GongFu Tea Cups

The first impression for Chinese GongFu tea cups is tiny and exquisite. Normally, Chinese people using purple sand(zi sha) or Porcelin to made it. Cause GongFu Tea is a kind of tea ceremony, Chinese people prefer put some beautiful pattern or Chinese calligraphy at Cups outside surface, so the drinking is more like a kind of art.

If you interesting with Chinese tea culture, you can view following website: http://tea.timzhao.com/ctcom/index.html

GongFu Tea Equipment

(Source from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_tea_culture)

Tea is traditional drink for the Chinese people's daily lives. GongFu Tea is a tea ceremony in China. The GongFu Tea equipment are all tiny and exquisite. A smaller tea pot about 200cc capacity, Tiny tea cups as the size of half walnuts, usually 4 pieces in one set. The tea pot and cups can be made of china, but more usually, it is made of the Chinese special material called "Zi Sha" (purple sand pottery). (Source from:http://tea.timzhao.com/ctcom/METHOD/gongfu.html)

Lucky cloud

In tradion people put lucky cloud pattern on the decoration.

Or they put on the furniture.

This is traditional lucky cloud pattern.

Lucky cloud is traditional chinese pattern, it's means propitious. 2008 Beijing olympic games, they put this pattern on the torch.

What is Yin & Yang?

(Symbol of Yin Yang)

In Chinese philosophy, the concept of Yin Yang (阴　Yin　阳　Yang) is used to describe how seemingly opposing forces are bound together, intertwined, and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn. The concept lies at the heart of many branches of classical Chinese science and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine and a central principle of several forms of martial arts and exercise, such as Taijiquan and Gung fu .


Yin-Yang, always has the following characteristics:

Yin Yang are opposing: Yin yang describe opposing qualities in phenomena. For instance, winter is yin to summer's yang over the course of a year, and femininity is yin to masculinity's yang in human relationships. It is impossible to talk about ying or yang without some reference to the opposite.
Yin yang are rooted together: Since yin and yang are created together in a single movement, they are bound together as parts of a mutual whole. A race with only men or only women would disappear in a single generation, but men and women together create a new generations that allow the race they mutually create (and mutually come from) to survive.

Yin yang transform each other: Like an undertow in the ocean, every advance is complemented by a retreat, and every rise transforms into a fall. Thus, a seed will sprout from the earth and grow upwards towards the sky - an intrinsically yang movement. Then when it reaches its full height, it will begin to weaken, and eventually will fall back to the earth in decay - an intrinsically yin movement. Yin always contains the potential for yang, and yang for yin.

Yin-yang are balanced:Yin-yang is a dynamic equilibrium. Because they arise together they are always equal: if one disappears, the other must disappear as well, leaving emptiness. This is rarely immediately apparent, though, because yang elements are clear and obvious while yin elements are hidden and subtle.

What is square earth round heaven?

天圆地方(square earth round heaven) is traditional chinese philosophy, in ancient China, people believe that the sky as like a rounded dome, and the earth appear like flat / square. Chinese people also incorporate this philosophy into traditional architecture, like: Temple of Heaven, the main building is around, like heaven; the foundations and axes of the complex are square (or 2 dimensional - that is, flat), like the earth . Today, For 2008 Olympic Games, Chinese built the Water Cube(square), and Bird Nest Stadium(round) at opposite side. These two building reveal this philosophy(square earth round heaven) again.

King Chair

王=King
'King'ChairDesigned by Shao Fan
The design for this chair has been based on a traditional round chair ('yuan yi'), which is usually associated with high status, reflected also by the position the chair takes in the household.
Here, Shao Fan has added his own innovation, widening the round chair with the addition of new parts, and giving it the shape of a throne, making it an even more imposing figure.

(source from: http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/22138-popup.html)

Moon chair

月=Moon
Designed by Shao FanBeijing, China
In the 'Chairs' series, Shao Fan plays with modern man's fascination with the Chinese language and Chinese ideograms or written characters.
The design is based very much on the Chinese ideogram and the frontal view of the chair evokes the image of the crescent moon. However the seat breaks away from the continuity of the upright back and comes forward towards the viewer.

(Source from:http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/22140-popup.html)

Toothpick Test Pieces

The inspiration still from the "Nest" stadium. This time I want to make more three-dimensional, I try to created my own pattern from that stadium, so I optional insert the toothpicks to papper, I try to choose the interesting part from there. Then I re-combine them together.
This kind of pattern, give people more stand out, I think it will more interesting than normal pattern what I made before. The toothpick is made by bamboo, it will feel more Chinese style.

My 2008, My Olympiad -- 2

When people ask the "BirdNest" stadium designer, did you think about the Chinese culture elements in this design? Designer said: yes, we adopt the pattern from Chinese porcelain, the stadium form like container, can involvement lots of people inside. These are all related to Chinese culture.

By the way, this stadium design by Herzog and De Meuron Architecture AG, Switzerland, and China Architecture Design Institute.

My 2008, My Olympiad

2008/08/08, it will be a great day in my life.
During China perparing Olympiad, I found a lot of great design. National stadium(Bird nest) is one of new architecture in Beijing.


The unique shape and pattern bring to me a lot of inspiration.