Annoucement: the Revive series is LAUNCHED!

I want to make this particular entry, although there is only one work in the series right now. The launching of the Revive is like announcing my career, since I might spend the rest of my life researching, studying, experimenting, and discussing this theme. This moment is quite significant to me, because I have waited for so long!

Prologue of the Revive series is HERE

The Revive is, or at least will be, a body of works which explores the Hanfu Movement. The Hanfu Movement is a cultural revival movement which has begun in 2003. A men named Wang，Le-tian wore a  home-made hanfu onto the street of Zhengzhou in northern-central China.This event had gained media attentions at the time, and had encouraged many people who share the same dream to start the restoration of Chinese cultures.

One of the photos in the original newspapers. Retrieved from Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanfu_movement>

The main objective of the movement is to revive the Han Chinese clothing, commonly known as hanfu which was banned by the Manchurian leaders during the Qing Dynasty, and to find a way to integrate traditional cultural aesthetics and values into modern life style.

Lightbox: Artist Statement

This artist statement comes with an important supporting document which is still in progress.

Generally, the lightbox project is a combination of the light, the box, and the back-lit image. The light and box work together and affect the image. To emphasize their significance, I have experimented with colors, in order to alter the light and to reinforce the existence of the box as a concrete artistic object.

The image itself serves as both a summary of an end and an introductory to a new beginning. For instance, the image is thematically connected to the Interior Drawing.  It explores and comments on the possibility to adapt traditional culture into everyday life, particularly to revive the traditional Han Chinese Clothing. Furthermore, the aesthetic aspects of the image was based on the two video works I have completed during the term, including "Flow" and the Light and Movement experimental shorts. I have used similar visual elements and technique to construct the image, such as by using layers and the integration of hybrid media. In addition, this work marks the beginning of a future series which will centers on the Hanfu Movement, and thus the key words of this project is "landing" and "lightening up."

Lightbox v1.4: the Painting

Ma-mian qun (horse-face skirt; 馬面裙)

This was the digital painting I did for the lightbox, and part of the back-lit image. Initially I decided to add hand-drawn elements to the work to avoid potential copy right issues and plagiarism, because the original photo I had in mind came from a famous advertisement of a well-known merchant (in the hanfu sub-culture at least).
Guess what? I chose it because it was quite iconic in the development of modern hanfu.

Courtesy of Minghuatang

Besides, I thought adding personal touches to the work reinforced the aura of the piece, although some might argued that artistic aura was already lost in the new age of mechanical reproduction. Well! At least I had fun painting it, and I truly appreciated that there were maple-leaves pattern per-installed in Photoshop.

A historical relic (important: the skirt was displayed backward)

Lightbox v1.1: What to Do and What I Want to Do?

This post was supposed to be posted before Lightbox v1.2: Sketches. It is recommended to read this one first, although order does not really matter.

Note: the following came from my paper sketchbook. Even though I had already completed the image at this point, I wrote down the following based on my original brainstorming.

Key ideas:

1. First of all, this work will be a pain for someone like me who frequently moves, so it must be absolutely worthy to keep. 
2. Furthermore, because it is the final project, it is going to be a summary of what I had learned from the past projects. Particularly, there will be either direct or indirect reference on the Interior drawing, Flow, and Light and Movement.
3. It is going to form parts of the foundation and/or prologue for my future thesis.

In details: 

1. Generally speaking, it is going to be thematically connected to the Interior drawing, and aesthetically connected to Flow and Light and Movement.
2. It will directly comment on the Hanfu movement and reflect at least one of the central ideas.
3. It is going to be hybrid: contains both hand-drawn and photographic elements.
4. I am going to use either visual elements directly taken from the past projects, or those resemble the elements used in the past.
5. It is going to be a night scene which includes post modern architectures.

New Character: NPC

This is a minor non-playable character from the video game Chinese Paladin 5.

watercolour

The robe he is wearing is known as shenyi (lit. deep garment;深衣). This hanfu style is more than 3000 years old, and is a formal wear.
Generally there are two types of shenyi: zhi-ju (lit. vertical-wrapping front;直裾) and qu-ju (lit. diagonal-wrapping front；曲裾).  The one shown here is the former, because the front piece of the garment is straight and flat.

