Journals
Tuesday,May 31 2005, 06:13:17 PMMe
It's been some time I don't talk about myself here... Well, I'm just a student, trying to become a stylist here... I love fashion, movies and pop music! Besides, I like to research, it helps me in clothing design ideas and I love to write here about my country and share it with the world. Well, keep visiting me, I promise I'll keep writing... 
Tuesday,May 31 2005, 06:01:43 PMChinese Recipe
Chicken Chow Mein
Serving Size: 4
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic -- minced
2 small chicken breasts, boneless -- cut
s
8 mushrooms -- sliced
2 stalks celery -- cut into strips
1/4 cup bamboo shoots -- sliced
seasoning sauce:
1 chicken bouillon cube -- dissolve 1
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 tablespoon cornstarch
5 ounces chow mein noodles
Cooking Directions:
Note: Warm chow mein noodles in 325 degree oven for 5 minutes.
Combine sauce ingredients and set aside. Add oil to hot wok. Swirl, add
garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add chicken. Stir fry for 3 minutes
or until chicken turns opaque. Remove and set side. Add vegetables and
stir fry over medium heat for 2 minutes. Push vegetables to sides of wok.
Restir sauce mixture and add to center of wok, stirring until thick and
bubbly. Add chicken and heat. Serve with chow mein noodles.
Tuesday,May 31 2005, 05:47:53 PMChinese Cheongsam (QIPAO)
The cheongsam is a female dress with distinctive Chinese features and enjoys a growing popularity in the international world of high fashion.
The name "cheongsam," meaning simply "long dress," entered the English vocabulary from the dialect of China's Guangdong Province (Cantonese). In other parts of the country including Beijing, however, it is known as "qipao", which has a history behind it.
When the early Manchu rulers came to China proper, they organized certain people, mainly Manchus, into "banners" (qi) and called them "banner people" (qiren), which then became loosely the name of all Manchus. The Manchu women wore normally a one-piece dress which, likewise, came to be called "qipao" or "banner dress." Although the 1911 Revolution toppled the rule of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty, the female dress survived the political change and, with later improvements, has become the traditional dress for Chinese women.
Easy to slip on and comfortable to wear, the cheongsam fits well the female Chinese figure. Its neck is high, collar closed, and its sleeves may be either short, medium or full length, depending on season and taste. The dress is buttoned on the right side, with a loose chest, a fitting waist, and slits up from the sides, all of which combine to set off the beauty of the female shape.
The cheongsam is not too complicated to make. Nor does it call for too much material, for there are no accessories like belts, scarves, sashes or frills to go with it.
Another beauty of the cheongsam is that, made of different materials and to varying lengths, they can be worn either on casual or formal occasions. In either case, it creates an impression of simple and quiet charm, elegance and neatness. No wonder it is so much liked by women not only of China but of foreign countries as well.
Friday,May 27 2005, 12:09:59 PMEarlier Folk Art Guardian Recollects
Of all those, Yangliuqing New Year pictures boast the best-preserved and largest stock of high quality vintage woodblocks and sketches by artisans from centuries ago, according to Wang Shucun, the most influential scholar in the field.In the history of the past 400 years, the folk art of Yangliuqing nianhua enjoyed its heyday in the Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, according to Zhang Yingxue, now in his late 80s and a local cultural official who has contributed a lot to the preservation of the art."But it declined sharply at the turn of the last century and was pushed to the brink of extinction in the early 1940s," said Zhang during his visit to the Beijing exhibition. Between 1949 and 1953, Zhang, then head of the local cultural bureau, led an investigation into the situation of the folk art, visiting ageing artisans, taking photos and notes and purchasing some of their nianhua works. In late 1953, Zhang and his team organized training courses for some 30 young farmers who were interested in learning the folk art and invited veteran artists such as Pan Zhongyi and Zhang Jingchun to give lectures and performances. In 1954, Zhang helped establish the Tianjin Fine Arts Press Co-operative with both private investment from folk artists and cash from New Year pictures studios and public funds. Later, the Tianjin Yangliuqing Fine Arts Studio was opened. Between the late 1950s and early 1960s, the studio produced 2 million woodblock New Year pictures annually, Zhang said.It was a time when the pictures were an important cultural product most locals bought to decorate doors, windows, lamps, walls and even furniture during the Spring Festival. Zhang also headed up the planning of a Yangliuqing New Year Pictures Museum. Although the museum was never built, Zhang and his team collected invaluable relics including sketches, old pictures and numerous sets of ready-made woodblocks.They gathered stories from older generations of folk artists and their tools, files about distribution networks and the sales accounts of Yangliuqing nianhua pictures of private studios.Zhang recalled that some folk artists, such as Yin Qingshan, refused to accept money from his team and instead donated their beloved works to the never-built museum. Yin donated 358 sets of his delicately carved woodblocks. Another Yangliuqing master Dai Shaochen donated 385 sets of woodblocks, among which are the creations of older generations of artists. Sadly, Zhang said, the preservation work was interrupted during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), when many ancient woodblocks and nianhua pictures were destroyed for they were deemed to project archaic images. In 1979, the Tianjin Yangliuqing Fine Arts Studio was renamed the Tianjin Yangliuqing Fine Arts Press. It is an institution capable of producing and selling Yangliuqing nianhua, training artisans, and publishing related books, albums and souvenirs. It encompasses almost all the living masters of the art in China, said Zhang. 
Friday,May 27 2005, 11:46:57 AMNew Researches
Dozens of prehistoric states might have been developing in eastern China as early as 5,000 years ago,thousands of years before the birth of the first textually attested state that existed in Xia Dynasty (2100 B.C.-1600 B.C.), said a Sino-US archaeological research team. The presumption was based on a decade-long regional survey and excavation in Rizhao, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province. Archaeologists with the team are almost sure they have identified the ruins of a prehistoric state dating back between 3,000 B.C. and 2,200 B.C. The population of the state was roughly 63,000, and the size of its capital might have an area as large as one million square meters, said Fang Hui, a member of the team and professor in the archaeology department at the Shandong University based in Jinan, the provincial capital.
This is a picture of Rizhao.