Post by Otagiri Tatsuzou on Sept 2, 2005 21:54:02 GMT -5
Since I'm not sure if this site will stay in place, I am quoting the whole thing ....
edu.beelink.com.cn/20050809/1902977.shtml
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The sky's the limit for this 2,000-year-old pastime
Text and Photos by Duncan Willson
In China, flying a kite is more than just a diversion--it's a cultural experience. When an old man places his home made swallow kite in the sky high above the trees, he's participating in a cultural heritage that's more than 2,000 years old. And you thought he was just bored.
The first known kite flew into the skies sometime during the fourth century B.C. Made entirely of wood and fashioned like an eagle, the kite was constructed by the Confucian philosopher and hermit Mo Zi, who lived on Mount Lu in modern-day Shandong Province. An impressive piece of pre-modern engineering, it took him over three years to build. Sadly, the kite flew for just one day before crashing into the mountainside. Lucky for us, Mo passed his kite-making skills onto his students, who managed to improve on the design and build kites that could stay aloft for days.
Though philosophers had a hand in the creation of kites, subsequent variations were not intended to inspire or entertain. Kites developed during the particularly chaotic and brutal period of Chinese history known as the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) were designed as tools of war and used for such military and reconnaissance purposes as relaying information and measuring distances. Some kites actually carried bundles of gunpowder and were known as "sacred fire crows."
But by the Tang Dynasty (618-907), kites had found their way out of the hands of generals and into the hands of well-to-do children. This transformation occurred in part because of the availability of cheaper materials (paper instead of silk), but also because of a revival of traditional Chinese folk festivals. Kites soon became associated with the Pure Brightness Festival. While the festival was traditionally focused on the sweeping of ancestral tombs and the offering of money and food to the dead, the festival also celebrated the coming of spring. The festival, still celebrated today, occurs in the first week of April - perfect for kite enthusiasts.
Today, kite flying remains popular throughout China and around the world. And while factories may pump out kites for the masses, the ancient art of kite making is kept alive by such aficionados as Liu Bin, a 26-year-old art school graduate from Beijing. Liu was raised in a family of kite makers: His grandfather began making kites to pass the time after retiring and later taught his son the trade. Liu's father, a carpenter, continued to fashion kites in his spare time. The kites they made were sold at various markets around the city. As Liu grew up, he inherited their love for handmade kites and immediately after graduating from art school, began making and selling kites for the family business. Each kite is hand made by Liu in his shop, using the simplest of materials: bamboo, fabric or paper, glue, twine, a candle and a knife. Using a quick sketch as a blueprint, Liu carefully uses a knife to cut the flexible but strong bamboo skin off the stalk. After stripping it clean, he places a lit candle beneath the strip to heat the bamboo and bend it into shape. When all the pieces of the frame are formed, he uses twine to bind together the bamboo strips into the desired shape. He then takes the completed frame and attaches, with glue, the fabric or paper. The final step is the painting of the kite: Here, Liu will put a great deal of thought into the images he paints, teasing out cultural references from simple objects. The entire process, on average, takes about one week.
A few minutes' walk from Liu Bin's shop in northwest Beijing is the home of another family of kite makers. The patriarch, Kong Lao, has been making kites for over 60 years. During the 1940s, Kong, then an art student, stumbled across a mysterious manuscript by the renowned Qing Dynasty author Cao Xueqin. Cao, author of the classic Chinese novel "Dream of the Red Chamber," was also an authority on traditional Chinese kites. His designs, which combined kite features found in southern China with those found in the North, influenced the development of kites in the Qing Dynasty. The manuscript, which described 40 methods for constructing kites, was the find of a lifetime and put Kong on a path which determined not only his life's work, but that of his sons and his grandsons. Today, his family continues to make kites by hand, based on the techniques and designs laid out by Cao Xueqin over 300 years ago.
Unlike Liu Bin, the Kongs do not sell their kites. Instead, the kites they create are donated to museums in China and around the world. But their work does not stop there: Kong's efforts in promoting kite culture carry on the entire legacy of Cao Xueqin, including the philosophy behind his work. "Cao Xueqin's goal in writing this text on kite making was to help the disabled by teaching them practical skills, thereby allowing them to make a living making kites," Kong's son, Kong Lingmin says. Guided by Cao's example, the Kongs themselves opened a training center for the disabled, where Kong Lingmin taught the mute, blind, and deaf how to make kites by hand. Though the endeavor eventually failed, the Kongs continue to promote the culture of traditional Chinese kites through classes at museums and exhibitions aimed mainly at unemployed workers and retirees.
edu.beelink.com.cn/20050809/1902977.shtml
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The sky's the limit for this 2,000-year-old pastime
Text and Photos by Duncan Willson
In China, flying a kite is more than just a diversion--it's a cultural experience. When an old man places his home made swallow kite in the sky high above the trees, he's participating in a cultural heritage that's more than 2,000 years old. And you thought he was just bored.
