September 2013 NO.001
Adapting to a New Space in Chinese Style
Latest Wooden Products The Marvelous Modern Architecture Suzhou Museum
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Contents
September 2013 Issue NO.001
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Features |
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Adapting to a New Space in Chinese Style Min Min and her husband creates City Lodge in Chinese style,bringing classical panache to their apartment in the heart of HongKong
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Industrial Designer Profile of an owner who operates a store selling traditional Chinese furniture and decorations
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Paper Legend A guide to the usage of paper in traditional Chinese indoor decoration
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Departments |
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Editor’s letter
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Shopping directory
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Seasonal Festival
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Mixing Modes
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Arts & Crafts
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Reader’s letter
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Q&A
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Marketplace
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Preview of next issue
| Wooden Autumn
| Suzhou Museum | Ancient pieces
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Managing editor LIU Chang
Editoral director ZHAO Miao
Art-design director YANG Yifan
Multimedia director HU Qianrong
Marketing director LUO Wenyang
Senior Reporter HE Xi
Senior editor Cathy
issuu.com/chinadecor/docs/magz
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| Editor's letter
Letter for you M
ay I introduce this significant new brand to you--China Decor, which presents the unique charm of Chinese culture applied in modern home decoration. Chinese locals, foreigners in China, or even oversea enthusiasts, as long as you are fond of Chinese culture, this is the right guide and reference to decorating your own home, whatever it’s flat or house, old or new, large or small. Even if you have no intention of decorating home in Chinese style, China Decor is a nice choice for you to take a glance at the beauty of Chinese tradition as well. In the first issue, we’ll lead you to visit a professor’s Chinese style house, who shares his experience and deep love of Chinese culture. And we will introduce a glamorous shop selling sundry Chinese style decorations. I’m sure you will gain inspiration by the shop owner’s large collection. We will also cover seasonal hints on how to beautify your home. A piece of feature focuses on paper decoration is provided to show the dedication of traditional handcraft. Published in autumn, we provide several ways to celebrate Mid-autumn Festival in this issue. So what else do we offer? Maybe you can read the Mixing Modes part to see the penetration of traditional Chinese elements in architectural design. Besides, plenty of fancy items and decorations are presented to you for more reference. China Decor is a newborn orphan. Only with your sincere advice and criticism can we continue processing, thus we would like to hear your voice honestly. We hope that China Decor will be your perfect companion with our efforts. Whatever you have planned for the coming festival, we wish you a happy Mid-autumn Festival, from me and everyone on China Decor team!
Lena managing editor lc.lc.113@gmail.com
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Shopping directory |
Wooden Autumn
The best friend of Chinese furniture would be wood. Inspired by the furniture in Tang and Han Dynasty, combining the wonderful carving and the texture of different kinds of wood to give your home a breeze of Chinese autumn.
Chair, 짜12000; Sofa and desk set, 짜118000; all the collection at TianZong. 16
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| Shopping directory
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Tips on Cleaning Wooden Furniture Everyday Care
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2 1.Drawer cabinet ¥2340, HanTangGongFang 2.Two Drawer Cabinet ¥628, FuYuanGe GongYiCheng 3.Lockers ¥1575, HanTangGongFang 4.Chinese new concept dresser ¥2800, MuYuan JiaJu 5.Wooden folding Chinese screen ¥1072, ShiJu JiaJu
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You should use a lint-free cloth to polish your furniture on a regular basis. Use just a little furniture polish on the cloth and rub the surface to get a beautiful shine. When choosing a furniture polish, use the same type for each cleaning, either oil- or wax-based, to avoid polish smudges. Wipe in the direction of the grain of the wood whenever possible. Special Cleaning When it comes time to remove builtup wax, use either mineral spirits or a synthetic turpentine with a soft, lint-free cloth. Clean the entire piece with the product, not just the area that's soiled.
