Mulan’s phoenix is actually the Vermillion Bird

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While the biggest event in Fashion x History has just concluded, judging from the turnout at the Met Gala, one can conclude that dressing to the theme isn’t quite a forte of A-listers. In the name of greater good, this series will demonstrate how one can be fashionably historically-inspired, while still adhering to certain themes.

AUSPICIOUS BIRDS AND US

Birds have had a long history of being seen as auspicious creatures and totems in Chinese culture. The Sun, for example, was represented by a three-legged bird. And of course, we are all very familiar with the phoenix, which at some point became synonymous with the bird in question I’m discussing today.

It has been known by many names in the Eastern part of the world, Zhu Que by the Chinese, Suzaku by the Japanese, Jujak by the Korean and Chu Tước by the Vietnamese. It symbolised the southern constellations of the night sky, and the element Fire.

Because of its association with fire, the vermillion bird is often thought to be the phoenixes by the West. And yes, plural because the Chinese Phoenixes fenghuang had gender (Feng was the male, and Huang was the female, and they combined into a singular identity somewhere down the road later on), while the Vermillion Bird did not.

The phoenix was believed to have the colours of the rainbow while the Vermillion Bird took its colour from the fire. Was that a phoenix or a vermillion bird that we spotted in Mulan? hmmm…..

Mulan (2020) live action movie featured a ‘phoenix’ which actually looks more like the Vermillion Bird of the South. Disney probably got confused between the Chinese and the Western phoenix.

Although some sources said that the ancient Chinese thought the stars in the southern night sky resembled the vermillion bird, thus the assignment of this symbol, it is unlikely so as the Vermillion Bird of the South as well as the Black Warrior of the North did not come into existence in the constellation assignment until much later (about 2,000 years ago) while the ancient Chinese were already very familiar with the constellations for far longer and had assigned the Dragon and Tiger to them first.

THE STYLING

Since Tang and Qing dynasty has the most fun and daring make-up trends ands styles, our styles were mainly based on these two periods, jazzed it up for modern taste.

The vermillion bird wears vintage Thierry Mugler jacket, with big exaggerated shoulders but sleek silhouette to emphasize it being an animal of the skies. A single red feather nose piece is the only thing to hint at it being a bird.

This styling was designed in collaboration with Aaron Han (@aharw) assisted by gabby @ga.bae.be
Makeup assisted by Danny @chenlingx0 and Silas @operatang
Photo by Aaron and I

The styling was done in a manner to represent the animals but also not in a literal sense. The traits that are used are symbolic, just like the animal themselves are symbolic.

The Vermillion Bird obscures half of its face with a Bian Mian fan which is a half-oval type of fan with a history of over 2,000 years. Originally made of bamboo, it evolved to other materials overtime and the one in the shoot was made with an emerald green silk gauze with weaved patterns. Very understated, and quintessentially Chinese. Its subtletly is juxtaposed with the red feather nose piece of The House of Malakai styled by Aaron (@aharw) to suggest its avian nature. Of course, the collar design and the Tang style (circa 8th century) wing-like eyebrows are also suggestive of that.

Section of the reference brow from Tang. This is a painting on silk screen uncovered from the Astana tombs.

Underneath the nose piece, were rouge blushers across the cheeks which some might recall seeing on famous 90s Chinese singer Faye Wong, or more recently, singer Rainie Yang. Except that it’s a lot more intense, as it would’ve been how the Tang people of the 10th century were copying the Tibetans during that time in this style of make-up.

Who wore it better? Left Faye Wong, Middle a Tibetan lady, Right Rainie Yang.

Obviously celebrities typically don’t do much research when they try on different make-up styles, pretty sure the socialites of Tang didn’t either, it was probably just cool or fun for them to experiment with a different styles because this style of blusher was deemed barbaric by the early Tang rulers, and had requested for the Tibetans to stop this practice. Who’d knew that a few hundred years later, it would become vogue at the end of Tang!

And just in case you thought the hair looks non-Chinese (like the typical long hair at the back in Chinese period dramas), I’d like to point you towards the Dunhuang murals from the Tang dynasty (same period), and look at the blushers and the hairstyle and accessories, it’s really quite Over The Top:

Section of Dunhuang Mural in Mogao Cave no. 61 with a noble lady of late Tang accessoried with many large and elaborate hair pins, haircombs, and the Tibetan style brick-red rouge on her cheeks.

The lip was also historically based on the last dynasty of China—Qing dynasty. Similar to the Tang rulers, the Qing were not of the Han ethnic group although they have adopted a great deal of the Han practices after ruling over this Han-majority land for centuries. The Qing lip would typically be just a red dot on the bottom lip, but there were instances where the top lip was also painted fully.

Picture of Imperial Consort Pearl (Zhen Fei), who was rumoured to have been drowned in a well in the Forbidden City by the Empress Dowager Cixi. She has the Qing style lip with a dot an her bottom lipi in this picture.

The Modern Vermillion Bird wears vintage Thierry Mugler jacket, with big exaggerated shoulders but sleek silhouette to emphasize it being an animal of the skies.

The fringe skirt by Raf Simon for Calvin Klein is a reference to its long tail feathers.

Unlike the Phoenix, the Red Bird is just red, while phoenixes were said to be of rainbow colours.

The vermillion bird wears vintage Thierry Mugler jacket, with big exaggerated shoulders but sleek silhouette to emphasize it being an animal of the skies. A single red feather nose piece is the only thing to hint at it being a bird with its front skirt is a reference to its long tail feathers.

