Time after time, I have been wondering what I should be doing in this blog. First off, I have shortened the description of this blog to include only “oil paintings” and “Chinese culture“.

Ideas so broad and free from any restriction. More often than not, this blog has been about oil paintings and Chinese culture. The former idea is a challenge for me, since I’m not a painting artist.

How ordinary people appreciate painting art from their unlearned minds?

Oil paintings is my interest I hope to learn more from other great painting artists. I love fine arts, visual art and oil paintings. I will not be able to showcase my art work by blogging. Practically, not so able to gain a good chance of hands-on with oil on canvas.

Despite that limitation, I cannot rule out the possibility of learning digital paintings. It could be a new trend. I might want to try that to explore my creativity too. 

Presently, I’m learning to appreciate all sort of art form for its aesthetics and conceptual purpose. I’m doing my own study and research. Studying about art history from Renaissance art to Impressionism movement. As well as, modern art, like Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism.

Vincent van Gogh was the great Dutch post-impressionist painter. There are more to learn from his paintings. Claude Monet has great painting technique of alla prima, also refer as wet-on-wet painting.

Good example of Claude Monet famous artwork will be the series of water lilies paintings. Believe it or not, approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist in his life span.

Naming a few famous artist of all time, Leonardo da Vinci, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustav Klimt, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe and Paul Jackson Pollock. There are more to catch up!

Confucius, the great Chinese thinker and social philosopher who lived during 551 BC – 479 BC in China.

Most must have heard of the Confucius while traveling to East Asian countries such as China and Taiwan. Some may have read on topics covering in Chinese culture or visiting Confucius temples featured in travel books.

Interesting as this set of educational doctrinaire philosophies may be taught, it is not considered as a religion for one to worship relating spiritual matters.

Confucius is a system of ethics, it focus directly on human and social responsibility.

There are much to learn about Confucianism  and Confucius quotes to share.

Before writing more posts on Confucius topics, there are a few names commonly seen to identify the same person or teaching.

Use it as a reference to clearly explain the meaning, so that one will not be dazed and confused by the ethics, thoughts, philosophies in Confucianism.

1. Confucius ~ Latinised name of Chinese philosopher, who was later introduced to Europe by the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci.
2. Confucianism ~ Not a name of person. Define as Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius.
3. Master Kong ~ Literally translate from Chinese character 孔夫子 (pronounce as Kong Fuzi, three syllabus). Sometime seen as K’ung-fu-tzu in written books.
4. Kong Fu Zi (孔夫子) ~ Same meaning as Master Kong. The middle name Fu (夫) is additional and may be omitted.
5. Kong Zi (孔子)~ Also as K’ung-tzu. Translate from “Master Kong”, or shortened name from 孔夫子. An identification upholding more respect from the real name described next.
6. Kong Qiu (孔丘)~ combination of surname Kong (孔) and given name Qiu (丘). The name used before honored as Master Kong or teacher, such as during academia period name used in classes.
7. Zhong Ni (仲尼) ~  is a courtesy name. A traditional Chinese practice for owning a ‘style name’ to signify adulthood and respect.

There are some other great names to identify Confucius, mostly in Chinese language. The above-mentioned names are widely used in books, academia or in spoken discussion.

As China modernize, the newer generation prefer contemporary than the ancient names. So if you have Chinese friends in school or at work, naming “Confucius“, “Kong Fu Zi” or “Kong Zi” is clearly understandable.

Have you dine in a Chinese restaurant selling Dim Sum dishes? It is commonly seen in Hong Kong and China, or perhaps the restaurants located in ‘Chinatown’ of New York city.

There are small dishes of steamed food placed in small wooden basket. Food serves in table usually has a pot of Chinese tea and few small cups made of fine porcelain.

The Chinese starts their Dim Sum meal from late morning till mid afternoon, before a game of mahjong or chess which comes next as a past time for the elderly members. Elderly folks who has retired, housewives, or wealthy ‘TaiTai” love Dim Sum. It’s their Chinese lifestyle.

