Posts Tagged ‘chinese’

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Dragon Dance

by K on January 27th, 2012
Posted In: Comics
Dragon Dance

Thanks to Liz for her help with writing!

Every twelve years, the dragon with people legs descends from his celestial abode to grace one lucky city with his fabulous moves.

They say he taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk…

It has been a new Lunar Year since Monday and celebrations have been going on all week among Chinese communities and parades are scheduled in many areas for this weekend. My favorite part of these celebrations is always the dragon dance. If you’ve never seen it before, you’re missing out. The basic idea is that a team of people, covered by a rather excitingly colored drape and with a large crafted dragon’s head at the front, dance about the street, emulating the serpentine motions of the Chinese dragon. It’s a very important part of any celebration it appears in, but it’s especially important in 2012 seeing as it’s the year of the Dragon.

There are, of course, several varieties of Dragon Dance out there and the type of dance depends on the community performing it. For instance, there is another method that involves attaching a very similar style of cloth and head to poles which the dancers hold up and move, waving back and forth, up and down. Every version is beautiful and fun to watch in a different way.

The Chinese are well known to have great respect for Dragons. In mainland China, they have even gone so far as to ban western commercials that disrespect this sacred cultural image (something no Chinese advertising firm would think to do). This may seem strange to the west. It is, after all, one of those things that is truly different between European and Chinese culture, but it is an important distinction. To the European mind, dragons have been a thing to be feared, a thing to be conquered. They have long held a place in our literature as the ultimate monster, the last beast to be defeated before the hero can rest. From medieval literature all the way to modern classics like The Hobbit, the dragon has largely been a symbol of purest evil. The people of China, however, have had a very different conceptualization of this creature.

Dragons in China look different, they act different, if they were real creatures there would be no doubt that they would be different species entirely. The Dragon, in China, is a symbol of royalty and the divine right to rule. It is a creature inextricably linked with water and the weather patterns that water brings. It is a strong and benevolent beast that typically only enacts violence against those that deserve punishment. Everything about it is important, majestic, and beautiful. The dragon has been used as a symbol of cultural identity for the people of China for a long, long time, something that is unlikely to change any time soon. When the dragon makes his appearance, you know it has great significance.

2012, in Chinese astrology, is the year of the dragon and it comes with all the importance the dragon symbolizes. In the context of this ancient system, it is a powerful year, a year of change and luck, one that won’t come again for another twelve years. Maybe this year we’ll all experience something powerful or maybe we’ll learn something particularly significant…

…Like the fact that those dragon dancers weren’t emulating the basic look of a dragon after all but were faithfully recreating its look exactly.

Yeah, it’s probably something like that.

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Ancient Techniques

by K on November 15th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Ancient Techniques

Feng Shui: blocking negative energies, zombies, annoying neighbors, and illegal search and seizure from your home since 4000 BC. It’s really not surprising it has lasted this long.

The ancient art of Feng Shui is actually a terrifically complex system of geomancy, or earth divination, used to create harmonious relationships between humans and their surroundings. Or, if you’re a New Age sort of weirdo in the modern West, it’s a great way to do interior decorating!

Let’s set aside the obvious scientific questions of whether or not Feng Shui has any legitimate effect on anything for a moment.

Feng Shui has been seen as a mystical system with a great deal of potential for people outside its original sphere of influence, but like many of the other philosophies brought to the west during the New Age movement of the latter half of the 20th century, it has been significantly watered down and almost universally misunderstood. It hasn’t exactly been difficult for charlatans and swindlers to pick up on just how much people are willing to spend on this sort of thing and rake in the cash without any formal training at all. The problem is that many people here in the west simply don’t understand just how complicated the concepts behind Feng Shui are.

It all starts with Qi (pronounced “chee” in English). You’ve probably heard of it at some point, but it’s hard to know exactly what it means if you didn’t grow up with the concept. Qi is the life energy and the life force of all living things and is also seen as a kind of energy flow within the universe and the earth itself. Qi moves within and without the body. Translated literally, it means “breath” and there is a heavy focus on movement in understanding how qi works. Feng Shui utilizes this understanding of qi, of the ebb and flow of life energy, to choose “proper” locations and orientations for man made structures so as to keep them in balance with their surroundings and bring wealth and happiness to their inhabitants.

Feng shui, historically speaking, has been widely used throughout China for thousands of years to orient buildings in spiritually auspicious places. Spiritually significant structures (tombs, temples, and even homes) were given special consideration within this system. Using knowledge of astronomy, the local landscape, and often with the aid of a Luopan (a rather complex sort of magnetic compass designed specifically with feng shui in mind) it is thought that the practitioner can discover not only the proper geographical location for a building, but also the correct location in time for it to be built. There are various methods for achieving this and different schools of thought on just how such locations and times are to be calculated, that I am not really qualified to relate here. The whole thing is really that intricate.

The art of Feng Shui can be difficult to understand for the western mind. It is inextricably bound up with both the alchemical and magical philosophy behind Taoism and the very ordered thinking of Confucianism, both of which have been enormously influential on China for over two thousand years. By understanding that philosophies such as these are significant pieces of cultural heritage we can see the cause and effect behind the shaping of entire nations, and that is pretty cool if you ask me.