The broad shoulder look was never really a Chinese thing, as sloping shoulder would look better in the traditional Chinese garment that has no shoulder seams. But that changed in the 40s with women adding shoulder-pads to their Cheongsams to accentuate the shoulder. This look is exemplified by the Japanese Singer in China Yoshiko Yamaguchi, most famously known by her Chinese stage name Li Xiang Lan 李香兰:

Left: Famous American-Chinese writer Eileen Chang
Right: Yshiko Yamaguchi/Li Xiang Lan in broad shoulder Cheongsam

QUINTESSENTIALLY CHINESE CRAFT, ACCESSORIES AND AESTHETICS

The Western fashion is very big on silhouettes of the dress, while the Chinese has always been about the hair, the craftsmanship, and the understated luxury where one needs to be close enough and in the ‘right circle of knowledge’ to appreciate the weave, the texture, the material, the motif etc. There’s a lot of secrecy behind many of the crafts, and that made them exclusive, therefore a sign of prestige for those who recognise them. Yet, in Chinese culture (quite unlike the Japanese), the craftsmen are anonymous, and undervalued in the grander scheme of things because the Chinese aesthetics has always been literati-led and the craftsmen were more of the ‘technicians’ to the literati’s ‘artistic vision’. Not unlike the many craftsmen working anonymously behind designer brands that bore the mark of the big name designers who most likely did not make those items themselves.

Another style with hair full of Chineseness. Velvet silk flower of bird motif, Chinese-Hakka style wound silk flowers, and purple jade flower.
Bodysuit by Richard Quinn, Nose piece by Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy, styled by Aaron han (@aharw)
Hair and accessories by me, make-up by Silas and I.

And just to transition into the more purely Chinese look, we did another look with more Chinese accessories, and also a Tang style hair and make-up with Qing lips. You probably think that it is a copycat of Frida Kahlo, honestly we didn’t realise it until it’s been done, and I immediately recalled a stranger getting in touch to borrow from me my silk flowers for her dressed-up costume party (she stopped responding the moment I told her the price of the flowers. I know, the value of these things aren’t very apparent to those who are not familiar with them).

I use a lot of lacquer and silk flowers because they are so, so, archetypically Chinese but most people just think of Chinese = gold. When in actuality, Chinese didn’t really use much gold in the ancient past. Or Green Jade (Jadeite) for that matter.

I love the emerald green silk scarve that has the auspicious clouds motif done in silver and gold couching technique.

Notice the green bangle? That is a vintage carved lacquer bangle (very rare to come by as typically it would be in red/cinnabar). Carved lacquer came about sometime during the Tang dynasty as well (circa 8th century or so) and became quite a thing later on so even though lacquer was used in many Asian cultures, carve lacquer can be said to be quintessentially Chinese. It is an extremely tedious process, as you would require hundreds of layers of paint, painted and dried, and painted and dried, before you can reach just a few centimetres of thickness for carving.

The Met (HAH!) had an exhibition on lacquer/cinnabar in 2009, you can read the synopsis HERE.

For the Traditional Chinese Vermillion Bird, I’ve decided to go with a wedding look because we often think of phoenixes for Chinese weddings, yet the colour that brides often wear for that occasion would be Red which is actually the colour of the Vermilion Bird. And since the Vermillion bird is often confused with the Phoenix, and more often than not used interchangeably with it, might as well throw the two into the same mix. If you can’t beat them, join them!

Styled, shot, accessories by me.

And you don’t say, Silas certainly looks a bit like Gemma Chan here don’t you think?

For this time round, she’s wearing cinnabar carved lacquer bangles. One is red-on-red, one is red-on-black. Both are vintage pieces.

Now, I shall introduce you to the real Chinese filigree and cloisonné craft for hair accessories. Not the fashion jewelry type worn on the red carpet at the Met by Chef Melissa King for her nail protector. Apparently it was supposed to be inspired by Empress Dowager Cixi (who is, by the way, NOT the last empress of China, contrary to what the Chef wrote on her insta).

The thing about traditional craftsmanship that came from a lineage of thousands of years, is that they get finer and finer, and they are often consumed by the imperial family so the demand for finesse is extremely high. Also, they are all about understated luxury. If it’s that big a bling, it’s probably too crass for them.

Filigree nailguard with ruby, pearl and kingfisher feather inlay. Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Close-up details of the nailguard

The Palace Museum collection has quite a number of nail guards made from the Imperial Chinese filigree craft, completed with gems, pearls and kingfisher feathers on many occasions. You can zoom in to see the fine details of these nailguards, and they are extremely intricate —as fine as the kingfisher feathers.

In order to give you a bit more context on the scale of these intricacies, I shall zoom in a little bit on the filigree and cloisonné of the phoenix hairpiece in my photo which has similar craftsmanship as the palace museum nail guard above.

It is made with tiny grains of freshwater pearls and ruby (I think, I can’t remember the stones cos I have too many of these accessories.. lol). Her earrings are also filigree and cloisonné phoenix. SUPER AUSPICIOUS I KNOW!

I did an apprenticeship a couple of years back on filigree, cloisonné and kingfisher feather craft in Beijing, and it was through this process that I came to fully appreciate just how intricate this craft is. It’s not the type that you can see on photos or videos, that’s why celebrities wouldn’t really wear them because they don’t show up on screen that well cos they’re too tiny.

Extremely close up view of the phoenix filigree and cloisonné hairpin.

If you zoom in close enough, you can see that the edges of the wings is made up of tiny dots of gold. It’s actually very very fine silver threads gilded in gold, twisted into like a braid-like structure and welded onto the base. When I did my apprenticeship, the first thing to do was to learn how to pull the thick silver threads into fine strands, finger than human hair. And how to twist them in shape without breaking them. Sorry about the resolution, it’s just too fine for my camera. I will do better next time.

Our vermillion bird bride with a hair full of intangible cultural heritage craft—silk flowers based on Palace Museum collection, and a fan of another type of intangible cultural heritage craft—Kesi, also based on Palace Museum collection.

Since this set is all about intangible cultural heritage and fine Chinese crafts, I threw in the Kesi (literally translated to carved silk) fan. This is a replica of the Qing dynasty fan in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The side profile you can see butterfly hair pieces made of dyed silk using the wound silk flowers craft, and also dyed goose feather accessories to replace the kingfisher craft. This hairpiece is based on the Qing dynasty item in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

The topic on Kingfisher feather is contentious, and there are many modern attempts to replicate the effect of kingfisher feather without the cruelty of it. Even the Qing dynasty rulers implemented a ban on using kingfisher feathers for accessories (with limited success obviously).

The cloisonné was one of the historical ways during the Qing period which middle class women could get a pseudo kingfisher feather colour accessory while the aristocrats continued with theirs.