It’s part of the Chinese culture where people gather in a round dinning table to social; sharing and chatting bit and pieces of daily topics that comes to their mind. This social activity remains unchanged for many years.

In Chinese culture, enjoying good food is as equally important as talking and listening attentively to people within the table. All other smaller gestures can be considered trivial, such as using chopsticks to pick their food.

One little gesture that may have seemingly unnoticed is their fingers tapping on table top when guest being served with Chinese tea. If one tap as if it is hammering, then this manner is obviously rude. Not necessarily it has to exaggerate and create tapping sound, however more specifically showing little brisk movement in discreet manner.

Finger Tapping in Chinese Restaurant, Chinese Culture

As part of the table etiquette in modern China, this body language is an expression of saying “Thank you for pouring tea into my cup” to a restaurant waiter.

On the lighter side, the indirect meaning could be telling waiters to walk away soon after pouring the tea and do not eavesdrop our latest gossip of the day.

Olden days in Southern China, this subtle movement may symbolized great honor and respect to an elderly master who serve tea to younger people.

To any one brought up by Western culture might say “Thank you” is the simplest verbal expression in table manners. But not in the Chinese way of saying, especially when people is in the midst of an intense discussion on possibly the ‘juiciest‘ scuttlebutt in the estate.

Well, busy chatting and listening attentively could be a way to keep one’s mind on alertness.

So how does it make sense by using fingers to tap on table top, and how it relate to the Chinese culture?

There has been no substantial proof to explain this. Nevertheless, Wikipedia does provide some sensible reasoning which date back to the Qing Dynasty. Below sharing an excepts:

“This custom is said to have originated in the Qing Dynasty when Emperor Qian Long would travel in disguise through the empire. Servants were told not to reveal their master’s identity. One day in a restaurant, the emperor, after pouring himself a cup of tea, filled a servant’s cup as well. To that servant it was a huge honour to have the emperor pour him a cup of tea. Out of reflex he wanted to kneel and express his thanks. He could not kneel and kowtow to the emperor since that would reveal the emperor’s identity so he bent his fingers on the table to express his gratitude and respect to the emperor.

The bent fingers for knocking are technically supposed to be three to signify a bowing servant. One is the head and the other two are the arms.” ~ Source: Wikipedia, Chinese Tea Culture

With this explanation,  you would never follow blindly with other Hong Kong’s elderly and friends to enjoy a sumptuous Dim Sum.

Chopsticks has been widely used in Asia, and inherent in Chinese culture for more than 5000 years of long history. It an utensil so unique from western cutlery. An extensive amount of chopsticks skill is required in picking fish-balls, black olives, chicken drumlets, noodles, finger food and even porridge in a bowl.

I began to googled and thought of writing chopsticks related to Chinese food culture. To my surprise, most websites have already covered on this topic.

Interesting topics ranging from chopsticks history to different types of chopsticks from China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. And from table etiquette in Chinese restaurant to videos showing how-to-use-chopsticks.

So, why not blog about what the types of food not possible to use by chopsticks?

Below are the 10 different types of foods commonly found in modern Eastern Asia, including Western food.