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Drama Lama

by K on February 8th, 2011
Posted In: Comics, Uncategorized
Drama Lama

OTHER STUFF: Hey the links are working again! Hooray! Stumble Upon and other outside links should be working properly!

SITE NEWS: Coe of Coe’s Quest fame has done it again. Once more he has entered the breach and dragged the site from server hell to a better place. The site should be running a lot more quickly and reliably now! If you notice anything weird, let me know and I’ll fix it up. I know the store is messed up, I’ll fix that this week.

BLOG POST

Everything nowadays is regulated. Vehicles are handled by the DMV, you’ve got your building permits, your residential neighborhoods, your income tax, and so on. Sometimes it feels like the rules never end. China is here to see that this vague feeling becomes a hard and fast reality. While religion may get a free pass in the United States and many other nations, China has decided it’s time to start regulating who gets reincarnated and where. Big brother is watching, everybody! Watching you die and live through the cycle of samsara until you break free to enlightenment!

For those of you unfamiliar with the ridiculousness of the Chinese Government, you’re in for a treat. A few years back, China decided that it was sick and tired of Buddhists always reincarnating in China. I’m sure we can all relate. I had buddhists reincarnating in my walls for YEARS, it was a huge pain in the ass. You’ve got to walk them through the enlightenment process over generations so they can finally be rid of their delusions before you can get some sleep. Those damn throat chants really put a damper on my sleeping schedule…

Anyway, rather than going through the trouble of becoming an enlightened teacher or calling pest control, China has opted to begin regulating reincarnation. How they aim to do this remains a mystery, though a hilarious one. Do they have to wait in line? Fill out forms? “Excuse me, but what form will you take in your next life, sir?”

Insanity.

China’s real aims are, unfortunately and unsurprisingly, rather more insidious than the comedy side would at first make them appear. Rather than just another silly exercise in control, the Chinese government is attempting to stamp out Buddhism within its borders. This includes (and is aimed at) Tibet. The Chinese government despises the Dalai Lama and, being rather powerless to deal with him at this point, has opted to deal with his successor instead. China hops to find its own officially sanctioned puppet-lama that they can use to control the Buddhists that remain in Tibet and other parts of China. By pointing out the fact that they have banned people from reincarnating, China can say, “Hey check it out, nobody’s allowed to reincarnate without our permission! We gave THIS guy permission, he’s the Dalai Lama and he’s working with us. He has seen the error of his ways.” Thus they hope to either eradicate Buddhism or to, at the very least, control it the way they control everything: through coercion and fear.

Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, is irrelevant in this. If reincarnation does exist, this is just a silly thing that won’t stop an expert in the first place. It’s said that powerful Lamas are perfectly capable of controlling where they are reincarnated and the Dalai Lama has already expressed the fact that he will NOT be reincarnated in China. If reincarnation doesn’t exist, this is all just ludicrous. The exiled Tibetans will find their new leader and China will find theirs and we’ll have competing brands of Dalai Lama.

I’m willing to bet the Tibetans’ Lama will feature 50% more compassion than their competitor’s. That will sure be impressive.

My personal feeling on this is that I happen to like the Dalai Lama. He’s a smart guy and surprisingly realistic and down to earth. The things he asks for are not unreasonable and the fact that China has stamped down so hard on him and his people just further proves that the Chinese Government has a lot things all wrong. These people don’t even TRY to appear like the good guys like most western governments.

I mean, they’re all idiots, but at least give us a show, right?

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Yellow, Like that River

by K on March 23rd, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Yellow, Like that River

When chlorine just isn’t going to cut it, it’s time to find yourself a water dragon. Not one of those silly lizards. We are talking legit dragons here. Public pools, I’m looking at you.

Dragons are featured heavily in a large number of Asian myths and folktales. Unlike their European counterparts which were seen as vicious monsters, most of these creatures are and were seen as wise beings that purify or protect bodies of water or control rain. The physiological differences between the two are many, but the way they were seen in these two parts of the world couldn’t be more disparate. Even today, dragons are seen as powerful cultural icons throughout Asia and while they aren’t worshipped or prayed to so much these days, they are still viewed as a symbol of certain nations. In fact, there was a Nike commercial not too long ago that featured a basketball player slaying a dragon that was banned in China. That’s some strong cultural identification, there.

Of course, dragons also did a great many other things. They are probably best known for their roles as a kind of imperial mascot, hence the strong aversion to imagery that defaces or devalues dragonkind.

In other news, I hope some people are enjoying the HT game in spite of its shortcomings. The poor thing’s ratings are pretty bad, but I expected that. I guess it doesn’t help that its free. Anyway, it was an exercise for an introductory game development class that was supposed to help us understand what work as an artist in the game development industry was like. I got a lot out of the class in the end, but I didn’t have much to do with coding it. As such, I can’t fix any bugs that might be in it. Oh well, sorry if you didn’t like it! Just put it down!

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