These days, wound silk accessories, dyed goose feather, or peacock feathers are all reasonable substitutes. If you’re wondering (as I did), goose and peacock shed feathers quite readily and their feathers are abundant so it’s not like the case of the kingfisher where you need to kill many to get a tiny bit (disclaimer: goose and peacocks are not harmed since you just gather their shed feathers).

I’m actually making a series of accessories with these type of feathers and vintage lacquer pieces, and will be sharing them later half of the year! So stay tuned!

Meanwhile, if you’re planning to have a Chinese wedding shoot, please don’t go red + gold. It’s so cliché and nouveau riche. At least try to add some finesse like turquoise, blue, green, cyan, pearl, aquamarine, lapis lazuli, lacquer… They are going to add a lot more texture and colours to your otherwise crass look. We do, after all, have at least 5000 years of material culture and history to tap on, don’t behave like we only have 50.

Oh no, I was totally not referring to the billionaire daughter’s wedding (which one? so many huh.. :P).

POP CULTURE REFERENCE

The four guardians were first brought to my attention when I was a young latchkey child watching Japanese anime on my couch after school with my sister. Fushigi Yuugi was the name of the anime, and it started with the chapter of the Vermillion Bird of the South—Suzaku (in Japanese). It had all the characters with special abilities, each representing one of the 7 constellations of the southern nightsky under the charge of the Vermilion Bird.

So it is fitting that we start off this series with the Vermillion Bird.

DRAG IN CHINESE CONTEXT & AFTERTHOUGHTS

In the anime, the king of the southern kingdom Hotohori was a man who was as beautiful as a woman, probably very ahead of its time in the 90s.

And in this series, I have worked with Silas (@operatang) to portray this beautiful feminine side of a man. Drag is not new to Chinese traditional culture, except that it was not politicised like the West. The archetypical Chinese Opera look was a result of men trying to hide their masculine facial features in order to look more feminine. And beautiful men were a thing and even recorded in historical texts for thousands of years.

Hotohori in Fushigi Yuugi

When I approached Silas for this project, I also intended to try to re-interpret drag as we know it today in a traditional Chinese manner—from the perspective of someone who wants to look as much like a woman in representation according to a male perspective. This is historically related to the oppression of women in public for about 500 years where images and representation of women were manifested through male bodies in public performances, through their ideas of what a woman is like, how we walk, how we talk, or by male painters.

So as a result, as it is today, men could be more ‘feminine’ than we are (small sample size, but the 2 women involved this shoot can attest to that!). Maybe femininity has often been depicted through the male gaze, so what we see is often a man’s ideal woman image (not how we actually behave, but how they fantasize us to be). So a man could possibly represent very well this ‘ideal femininity’ if they are in touch with their feminine side. Silas showed me some Asian drag queens who are absolutely gorgeous and live up to the ideal female archetype upheld by society (we’re all fellow subjects of the male gaze in this instance!).

I also wondered about the concept of ‘womanface‘ in western drag practices, where features of what it meant to be a woman were used as content for jokes, as part of the overall ‘ridiculous’ look. I’m not sure if I prefer that, or the over-romanticisation of female body during our oppression (as in the Chinese context). Two extremes of the male take on femininity.

Food for thought I guess!

AND because you lasted till the end of this article, you are rewarded with a Vermillion Bird Instagram/facebook selfie make-up filter! Click on the hyperlinked text to claim them:

INSTAGRAM
Vermillion Bird (without frame)
Vermillion Bird (with 5 choices of Chinese motif frames)

FACEBOOK

Vermillion Bird (without frame)
Vermillion Bird (with 5 choices of Chinese motif frames)

Ancient F4–Pan An, the Faithful Nishikado Syoijirou (西門 總二郎)

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When the sneak peek of Song Yu came out, everyone guessed that his F4 equivalent was Nishikado 西门 (Xi Men henceforth). Now we’re going to meet the real equivalent, who lived about 1,700 years ago (some 500 years after Song Yu).

Pan An here, is probably known as an archetype of ‘ideal husband and son’. He was kind of traditional and had great ambitions, but he played the role of a faithful husband and filial son pretty well.

OK, not quite what I expected but… I guess he is not the most diplomatic person in the world! I mean this guy Pan An was known to be carrying a catapult with him everywhere he went! Definitely not someone you would want to mess with, let alone having a verbal spar with unlike the case of Song Yu who can quite easily sweep you off your feet with his smooth talks.

So while Song Yu was someone you wouldn’t want to mess with for he’ll talk you to death, it was very likely that Pan An would stab/bash you to death if you piss him off.

This ‘Homme Fatal’ side of him possibly made him more attractive to his fangirls because his dark side is clearly very much whitewashed and overshadows by how beautiful he looked.

So while most fans today would present their idols with less perishable items like these:

Ancient women some 1,500 years ago set the bar for fangirling by filling the carriage of their idol (Pan An uniquely though) with fruits! In more extreme terms, apparently, they would HURL fruits at him as his carriage went past them.

It definitely wouldn’t make sense if they were just filling his carriage with cheap/readily-available fruits because I can’t imagine how that would score any point with him, so I have taken the liberty to imagine that they probably got the more exotic, western fruits like persimmons, pomegranates, and grapes which were imported from the West through the ancient silk road.

Before Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), there were very few trading activities between the Chinese and the West (anything beyond its western borders). So they had native fruits mainly like apples, pears, oranges, dates, plum etc. But with the official establishment of silk road in Han dynasty, suddenly there were a lot more things going between China and the west. On top of it, the 400 years of stability (kind of) in China allowed the Han empire to expand its reach and thereby having greater access to different resources from various regions beyond its original land.

So like in the photo above, you would then have grapes, persimmons, pomegranate, lychees. However, if you have read my Snow White x Lady Yang Guifei article, you would learn also that despite that access, some of the fruits remain very precious even some 500 years later due to the poor transport system in those days. So with that in mind, perhaps giving their idol precious fruits doesn’t seem too perplexing after all!