1. Soup of the day. From the Western’s recipient of tastiest pumpkin-mushroom soup, to the expensive Chinese delicacy of bird nest and shark fin’s soup. Always better to use a tablespoon, instead
2. Watermelon. Alright! You are so thirsty and craving for some fresh fruit in a hot-summer to quench your thirst. Using chopsticks will definitely get you more impatience to finish up a juicy slice. After all, its tastier with every refreshing bites.
3. Pizza. Beside slicing the pie with a roller-slice into quarters, what other table utensil can be used without using hand? It strange if pizza were to pick up by chopsticks.
4. A Big Mac or a Double Cheese Burger. Since when fast-food restaurant offer chopsticks for burgers? It would be tedious and painstaking to enjoy a meal like this.
5. Jelly, a soft sweet food made from fruit juice and gelatin. Unlike Chinese Tofu, jelly is more slippery and soft-bodied, which most youngster love to indulge in.
6. Grilled loin steak on a hot pan. Doesn’t matter if its half done, well done or boneless. It is still a big chuck of tender delicious piece of beef steak.
7. Half-boil eggs. No, I’m not referring to hard-boiled eggs. This kind of food is a traditional breakfast in Asia. Usually, served with toasted bread. Commonly seen in old coffee shops in central Laos and Malaysia. It looks soft and slimy. A few drops of soya sauce and a pinch of pepper will enhance the taste.
8. Ice-cream. It may take slightly more skill to pick up by chopsticks. However, it would not last long, if you are enjoying it under a hot weather. It melts!
9. Congee. As comparison with porridge, congee is much more watery and fairly viscous. Rice is boiled in many times its weight of water for a long time until the rice breaks down. In Chinese food culture, congee is eaten primarily as a breakfast food or late supper.
10. Mashed potato. Its a pasty food to Western food culture. I would recommend using a spoon is much appropriate than chopsticks.

Has any one use chopsticks for spaghetti? It does looks like the Chinese noodles though.

Colorful Sets Of Chinese Chopsticks From Hong Kong

Picture Source: jinn

Learn to write Chinese characters for numeric 1-10 is not as difficult as many has thought. Doesn’t require you to have any prerequisite knowledge, not even calligraphy paintings. No brush and black water ink color. All you need to use is just a marker pen or any basic writing stationary you use daily in office, home, or school. There are easy to learn and any Chinese will recognize what you want to message them by writing with a pen on a white piece of paper.

There are some basic rules; always get the basic stroke and directions correct. Generally, directions of basic strokes to make Chinese words are:-

• Left to right, top to bottom, sometime end with a vertical hook.
• Dash-dot in the directions from top to rightward or leftward.
• Descending strokes from top to diagonally left with a straight ending. And
• Trailing strokes from top to diagonally right with a slight curve ending.

Okay, straight to the point to learn how to write Chinese characters 1 to 10.

Learn to write Chinese Character 1 (One). The simplest of all. Consist of a horizontal strokes from left to right.

Chinese Character 1, One

Learn to write Chinese Character 2 (Two). A short and a longer strokes at the bottom. Both left to right direction.

Chinese Character, Two, 2

Learn to write Chinese Character 3 (Three). Quiet similar to Chinese character 2, but with a short middle strokes horizontally.

Chinese Character, Three, 3

Learn to write Chinese Character 4 (Four). Looks like a small square, and within consist of 2 dash-dots in opposite direction. Total five strokes to make a word.

Chinese Character, Four, 4

Learn to write Chinese Character 5 (Five). Try to maintain the horizontal strokes to be straight, and stroke with vertical direction to slightly lean towards right.

Chinese Character, Five, 5

Learn to write Chinese Character 6 (Six). Keep the dash strokes to be short.

Chinese Character, Six, 6

Learn to write Chinese Character 7 (Seven). There are only 2 strokes to make this word. Below is recognized as the simplified way of writing “seven”. To be precise, the horizontal stroke is written slanted slightly up, and the “L” strokes consist of a small hook at the lower ending.

Chinese Character, Seven, 7

Learn to write Chinese Character 8 (Eight). This is easy and the most auspicious character in Chinese culture. Quite similar to the 2 inner strokes in Chinese character four. This character word is more bold, bigger and widely spread out. Consist of 2 strokes writing in opposite directions; left stroke is shorter that the right.

Chinese Character, Eight, 8

Learn to write Chinese Character 9 (Nine). Only consist of 2 strokes. Second strokes has a right-angle bent and end with a hook in right direction.

