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Shadow play is a special drama rooted in China. It is a kind of performing art with manifold arias and genres. As an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment, it uses opaque, often articulated figures in front of an illuminated backdrop to create the illusion of moving images. Legend has it that Emperor Wudi of the Western Han Dynasty became depressed after the death of his favorite concubine. To help him cope with his loss, an occultist sculpted a wooden figure in her likeness and projected the sculpture's shadow on a curtain for the emperor. Seeing the shadow was a source of comfort to the emperor, who believed the shadow was her spirit. That is the story of how Chinese shadow plays began.

The folk art became flourished in the Song Dynasty. Its popularity culminated in the Yuan Dynasty, when it was a common form of recreation in the barracks of Mongolian troops. The conquering Mongols spread it to distant countries - Persia, Arabia and Turkey. Later, it was introduced to Southeastern Asian countries. It gained popularity in Europe in the mid-18th century, after French missionaries to China took the shadow figures back to France. Fascinated by the figures, they began performing shadow plays. In 1767, such performances were put on in Paris and Marseilles. Famous German poet Goethe in 1774 introduced a Chinese shadow play to a German audience at an exhibition. He was extremely fond of this oriental art form. On August 28, 1781 he celebrated his 32nd birthday with a Chinese shadow play performance.

However, shadow puppets today are made of leather instead of wood because leather is lighter, easier to manipulate and less difficult to carry. The puppets are painted with colors representing different human qualities - kindness, wickedness, beauty or ugliness. During performances, the "actors", controlled by guiding sticks, are held close to a white curtain, and their colored shadows are cast on the cloth by a powerful light. Behind the curtain the performers manipulate the silhouettes to act, accompanied by songs, music or dialogues. The plays can be quite dramatic and, when it comes to fairy tales or kungfu stories, the "actors" may be made to ride on clouds or perform unusual feats, to audiences' enjoyment, like the one entitled "Monkey King's fights against Ox-King" recently staged at the shadow play hall in the National Museum of China in Beijing.

Not only acclaimed by farmers, it was also put on in the imperial palace. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, an official ranking the fifth place was in charge of shadow play. At that time the shadow play troupes performed puppets in the daytime and shadow play for home celebration at night.

Some people may give shadow play too much credit when they suggest it heralded the film industry. At least, it has enriched the world's amusement business. However, it gradually faded from the limelight with the advent of modern audiovisual media – primarily television and movies. Many shadow play groups were disbanded and many of the most talented artists died. It is nearly extinct in most regions. Fortunately, it is alive and well in some areas in the country.

 

Legend has it that in the Qing Dynasty an official stopped and sought rest at a small temple. He took out his crystal snuff bottle to take a sniff and found it was empty. He scraped off some of the powder that was stuck on the inside walls of the bottle using a slender, sharp bamboo stick, thus leaving lines on the inside of the bottle. When he left he left behind his bottle which was found by a young monk. The monk saw that the marks inside the bottle produced a pattern and thus the "inside painted" snuff bottle was born.

The "painting brush" of the snuff bottle artist today is not very different from what the official in the story used. It is a slender bamboo stick, not much thicker, but much longer than a matchstick, with the tip shaped like a fine pointed hook. Dipped in colored ink and thrust inside the bottle, the hooked tip is used to paint on the interior surface of the bottle, following the will of the artist. 

It is believed that the founder of modern colorful inside painting was "Gan Huan" whose real name was "Gan Xuanwen". His earliest piece appears to have been painted in 1816. "Gan Huan" along with "Zeng Tianzhi" and "Jiang Zhilin" make up what is commonly referred to as the "Early Period" of inside painted snuff bottles.

Today there are three main studios producing high quality inside painted snuff bottles. These are the "Xisan Art Academy of Inside Painting" located in the city of Hengshui, Hebei province, with "Wang Xisan" as the master artist, the Beijing Studio in Beijing with "Liu Shouben" as the master artist and the Shandong school located in Boshan with "Li Kechang" as the master artist.