Except that I also sneaked kiwi in the picture. Because kiwi would not have been considered precious since it was a native fruit to China (surprise!) and was mainly regarded as ‘wild fruits’. It was only brought to New Zealand by a Kiwi (haha) female teacher by the name of Isabel (last name tbc) 1904, where it took off and became an integral part of their national identity!

kiwi flowers and leaves

In ancient China during the Tang dynasty, there was a poet who wrote about how the centre of the house was decorated with racks of kiwis. I never thought of Kiwi as a beautiful plant till now! And yes, floral arrangement and decoration was a very ancient art form in the Chinese culture.

Which brings me to the F4 portion–Xi Men. Most of us just know them as F4, but the Japanese title of the anime was Hana yori Dango 花より男子, which originated from a traditional Japanese Idiom which sounds exactly as hana yori dango 花より団子 except that there’s one word that’s changed. It literally meant to prefer dumpling over flowers, which is then used to mean preferring substance over superficial form. In this case, the English translation Boys over flowers probably has a similar effect as saying the guys are more desirable than flowers.

And who else to be literally competing his attractiveness with flowers than Xi Men!

Xi Men was from a well-known family who ran a Japanese tea school for generations. Tea ceremony was often associated with floral arrangement (ikebana) as well as the Japanese dessert that includes the sweet dumpling Dango (Yeap, that’s the Dango that I mentioned earlier!).

Floral arrangement has its place in history for thousands of years in Asia as East Asians embraced nature and saw it as integral to one’s wellbeing. For 3000 years, Chinese have also been integrating nature and flowers in their art and material culture. The first surviving documentation of that was this Eastern Han dynasty tomb wall mural from 1,800 years ago in Hebei province of China:

Many believed that floral arrangement became an art form in China because of the rise of Buddhism and the Indian practice of offering flowers to the gods. The Chinese probably combined the Indian practice with their own vessels and preferences so instead of laying them on trays or in front of the gods, they started putting them and arranging them in particular fashions in chinaware etc. Perhaps it is with the spread of Buddhism to Japan, that this practice became known to the Japanese and evolved to what we know today as Ikebana.

Tang dynasty (7-10th century) even had a record that specified the 9 steps to a floral arrangement such as cutting, type of water, style of vessel, and how to best appreciate the arrangement (i.e. dedicate a poem, painting it, compose a song about it).

So Pan An, lived in a period where Buddhism was on the rise, and likely that floral arrangement and appreciate would be on the rise too. When he was the official of this particular county, he ordered for the county to plan peach flowers all over and this place was henceforth known as the flower county in many literary writings of later era. It wouldn’t be too surprising to find him holding a lotus flower–a symbol and motif that became popular in China only with the introduction of Buddhism from India. He was indeed one of the boys (crazy) over flowers.

The image that most popular tales painted of Pan An was a romantic one, later poets wrote extensively about his faithfulness, and on how his hair turned white overnight at a young age of 30 years old after his wife passed away.

He was portrayed as a loyal husband who mourned the death of his wife and wrote an iconic poem dedicated to her. This piece of literature was the first orbituary-poem in Chinese history, and since then, such orbituary-poetry genre was reserved for women/wives who have passed on. If Song Yu’s poem imagined a romantic female archetype for men, Pan An’s poem sculptured a real woman worth spending your life with.

Pan An never remarried. He was famously quoted in his orbituary-poem to his wife

如彼翰林鸟，双栖一朝只。
Once we were the two heavenly birds in the sky,
Now I soar alone.

如彼游川鱼，比目中路析。
Once we were the two single-eyed fishes making our way down the river,
Now I cannot move on (without you).

I couldn’t find a ready translation, so I did this myself. A pair of birds and a pair of fishes have always been used in Chinese literature to describe a couple in love. The single-eyed flatfish, in particular, was a fish that has its eyes on just one side of its body, and they were believed to be moving forward by sticking their body together so they could see on both sides.

In this way, he was very much like Xi Men who always kept a part of his heart closed for his first love. Pan An’s first love was his wife, whom he married when he was 12 years old.

He would have also been the most well-nourished and healthy person had his ambition not landed him in hot boiling soup. His mother often warned him against trying to get too close to the powerful and influential. Alas, Pan An’s ambition got the better of him. He got too involved in the game of thrones, offended the wrong people, and when those people got to power, they made sure that he along with his relatives were gone for good. Amongst those who got executed in his family, was his mother. So even though he was also known for being extremely filial to his mother (many stories of such), he was later on removed from the 24 stories of filial piety (he was originally part of it) in the later period due to the scholar believing that he had failed his mother.

In a way, maybe it is good that his wife didn’t live to see the tragic ending. But on the other hand, had she been around, I wonder if it would be a different story.

Beyond Red: The Chinese Palette–Crazy Rich Asian Purple钧窑

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This last post goes out to the rebellious streak in all of us–however zen we aspire to be.

The Jun ware, is probably the most unpredictable, uncontrollable and random glaze in the entire series. It represented the total submission of porcelain master, however technically competent, to the higher forces of nature in determining the final outcome of the glaze. It is humility disguised in a flamboyant and rebellious appearance.

When my hanfugirls first got to know about the Jun wares, they called it the “Galaxy palette”–yea that’s our Christmas dress-up theme–The 5 glazes of Song dynasty porcelain, photos of which will never get to see the light of day–blackmail quality stuff. The process of getting them dressed up is not unlike the creation of the Jun wares–I had no control and I could only provide them whatever I have and whatever direction I could give but how they turned out was completely random and unpredictable.

You might laugh it off as the girls using a modern lingo to describe the glaze, “surely that’s not what the ancients are thinking?”

But the truth is the ancient Chinese aren’t so different from us after all! To them, this really represented the universe/night sky as they knew it, and indeed, it was their “galaxy palette” too! It represented the unity between the universe and humanity, and the term the Chinese literati love to use–天人合一.

The rise and fall of the “Galaxy palette”

The galaxy effect that appears on these wares is what is known as the “Transmutation glaze” effect, which meant that different parts of the glaze went through different chemical reactions and eventually resulted in this uneven colour mutation of sorts.

It could actually be purple with a maroon spot, or green with a reddish spot, or a wide range of colour variations. To the Song dynasty literati, and later the Emperor himself, this transition and variation captivating. The same sentiment is expressed in the Western modern world through a poem of William Blake:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
-William Blake

So the Jun Ware became the official imperial ware quite naturally. Any ware that were not sent to the palace for imperial use, like the other wares from the imperial kilns, were smashed and buried–never to be used by any commoner.