Zhiju-shenyhi might look similar to a Japanese kimono. However, they are very different in terms of making and wearing (this is a bit complicated, I might explain it in more details in the future).

Different parts of zhiju-shenyi. Retrieved from Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese_clothing>

Headwear

New Character: NPC with a Fan

This is a minor non-playable character from the video game Gujianqitan. This painting is closely based on the original design of the  character.

watercolor, white gouache

In this painting, she is also wearing the qixiong-ruqun (chest-level skirt with a short garment). The outer skirt is slightly shorter than the under skirt, and it allows the latter layer to show through. This design is commonly used in the making of some modern hanfu.

A similar qixiong-ruqun from an ancient painting by Zhoufang

The hairstyle is called luo-ji （literal meaning：shell-like bun; 螺髻), because its shape resembles a seashell.

From an unknown book about ancient Chinese hairstyle

Interior Drawing Statement

My work explores the relationship between everyday life and traditions. In particular, the space depicted in the drawing is a place used to store personal, everyday items, and thus it serves as the collector and the storage of memories, personal interests, and the fragments of daily life. Moreover, in the second section of the work, the rearrangement of objects reinforces the personal connection I have with the space. The replacement of particular objects denotes the notion of adapting traditions into everyday life. I believed that attitude is the key to achieve the authentic fusion between traditions and life. Specifically, we need to accept traditions as part of our life in our heart, and to find them appropriate positions in our life. On the other hand, the means of changing the appearance of tradition is temporary and superficial.

Part I

Part II

Works Cited:

(see the avatar of the author)

Chen, Eric Chengyang. Got to Remember. 2011.

Luo-meisheng. “a Standing Figurine”. Photograph. Baidu Tieba. N.p., 15 Nov. 2007. Web. 29 Jan, 2012.

(Note: this figurine is at least 2000 years old, and thus its author is unknown. The name shown above is the username of the contributor who posted the photograph.)

Finally Done!!!

NOTE: the following work was made for a discussion forum. I thought it would be fun to share it here since the blog was a sketchbook. Moreover, it was completed recently.

I started this watercolor painting last August, but then I procrastinated for nearly half a year, probably because I got scared and had a lot of homework during last Fall. Finally, I finished it last weekend.

This painting is part of the Traditional Clothing and Fan Art series. The clothing she wears here is a hanfu style known as qixiong-ruqun. She also wears a jacket-like garment on the outside, with a long sash which serves as decoration.

• Qixiong means being at the chest-level, because the long skirt is tied above the chest-line. 
• Ru-qun means, respectively, the upper garment and the skirt. It is a general term used to describe such combination.

This particular style had been popular in the Late Tang Dynasty, also known as Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom Period.
Today, similar outfits have been used in some traditional Han Chinese weddings (as parts of the revival movement, of course).

Reference 1: mural painting from  Mogao Cave in Dunhuang

Reference 2: hairstyle

Note: I have replaced the original picture with one that has a better quality. It appears to be a bit greenish on Mac.
______________________________
Character based on video game Gujianqitan
Watercolor, acrylic, gouache

Interior Project Plan v1.1: clothing design

I have just completed the clothing design for the project. This is a quick and extremely rough sketch to figure out the colors.

This clothing is based on the self-portrait which was used as the profile photo. There will be more information in the future, including a formal bibliography citing all the possible resources.

The clothing you see here is a hanfu (a.k.a. Han Chinese Clothing) style called shenyi (literal meaning: deep robe). In this particular case, because it consists of three layers of robes, it is also known as sanchong-yi, or triple-layered clothing.

Unfortunate Discovery: Another Reason to Do this Project

I just came across an extremely STUPID post on my microblogging.  The authors simply suggested that the practices of wearing traditional clothing, reviving traditional ritual and arts, and having a traditional Han wedding were all "embarrassing."

Interestingly, the authors seemed to lack basic knowledges to distinguish traditional clothes, since they actually mixed up the Han Chinese Clothing (hanfu) and the Manchurian clothing, even though the latter two looked completely different.

I believed the group which posted this was just trying to get attentions and replies, so I would not be posting the link. Besides, it was in Chinese.