From Silk Worm to Silk Scarf – A 5,000-Year-Old Journey

Sumptuous silks in a Multitude of Colours

Dearest reader, let me welcome you into the enchanting world of silk production! Silk is one of the earliest fabrics made in history; it was first production over 5,000 years ago! Bet you didn’t know that this gorgeous material has also been instrumental in politics, uniting continents and countries through international trade along the Silk Roads. Wars have broken out over who dominates the silk market and many a heart has been stolen by the fluttering of a silk scarf. All in all, an influential fabric!

Fun Facts about silk!

Silk, although lustrous and lightweight, is actually incredibly strong: a silk filament is stronger than a filament of steel of the same diameter!
Did you know that China is the world’s largest producer of silk? Each year, China produces 150,000 metric tons, accounting for 78% of the world’s produce!
This tantalising textile has not just been used for clothing. Along the Silk Road in Central Asia, silk was actually used as a form of currency between 300-400AD. Try telling that to the shopkeeper next time you’re out buying milk!

*Bombyx Mori* Silk Worms Eating Mulberry Leaves

Step 1 – Sericulture

The first important step in the process of silk production is known as sericulture. This term is used to describe the gathering of silk worms (Bombyx Mori to use their scientific name) and harvesting their cocoons. Silk moths lay eggs, which then hatch into silk worms. These worms eat a huge amount of mulberry leaves: to produce 1 kg of silk, 104 kg of mulberry leaves must be eaten by 3000 silkworms! Once the worms have grown enough (they must be roughly 10,000 times heavier than when they hatch), they raise their heads and begin to spin their cocoons – a process that takes 2 to 3 days. These cocoons are next harvested and boiled to loosen the silk filaments. Look away animal rights activists; the silk worms are killed in the boiling process, but do not go to waste as they are usually roasted and eaten as a tasty snack! The silk threads are incredibly fine, so between 3 to 10 strands are wound together ready for the dying process.

Step 2 – Dyeing

This part is great fun! The silk thread is now dyed in a multitude of glorious colours. Traditionally, dyes come from fruit or indigo plants, but in the modern silk industry, many dyes are synthetic, allowing for a greater variety of colours to be produced.

A Traditional Spinning Wheel – Don’t Prick Your Finger!

Step 3 + 4 – Spinning & Weaving

The rainbow threads then undergo the spinning process. A spinning wheel evokes fairy tales such as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ for me – are there spinning wheels in your culture’s folklore? Spinning unwinds the dyed threads and rewinds them onto a bobbin ready for… can you guess?… the weaving process! A loom is used to bind two threads together, interlocking and forming a strong, uniform piece of fabric. The finish of the silk depends on the type of weaving, such as satin weave, plain weave or open weave.

Step 5 – Printing

The next step, lovely reader, is incredibly versatile and really gives piece of silk its own individual personality. The silk is now printed; in the modern day, this is often done digitally, though more traditionally, screen printing is used. Screen printing is where a design is sketched on a fine mesh screen, laid over the silk and dye is applied according to the design. If the design includes multiple colours, each colour must be applied individually and then left to dry before the next is added. Other methods of decorating silk include hand painting. In Vietnam, silk is often used as a canvas for beautiful pieces of art, traditionally showcasing landscapes or scenes from daily life.

Step 6 – Finishing

Finally, our gorgeous silk has almost completed its long journey. The final step is ‘finishing’ the silk, where different chemical treatments are applied to give the fabric the glimmering sheen silk is known for. This step can also add important properties such as resistance to creases or fire!

And there you have it! From a silk worm to a silk scarf, you now know how silk is produced and made into the fabulously versatile fabric we know today. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the silk process, leave a comment and let me know what you think! Be sure to check out our other blog on silk brocade while you’re here too!

About Interact China

“A Social Enterprise in E-commerce Promoting Oriental Aesthetic Worldwide!”

Aileen & Norman co-founded Interact China in 2004 with specialization in fine Oriental Aesthetic products handmade by ethnic minorities & Han Chinese. Having direct partnerships with artisans, designers, craft masters and tailors, along with 13 years of solid experience in e-commerce via InteractChina.com, we are well positioned to bridge talented artisans in the East with the rest of the world, and directly bring you finely selected products that are of good quality and aesthetic taste.

So far we carry 3000+ goods covering Ladies Fashion via ChineseFashionStyle.com, Kungfu Fashion, Home Furnishings, Babies & Kids, Painting Arts, Textile Arts, Carving Arts, Tribal Jewelry Art, Wall Masks and Musical Instruments. Our team speak English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, and serve customers worldwide with passion and hearts.

P.S. We Need People with Similar Passion to Join Our Blogging Team!
If you have passion to write about Oriental Aesthetic in Fashion, Home Decor, Art & Crafts, Culture, Music, Books, and Charity, please contact us at bloggers@interactchina.com, we would love to hear from you!

