History, Arts & Traditions
Could a chessboard be a travel object?
One nineteenth-century Chinese chessboard at the Met is made of lacquered wood. Games have material histories too.
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History, Arts & Traditions
Why put a dragon on a fan?
A seventeenth-century fan at the Met joins a practical object to festival imagery.
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History, Arts & Traditions
What can a fastening tell you about a dress?
A Shanghai-made qipao at the V&A rewards a close look at its bamboo embroidery and knotted fastenings.
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Everyday China
How can a bamboo basket become a sweater?
A designer born in Fujian reworked bamboo-weaving structures into contemporary clothing.
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Everyday China
Why was Chinese lacquer called “Coromandel”?
A trade name followed a shipping route, not necessarily the object’s place of making.
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Everyday China
Could a cabinet be sent away to get dressed?
Some furniture forms crossed seas so that Chinese workshops could finish them for European buyers.
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Everyday China
Why did Europeans try to copy lacquer?
East Asian lacquer was admired in Europe, but makers could not simply copy the material.
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History, Arts & Traditions
Why does an inkstone carry two dates centuries apart?
One object at the Met has inscriptions that do not sit neatly together. That makes it more interesting.
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History, Arts & Traditions
Why does embroidery belong in a modern city?
Suzhou’s account of Jiangsu Week at the 2025 Osaka Expo names a maker at work: Yu Junyao, demonstrating a goldfish pattern in silk embroidery. The report…
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History, Arts & Traditions
Why would a tea city need stone carvers?
Hangzhou’s creative identity includes tea, silk and stone carving. A city can hold several crafts at once.
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Everyday China
Why would a city give a prize to a designer?
The Shenzhen Design Award for Young Talents, often shortened to SDAY, began in 2013. Its organiser describes a programme for designers under thirty-five,…
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Language & Meaning
Which way do you read a vertical page?
A vertical page changes more than the direction your eyes travel.
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