The first known kite flew into the skies sometime during the fourth century B.C. Made entirely of wood and fashioned like an eagle, the kite was constructed by the Confucian philosopher and hermit Mo Zi, who lived on Mount Lu in modern-day Shandong Province. An impressive piece of pre-modern engineering, it took him over three years to build. Sadly, the kite flew for just one day before crashing into the mountainside. Lucky for us, Mo passed his kite-making skills onto his students, who managed to improve on the design and build kites that could stay aloft for days.
Though philosophers had a hand in the creation of kites, subsequent variations were not intended to inspire or entertain. Kites developed during the particularly chaotic and brutal period of Chinese history known as the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) were designed as tools of war and used for such military and reconnaissance purposes as relaying information and measuring distances. Some kites actually carried bundles of gunpowder and were known as "sacred fire crows."
But by the Tang Dynasty (618-907), kites had found their way out of the hands of generals and into the hands of well-to-do children. This transformation occurred in part because of the availability of cheaper materials (paper instead of silk), but also because of a revival of traditional Chinese folk festivals. Kites soon became associated with the Pure Brightness Festival. While the festival was traditionally focused on the sweeping of ancestral tombs and the offering of money and food to the dead, the festival also celebrated the coming of spring. The festival, still celebrated today, occurs in the first week of April - perfect for kite enthusiasts.
Today, kite flying remains popular throughout China and around the world. And while factories may pump out kites for the masses, the ancient art of kite making is kept alive by such aficionados as Liu Bin, a 26-year-old art school graduate from Beijing. Liu was raised in a family of kite makers: His grandfather began making kites to pass the time after retiring and later taught his son the trade. Liu's father, a carpenter, continued to fashion kites in his spare time. The kites they made were sold at various markets around the city. As Liu grew up, he inherited their love for handmade kites and immediately after graduating from art school, began making and selling kites for the family business. Each kite is hand made by Liu in his shop, using the simplest of materials: bamboo, fabric or paper, glue, twine, a candle and a knife. Using a quick sketch as a blueprint, Liu carefully uses a knife to cut the flexible but strong bamboo skin off the stalk. After stripping it clean, he places a lit candle beneath the strip to heat the bamboo and bend it into shape. When all the pieces of the frame are formed, he uses twine to bind together the bamboo strips into the desired shape. He then takes the completed frame and attaches, with glue, the fabric or paper. The final step is the painting of the kite: Here, Liu will put a great deal of thought into the images he paints, teasing out cultural references from simple objects. The entire process, on average, takes about one week.
A few minutes' walk from Liu Bin's shop in northwest Beijing is the home of another family of kite makers. The patriarch, Kong Lao, has been making kites for over 60 years. During the 1940s, Kong, then an art student, stumbled across a mysterious manuscript by the renowned Qing Dynasty author Cao Xueqin. Cao, author of the classic Chinese novel "Dream of the Red Chamber," was also an authority on traditional Chinese kites. His designs, which combined kite features found in southern China with those found in the North, influenced the development of kites in the Qing Dynasty. The manuscript, which described 40 methods for constructing kites, was the find of a lifetime and put Kong on a path which determined not only his life's work, but that of his sons and his grandsons. Today, his family continues to make kites by hand, based on the techniques and designs laid out by Cao Xueqin over 300 years ago.
Unlike Liu Bin, the Kongs do not sell their kites. Instead, the kites they create are donated to museums in China and around the world. But their work does not stop there: Kong's efforts in promoting kite culture carry on the entire legacy of Cao Xueqin, including the philosophy behind his work. "Cao Xueqin's goal in writing this text on kite making was to help the disabled by teaching them practical skills, thereby allowing them to make a living making kites," Kong's son, Kong Lingmin says. Guided by Cao's example, the Kongs themselves opened a training center for the disabled, where Kong Lingmin taught the mute, blind, and deaf how to make kites by hand. Though the endeavor eventually failed, the Kongs continue to promote the culture of traditional Chinese kites through classes at museums and exhibitions aimed mainly at unemployed workers and retirees.