In modern times, Liu Shouben, a celebrated master in this field, succeeded in painting all of the 108 heroes and heroines of the classical novel Water Margin, each with his or her characteristic experession, inside a single bottle. Snuff bottles are no more than 6 to 7 cm high and 4 to 5 cm wide with limited internal surface area, making such a feat outstanding

Silk figurines are a Chinese traditional handicraft, the making of the figurines involves a dozen steps, including sculpting, painting, designing clothing and props, and arranging the hair and headgears. Each step requires sophisticated techniques and ingenious craftsmanship. Usually, the face and hands of a silk figurine are made of natural silk, while the other parts are made from fine silk cloth.
Silk figurines usually represent young men and women in Chinese folktales, traditional dramas and ethnic dancers. The subjects are mainly characters from folk stories loved by China's common people, including ancient beauties, dramatic figurines and modern dancers.
The graceful and colorful silk figurines are exquisitely made, each with a different expression, bright colors and an elegant style. They are not only a rare specimen for indoor ornamentation, but also a stereoscopic piece for understanding Chinese history, local conditions and customs. For a long time, Beijing silk figurines have been greatly valued and highly appreciated as collector's items.

Traditionally artisans combined the use of exquisite natural materials with their skilled workmanship to make Chinese traditional furniture into an art form which is appreciated to the present day. In the past ordinary people could only enjoy the beauty of antique furniture in museums or in specialized books. With our deep appreciation for Chinese traditional furniture,we replicated these antiques in miniature form. All the miniatures are handmade, and we strive to use original materials, and construction techniques to retain authenticity. Accessories for the miniature furniture are replicated using materials such as gold foil, silver wire, copper and bamboo. You can keep the miniature furniture to enjoy for yourself or present it as a special gift. Micro shrank the Ming and Qing Dynasties furniture to reappear the Chinese antique furniture magnificent history culture Is Chinese nation ancient civilization essence art, the style is unique, has the very high art and the collection value. Ninety percent of the work to produce miniature furniture is crafted by hand. Producing miniature furniture is a very complex and labor intensive process since we use the same intricate joinery construction as life size antiques. More than 200 different tools are used to create the miniature furniture. Not only is it a ornaments, but also it is an very significant collection. Our items are very beautiful and rare, it is 100% handmade art. If you really like Chinese antiques or collecting Chinese antiques, do not hesitate to put a bid for it. It will be an important component to your collection.

In the west of the Eurasian continent, items were in most cases used for agriculture and warfare. In China, the greatest part of discovered and preserved bronze items was not forged to ploughs or swords but cast to sacrificial vessels. Even a great part of weapons had a sacrificial meaning like daggers and axes that symbolized the heavenly power of the ruler. The strong religious sense of bronze objects brought up a great number of vessel types and shapes which became so typically that they should be copied as archaic style receptacles with other materials like wood, jade, ivory or even gold until the 20th century. The first researches about Shang and Zhou vessels were made in Song times when every type got a scientific name. Until then, some types did not even have a fixed name or were alloted to different categories, like ding and li. The different types were used for three purposes: as vessels containing millet wine, vessels containing food or vessels containing water. Some vessels with their long feet made it possible to cook the food inside, making a fire of charcoal under the vessel. Some types were standing in a charcoal basin, especially wine containers. The ritual books of old China minutely describe who was allowed to use what kinds of sacrificial vessels and how much. The king of Zhou was favoured to use 9 dings and 8 gui vessels, a duke (zhuhou: gong) was allowed to use 7 dings and 6 guis, a baron (daifu) could use 5 dings and 3 guis, a nobleman (shi) was allowed to use 3 dings and 2 guis. We can see that the vessel types were composed to sets including the most important types for offering in a sacrifice, often using the vessel types of ding, gui, dou, hu, pan and yi or he.