Introduction

Dough Figurine is a famous Beijing handicraft. Dough modeling originated from the old custom of molding and steaming dough food as sacrificial offerings or birthday presents. Nearly every family in the city molded dough pieces during the Spring Festival. They looked nice and tasted good, representing a splendid harvest and wishes for good luck. They were also toys for children. Today, dough-modeling handicraftsmen have improved their techniques and turned the products into visual artworks.

Story

Figurine is a simple folk handicraft demonstrating high artistic quality. It has a history over 1,340 years. The vivid figurine is made by skilled craftsmen from sticky rice dough mixed with pigments, honey and olefin. After cutting, slashing, pinching and twisting the dough, a lifelike child, beautiful girl or other creations will come out in the twinkling of an eye. You can witness the craftsmen making dough figurines along the exhibition streets in Beijing and you will be astonished by their excellent skills.

Jade is a rare, colorful and hard stone, and it is usually polished and carved to make jade ware. Jade items are precious and rare treasures in China. Jade ornaments largely appeared in the post-Song period and prevalent during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. 

Story

The jade ornaments of the Ming Dynasty were tiny and usually became, playthings in the hands of the literati. The ornaments bore patterns such as landscapes, birds and flowers, or were made to resemble humans and animals. 

The main raw materials included celadon jade, blue and white jade and yellow jade. The Qing Dynasty witnessed the emergence of large jade ornaments which were more complex and finer. In the Qing Dynasty the most reputed jade chipping center was Lane Zhuanzhu in Suzhou where the processed jade ware was quite exquisite and beautiful. 

The jade workshops in Yangzhou were especially skillful in chipping large pieces of jade ware that usually weighed several thousand Jin, but could weigh over ten thousand Jin. Jade chipping in the Qing Dynasty excelled in combining the merits of traditional painting, carving, and handicraft arts as well as absorbing the artistic styles of foreign arts.

The name "cheongsam," stands for "long dress," comes from the dialect of China's Guangdong Province (Cantonese). In other parts of the country including Beijing, however, it is known as "Qipao".

Easy and comfortable to wear, cheongsam fit the Chinese female figure well. Its high neck, closed collar, and its sleeves may be short, medium or full length, depending mainly on the season and wearer's taste. The dress is buttoned on the right or left side, with a loose chest, a fitted waist, and slits up either side, all of which combine to set off the beauty of the female form.

Story

Cheongsam (Qipao) is a female dress with distinctive Chinese features and enjoys a growing popularity in the international world of fashion. This body-hugging dress for women in China originating from the Manchu in the early 17th century was modernized and improved upon in Shanghai around 1900.