In the ancient city Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, 30 bronze Chinese chess pieces were recently unearthed from a tomb dating back to the period between Tang and Song dynasties about a thousand years ago. Chinese Chess is one of the two major traditional Chinese chess games, along with Go (Weiqi or Game of Siege), and usually has 32 pieces. The earliest […]
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A plan to rescue former Red Flame Army general Wei Zheng was quickly drawn by Mei Changsu. Observing how the pale-faced scholar developed an intricate prison break strategy and simulated each step of the operation in meticulous details, the chief of the Medicine Valley kung fu sect was awfully impressed. “What a marvellous action plan!” he exclaimed. Mei Changsu played it down. […]
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As Marquis Xie, the chief of the kingdom’s military force and the top ally of the crown prince, was prosecuted and eventually sent to a labour camp in remote Guizhou, Prince Jing was appointed as the new head of the capital defence force by the Emperor. An ancient Chinese bar While Prince Jing – no one knew he had any association with Mei Changsu […]
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Following China’s scholarly garden tradition, Mei Changsu redesigned his residential garden. After the completion of the project, he invited his friends and associates in the capital to his garden parlour for a drink. Being grateful for Mei Changsu’s help on the incident of firecracker mill explosion that resulted the emperor to severely punish the crown prince, Prince Yu arrived at garden-warming party without […]
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Chinese New Year was approaching and cargo business was booming. The wharfies complained to the headman that the two boatloads of mandarin packages were unreasonably heavy. The traditional Chinese royal family was a strictly hierarchical community, with the emperor at the top as the absolute ruler and empress as his deputy sheriff Each morning, the Emperor’s lesser wives were required to […]
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A traditional Chinese balcony, fully integrated with the indoor space Mei Changsu’s initial misjudgement over Princess Nihuang incident rose Prince Jing’s suspicion in his character. Thus he laid ground rules for their cooperation: you may play party politics, but you must not hurt the people who spilt their blood and risked their lives to defend the nation. Mei Changsu was […]
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For its faithful depiction of a traditional China in both spiritual and physical aspects, highly acclaimed Chinese TV drama Nirvana in Fire is in fact the best visual introduction to all things Chinese, from customs, costumes, architecture, interior design, garden design, urban design, furniture design to state politics. 31-year old Mei Changsu kept waking up from a recurring nightmare in […]
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Broken Bridge is in fact never broken, but when both the bridge and the lake are covered by snow, the bridge seems broken when viewing it from one side because the bridge abruptly descends to a water level on the other side. Broken Bridge, the Witness to a Snake’s Love for a Man The initial bridge was said to be built a […]
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Chinese New Year’s Paintings are typically used to decorate the internal walls at the beginning of each new lunar year. The themes of New Year’s Painting are often closely associated with Chinese people’s common aspirations and unique language. For instance, a bat (蝠) represents fortune (福), a fan (扇) indicates kindness (善), a spear (戟) is a symbol for luck (吉) […]
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Journey to the West is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature written by Wu Cheng’en (1501 – 1582), a Ming Dynasty scholar, which is loosely based on a true event in Chinese history. The Legend of Journey to the West In the early years of Tang Dynasty, there was a young monk named Xuanzang who detected a great […]
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In December 1987, a unique solo flute concert was taken place at a news conference hosted by the Culture Department of Henan Province. There was only one performer: the director of Music Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts; and there was only one piece of music performed: Little Cabbage. But this mini-concert has changed the written history of […]
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