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Food, apparel and art: the perfect holiday excursion
By Zhou Yang |
January 31, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WITH the Lunar New Year just around the corner, the traditional festive atmosphere has been mounting in Anting Old Street. Take a stroll along the Anting River and you can indulge in a great variety of delicious food, traditional clothing and fascinating artworks. This old street is an ideal place to experience the traditional Chinese culture of Spring Festival.
The northern end of Anting Old Street is a center for Chinese painting and calligraphy. Although some artists will leave for faraway hometowns for the holiday, others will be on hand during the Spring Festival to write New Year scrolls for customers.
Calligrapher Wang Zhensheng runs a gallery there called Hanmozhai. It houses many elegant calligraphy works in different styles and mounted on delicate frames.
Over half of the gallery is dedicated to scrolls featuring various patterns of the Chinese character fu (fortune). Wang said such scrolls are the best-sellers during Spring Festival, widely used as either home decoration or holiday presents.
More than 10 pupils come to the gallery every day to practice traditional brush calligraphy. Wang said he initially had no plans to become a tutor, but many calligraphy enthusiasts came to the gallery seeing him as a mentor. Impressed by their sincerity, he consented and started teaching calligraphy.
Before each Spring Festival, Wang and his pupils set up a booth in the old street and write New Year scrolls for passersby for free. He said the smiles of their beneficiaries are payment enough.
Wang says the success of his gallery owes much to the cultural depth of Anting Old Street. The traditional art of Chinese calligraphy seems so naturally to fit there.
During each Spring Festival, he would receive special presents from calligrapher friends around China - their local traditional New Year pictures.
Despite a small number of apparel shops along Anting Old Street, those that do business there offer a distinctive range of clothing.
One shop sells traditional Chinese apparel that is very popular among local residents. Most of its customers are brides-to-be preparing for their weddings.
Many people like to get into the holiday spirit by dressing in traditional costumes. Even old-fashioned cloth shoes have made a comeback. They are especially comforting to women who wear high heels to work during the rest of year and want to give their feet a break. Then, too, the cold temperatures that often accompany Spring Festival call for warm clothing, and nothing is warmer than traditional Chinese padded apparel.
The log cabin at the southern end of the old street near the Anting River is an apparel shop selling dresses made of homespun cloth and designed after the traditional fishing outfits of southeast China. With a headscarf on head and dressed in blue-and-white homespun, the girls would be much more captivating than they used to be, aren't they?
Near the Yong'an Pagoda in the center of Anting Old Street is a restaurant called Wangjiasha, where you can enjoy genuine white sliced mutton, one of Anting's famous "three white delicacies."
Chinese traditional medicine holds that mutton, mild in taste and warm in nature, is a nutritious food with bone-strengthening and blood-enriching effects. It is especially popular among the Chinese in autumn and winter.
The northern end of Anting Old Street is a center for Chinese painting and calligraphy. Although some artists will leave for faraway hometowns for the holiday, others will be on hand during the Spring Festival to write New Year scrolls for customers.
Calligrapher Wang Zhensheng runs a gallery there called Hanmozhai. It houses many elegant calligraphy works in different styles and mounted on delicate frames.
Over half of the gallery is dedicated to scrolls featuring various patterns of the Chinese character fu (fortune). Wang said such scrolls are the best-sellers during Spring Festival, widely used as either home decoration or holiday presents.
More than 10 pupils come to the gallery every day to practice traditional brush calligraphy. Wang said he initially had no plans to become a tutor, but many calligraphy enthusiasts came to the gallery seeing him as a mentor. Impressed by their sincerity, he consented and started teaching calligraphy.
Before each Spring Festival, Wang and his pupils set up a booth in the old street and write New Year scrolls for passersby for free. He said the smiles of their beneficiaries are payment enough.
Wang says the success of his gallery owes much to the cultural depth of Anting Old Street. The traditional art of Chinese calligraphy seems so naturally to fit there.
During each Spring Festival, he would receive special presents from calligrapher friends around China - their local traditional New Year pictures.
Despite a small number of apparel shops along Anting Old Street, those that do business there offer a distinctive range of clothing.
One shop sells traditional Chinese apparel that is very popular among local residents. Most of its customers are brides-to-be preparing for their weddings.
Many people like to get into the holiday spirit by dressing in traditional costumes. Even old-fashioned cloth shoes have made a comeback. They are especially comforting to women who wear high heels to work during the rest of year and want to give their feet a break. Then, too, the cold temperatures that often accompany Spring Festival call for warm clothing, and nothing is warmer than traditional Chinese padded apparel.
The log cabin at the southern end of the old street near the Anting River is an apparel shop selling dresses made of homespun cloth and designed after the traditional fishing outfits of southeast China. With a headscarf on head and dressed in blue-and-white homespun, the girls would be much more captivating than they used to be, aren't they?
Near the Yong'an Pagoda in the center of Anting Old Street is a restaurant called Wangjiasha, where you can enjoy genuine white sliced mutton, one of Anting's famous "three white delicacies."
Chinese traditional medicine holds that mutton, mild in taste and warm in nature, is a nutritious food with bone-strengthening and blood-enriching effects. It is especially popular among the Chinese in autumn and winter.
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