Calming Chinese Calligraphy

Written by Sean Callahan

Calligraphy has been a central part of Chinese art for thousands of years. Emperors treasured it and those who wrote the most exceptional pieces were often rewarded with high-ranking positions and riches. However, despite the external pressure calligraphers must have felt, they had to stay centred and let their emotions flow through their brush.

The sereneness contained in the brush strokes of calligraphy is not only of great value to an admirer of calligraphy but also hold great promise for serving as a form of meditative relief for the calligraphers themselves.

Emotion in Calligraphy

One of the most highly treasured Chinese calligraphic pieces is Yan Zhenqing’s Requiem to My Nephew. Yan Zhenqing wrote the piece upon hearing of his nephew’s death at the hands of enemy soldiers. In the throes of passion, Yan channelled his passion into ink and wrote the now-famous ode to his nephew.

Yan’s artistic running script seems to mirror the man’s emotions. An observer can see his script starts out measured and orderly before devolving into a blur of rapid, almost fanatical, strokes. The evolution of Yan’s calligraphy within this one piece gives us insight into the depths of his bereavement. His inability to stay composed for a single sitting shows that writing calligraphy is not a process devoid of emotion; rather, it is a visible, permanent, testament to emotion.

What the Science Says

Multiple scientific studies back up the idea that calligraphy is highly intertwined with emotion. Practitioners of calligraphy often see their heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure fall while writing: all effects also seen in the calming practice of meditation. The writing of calligraphy has also been shown to have positive effects on the concentration abilities of young children.

While calligraphy is by no means a catch-all antidote to the stresses of life, there is little doubt of its positive effects on our bodies and minds.

How People are Using Calligraphy to Calm

Companies and organizations are starting to catch on to the revitalized interest in calligraphy and have begun to offer classes in which participants can learn calligraphy techniques and how to use them in a meditative setting.

These classes are undoubtedly useful and convenient for many beginner-level calligraphers, but one need only to walk through a park in China to see that these companies are behind the curve in many respects. Calligraphy is a popular pastime of retired people in China—they take a bucket of water and a mop-like writing instrument outside and display their calligraphic talents on the sidewalk. These sidewalk artists often spend hours enjoying the motions and aesthetic of their writing.

Maybe we should all follow their lead during this stressful time and turn to Chinese calligraphy to calm ourselves.

About Interact China

“A Social Enterprise in E-commerce Promoting Oriental Aesthetic Worldwide!”

Aileen & Norman co-founded Interact China in 2004 with specialization in fine Oriental Aesthetic products handmade by ethnic minorities & Han Chinese. Having direct partnerships with artisans, designers, craft masters and tailors, along with 13 years of solid experience in e-commerce via InteractChina.com, we are well-positioned to bridge talented artisans in the East with the rest of the world, and directly bring you finely selected products that are of good quality and aesthetic taste.

Cutting Through the Commercialization of Culture

Written by Sean Callahan

Tourists often spend thousands of dollars to explore China and the culture of its many ethnic groups. However, the more inexperienced travelers sometimes fall prey to the increasing commercialization of culture tourism. Nowadays, smiling ladies dressed in brightly colored costumes standing outside of stores and menus with more expensive prices for foreigners are commonplace. It is part of a trend whereby businesses and even whole towns use traditions to upsell their product and charge foreigners a premium.

What Is the Commercialization of Culture?

Often, people from outside a minority culture see it as an opportunity to make money instead of an opportunity to spread the traditions of the people. As a result, visitors get an experience which centers around things like souvenirs and performances that are designed to sell, not to teach. Visitors may leave a place like the Yunnan Ethnic Village with an understanding of minority culture which has been adjusted to make it more ‘touristy’.

While there are people who benefit from this commercialization, it is usually not the minority groups which do so. They are put in the unfortunate situation of having to choose between their culture and a livelihood which could help them support their families. As a result, they participate in this realm of increasingly financially-based tourism without reaping most of the benefits it produces.

Why Should You Care About Getting Authentic Cultural Experiences?

One of the most captivating aspects of cultural items and experiences is their ability to provide the consumer with a window into another person’s life. Authentic culture transports people across large distances and often back in time to experience a unique way of life. When cultural items are produced for economic reasons however, it stops telling the true story of the culture.

How Can You Get the Most Out of Culture?

The reality of the matter is most people don’t know how to distinguish between authentic culture and commercialized culture which means they risk spending money with deceitful corporations instead of real people. One way to avoid this problem is to work with a knowledgeable company which can navigate you through the minefield of commodified culture. A company which is well versed in culture can set up meaningful experiences like a homestay with a Tibetan family or ensure the art pieces you buy are made in the same tradition they were hundreds of years ago.

