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China has a long and glorious history of rich arts and crafts forms. These are among the many jewels in China's more than 5,000 year old culture. Art in China is not only the embodiment of the people's longing for aesthetic beauty for themselves and as gifts for others, but also great treasures for Chinese tradition.
Many of the master artisans have passed their unique skills to their next generation so that the precious culture can be preserved in a safe way. Chinese arts and crafts includes Chinese Painting, Bronze Vessels, Folk Toys, Embroidery, Calligraphy, Music, Opera, Cloisonne, Jade, Kites, Lacquer Ware, Paper-Cuttings, Porcelain, Pottery, Seals, Silk and so on. Among all these, Chinese painting has taken rich strata in the area of world art and painting as a whole.
Chinese arts have been influenced by three major religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The subjects we would find in their paintings are like birds, flowers, and landscapes from the countryside. Chinese sculptures were made of many different materials such as stone, jade, lacquer, wood, metal, clay, etc.The material uses by the Chinese artisans are range from medal, bronze, lacquer, jade, clay to silk, cloth and paper.
In Chinese Brush Painting the dotting methods is generally used to differentiate trees and plants. Next is the use of ink in Chinese painting, which has been used in calligraphy and painting from last two thousand years. Like brush painting, Ink stones are an acquired taste like several other facets of Chinese culture. Inks are generally dark in color. Their beauty hides in how they work together with ink, paper and brush to achieve the desired colour.
The history of Chinese calligraphy is also very rich. Rhythm, line, and structure are finely presented in calligraphy than in painting or sculpture. Regarding its artistic character, every character built up in its own square with variety of structure and composition and there are drawing of only three basic forms such as the circle, the triangle, and the square. China is also very famous for its Snuff Bottles. Snuff bottles are made of a range of different materials which includes ivory, jade, jadeite, mother of pearl, lapis lazuli, quartz, malachite, agate, gold, silver and many more exotic materials. The most excellent and truly fascinating snuff bottles are those with paintings painted on the interior walls.
Embroidery as we think that is an area of female activity only but in China it was never classified as a solely female activity and men also love to engage with it. There are two main divisions of embroidery such as “chih wen” and “tuan chen”.
Another art form Cloisonne is an enamel artwork where the primary color should be in blue. The art of
making Folk Toys are items that have a long history artistic admiration that express the people's wish for a happy and contented life. The chapter of Chinese music dates back to between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago. In Chinese music we can find featured with unique melodies within different Chinese dynasties.
As a part of the notion of “Culture, continuity and change” modern Chinese painters have often mixed several colours on one brush or mixed their colors with black inks. And as a consequence, they have obtained more natural and richly varied colors. Those kinds of techniques have been widely adopted and further developed in the contemporary period. However, the arena of Cultural Revolution has been helping to restore the art schools and professional organizations to preserve the rich heritage of Chinese art and culture.
Image source: chinapage.com
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