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Spring beckons so let's go fly a kite
By Xu Wenwen |
April 7, 2010, Wednesday
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AS wintery conditions fade, Hanghzou families are heading outdoors to soak up the warm sun and clear skies. But for many it's an opportunity to set free their kites which have been hand made in many shapes and sizes with colorful art, Xu Wenwen reports.
As Hangzhou people embrace spring after a long, variable winter, the clear sky above the city is dotted with hundreds of colorful kites.
Although still chilly, the pleasant sunshine and mild breezes lure people outside, with hundreds swarming to the banks of West Lake or the Grand Canal to enjoy fresh-air activities.
And out come the kites, an activity which dates back in China more than 2,000 years. In their early days, kites were used for measuring distance, gauging wind, lifting people, signaling, communication and military operations.
Today, kite-flying is an outdoor pastime enjoyed by people and cultures around the world.
Though kite styles vary in other Asian and Western countries, in China, traditional wing kites, panel kites and string kites still prevail.
Last weekend, Cheng Dishen, a local kite craftsman with more than 20 years' experience flew his 200-meter-long dragon kite into the sky once again.
Floating in the breeze, the dragon's chubby eyeballs rolled and its fantastic hand-painted long body and well-designed structure soon caught the attention of onlookers.
As a typical "dragon string kite," it features a huge but light head up front and trails behind it hundreds of small round kites which symbolize the dragon's scales. It is controlled by three lines linked to the hand reel.
This dragon kite has won Cheng a bunch of medals in many national and provincial kite competitions. He worked hard on it, devoting 12 days to assemble, color and load the 80-centimeter dragon head.
Though the dragon kite is difficult to make and fly, Cheng says the basic "string kite" is simpler to control so that all age groups can give it a whirl.
Many string kites consist of smaller kites on the same line boosting their uplift so that a super-long string kite can extend thousands of meters into the sky.
Apart from kites in the shape of the conventional fictional dragon, butterfly, swallow and phoenix, they are also built to resemble soaring creatures with expanding wings.
Developed from a simple square with two tails, the panel kite is another item in the traditional China kite catalogue.
It also can be rectangular or diamond shaped and the surfaces lend themselves to imaginative art.
Wing and panel kites can have solid frames or consist only of soft upper body sections. The solid frames are easier to control because they have greater wind resistance and good balance.
The alternative is a kite which is more susceptible to wind conditions.
Cheng says to ensure a kite flies high, three conditions need to be met: light, tight and balanced. To make a kite, the structure must be firm but not too heavy and be flexible enough to support wind forces but not too fragile.
Bamboo is chosen as the best structural material because it is flexible and strong. However, as bamboo quality varies, an experienced kite craftsman needs to choose the best bamboo to suit the kite's size and aerial conditions.
The other challenge to building kites is to hand paint them with traditional Chinese art. This is usually done by the kite makers as well.
The skies are dominated, however, by mass produced kites with little intrinsic appeal or art values and cannot compare to hand-made models.
So Chinese hand-made kites, especially those with refined paintings, are becoming art works in themselves, functioning as adornments in people's rooms rather than the sky.
As Hangzhou people embrace spring after a long, variable winter, the clear sky above the city is dotted with hundreds of colorful kites.
Although still chilly, the pleasant sunshine and mild breezes lure people outside, with hundreds swarming to the banks of West Lake or the Grand Canal to enjoy fresh-air activities.
And out come the kites, an activity which dates back in China more than 2,000 years. In their early days, kites were used for measuring distance, gauging wind, lifting people, signaling, communication and military operations.
Today, kite-flying is an outdoor pastime enjoyed by people and cultures around the world.
Though kite styles vary in other Asian and Western countries, in China, traditional wing kites, panel kites and string kites still prevail.
Last weekend, Cheng Dishen, a local kite craftsman with more than 20 years' experience flew his 200-meter-long dragon kite into the sky once again.
Floating in the breeze, the dragon's chubby eyeballs rolled and its fantastic hand-painted long body and well-designed structure soon caught the attention of onlookers.
As a typical "dragon string kite," it features a huge but light head up front and trails behind it hundreds of small round kites which symbolize the dragon's scales. It is controlled by three lines linked to the hand reel.
This dragon kite has won Cheng a bunch of medals in many national and provincial kite competitions. He worked hard on it, devoting 12 days to assemble, color and load the 80-centimeter dragon head.
Though the dragon kite is difficult to make and fly, Cheng says the basic "string kite" is simpler to control so that all age groups can give it a whirl.
Many string kites consist of smaller kites on the same line boosting their uplift so that a super-long string kite can extend thousands of meters into the sky.
Apart from kites in the shape of the conventional fictional dragon, butterfly, swallow and phoenix, they are also built to resemble soaring creatures with expanding wings.
Developed from a simple square with two tails, the panel kite is another item in the traditional China kite catalogue.
It also can be rectangular or diamond shaped and the surfaces lend themselves to imaginative art.
Wing and panel kites can have solid frames or consist only of soft upper body sections. The solid frames are easier to control because they have greater wind resistance and good balance.
The alternative is a kite which is more susceptible to wind conditions.
Cheng says to ensure a kite flies high, three conditions need to be met: light, tight and balanced. To make a kite, the structure must be firm but not too heavy and be flexible enough to support wind forces but not too fragile.
Bamboo is chosen as the best structural material because it is flexible and strong. However, as bamboo quality varies, an experienced kite craftsman needs to choose the best bamboo to suit the kite's size and aerial conditions.
The other challenge to building kites is to hand paint them with traditional Chinese art. This is usually done by the kite makers as well.
The skies are dominated, however, by mass produced kites with little intrinsic appeal or art values and cannot compare to hand-made models.
So Chinese hand-made kites, especially those with refined paintings, are becoming art works in themselves, functioning as adornments in people's rooms rather than the sky.
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