A Pool of Experts Who Care for Culture, and People too.

Here at Interact China, we work hand-in-hand with craftspeople from ethnic minority communities to bring their traditional crafts directly to you. Many of our partners come from families with centuries of experience creating cultural artifacts and others are respected masters of their craft. When you purchase from Interact China, you not only support these artisans and their culture but also guarantee that the product you are receiving is not tainted by unnecessary commercialization. We deal in authenticity and tradition so you can be free to connect with the piece and experience its allure without worrying about extraneous concerns.

About Interact China

“A Social Enterprise in E-commerce Promoting Oriental Aesthetic Worldwide!”

4 Lessons From a Master Silversmith in Yunnan

Written by Sean Callahan

In 2017, I spent a month apprenticing under a master silversmith in a small Bai village in Yunnan, China. I expected to simply learn the techniques used to craft silver jewelry, but my master and teacher, Li Shifu, showed me that in order to truly appreciate a piece of silver, one must understand all that it represents.

Master silversmiths such as Li Shifu believe the art of silversmithing is more of a mindset than a set of skills. Their work embodies their life philosophy which in turn means each piece has its own unique story. This is not just my story or Li Shifu’s story, but rather the story of centuries of craftsmen and craftswomen in China, a story that Interact China carries around the world.

Lesson #1: The Master can only open the door. The apprentice must learn to walk through it.

Throughout my apprenticeship, Li Shifu emphasized the idea that he could only give me so much and my success ultimately depended on myself. He told me stories of his own apprenticeship where he and his fellow apprentice “brothers” would be made to do menial chores for months before the master would allow them to touch silver. This arduous process was not meant to take advantage of them or to punish them, but rather to select for the most important traits a silversmith can have: work ethic and dedication. Learning to be a silversmith, like most other things in life, takes hard work and repetition. Whether you want to become a silversmith or a poet, your teacher can only give you the tools to succeed. You must strive to use those tools to better yourself; only then will you truly improve.

Lesson #2: In our rush to finish, we often lose sight of our goal.

The first piece Li Shifu taught me how to make was a shiny silver bracelet. He instructed me to first hammer a rectangular piece of silver into a round one suitable for shaping into a bracelet. I proceeded with this task with great speed, hoping to quickly move on to the next part. After about 90 minutes, I proudly showed him my perfectly round silver rod. However, he frowned and handed it back to me saying, “it is too long.” As I spent the next few hours restarting from scratch, Li Shifu cautioned me that in my rush to shape my rod I had neglected to consider the end goal of my work. Similarly, in life, we need to consider the context which surrounds our actions and make decisions with the larger picture in mind.

Lesson #3: Small details matter just as much as large steps.

Undoubtedly the loudest and most noticeable step in silversmithing is the initial shaping of the item where a blowtorch and hammer are used to pound the silver into the correct shape. Silversmiths put enormous amounts of time and effort into this process as it creates the base for their product. Engraving, on the other hand, is a process which involves a chisel and tiny movements. The engraving of minuscule lines and figures may seem unimportant compared to the shaping process, but Li Shifu assured me that was not the case. A bracelet can be deemed unworthy due to one erroneous engraved dot just as it can be due to an entirely misshapen piece of silver. In our lives, we must keep in mind that seemingly trivial details can often prove to be just as meaningful as large events.

Lesson #4: Handmade goods appeal to the human spirit.

The rise of silver factories has flooded the market with cheap mass-produced silver jewelry. Li Shifu, however, says that people still seek out handmade items like those that he makes for both practical and sentimental reasons. Not only is handmade silver stronger and more flexible, but Li Shifu believes each piece shares a connection with its maker which makes it unique. When someone opts to buy a handmade piece instead of a factory-produced one, each time they look at the piece they can admire the skill and dedication of the craftsman. One can’t put a price tag on this human element of handmade silver and that is the reason why it remains popular today.

Oftentimes, when consumers look at the incredible pieces created by ethnic craftsmen, they recognize the beauty and allure but they miss out on the culture, philosophy, and process behind them. So next time you admire an art piece, whether it be silver jewelry or an embroidered bag, think of Li Shifu and other artisans and what their work means to them. This knowledge will allow you to appreciate and connect with handmade art more fully.

About Interact China

“A Social Enterprise in E-commerce Promoting Oriental Aesthetic Worldwide!”

So far we carry 3000+ goods covering Ladies Fashion via ChineseFashio nStyle.com, Kungfu Fashion, Home Furnishings, Babies & Kids, Painting Arts, Textile Arts, Carving Arts, Tribal Jewelry Art, Wall Masks and Musical Instruments. Our team speak English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, and serve customers worldwide with passion and hearts.