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Wood Types The type of wood you choose determines the beauty and strength of the finished piece. Many varieties of wood are available, and each has its own properties. Redwood: resistance to moisture is excellent, fairly soft and has a straight grain. Ash: white to pale brown wood with a straight grain. It takes stain quite nicely
Chinese new concept solid
Armchairs, 짜7880, impression of Chinese classical furniture
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New modern Chin
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| Shopping directory
Retro wooden computer desk 짜3330, MuYuan JiaJu.
d wood double bed 짜6750, MuYuan JiaJu.
Solid wood Hydragon bed 짜8580, YiMuYuan
No Separated Rooms? Use folding Chinese screen to divided rooms into two parts for your sleeping and working area is the best answer for your Chinese style home. Screen was initially one-panel screens in contrast to folding screens. Folding screens were invented during the Han Dynasty. Depictions of those folding screens have been found in Han Dynasty era tombs, such as one in Zhucheng, Shandong Province.
nese low cabinet set 짜3600, MuYuan JiaJu.
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Seasonal Festival
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Seasonal Festival
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Mixing Modes |
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| Mixing Modes
Suzhou Museum
“Chinese gardens consist of three elements—water, rock and plants.” —I. M. Pei
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he Suzhou Museum is the third building designed by I. M. Pei in his native China which was completed in 2006. In many ways, this new structure is a legacy that Pei has intentionally left to the city that was the home of his ancestors. Featuring a selection of archeological treasures as well as an interesting group of contemporary art works, the building seeks to build on Chinese tradition and remains modest in scale. Suzhou is famous for its classical Chinese gardens. Inside the museum, a central garden, pond and a tea pavilion reveal the connection with the typology of local gardens. The grey and white forms recall those of the region, but they remain resolutely modern.
Within the walls of Suzhou Museum, one of the most notable features is a large pond, which is crossed by a footbridge. “Water is very important,”says Pei.“Chinese gardens consist of three elements— water, rocks and plants.” A work made of sliced rock runs along the long rear wall of the
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interior garden. This wall, designed by I. M. Pei is another important element in his exploration of tradition and modernity. Those rocks, selected from Lake Tai, are reproductions of a work by a painting Mountains and Clouds by a great Song Dynasty painter Mi Fei. Those sliced rocks are linked
by I. M. Pei to Chinese painting and speak of a “painterly eye” when referring to the craftsmen who create a garden in the spirit of the city. The link between Mi Fei and the gardens of Suzhou is a sublimated search for the essence of nature, a symbolic evocation of the world.
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main entrance hall of the museum
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he elements of plants are also consistent with the overall style of the museum. Besides the giant bamboo grove near the tea pavilion, there are also ginkgo, pines and willow planted in the courtyards. In the building philosophy of Chinese classical gardens, there is a special technique called “borrowed scenery�. The white walls of the museum are like a canvas in front of which those well selected plants are just like in the painting. Some Chinese traditional windows like
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the hexagonal ones follow the same rule, which frame the view toward one of the trees in the courtyard. The design of the Suzhou Museum not only means a kind of return to the roots for I. M. Pei, but also demonstrates his strong belief in the importance of history. This museum, carefully set into the heart of the city, represents a sensitive and successful call to represent call to respect the past while turning to the future.
How to find Address | 204 Dong Bei Street, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China Telephone | 0512-67575666 Museum Hours | 9 am - 5 pm from Tuesday to Sunday (No admission after 4 pm) The museum is closed on Monday except national holidays.