However, in the Ming dynasty that followed, the appearance of red, and the unpredictability of the colour change came to be seen as signs of inauspiciousness. And when this appeared in the imperial kiln, they would smash it immediately. Furthermore, it was a taboo for anything to carry the name of the emperor and it so happened that one of the Ming emperors in the 16th Century–Emperor Wanli had Jun in his name. As a result, the entire kiln sealed up, abandoned, and the skills forever lost.

It was not until the Qing dynasty, that the transmutation glaze look made a comeback (see, told you, taste and fashion is always cyclical! We’re back to this trend again aren’t we!).
What’s even more interesting is that the Qing emperors (in particular the famous Emperor Yongzhen and Emperor Qianlong–you would know them if you watch Scarlet Heart and Yanxi Palace or Legend of Ruyi), both thought that the red appearing in the glaze was an auspicious sign! The exact opposite of the Ming emperors!

So people, just remember, if something isn’t going well for you in life, just hang in there and when the environment changes, your life would change too and often for the better!

Crazy Rich Asian Party vibe

Looking at the other glazes in this series, you have to admit that the Jun ware is really quite a havoc of its time. And the beauty of this is, the Song society and literati were really open-minded enough to accept and adore it!

Maybe to the Song literati, beauty is in everything that nature provides.

The Song literati would be considered cool parents in today’s context, and the Ming dynasty ones would be considered old school parents.

The taste of the Song elites is actually very “Old Money” taste, where there’s a lot of emphasis on understated luxury and glamour. This is a timeless preference, as supported in this recent article which reveals the preference for “discreet wealth”. Yeap, the Nouveau Riche is always represented by opulence while the “Old Money” would be so secured in their status that they turn to things that are more timeless or express a quiet confidence.

The appearance of Jun ware amidst all the more muted, conservative Old Money reminds me greatly of the Crazy Rich Asian aesthetic where they were obviously wealthy, but because they’re young and peer validation is still a thing, so they were kind of showy as well.

Yeap, Jun ware is like the Song glazes having a party and getting high. So unpredictable things happen and crazy-looking colours appear. The cool parents would laugh it off and adore it all the more, showing their CRA kids with more money and attention. Then there’re parents who would freak out (like the Ming emperors) and curtail this short burst of vitality and youth.

Tea Pairing

Gushu pu’er (raw)

If the wares of the Jun symbolise raw power, energy, vibrancy, and defiance, then pu’er harvested and made from gushu (old trees) is its match in the tea world. The finest and greatest expression of pu’er is found in gushu sheng/raw (as opposed to shu/ripe) tea, defined by its intensity, depth, length, structure, and penetrating power. It is a tea that packs a punch, echoing the same spirit of vigour and strength that has allowed the tea tree itself to grow and thrive amidst the vagaries of nature.

Credits/Acknowledgement:
Flowers and styling by @blancstudios.co
Model styling and photography by @hanfugirl
Tea recommendation by Kenny from Teatle-Tattle

Beyond Red: The Chinese Palette–Sensual White定窑

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White colour is most likely to be voted the most unlikely colour for Chinese wedding with Black being the only other contender for top spot. However, it might surprise you to know that both Black and White have been used for weddings in various points in Chinese history. I’ll talk about black another time, but now, let’s focus on White and its symbolism and cultural importance in the Chinese culture.

The Song Dynasty’s Ding porcelain ware was known for its white colour range which in turn was supposed to represent the white jade (nephrite) of ancient Chinese traditions. There were of course other glaze colours but white was by far the most valuable and highly sought after one by collectors then and now.

Although a colour that none would associate with the Chinese wedding today, white was not always seen as inauspicious. It depends on the context of use, and in fact, the practice of wearing white for a wedding in China also took place some 1,800 years ago! There were a few hundred years in Chinese history where white was sought after by rulers and commoners alike and was prized as one of the more desirable colours to wear for weddings!

History of White in Chinese culture

As early as over 2000 years ago in China, there was a strong belief in the 5 elements–Fire, Metal, Earth, Wood, Water.

They each represented a direction (North, South, East, West, Centre), a colour (Red, White, Blue/Green, Black, Yellow) and many many other things like your internal organs and health, medicine, seasons etc.

So long story short–the 5 elements were seen as governing your entire system of living, the ecosystem, the rule of life.

White, corresponds to the Metal element. But for thousands of years before that, it has been seen as a plain colour/style for dressing and which was used for funerals. So it is true that it has always been associated with the inauspicious and the dead.

However, there was a (relatively) short period after the Han Dynasty in the 3rd century or so, where the traditional symbolic meaning of White was disregarded in daily wear, and transformed into a fashionable colour all because a powerful and influential ruler liked it.

The ruler is none other than the famous warlord Cao Cao 曹操 of the 3 kingdoms, who was also known for his chronic spitting headaches, and for killing a famous Chinese physician Hua Tuo for suggesting skull operations (but that’s another story for another day). So basically he felt much better after wearing a white scarf on his head when having the headache (placebo effect alert on high!), and then it kickstarted the trend of people wearing white headscarves, and even white for weddings!

In fact, there is also a record mention in a Qing dynasty book in the 17th century 陇蜀余闻 compiled by a scholar about the sightings and customs of the Sichuan region. In it, he mentioned that the Sichuan/Shaanxi border place, white was a highly prestigious and popular colour and that men and women would wrap their head with white scarves. In another neighbouring area, the people would wear white dresses/costumes for their new year and auspicious occasions. These people were regarded as the “original” descendants of Han people and culture. It was believed that they wore white in memory of Zhuge Liang (a miliary strategist during the 3 kingdoms in the 3rd century), and that tradition continued and evolved to become auspicious wear.

But more than just a colour, the white dresses iconic in many paintings from that era also represented the spirit of the time. It was a period where the overbearing Confucianism of the period era was breaking apart, and people opted for a more free-spirited look–which was white! Along with it, people also started wearing slippers to official events to express their rebellion against Confucianism.