A Journey Through Chinese Ethnic Minorities’ Festivals

By Emma Marler

The beauty of Chinese ethnic minorities is the variety of their culture. Each of the 56 Chinese ethnic minorities have their own unique traditions and customs. As a visitor, one of the best ways to experience each group’s culture is attending one of their festivals, there are so many of them! Let’s have a look at a few so you can get an idea of how colourful and fun these celebrations are!

Water Splashing Festival

The Dai ethnic people reside in Xishuangbanna, an autonomous province located in Yunnan. According to their own calendar, they celebrate New Year in mid-April for three days. Because the weather is already very warm at that time of year, it is tradition to accompany religious rituals with light-hearted and fun activities.

The first two days of celebration are on the Lancang river. People enjoy watching boat race competitions during the day and make floating lanterns fly in the evening, an old Chinese tradition that sends bad luck away.

On the third day, water splashing actually happens! The Dai put on their best clothes and listen to monks chanting Buddhist scriptures at their local temple. Afterward, the most important ritual of the festival takes place, ‘Bathing the Buddha’, since in Dai culture water symbolises religious purification. After the statue has been soaked with water, everyone else starts splashing each other.

Splashing each other with water is not just good fun, but it is also a way to send good luck and prosperity for the next year.

Sisters’ Meal Festival

The Sisters’ Meal Festival is celebrated by the Miao Hmong ethnic minority in Guizhou province, China. This festival takes place in March and lasts for 3 days. It is considered the oldest Valentine’s day in China. It originated from an old matchmaking legend, according to which a god advised girls to dye rice and offer it to young men in order to find their marriage partners. Girls wear their best embroidered dresses and silver ornaments for the occasion, since the light of the polished material wards off evil spirits.

To this day women still go to the mountains to collect wild flowers in order to dye rice. They wrap the glutinous rice in handkerchiefs or baskets.

When a man approaches them, the girls choose which packet of rice to gift in order to communicate their interest or lack of. If there is a pair of chopsticks or red petal with the rice, it means that the girl wants to marry him. If there is pepper or garlic, it means that the girl is not interested.

Torch Festival

The Torch festival is of prime importance for the Yi people. The origin of this festival is not clear. Some scholars believe it was one of the two annual New Year celebrations according to their ten month calendar. Another school of thought traces its origin back to the ancient worship of the Yi towards fire because of its power to repel insects and protect crops.

During the three days of celebrations, if you walk around a Yi village you will see that in front of every house there is a lit up torch, illuminating the streets and creating a magical atmosphere. Young men and women also walk around the fields and place the torches at the four corners of the crops. In the main square a huge bonfire is lit and everyone contributes to igniting it.

Many other activities are also carried out in the daytime. Girls parade in their traditional outfits and yellow umbrellas, whereas men engage in competitions of horse racing, bullfighting, and wrestling.

All these beautiful festivals strengthen the cultural traits of the ethnic minorities and maintains their centenary traditions alive. They are the perfect chance to showcase their identity to the rest of the world!

About Interact China

“A Social Enterprise in E-commerce Promoting Oriental Aesthetic Worldwide!”

A Day in the Life of Miao People

By Emma Marler

Miao people are one the 56 ethnic groups in China. Their vibrant culture attracts visitors from all over the world. They are well renowned for their silver crafting and embroidery skills. Let’s now try to imagine to spend a day in the life of the Miao community. It’s going to be an exciting journey!

The majority of Miao people lives in Guizhou province in Southern China. There is an old saying that describes their homeland this way: “No three days are clear, no three feet of land are level, and no one has three ounces of silver”. Guizhou is therefore known for its mountainous sceneries, long rainy seasons and for not being very prosperous economically.

Their houses are built on steep hillsides and use stilts for support. Their tradition to plant bamboo and trees around their homes makes the wooden buildings blend in beautifully with the natural surroundings. But it’s at night that magic happens. When it gets dark and each family turns the lights on, the mountains seem to be lit up.

The cultivation of rice has been their main means of subsistence, especially before tourism started to spring up. As many Chinese liquors, Miao’s mijiu (米酒) is also rice-based. Hospitality is a big part of their culture. Guest are welcomed with this rice wine to toast while dancing and singing takes place to greet visitors. Miao are great cooks and they love sour and spicy food. There is even an ancient saying that states that “without eating a sour dish for three days, people will stagger with weak legs”! Fish soup is Miao’s staple dish. Fresh carps from the rice fields are cooked in a boiling soup with chili pepper, garlic and tomatoes.

If you go and visit, you might be lucky enough to participate in one of their Long Table banquets! During special occasions like New Year or weddings, every household brings a home cooked dish and shares it with the rest of the extended family and their guests.