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| Mixing Modes
corridor inside the museum
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Arts & Crafts |
Yuan 1271-1368 Scroll, ink and colour on paper, Height 26.9 cm, Length 106.5 cm
Height 53cm, Length 34.5cm Excavated in 1985 from Pingshou, Sha nxi Province
Height of figure 41.6 cm, Height of camel 113 cm, Length 88.7 cm Excavated in 1956 from Dugusijing tomb, Xian, Shaanxi Province Ming 1368 -1644 Height 7 cm, Diameter at mouth 8.6 cm, Diameter at foot 4 cm, Thickness 0.4 cm
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| Arts & Crafts
Ancient Arts
Qing(1644-1911) Hanging scroll, ink on paper, Height 208.5 cm, Width 84.3 cm
Tang(618-907) Average Height 11cm Excavated in 1955 from the tomb of Wei Jiong, eastern suburbs of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province
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Ming 1368-1644 Hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk, Height 185 cm, Width 109 cm
Qing 1644-1911 Height 8 cm, Length 18.6 cm, Width 12 cm
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| Arts & Crafts Scroll, ink and colour on silk, Height 26 cm, Width 90.6 cm
Qing(1644-1911) Height 28 cm, Diameter of mouth 7.5 cm
Qing 1644-1911 Hanging scroll, ink and pigments on paper, Height 220.7cm, Width 104.8 cm
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Cover story |
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Adapting to a New Space in Chinese Style September 2013
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| Cover story
D
uring the decade that Chang Hsin Kang was president of City University of Hong Kong, he and his wife Chou Min Min lived in a spacious house where they hosted weekly cultural salons attended by dozens of colleagues and friends. They have downscaled considerably since then. Former President Chang – known as H.K. – stepped down from university administration in 2006, and Min Min also is retired from her post as library director at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and they now live in a much smaller apartment near the City U campus. CHINA DECOR
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n the move, they've taken along much of their vast book collection, but have far less space to house furniture and display art. Nevertheless, their appreciation for Chinese culture and tradition is evident in classical dĂŠcor and exquisite examples of calligraphy and painting. And they actually have been able to showcase some of the furniture 42
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they were storing on a secondfloor landing at their previous much bigger place. Min Min greeted us at her door one recent afternoon, wearing a turquoise Tangstyle suit and a white jade bracelet. She and her husband are truly global citizens: Study, travel and work have taken them from Taiwan, where both grew up and attended CHINA DECOR
| Cover story
Three photos taken in Chang's previous house, provided by Chou Min Min
college, to the United States, Fra nc e , mainland C hina and many other parts of the world. Yet Min Min acknowledges the importance of their early education in methods once prevalent in Taiwan. "When we were in primary school," she recalled,"we were supposed to recite a good many ancient poems and literary masterpieces. Every CHINA DECOR
week the teachers would require us to trace in black ink over the characters printed in red, practicing our regular script. We also needed to use a Chinese writing brush to keep a weekly diary." Such exposure, she said, inescapably cultivated an enduring appreciation for traditional Chinese culture.
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oing to the West for graduate school, the couple ended up making the U.S. their home for 25 years, and their two children, now adults, are homegrown Americans. H.K.,a biomedical engineer with degrees from Stanford and Northwestern universities, is known for his expertise as a 44
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Three photos taken in Chang's previous house, provided by Chou Min Min
humanist and historian as well; as City U president, he established Chinese Civilization Center and emphasized education in the liberal arts and humanities for all majors. Likewise, Min Min organized and supported art exhibitions and lectures in conjunction with her work as library director at UST. They started the "City Cultural CHINA DECOR
Salon" in the fall of 1998,hosting 85 sessions in total, inviting distinguished guests of encyclopedic minds or virtuosity to speak or perform, followed by freewheeling discussion. Min Min remembers with particular fondness a session featuring H.K. himself and two other City U professors, ZHANG Longxi and Cheng Pei Kai, on the topic
"LUO Guanzhong, Alexandre Dumas and East-West cultural communication." The three speakers likened themselves to three characters from an iconic moment in Luo's classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which three friends swear the "Peach Garden Oath" of brotherhood; and also to Dumas' legendary "Three Musketeers". September 2013
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in Min retired early, she said, to do things she likes – from enjoying tea and artwork to practicing music. Her favorite tea is Taiping Kowkui. After settling in Hong Kong, she began studying guqin, a harp-like traditional Chinese string instrument,with a well-known guqin player in Hong Kong. She still owns two guqins with poetic names "springs over stones" and "singing of a dragon under the sea."
