Chinese Embroidery Kit (Do It Yourself)

After polymer clay art, watercolor painting, digital/graphic drawing, and paper cut art, I am now interested in embroidery. I was amazed after watching a video on YouTube about Chinese embroidery, and only a few people in China practice this. One famous embroider is Zhang Xue from Suzhou, China. They are a mother (Xue Jindi) and son team.

I also loved this Chinese drama, the English title is "Because of You."It is about the heiress of family known for their embroidery who got lost, became amnesiac because of an accisent, and was adopted by a middle class family. I also have a Chinese shoes and it is hand embroidered.

When I was young I remember, we have embroidered personalize pillow cases. My aunt has a beautiful embroidered pillow case of her name. Now, I have tried embroidery and I can say it takes a lot of patient, and focus. I ordered an embroidery set, a Do It Yourself kit from China. The pattern is peach blossoms, and the pattern is printed in a small white cloth. It comes with cloth hoop (for securing the cloth), set of different colored threads, a needle and a scissor. The pattern is just small but even after a week I am not still finished with it.

This is another form of Chinese art that I really appreciate. It is really beautiful to look at, and like any form of art, you really immerse yourself in it, devote your time, hard work, and skill to produce a lovely creation. This is another beautiful indoor hobby.

3d Cubic Puzzle 3d World Style China Series

    I am interested in anything that is related to Chinese things. Aside from my love of collecting books, watching Chinese movies. I do not forget to take a break. I draw during my free time, usually graphic drawings. I also have a Deviantart page, and I also do polymer clay art (miniature food art). Today I'll talk about puzzles. When I was a little kid, my brother and I used to play with puzzles (usually Disney themed puzzles like Cinderella, Pinocchio, Bambi, etc.). Imagine my glee when I saw this 3d puzzle about China when I was window shopping at SM North, Toy Kingdom.

   The 3d puzzle series that I bought was the 'China' series. This is a world series, and they have other countries available. You can collect everything, and the puzzles, once they're completed. You can match the piece altogether, to create the complete world series. Other countries I have seen are Turkey, France, Italy, and US. I am only interested in their Chinese series so I bought all the 4 series. I have completed building the series in a day, and I really enjoyed it. I plan to place it inside a glass box, or make my own case out of an illustration board with plastic cover to preserve it.

   The China series consists of the following: China Flavor - Chinese Snack Shop, Lenming Tea house, Linglong Steamed Stuffed Bun Shop, and Longxiang Tavern. My favorite out of the 4 series is the Steamed Bun Shop.I find the bamboo steamer cute, and it has buns inside. All of the 3d puzzles are very nice and dainty. The scene reminds me of the classic Chinese movies I used to watch when I was a kid. Jay Chou has a song the best describes what I'm talking about and the title when translated is, 'The Worldly Tavern.' The puzzle price is reasonable if I remember it right, I bought the puzzle set a year ago, and the 4 series costs around a thousand pesos (P1000) only.

   The 3d puzzle is easy to build. It can be played by children (just check the label for the age, I believe 8 yrs. old and above is the suitable age for this puzzle. I discourage hobbyists in letting toddler and babies play with this, and be careful if you have babies or toddlers at home when you're building this because there are small parts that are dangerous to babies and children, and they might swallow it.). Anyway, even adults like me will have a fun time in building it. What I like about it is that you don't need scissors to remove the pieces, it is detached easily by pushing the puzzle pieces, and it has numbers to guide you. A set consists of an instruction guide, and a pamphlet in Chinese that says something about the series. 

    If you love puzzles, hope you try and build your own 3d Cubic Puzzle World Series. Hope you will have lots of fun. 

Into the Heart and Mind of a Chinese Culture Enthusiast

   Most of the people I know when they find out that I like Chinese culture, music, anything that's related with it they find it strange. Sometimes, I'm the butt of joke, a fried of mine wayback often say sarcastically, (whenever we encounter oriental or 'chinky eyed' people), "Oh your friends, your people!". 

   Sometimes I get annoyed and pissed when they do that to me. Even if I don't show what I really feel, deep inside I'm already fuming. Is it really strange? I don't really think so! We all have our own interests and hobbies in life. Some study Spanish, French and other languages. While others are addicted to Korean and Japanese music, and tv dramas. Maybe, the only thing that's different, in my case I kinda embraced everything, and have really fallen in love with the Chinese culture, anything that's connected with it. 

Also, I'm not following any fad. I remember it was the height of Korean dramas when I became an ESL instructor to Koreans. I know a thing or two about Korean culture because I have dealt with Koreans before. Still, my interest in China didn't change, it still there lying dormant. It was only now that this passion of mine has been awakened. I guess, you always come back to the one you love doing. Besides, I already have finished doing my masteral, and I'm not really that occupied now so I can really spend a lot of time doing what I love. That is studying and writing about my interest. 

   Someday, I dream of becoming like Dashan. I read a story before about Dashan in my Lonely Planet: China travel book. That was one of my expensive books with regards to China. I bought it during my college days. I remember in our Chinese class yesterday we learned how to say 'big'. The Chinese character for that is 大 it reads as 'da' using the pinyin system. You'll really be amazed because Dashan, Mark Henry Rowswell is his real name, speaks really good Chinese. Actually there are a lot of Caucasians who can speak Chinese very well. I won't mention them all here. My point is, I'm not the only one in love with the Chinese language and culture, and it's not strange at all.

In the music scene, I came to know Frankie P., he is an Italian-American born and raised in the U.S. He speaks and can sing Cantonese very well. Just check out his videos on YouTube. It's really encouraging to see someone who also has the same interest. I've got some encouraging words from him, to just keep on practicing. Another one is an English woman named Mary Jess, she won and bagged the grand price in a singing contest in China, entitled 'I Want to Sing to the Stars.' 民星唱翻天 (Min Xing Chang Fan Tian). "Mary-Jess began studying Chinese at the age of 13 when it was offered as an extra-curricular GCSE at St. Peters RC High School in Gloucester. At the age of 15, Mary-Jess travelled to China for the first time with the school and whilst there she sang at the opening ceremony the summer school that she was attending. Her performance was credited by a lot of local press coverage. During this trip she fell in love with China and knew that she would continue to study Mandarin Chinese." (source: mary-jess.com)

So it's not only me. A lot of people around the world likes and appreciate the Chinese culture. Why? there are a hundreds of reasons and maybe, because its the cradle of the civilization, as mentioned in a local newspaper that I've read wayback. Here in my country, you can't deny the influence and the role of the Chinese in the Philippines way of life and culture.

   I also don't understand why a lot of people blame the Filipino-Chinese here in the Philippines, saying they are controlling everything. Most of the successful leaders here are PBC or Philippine Born Chinese and of Chinese lineage. It's not their fault, if you knew the life of early Chinese settlers here in the Philippines, it was not easy for them. They were the first peddlers, selling 'taho', dimsum (Chinese snacks), etc. on the streets. (visit Bahay Tsinoy in Intramuros to see the life like dioramas, and to learn more about the Filipino-Chinese history). They are just simply hardworking, and the times back then if you really work hard success is not that far behind. That's one thing we should learn from them. In appreciating the Chinese culture and language, I hope I have proven my point, that truly, I am not the only one in love!

(All Photos here were taken from Google Images).