Apart from agriculture, Miao people have cultivated several artistic skills along the years. Men are exceptional at silver work. At festivals or special occasions girl accessorize their dresses with head to toe silver jewelry, it can weigh up to 10 kilograms! Silver is believed to symbolize light and it can scare away evil spirits. Silver is therefore a recurring element in the most important milestones of their life. When a new born baby takes his first bath, parents put a piece of silver into the water to wish for a happy future. Families start collecting silver jewelry for their daughter’s wedding since the day they are born.

The traditional costume is a perfect representation of Miao culture and history because it combines both silver work and embroidery. Women are extremely talented artists and produce the most stunning embroidery pieces. The techniques they use are very elaborate and to finish a set of traditional clothes can take up to two years. To recognize a Miao embroidery pattern you have to look out for natural and geometric shapes in beautiful bold colours.

Their embroidery techniques are passed on for generations and girls start learning how to weave, embroider and cross-stitch at the age of 6. When a girl finishes her first embroidered dress all on her own it shows that she is ready to get married.

Miao people have also mastered the art of batik. According to a Miao traditional song, a young girl dreamt of some bees landing on her blue skirt one night and when she woke up she found some wax on it. After washing it a few times she realised that those spots were flowered shaped and had adorned her simple skirt.

Batik and embroidery are an essential way for Miao people to express themselves because they don’t have their own written language. Those patterns are a visual language to transmit their culture, religion and history to the rest of the world.

With the passing of time and the rise of globalisation, rich culture and traditions like those of the Miao are even more unique but are also at risk of dying out. Our mission is to preserve their heritage and pet people know how much these ethnic minorities have to offer. We hope you enjoyed this journey into the wonders of the Miao world!

About Interact China

“A Social Enterprise in E-commerce Promoting Oriental Aesthetic Worldwide!”

The Importance of Women’s Day in China – an Innovative Tradition

Written by Maria Giglio

International Women’s Day (IWD) will take place next Sunday. Every year, on 8th March the world commemorates the efforts of worldwide women’s movements in advancing gender equality. Although today it carries no flags, IWD was particularly meaningful in the context of socialist and communist ideologies as the emblem of social struggles during the 20th century. Some may turn up their noses to the significance of Women’s Day in modern days. If women were equal to men, what’s the need for a special day for women, you may ask. Sure, almost every woman in the world can cast a vote today. Women can drive buses, lead successful companies, go to space, and men can stay at home looking after children. However, gender inequality is also a matter of culture, of mindset. It follows women in many aspects of their daily lives, from family, to work and the street. IWD serves as a memento not only for the past, but also for the future, that women are, and must be, equal.

Now, moving on what is the meaning of IWD in China? Let’s just start from the fact that China’s history is as massive as its geographical extent, being characterised by great changes and overturns. For example, the establishment of Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-1911) marked the end of the Han era, bringing a radical cultural makeover with the abandonment of Confucian tradition and lifestyle. Other important changes happened during the 20th Century, such as the fall of the Empire and constitution of the Republic (1911) and Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1949).

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang celebrating IWD in 2015

As you may imagine, the image, status and role of women in Chinese society changed throughout history. How come we moved from loose cut Hanfus, lotus feet to sexy Qipaos? This article is an overview of such (R)evolution.

Troublemakers: the Confucianist conception of women in Ancient China

Because in ancient times Chinese society was strictly patriarchal, history was men’s business: made and told by men. Women are not much talked about, except the times they cause trouble. As a result, the picture of women we get from early historical records is that of sorts of Messalinas[1]: manipulative, unreliable, selfish.

The idea that women were somehow inherently bad and not to be trusted is nested in Confucian ideology. In Confucius Analects (17:12) we read:

“Shaoren and girls are difficult to handle. If you get familiar with them, they cease to be humble. If you keep them away, they get resentful.”

Confucian scholars followed the lead by constructing a conception of women as passive human beings, in need of guidance.

“The woman with no talent is the one who has merit.”

“Women are to be led and to follow others.”

In this context, the only social function attributed to women was connected to their unique ability to giving birth. As a result, women unable to have children were considered useless, a waste of society. Having a son, rather than a daughter, was a relief.

It’s a man’s man’s world. The Han Period

The necessary separation between men and women started to be expressed in terms of yin and yang. If men were strong leaders (yang), women were docile followers (yin). If men were action, women were stillness. Because entrenched in yin-yang culture, the distinction started to be endorsed and socially accepted as something natural, falling in the universal order of things. For the centuries to come, it would be featured in all Chinese social institutions.

During the Han period (202 BCE – 220 CE), women gained a new light as members of the family. Women could even be family heads if widowed before the coming of age of their eldest son. As mothers, wives and daughters, they would show virtues of obedience, humbleness, self-sacrifice, resignation for the sake of the family. As expressed in Confucian teachings:

“When young, a woman should obey the father, when married, the husband, when old, the son.”