It was the start of the pursuit of minimalism as an influence from Taoism and Neo-Taoism school of thought. The emphasis is on nothingness, beauty in nature and a pursuit for the simple and true form of things （以无为本，返璞归真）–something that made a comeback in the Song dynasty some 1000 years later around the 10-12th century.

The White porcelain glaze of the Ding kiln （定窑） during the Song dynasty

Some consider Ding ware as “stoneware” instead of porcelain as its chemical make-up doesn’t seem to contain any “porcelain stone”.

Song dynasty is known for its Minimalist taste, and this would then go on to influence the Japanese minimalist which we are so familiar with today. And the Ding wares were considered one of the top porcelain wares produced during that period, in accordance with the Song taste.

The kiln which fired this type of porcelain ware started production of such in the period before during the late Tang dynasty (circa 9th century), but reached its peak during the Song dynasty(10-12th century). And what started out as a civilian’s kiln before was elevated to the status of an imperial kiln later on where only the imperial family had access to. With the passage of time, it evolved to producing other coloured wares such as black, purple and green Ding wares, but none was as famous as the white ones. Kinda like how every brand has a signature design, though they also produce other designs, the best seller is always its signature (and also the highest pricing one).

The shallow relief patterns on white porcelain of Ding wares was the predecessor of the blue and white porcelain that is so iconic of Chinese ceramics later on.

Its aesthetics was said to be smooth, thinly and lightly applied, and opaque with a slight tinge of yellow, like the top quality white Jade adored by the Chinese. Yes, opaque nephrite (AKA soft jade软玉 AKA real jade真玉), not gemstone-like translucent/crystal clear jadeite (AKA hard jade硬玉), were seen as extremely valuable and desirable by the Chinese for its lustre, and how it probably reminded one of the femininity, and soft and tender skin of a woman (my own theory).

The porcelain pillow below is a fine example of the Ding ware collection of the Beijing Palace Museum. History of porcelain pillows goes all the way back to the Sui dynasty (7th century), was popularised during the Tang dynasty after, and reached its peak in the Song dynasty all the way into the Mongolian rule in the 12th century or so. What started as being purely functional took on a more aesthetic and artistic identity and all kinds of animals and motifs were incorporated into its making. Eventually, it faced its decline in the Ming and Qing dynasty (from 13th century onwards) due to the availability of softer and better material for the pillow.

Norther Song dynasty Dingware porcelain pillow with child

I remember someone lamenting right next to me in a museum when standing in front of a porcelain pillow, about how uncomfortable that must’ve felt. However, I think that it is very much a question of preference and shifting taste. For one, I feel that the traditional Chinese has a huge preference for harder materials (wooden sofas, beds etc.) and my parents always complain about mine being too soft and lack the form and support they require. Also, they said it’s much cooling that way. Likewise for porcelain pillow I guess!

There’s a quick and interesting article from Christie’s on this!

There are jades, and there is Jade

Tang dynasty top quality white jade bangle with gold setting and connecting parts vs my cheaper replicas. One would’ve thought that my jade is of better quality, but I would have to sell my kidneys to buy an opaque white “mutton fat”/Lanolin jade whereas the translucent one costs much less.

Just like how the Eskimos have 100 over words for snow (that’s a myth btw),  and how the Japanese are familiar with hundreds of fish names (that’s true), the Chinese have many types of stones which they call jade. There are serpentine jade, jadeite jade, nephrite jade, jasper jade etc. So basically Chinese like to call pretty stones of similar colour and texture jade. And naturally, certain jades are more authentically and traditionally Chinese than others. It might surprise you to know that Jadeite jade (翡翠feicui) is not one of the ancient-traditional ones despite its pervasiveness in the world and in Chinese culture today.

One thing that set ancient Chinese aesthetics apart from the West (besides porcelains) and our general taste today is their preference for more muted and understated pieces of jade. Nephrite jade has been highly regarded in Chinese culture for over 5,000 years, whereas Jadeite Jade, which the rest of the world is more familiar with, only has a history of about 500 years in Chinese culture as it was originally from Myanmar. When Jadeite was first introduced to China during the Ming dynasty, it wasn’t popular nor expensive, and it was only about the last century or so that its price skyrocketed (possibly because of the shifting aesthetics towards more gem-like translucent stones).

And the most prized type of white nephrite jade is what is known as the “mutton fat jade” (I would like to translate it as Lanolin jade) 羊脂玉 from Xinjiang region (Western China). The empress’s seal from Western Han dynasty over 2,000 years ago was found to be made of this type of nephrite. To the Chinese, white (slightly yellow tinge), opaque jade that looks like a smooth and rich crystalised fats represented the righteousness and purity of values they so look up to.

The English translated name definitely sounds quite gross (thus my own proposed name Lanolin), since the Chinese term for fats/cream–Zhi脂, has an extra quality of delicateness often associated with women. The smooth and fullness of the jade are described as 润Run (lustre is the closest word), and together with the concept of this full, white Zhi/fat/cream, they create an idealised image of a beautiful woman with her soft, tender skin/bosom. There’s even a Chinese saying that someone (a woman’s) skin is like frozen Zhi /fats/cream (some things are just better in its original language and pronunciation 肤如凝脂). Think of it as being closer to tofu, than uh, fats.

My husband said I might be overthinking this, but as an ex-Lit student, reading into words and picking out nuances is what I love doing!

Flower & Plant Pairing

When I collaborated with Blanc Studios for the shoot, I briefly explained to them the Ding kiln aesthetics through images, and while I work on the model styling, they worked on the floral and composition stylings.

Jonathan’s design is inspired by serenity and the surface of water. So we got in the lotus, and had the chair decorated as if it’s a leaf-boat that’s floating on the surface of water. The model, then has this Thumbelina feel, like a lotus that’s resting atop the leaf.

Beyond its religious association with Buddhism, culturally, the lotus was seen as a symbol of purity in China. There is a Chinese phrase that is used to describe the beauty and purity of the flower–出污泥而不染，濯清涟而不妖。

Surprise, surprise, this phrase actually came from a Song dynasty writer!