Their apartment displays art by such luminaries as Jao Tsung I [1], HUA Rende[2], Qi Gong[3], YANG Shanshen [4] and FAN Zeng [5] . Throughout the living and dining area is an ambiance of Chineseness, expressed in furniture and other choices.Min Min calls the décor "mere coincidence," insisting,"I didn't add these Chinese elements intentionally." She added, however,"But there's no doubt that I have a preference for them so I gather these kinds of things."
Jao Tsung I is a Chinese scholar, poet, calligrapher and painter, now living in Hong Kong. His artwork in Min Min’s apartment is a piece of calligraphy " 心无挂碍 " in official script. [1]
[2]
HUA Rende is a calligrapher from Suzhou, Min Min got two pieces of rubblings with regular script from him.
Qi Gong was a well-known calligrapher and painter in China, He write three Chinese characters " 读书屋 ", which means house for reading in regular script for Min Min. [3]
YANG Shanshen was a calligrapher and painter of Lingnan style. He wrote a pair of scrolls containing a poetic couplet in cursive script, hanging in the study. [4]
FAN Zeng is a master of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. Min Min bought one of his Chinese painting named “TEACHING A KID”. [5]
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Exotic decorations
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vintage screen, classic chairs and footstools of plantain wood and dating from the late Ming Dynasty were purchased some years back on the recommendation of Mr. Charles Leung, who studied archaeology at the University of Hong Kong and works at Jin Feng Tang in Hong Kong's New Territories – a shop which has been closed down but once sold classical Chinese furniture, Min Min said. This same friend also gave them a piece of wood from an original cornice of Tiannnmen Gate in Beijing. Along with the Chinese items, the apartment has a variety of flourishes from other cultures – an Iranian wall clock, Indian and Turkish carpets, a Spanish rosewood mirror and table set. Nothing seems inharmonious; on the contrary, these global touches coordinate well with Chinese
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classical style. Inscribed in calligraphy hanging in the living room in the hand of celebrated Hong Kong calligrapher Lam Yut Hang – like H.K. and Min Min, an alumnus of Taiwan National University – is a poem from TAO Qian's "Drinking wine" series. It reads in part: "I made my home amidst this human bustle / Yet I hear no clamour from the carts and horses. /…/ The birds fly back to roost with one another..." Along with a watercolor painting of white egrets by LIN Hukui, a painter of Lingnan style, this is surely a fitting coda for a visit to this home.
By HU Qianrong ZHAO Miao Photos by YANG Yifan
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| Cover story
Min Min collected seals from all over the country - China In Min Min's home, many kinds of china are on display, including Ru kiln, Ge kiln, Jun kiln, as well as antique Majia kiln. - Eaves Tile There's a eaves tile, carved " 长乐未央 " in Min Min's apartment, which can be dated back to Han Dynasty. The most front tile of roof is eaves tile, which is usually elegantly designed. As the exquisite works of art, the decorative pattern can be cloud grain and geometric lines, gluttonous grain, characters, animals, lines, etc. - Rubbing Min Min has collected two rubbings, which was given by a Suzhou calligrapher----HUA Rende. Rubbing is an ancient traditional Chinese crafts, copying the icon or character from the objects by using Chinese art paper and ink.
Key Words in Min Min's apartment
- Xiling Society of Seal Arts Xiling Society of Seal Arts, is an academic society of seal arts located in Hangzhou, China. Xiling was the first academic society of sealrelated learnings and arts, and currently the largest. - Liulichang The Liulichang is a famous district in downtown Beijing that is known for a series of traditional Chinese stone dwellings housing selling various craftwork, artistry, and antiques. It is one of Beijing's traditional old quarters.
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