Chinese Character, Nine, 9

Learn to write Chinese Character 10 (Ten). This is as good as the mathematical symbol “+” (plus). Definitely not the cross use in religious symbol.

Chinese Character, Ten, 10

Additional learning to describe hundredth, thousandth, and tenth thousand.

Learn to write Chinese Character 100th (Hundredth). This is a bad writings, especially stroke #2 and #3. It is still recognize as a Chinese character “100th”, but in an unrefined manner. It consist of 6 strokes, with 2 faults you should not follow. Strokes #2 should not budge out to the third strokes. And strokes #3 should have a nicer right turn, instead of the crooked corner.

Chinese Character, Hundredth, 100th

Learn to write Chinese Character 1000th (Thousandth). This is easy. Seems like just an additional strokes on top of the Chinese character “ten”. If you look closely, the order of writings this 3 strokes is not the same.

Chinese Character, Thousandth, 1000th

Learn to write Chinese Character 10,000th (Tenth Thousand). This is very unique for the Chinese to name tenth thousand in just a single character. Compare 13 English alphabets with only 3 simple Chinese writing strokes. Do you see the beauty in this word?

Chinese Character, Tenth Thousand, 10000th

Chinese ancient art, inclusive of paintings, are mostly consist of objects which were put to practical usage in those days. Others were stored away and only brought out on special occasions. In fact, those artwork produced by the olden Chinese, were classified into different hierarchy. The quality differ greatly, if Chinese artworks for emperor and those made for scholarly elites, for ordinary people or for furnishing tombs or temples.

Below I have listed out the traditional hierarchy of Chinese art, starting from the most popular and prestigious in early times.

1. Landscape paintings and calligraphy writings. Using ink on paper
2. Figure paintings, including birds, flowers and insect paintings
3. Religious paintings of Tang Dynasty. Ink and colors on silk. Art for Buddhist temples
4. Hand-scroll paintings of Yuan Dynasty.
5. Jade craving and bronze vessels inlaid with gold and silver.
6. Decorative painting art, lacquer, porcelain earthenware and silk.
7. Silk embroidery
8. Ceramic ware

Ancient Chinese Landscape Painting, Handscroll; ink and pale color on silk

Chinese landscapes painting is commonly seen consisting of mountains and water. Yet, with its simplicity and minimal use of subject, color and medium, it is able to create a harmonious and peaceful viewing. One of the aspects to achieve this balanced result, is by applying the black-and-white yin-yang symbol. Also know as representation of ‘symbolism of opposite’.

The symbolism of opposite clearly seen in the contrast of black ink on white paper in calligraphy and brush painting. The Chinese named this theorem as BaGua or “eight symbols” system reflecting the dualistic philosophy of ‘yin’ and ‘yang’, dated back in 10^th century BCE. This system has been adopted by the Chinese culture and believes, even till the modern days in China.

Some of the landscape painting gives a clear-cut, articulated, rugged strokes that conveyed a strong, server form and definite designs; leaving little rooms for your imagination. Colors are bold, such as, blue, green and gold for the landscape paintings. This precise techniques produced beautiful and detailed decorative artwork.

On the contrary, Chinese paintings can be painted in faded color, mainly using ink and water, with light coloring. Their strokes were softer, more graceful, and suggestive. Theses landscape paintings were more poetic and imaginative. Water washes on the existing brush strokes of ink will produced softer and subtle effect.

Yang is the positive, masculine principle, associated with heaven, light, boldness, hardness. Yin is the negative, feminine principle, associated with earth, darkness, weakness, and softness.

In painting, the artist’s tools are either yin or yang. The strokes on the paper go right and left; a strong and dark stroke is yang, while a soft and pale stroke is yin. Thus, creating a balance systems of

Lake is separated from water,as mountain is separated from earth, showing the special significant of mountains and lakes or rivers. These are the primary elements of Chinese landscape paintings, hence the Chinese character for landscapes, Shan Shui (山水). Literary means, mountain(山) and water(水).