Here’s a poetic translation of the relevant passage:

“[M]ore worldly people have adored the peony ever since the Tang dynasty. But my special love is for the lotus which grows out of the mud but remains unsoiled, is cleansed by pure rippling water and which, for all its beauty, remains free from seductive guile.”
-Translated by Mark Friggiths

I really like the combination of green and white even though green was not part of the original palette for Ding wares. It adds to the entire feeling of being at one with nature, and that lotus with its lotus leaves just floating atop water, drifting down the river.

The white lotus (yes it’s lotus, not peony!) and tulips worked really nicely in bringing out Elizabeth (the model)’s gentleness.

You probably wouldn’t realise, but she was seated on a Song dynasty style armchair! Chairs weren’t really popular in China until this period actually! In the past, people used to kneel on the floor just like how the Japanese are still continuing with this tradition. Then the Chinese started using stools, and chairs, and then in Song dynasty, there was this foldable armchair being invented and even then, that’s really meant for men or really important people of the household. Women just stand around or sit on stools generally. Yes, gender politics of the furniture!

So I’m really quite happy that Jon (Blanc Studios) actually turned the chair into a beautiful frame and support for a woman, kind of subverting its original history.

Tea Pairing

Just to complete this entire shoot with a bit of tea, I have also invited Kenny, a Tea sommelier, to recommend the type of tea that would complement the light and gentleness of the Ding wares.

Bai Mu Dan (white peony)

Connoting light and translucency with the gentleness of white jade, wares of the Ding kiln make us reach out for a glass of white tea such as this wild-grown Bai Mu Dan. The light pale colour of the tea and its soft gentle aromas and flavours evoke a sense of calming brightness and warmth, coupled with a deep and comforting expression of purity and elegance.

Credits/Acknowledgement:
Flowers and styling by @blancstudios.co
Model styling and photography by @hanfugirl
Tea recommendation by Kenny from Teatle-Tattle

Beyond Red: The Chinese Palette–Imperial Turquoise 官窑

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There’s Tiffany blue, and there’s Imperial Turquoise.
One has a history of 200 years, the other has a history of almost 1000. And we’re going to talk about the more ancient one in this article.

Finally kicking off my latest collaboration that is done with my good pal from Blanc Studios which relooks at the traditional Chinese wedding aesthetics! In this series, I will reveal a new palette that is built on the finest of traditional Chinese taste–the Song dynasty glaze palette and a bit of jade history.

And yes, because Red, however beautiful and auspicious, is overrated.

We know how the Chinese love rankings, so this series will be based on the top 5 porcelain glaze and kiln during the Song dynasty–a period known for its incredibly fine and sophisticated taste, and the original inventors of minimalism.

The Song dynasty (10-13th Century) was a period where great Chinese arts flourished and so many different types of porcelains were being created and produced in specialised kilns with unique glazes across the land. Out of the 170 ancient sites for porcelains in China, the Song dynasty ones occupied 130 sites which made up 75% of the total. That makes Song dynasty the most China period in China (haha!).

The term Guan ware is not unique to the Song dynasty, because it simply meant the imperial/official kiln where such wares are made. So you would have Guan ware from various era displaying a range of different characteristics. However, I’m going to focus on the Guan ware of Northern Song dynasty (the period was split into Northern and then Southern Song due to warfare).

Having the imperial brand meant that these wares were only supplied to the imperial family to be used, and not to be, under any circumstances, be owned by a commoner. The imperial kiln Guan ware production during the Song dynasty took it a step further and was personally managed and directed by the emperor himself!

The emperor with the highest artistic achievement in the entire history of China is generally believed to emperor Song Huizong who ruled China around the 11th century. He was really more of an artistic genius with impeccable taste, than a strategic ruler. Which is also why even till today, the Chinese still looked to the Song dynasty and in particular, the taste of emperor Song Huizong as the epitome of sophistication and finesse. In contrast, the Qing dynasty emperor Qianlong has often been mocked (especially in pop culture lately) for his opulent and ‘crude’ taste.

Unfortunately, good taste is not enough to run an empire.

This artist, calligrapher, poet, lyricist, collector, emperor, who excelled in everything artistic was hopeless at running a country. As a result, he lost half his empire to the Jurchens and lived in captivity for 9 years.

Not the most auspicious thing to say about weddings but… one cannot talk about Song dynasty art without mentioning this genius. After all, he was the one who brought us this imperial turquoise colour which precedes tiffany blue by about 700 years. Yeap, no biggies, just 700 years.

The Imperial Turquoise glaze of the Guan kiln (官窑) during the Song dynasty

Characterised by a thin porcelain base coated with a thick glaze of turquoise, the Guan ware was also marked by web-like crackling lines that spread across its entire surface. This aesthetic was personally designed by emperor Song Huizong as he was unsatisfied with the porcelain wares that were created for his use at that point.

This craft was made by combining techniques and colours from a few other separate kilns–one of which has a very similar look and colour as this Guan ware–The Ru ware (AKA the most expensive porcelain ever auctions). We will get to the Ru ware in time. So in a way, this is technically more precious/highly regarded in its time than the Ru ware.

There are extremely few (if any) Guan ware in the commercial market because it was only owned by the emperor and passed down the lineage (since they were not to be used for burial), so one can only see them in the palace museums (Taiwan and Beijing)!

The emperor basically commissioned a compilation of all the ancient bronze ware collection he had and got his imperial kiln to create porcelain wares based on the form of those historical items but in an aesthetic that resembles jade more. His purpose? To embed greater meaning and sense of origin in every piece created.

Yeap, he’s my man.

Since I mentioned jade, I would like to clarify that the ancient Chinese refer to pretty stones as jade in general. But the jades they usually refered to are Nephrite jades which have a history of over 5,000 years in Chinese culture. Ancient Chinese did not use Jadeite jade until the last 500 years or so, and even then, the status of Jadeite was quite low.

This is why you would see that they linked porcelain to nephrite jades–because both were rather opaque-looking materials.

The wedding look book

Of course, I am not a cultural revisionist! I do think that traditions are important, so although I’m proposing a different colour palette for Chinese weddings, it can still fit very well into the traditional Tea Ceremony!