Because Han laws allowed concubinage, the rule of virtues was instrumental to keep family women and especially wives from expressing their jealousy or conspiring against extra-marital offspring.

Women as doers. Rise and fall of women’s status.

In the Centuries following the Han period, women started to earn a different place in society. Girls would be now educated with their brothers, Buddhist nuns would provide spiritual guidance, entrepreneurial women would run their hotels.

Women were almost emancipated. However, by the beginning of the Song Period (960-1279), Neo-Confucian waves stroked again to revive the old idea of separation between men and women.

It is during that time that the practice of foot-binding started to spread, to continue until up recent times. Although never explicitly endorsed by Confucian scholars, foot-binding was socially perceived as a physical expression of Confucian virtues and soon became a way to distinguish virtuous women, worth to marry, from unvirtuous ones.

At the same time, a new belief caught on that while a man could marry twice, a woman could not. Although widow chastity was never formally enforced by law or endorsed by Neo-Confucian exponents, you can bet that widowhood could become a true nightmare for women, especially when childless. This is when the awful practice of widow suicides started to diffuse, being welcomed by many as the ultimate act of a woman’s self-abasement.

Art is an expression of feelings and most of the times of the painful kind. This is probably why, by the end of the Qing period (1644 – 1911), woman literature had proliferated in China. Generations of female novelists and poets from empresses to maids would find in writing a way to express their unspoken feelings, fears, and desire.

Uprising women: The Cultural Revolution

With the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, the Country gained a new face. It was with the rise of the Communist party, though, that women could redesign their role within Chinese society.

Although International Women’s day had been officially recognised worldwide since 1914, in China it was marked as a holiday in 1922, following the example of the Soviet Union. There, women’s Day was regarded as an emblem of social struggles and the Communist fight. On March 8th 1917, a group of Russian women protested for ‘Bread and Peace’, opening the way to a series of revolts that would then lead to the October Revolution and the establishment of Lenin’s Communist regime.

In China, women were granted suffrage in 1947. In 1949, after the end of the civil war and the constitution of the People’s Republic of China by Mao Tse Tung, the International Women’s Day became an official holiday. Women also enjoy a half-day off for the occasion.

In Mandarin, the International Women’s Day is called 妇女节 (Fù nǚ jié). The characters used for woman, “妇女”( Fù nǚ), generally refer to married women and because of that, the day doesn’t resonate with young ladies. As a result, Chinese young folks created their own “Girl’s Day” (女生节, Nǚ shēng jié). This is celebrated on March 7th and, unlike IWD, it has nothing to do with politics. It developed during the 1990s in universities as a sort of Valentine’s day. On this day, students engage in bold courting activities, such as hanging huge red banners to declare their love to their fellow girls.

“I may not be yours, Min Jun, but you will always be my Qian Songyi.”

Notes

[1] Valeria Messalina was the third wife of Emperor Claudio. Cousin of Nero and second cousin of Caligula, she couldn’t fall too far from her genealogic tree: clever, charming and influential, Messalina had a reputation for being scheming and promiscuous. After discovering that her wife was conspiring against him, Claudio ordered her execution.

About Interact China

“A Social Enterprise in E-commerce Promoting Oriental Aesthetic Worldwide!”

Chinese New Year: Time to Check Your Odds, Rats!

Written by Maria Giglio

Chinese New Year celebrations officially started last 25^th January, welcoming the year of the rat. The Chinese New Year is one of the few National holidays in which everything literally stops in China. Aside for unfortunate emergencies due to coronavirus, normally for the occasion even the well-known hardworkers Chinese get to enjoy a full 2-weeks break. Commuters travel to their home villages, businesses shut down for break, families happily welcome their sons and daughters who study in big cities. During these days, even in busiest metropolises such as Shanghai or Beijing, you could hardly find an open shop!

Been there, done that.

If you have been reading this blog, you may be already familiar with the origins and roots of this festival, mentioned in last year’s article about the Year of the Pig. To recap for new readers and lazy ones, the Chinese New Year is also known as The Spring Festival and marks the beginning of the Lunar Year. The starting date changes accordingly, following the Lunar Calendar. This is based on a very ancient – and honestly, not exactly intuitive – system, according to which the Lunar years go at a 60 Gregorian Calendar (our Calendar) year pace. So why, you may ask, every Chinese new year the Zodiac sign is different from the past year? Well, because. The sexagenary cycle interlinks with a 10-year cycle of Tiangan (the heavenly stems) and a 12-year cycle of Dizhi (earthly branches). Tiangan are associated with the 5 elements of Chinese astrology and change every two years: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water (sorry, no Air). Dizhi are instead associated with the 12 animals of Chinese zodiac, and change yearly: Rat (鼠, shǔ), Ox (牛, niú), Tiger (虎, hǔ), Rabbit (兔, tù), Dragon (龙, lóng), Snake (蛇, shé), Horse (马, mǎ), Goat (羊, yang), Monkey (猴, hóu), Rooster (鸡, jī), Dog (狗, gǒu) and Pig (猪, zhū). Easy-peasy huh?

