Arranke

In Beijing, one of the most impressive folk arts is the papercutting (Chinese: 剪紙). It is the handcraft of Chinese people which use a skillful and creative technique to cut the paper and turn it to a very attractive decoration on the doors, windows, columns, walls and lamps. Every time when I visit Beijing, I take many photos for the papercuttings as they are very beautiful and unique. Checking the history, the tradition for papercutting was started in 6th century. It was served for religious purpose at first. There are two ways for doing the papercuttings: scissors method and knife method. Today, papercuttings are chiefly used as decoration in many special events, like Chinese New Year, Marriage and cerebrate the birthday. There is a quite funny study: In the countryside, papercuttings are usually made only by women and girls. This used to be one of the crafts that every girl was to master and that were often used to judge brides. Professional papercutting artists are, on the other h...

During our trip to Tibet, "Jui Hing" ("祝興家庭旅社" in Traditional Chinese) is one of the greatest family hostel in Lhasa. It is opened by a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Tang. Besides living, you can experience friendship, kindness and love in here. Jui Hing Family Hostel is only 5-10 minutes away from historic ensemble of the Potala Palace, the transportation is very convenience and you can access most of the famous places in Lhasa easily. There are different types of bed rooms, 1-3 people that suits different combination of travellers. The rooms situation are wonderful, you can see from the pictures, rooms are clean and tidy, with standard size of bed and TV set, toilet and bathrooms are clean too. Outside the rooms, there's a sitting rooms which you can see the Potala Palace very clear, and it's great for you to take photos during sunset. Many travellers like to rest in the sitting room as they can chat and exchange information with each other. Next time, if you are i...

By a small graver, Uncle Chun, from Man Wa Lane, is simply sculpturing on stones bringing out five-thousand-year Chinese culture implicitly. When Uncle Chun was about ten years old, he formally became a pupil to a master to learn a craft for almost 20 years. When recalling the memories in those years, he spoke the joy and sorrow for learning carving excitedly. For craving a seal, you not only need to know the penmanship, but also have to learn different ways in manufacturing and how to handle different fonts of writing. "Even if you have a beautiful handwriting, it doesn’t mean that you can become a famous craftsman." Uncle Chun was speaking slowly and tirelessly. Penmanship is just a small part for making a seal since the word is written in a reverse way. Moreover, you have to use a carving tool instead of a writing brush; writing on a stone instead of one piece of paper. Besides, the font for craving is quite different from writing and therefore we cannot just copy and pa...

Long time no update! It wasn't that we were lazy - we went to Tibet during 30-June to 14-July. We used our time for preparing to Tibet and traveling in Tibet! Luckily, we came back Hong Kong so then we can continue our Arranke! Life becomes different after Tibet trip. We got some special energies and insights from there. Maybe landscapes or people gave us that changes. During the trip, we thought lots of things, including the directions of Arranke. After reviews and reviews, we've decided to go ahead. We'll focus more time on our business - Arranke! Tibet is a wonderful place; Lhasa is a beautiful city! We recommend highly you to travel there, especially by train. We'll post our itineraries and photos later on. Please keep your eyes on Arranke! References: Nothing Special at Saiwan: Tibet (Chinese)

Chinese character is one of the most interesting written languages in the world, as it composed with different kind of classifications like pictograms, simple indicatives and compound indicatives etc. Among all, a Chinese word "Hei" ("囍" in Traditional Chinese or "Xi" in Mandarin) which you can always see it in Chinese celebration events. It is a symbol which has the meaning of joyful, bliss and auspicious to the new married couple. There's a meaningful story behind the "Hei". The famous Chinese poem writer - Wang Anshi in Song Dynasty, he designed "Hei" from his life experience. When Wang was young, in his way to the imperial examination, he saw a couplet outside a renowned family called Ma. However, he was hurry for the examination, so he didn't complete it. During the imperial examination he found that this couplet was in his examination and he was delighted. After the examination, Wang visited the Ma's family to complete...

Hong Kong is the mixture of the East and the West. When these two distinct cultures collide, what's the cultural singularity in this hybrid city? The answer is "Arranke". Arranke is the transformation of Spanish word, arranque, which means a starting point. Meanwhile, the inside "k" is the initial K of the abbreviation of Hong Kong – Kong. We, Hongkongers, call our city as "Kong" for short. Arranke, thus, is our beginning of Hong Kong Chinese culture. Let's go!