'll be really huge lanterns and also a really big tree that's hung and decorated with a lot of lantern riddles. One wins a prize when he can answer the riddle correctly."




Lantern Festival Custom II: Eating "Yuan Xiao"

In folk, eating “Yuan Xiao” (a kind of rice glue ball) is a custom with long history, “Yuan Xiao” is made of glutinous rice, with or without stuffing, filling with red bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, all kinds of fruits and nuts, when eating after cooked, fried, steamed as well as fried. At first, people called this kind of food "floating dumplings", later called "Tang Tuan" or "Tang Yuan", because the pronunciation of these names are very close to “Tuan Yuan”, which means "reunion" in Chinese, so they also symbolizes the whole family’s unity, happiness and harmony, people also take it to memorize their family members who has died, and the same time express their fine wishes for a better life in the future.

"The Yuanxiao Festival involves the whole process of eating these sweet rice dumplings. From the making of these balls, to cooking them, to enjoying them together as a family, we can really enjoy the warmth of our families and soak in the atmosphere of this joyous occasion."A Chinese woman said.

Lantern Festival Custom III: "Walking Sickness"

In China, some place on the Lantern Festival there is a custom of "walking sickness", also known as the "roasting sickness ", "dispersing sickness ", most of the participants are women, they go hand in hand or go against walls, or pass over bridgse, go outside, with purposes to drive illness and disperse disasters.

Over time, activities of the Lantern Festival in China become more and more varied, in my places there added many traditional festival performances such as playing dragon lanterns, playing the lion, walking on stilt, rowing boats, do the yangko dance, playing drums and so on. The traditional festival in China has a long history more than two thousands years, it is not only popular on both sides of the Taiwan straits, people ever in overseas Chinese gathering area also celebrated this traditional festival very ceremoniously each year..

At last, the author here wish all my friends in home or abroad "Happy the Lantern Festival and a better life and future!"

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts

Happy Valentine's Day! My Sweetheart

This is to thank you for being by side

For comforting and caring when I was all confused inside.

This is for the phone calls you make every day

Just to tell me “I love you” every minute of the day.

The way you take my hand in yours

For all the world to see

That this is the woman

Who is most special to me.

You always seem to know

When I need a hug, kiss or smile…

You never cease to amaze me

When you say, “I'm here…let's talk for a while.”

In decades past we've had our share

Of ups and downs and problems galore

But you are the one who remained at my side

Never thinking of walking out the door.

I adore the way you tell me,

“You are my forever best friend,”

I love the way I believe in you…

And that you will be there till the end.

Thank you for all the time you give me

And for saying, “It's never enough…”

Thank you for listening as I ramble on…

When things become rather tough.

We are in the best years of our lives

Thirty four years on our journey together

I want to grow old with you…and you with me

I want to love YOU---FOREVER.

To all my friends here,

Dear, wish you all happy today and happy every day, and wish you All shall be well, Jack shall have Jill.

* Original address of this China gift post: China Gift and Fine Arts & Crafts