So, to recap, 2020 is indeed the year of the Rat, having been the last Rat’s year in 2008. But 2020 rat is not the same as 2020’s rat. In fact, this year we celebrate the Metal Rat, whereas 12 years ago, it was the year of the Earth Rat. Why is that so? Because the same heavenly-earthly branches combination occur every sixty years. Last Metal Rat year recurred in fact in 1948. However, each zodiac sign has also a fixed heavenly branch, which in the case of the Rat is water.

Got it. But what’s so special about rats? Personality traits.

The rat is associated with intelligence and a sharp mind. As our Tom explains in his new blog, the rat won the Heavenly Race using a ride from the strong and kind but not so canny Ox.

According to the Chinese Horoscope, in general people born in Rat years are astute and successful. Yet, they don’t disdain peaceful life from time to time. Rat women are very well organised and value tradition. In Chinese culture, at home they are loving wives, caring mothers and great leaders. At work they are reliable, resilient and capable. Likewise, men born in the year of the Rat are very flexible and adaptable, showing great creativity and an innovative spirit. Unlike women of the sign, however, they are not natural leaders.

What are the characteristics of metal rats? Highly talkative and charismatic, they are people catalysers who like to be at the centre of attention. For the same purpose, they tend to get jealous and somewhat possessive.

Matching opportunities.

The rat’s permanent heavenly branch is water, and therefore it gets along well with signs with opposite fixed heavenly branch, which in our case is earth. Thus, Rats are mostly compatible with Ox, Dragon and Monkey.

Wishes for 2020

Despite usually a zodiac’s year is the most unlucky year for those falling under its sign, Rats can expect quite a good year ahead in terms of career success. Health? Not so well, but if taken care of, it’ll come around.

Let’s be honest. This Lunar Year hasn’t started with the right foot. But we hope that the stars got it right, so happy Chinese New Year from the Interact China team!

If you enjoyed this article, please leave a like or comment below! 🙂

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Chinese New Year 2020: Year of the Rat and The Heavenly Gate Race

By Tom Booth

Chinese New Year starts on Saturday 25th January 2020, the first day of the Lunar Year and the beginning of China’s Spring Festival. Lunar Years, unlike Solar Years, exist on a twelve year cycle called the Zodiac Cycle or shengxiao. Each year in the cycle is associated with one of twelve animals and that animal’s reputed characteristics.

Chinese New Year celebrations are not just limited to China: Korean New Year and Vietnamese New Year share many similarities with Chinese New Year. Nowadays it is celebrated internationally in regions and countries with significant numbers of overseas Chinese residents.

This year is the Year of the Rat, the first in the Zodiac Cycle. But why is the Rat number one? We normally think of rats as small and dirty pests rather than revered celestial beings. What puts them ahead of much larger, more impressive creatures such as dragons, tigers and oxen?

The answer can be found in the legend of the Heavenly Gate Race that originates from Chinese mythology. The story is ancient, and has been retold many times, each time with slight variations on the content. Here is just one version, without too much elaboration.

Thousands of years ago the Jade Emperor made the official decision that the lunar years would each be named after animals. In order to determine which animal would be given each year, he devised a race: the first animal to reach him in his palace would be named after the first year, second place the second year and so on.

In front of the palace was a deep, fast flowing river. The rat, unable to swim across such treacherous waters, asked the ox whether he could ride on his back to cross the river. The ox, being gentle and good natured, agreed without complaint. However, as they reached the opposite bank the rat leaped off the ox’s back and rushed towards the emperor. It arrived first, and so the first year in the Zodiac Cycle was attributed to the rat.

The second year was given to the ox.

Third was the tiger, who was strong and agile but struggled against the strong waters.

Fourth was the rabbit, who used its agility to jump between stones across the river.

Fifth was the dragon, who saved a starving village by providing them rain, thus slowing him down.

Impressed by the dragon’s action, the emperor said the dragon’s child could be sixth: the snake slithered out and declared that it was the dragon’s son, and so the year was given to the snake.

The swift horse came seventh.

The goat, monkey and rooster were not good at swimming, and so built a raft and sailed across, coming eighth, ninth and tenth.

The dog was good at swimming but enjoyed splashing about in the water too much and so came eleventh.

The pig came twelfth, having got tired and stopped off for a rest half way through.