The idea of the Guan ware fits this traditional (kind of) Chinese embroidered/embellished wedding dress perfectly! For one, the beads that lined the dress are very similar to the air bubbles that lined the Guan ware surfaces, which apparently is another unique aesthetic of the glaze. Also, there is this formality that is not too overpowering about this set due to the cool light tone.

A word of caution to all Chinese brides–don’t wear your hair down if you want to go for a traditional Chinese dress look. Traditionally, women had to have their hair up after the coming of age (around 16 years old) or after they get married (whichever is earlier). So unless you want to look like a XX-year-old virgin refusing to accept your new found status and long-established age, I suggest having them styled up neatly.

I told Jon during brainstorm stage, that the overall colour is like turquoise with a bit of purplish tinge, so naturally, hydrangeas (my favourite flower!) was chosen for this set. The styling of the backdrop and flowers were all by Jon, and he went along with the idea of a formal ceremony that remains somewhat light and fun!

So we had a lot of symmetry in this set (something which you’ll find missing in the rest of the series later on), to express that sense of order which is often associated with the Chinese empire.

Jon also invited a cake artist brand Sherramelts on board for this collab and I think the combination of the round backdrop with the square cake works really well along the ancient Chinese idea of a round heaven and a square earth (天圆地方). You see this aesthetic perpetuating the Chinese culture in many aspects such as their architecture design and layout, their ancient bangles designs etc.

In a way, when a reunion is between heaven and earth, I think it would be considered supremely auspicious and in order from a Chinese perspective!

Tea Pairing

Just to complete this entire shoot with a bit of tea, I have also invited Kenny, a Tea sommelier, to recommend the type of tea that would complement the light and gentleness of the Ding wares.

Wuyi yancha, Laocong Shuixian

The Song court highly favoured tribute tea that came from the area of Wuyi in Fujian.

This was clear especially to tea aficionado and poet Su Dong Po, who wrote: 君不見武夷溪邊粟粒芽，前丁後蔡相籠加，爭新買寵各出意，今年鬥品充官茶。Today, Wuyi tea is considered to be some of the finest in the world. Among them, Shuixian from old tea trees is particularly highly prized for its richness and depth — truly an icon of class and finesse in its own right.

Credits/Acknowledgement:
Flowers and styling by @blancstudios.co
Model styling and photography by @hanfugirl
Cake by @Sherramelts
Tea recommendation by Kenny from Teatle-Tattle

Beyond Red: The Chinese Palette

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Whenever one thinks of the Chinese wedding or anything Chinese, red is the defacto colour that comes to mind. But that’s not necessarily representative of the diversity and depth of the Chinese culture and history. In a few days’ time, it will be the Chinese festival of flowers. It’s opportune to reveal a sneak peek of the latest floral+fusion project that I did with a few friends. I am aware that my Sailormoon series still has 4 more to go so I will do that concurrently too!!

Jonathan (from Blanc Studios) and I have been wanting to do a series of modern Chinese wedding-ish shoot to redefine the Chinese wedding aesthetics inspired by the history and taste of ancient past.

We settled on Song dynasty for its minimalist aesthetics which is relevant to the trend today (yes, tastes and trends are very cyclical). There’s a lot of hype over the Yanxi Palace’s supposedly Modi colour scheme, and I’m so over and done with Qing dynasty for a long time to come, so I thought why not just work on the amazing China porcelain glaze which the Song dynasty is known for! It’s definitely more than the blue and white glaze that we automatically think of.

As we live in a world that’s increasingly anti-intellectual, it’s also refreshing to look back into history to a period where there was a thriving intellectual and artistic environment. The beauty that it offered could only be reimagined since these glaze techniques have been lost and there is only a handful of these in the collections of museums and private collectors. It was the culmination of thousands of years of evolution, distillation and crystalisation of finesse.

Ding Ware

And of course, China (ware) is a superbly appropriate medium to look at to represent Chinese aesthetics! Chinese Song dynasty culture and aesthetics also influenced Japanese culture heavily such as the use of ground tea powder (matcha) and their tea ceremony. Ikebana was also something that evolved from Chinese floral arrangement traditions. So while many look at Chinese aesthetics as kitschy/gaudy/red-only, it is in my personal interest to explore the alternative aesthetics of the literatis and aristocrats in ancient China.

They created the light elegant turquoise glaze a thousand years before Tiffany Blue patented its colour. And mind you, with an extra touch of understated sophistication.

Guan Ware  Ru Ware

They experimented and appreciated the more alternative mix of galaxy palette thousand of years before it exploded on social media.
Jun Ware

They also were the original creator of wabi-sabi aesthetics that values imperfection, before the world associated it with the Japanese ethos. Albeit with much less melancholy.

Ge Ware

I’ve also invited Kenny to jazz this up further (is that even possible one might ask, and my reply is a resounding yes!). So he is going to come in with his recommendation of 5 types of tea that would fit the spirit of these 5 glazes according to my interpretation (disclaimer alert). It would be nice if we have an event that serves the 5 teas in Chinaware of these 5 glazes (replicas obviously :P), and get Kenny and Jon to talk about flowers and tea as well.

As we speak, the hanfugirls have just booked a private course on Ikebana with Jon so we’ll be able to share more (hopefully) on our creations soon!

I was just discussing about the Chinese identity, and in particular the Chinese diaspora identity with a new friend. And I echo the recent themes in Aquaman and Wonder Woman–that hybridity is nothing to be ashamed of and it does not make us culturally weaker or more inferior than the “purebred” Chinese (there’s no purebred anyway). I am really embracing the complexity of my Chinese identity these days because sometimes it really takes getting out of the culture to relook and appreciate it.

Diasporas tend to hold on really tight to their culture, fearing to change as if that would make them/us less legitimate as someone of a particular ethnic/culture otherwise. I think diversity cultural identity should empower, not handicap us. It’s great to be a diaspora because you straddle between different worlds, and you benefit from the multiple perspectives. You acquire different languages of understanding due to this exposure, and there’s more lateral thinking that’s possible as a result of this.

So this series is to redefine and challenge our assumptions and the world’s stereotypical idea of what they understand or know about the Chinese culture and wedding look. I will go into individual look and the special glaze of the Song dynasty in the individual posts.