One animal seems to be missing from the list of twelve: where is the cat? Cats have historically been popular animals in China, and have a long history of domestication. The absence of the cat is explained by two different stories. The first story says that both the rat and the cat were riding the ox towards the Jade Emperor’s palace. At the last minute, the rat pushed the cat off the ox’s back and into the water, eliminating it from the race. It is said that this is why cats hate water.

The second story has the cat and rat as old friends who used to help each other out. The rat would wake the naturally lazy cat up in the mornings, and in return the cat would protect the rat from larger predators. On the day of the race, the rat left the cat sleeping in order to gain a head start in the race. The cat failed to wake up in time and so couldn’t participate in the race.

Whichever story you take, it explains the hatred between cats and rats – which seems to go almost beyond the instinctual relationship of predator and prey!

The Year of the Rat is therefore a year when everyone can aspire to the wit and intelligence of the rat in the Heavenly Gate Race!

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To Live by Yu Hua: A Tremendous Journey into The Meaning of Life

Written by Maria Giglio

活着 , To Live – A novel written by Yu Hua is the history of China 20^th seen through the history of a family.

One of the most prominent authors of post-Maoist literature, Yu Hua voices the anxiety and criticism of a generation lived in Cultural Revolution with sharp realism.

The novel is written in the form of story in a story and uses first-person narration to emphasise the realistic feature of the family facts told by the main protagonist Xu Fugui and intertwined with the historical events that marked China during 20^th Century, such as the Land Reform, the Cultural Revolution and the Great Famine. The author revealed that for this novel he was inspired by an American folk song, “Old Black Joe”. The song talked about an old slave who, despite having experienced hardship and sorrow, would still look at life as a gift.

The novel, published in China in 1993, was originally banned for its historical controversy, but it was later proclaimed as one of the most important works of Chinese contemporary literature. Today, To Live is considered a cult and a must-read to those interested in Chinese history and literature.

Plot

The novel takes place in southern Chinese countryside. The plot unfolds with the technique of double narration. The first narrator is a young student who travels across Chinese villages and connect with farmers and peasants to learn their stories. The second narrator is Xu Fugui, the protagonist, an old man who lives a simple, bucolic lifestyle. After having survived the death of all his loved ones, he now spends his days accompanied by an old ox also named Fugui that he once saved from slaughter. gui discloses his life to the young stranger starting from the time he was a young and arrogant rich man. A son of a wealthy land-owner, Fugui used to spend all his family money on gambling and prostitutes, constantly disregarding his father’s admonitions and his responsibilities to his pregnant wife Jiazhen. One day, Fugui squanders all the entire fortune over gambling, which causes his father to die of despair. In poverty, desperation and misery, he finds wisdom and balance and eventually grows a better man. He starts to appreciate the importance of hard work, the value of his wife who after-all has never abandoned him.

He lives through the atrocities of civil war as a brave and loyal friend. He strives for being a caring and generous father to his elder daughter Fenxia and the young son Youqing. Over his hard life, Fugui sees all his loved ones one by one tragically and prematurely pass away. Nonetheless, he appreciates that he, after all, lives. And so, live he does, in modesty and compassion.

“It’s better to live an ordinary life. If you go on striving for this and that, you’ll end up paying with your life.”
To Live – Yu Hua

Yu Hua’s writing is overwhelmingly realistic and crude and doesn’t spare violent and excruciating details. However, it is right through his its raw descriptions that he engages the reader with an especially intense and emotionally charging narration.

Movie adaptation

In 1994, To Live was adapted to the screen with a homonymous movie directed by Zhang Yimou. The script keeps somewhat loyal to the plot, although the rawness of Yu Hua’s narrative is highly sweetened with a rather melancholic tone. More emphasis is given to the historical and social context in which the drama takes place. The ox, which seems quite a fundamental, symbolic character of the book implicitly reflecting the protagonist’s stoic endurance, is also removed from the script. Moreover, the original countryside setting is replaced with a northern city background. Finally, the script adds symbolic insights of shadow puppetry.

Ironically, even though death, violence and pain are at the centre of this emotionally charging, beautiful Chinese tragedy, the author chooses to name the novel To Live. I read it as an exhortation for everyone to always look at life with kind eyes, no matter what happens. To put it in Fugui’s words:

“No matter how lucky a person is, the moment he decides he wants to die, there’s nothing that will keep him alive.”
To Live – Yu Hua

The novel bares human frailty in all its facets, to send a message of endurance.

In 2003, an official English version of To Live was edited by Michael Berry (Professor of Contemporary Chinese cultural studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara) and published by Anchor Books & Random House of Canada Limited.

The book in its English version is available on Amazon at less than 15.00 $. Have you read it already? I would love to hear what you think!

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