La queue d'un dragon

Photo prise au Royal Pavilion à Brighton. Comme tout est décoré à la chinoise, ou en tout cas à la pseudo-chinoise, avec des dragons partout, il y a une exhibition sur les dragons. On trouve aussi dans le pavillons deux dragons espiègles (je ne me rappelle plus des noms), un rouge et un vert, qui se promènent partout et font parfois du saccage. J'ai pu prendre une photo de la queue d'un d'entre eux, qui montait une cheminée. Vous voyez les traces de ses pattes sur la dalle de pierre.

Chinese Dragons in Brighton

I took this picture in Brighton, at the Royal Pavilion. To make a long story short, because back in the days, they were really into exotism, more specifically Chinese exotism, they drew heavily on Chinese culture, or at least its stereotypes, to decorate the place. Among other things, Chinese dragons. They were not really genuine (many have wings, for instance), but they are everywhere. Anyway, this dragon is obviously a modern addition, part of a special exhibition. All the same, it's a cool dragon and I wanted to share it here. Life is always better with dragons.

Mysterious Chinese Dragon

 Last weekend, when we went to the school camping activity with Wolfie, I saw this thing floating on top of a pole. And I was wondering what the heck was that. I mean I could tell it was a dragon, and a Chinese dragon at that, but still, I was not sure. So I took a picture and checked online. A quick Google Image search made me discover that it was a Traditional Chinese Fire Dragon Windsock. Well, I got the Chinese dragon part right. But what it was doing there, why it was there and who had the idea to bring a Chinese dragon on a camping site, I have no idea. It remains a complete mystery. All the same, it looks kinda cool.

Le Roi des singes

Ce sera bientôt le nouvel an chinois, que je ne célèbre pas, mais ça m'a fait penser que j'ai acheté un livre à Montréal que je n'ai pas encore rapatrié (expatrié?) ici: Le Roi des singes. C'est une adaptation de La Pérégrination vers l'Ouest, une légende chinoise que je connais depuis des années et qui m'a toujours fasciné. Il me semble que ce serait le bon temps pour le lire, même si ma liste de lecture est déjà assez chargée et que je lis lentement cette année. Je voudrais quand même connaître la légende plus en détails.

Chinese Dragon

I took this picture in our friend's home in Derbyshire. I don't know if they got it in China. They have lots of stuff they bought in the different places in the world they have visited (they are quite wealthy), so it is possible. I really loved it, so I took a picture, just for the heck of it.

Hou Yi and the Ten Suns

I took this picture from Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology. This is Hou Yi, one of the few legendary Chinese heroes I know and one of the few I liked. This illustrates the story of his mission to free the earth from the ten suns that were turning it into a oven. He had to shoot down nine of them with his arrows, then to fight the monsters which were roaming the earth due to the heatwave. You can read one version of the story here. In a way, Yi is like the Chinese version of Herakles.  Don't know why I blog about him today, maybe because I don't like heat and long days, so Hou Yi is my kind of hero. Maybe because this image is beautiful and elegant yet has a subdued violence. Yi is killing the suns there. And maybe because I am about to finish reading the book and wanted to share one of its lush images that bring the stories to life.

Histoire de singes

Photo prise à Branféré, car elle sert mon propos. Je sais, c'est une excuse comme une autre. Mais enfin bref, je me suis rappelé récemment que j'ai acheté à Montréal un livre usagé qui raconte une version pour enfants de La Pérégrination vers l'Ouest. Il va me falloir remettre la main dessus et avant mon prochain retour au pays, qui risque d'être tard. Je l'ai acheté un peu comme cadeau à petit loup qui était alors encore dans le ventre de sa maman, un peu pour le plaisir de le lire moi-même. Je vais donc demander au prochain membre de ma famille qui vient me rendre visite de me l'amener.

About tea and dragons

Because of the recent Chinese New Year, I have started re-reading Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology, one of the treasures I found and bought last year, out of an impromptu visit in a local bookshop. This is a not very good picture of one of its gorgeous illustrations. The old man on the picture and his wife are actually dragons in disguise. They had stolen the all the water of Peking through magic, and then had poured the waters in a jar. The young soldier on his horse was named Gaoliang and managed to pierce one jar, thus returning half the water to Peking, but drowning himself in the process. It is said that the water which returned to the city was hard water, and the water in the unbroken jar contained the city's sweet spring water. It remained in a place that was later called the Hill of Jade Springs. Since then, when the people of Peking wanted sweet water to make tea, they went to the Hill of Jade Springs. I remember reading the story as a child, but did not remember much of it. Now that I am a tea drinker, I appreciate it far more. I love the dramatic, even tragic legend, invented to explain something as anecdotal as the reason why you go to some place instead of another to get your water for tea. It also shows how much love the Chinese people have for the drink. it finally shows that dragons can do evil in different ways, not always manifest in brute force but also through cunning and deceit. Next time you drink Chinese tea, have a thought for this story.

The Year of the Monkey

I know that it was the Chinese New Year yesterday. My wife is teaching children about it and about some old Chinese legends. This year is the Year of the Monkey, as you must all know by now, it seems that it has been mentioned a lot in the medias. Fittingly enough, I bought on my last trip to Montreal an adaptation for children of the story of Sun Wukong the Monkey King, who is one of the main protagonists of Journey to the West. And I didn't even know it was going to be the Year of the Monkey! Unfortunately, as we are crammed with books here and as my luggage was already heavy, I left the book in Montreal. I intend to get my hands back on it as soon as possible and read it before the end of the year. The Chinese one, that is. I should get it on time. Until then, I will read this book, which also features an abridged version of the story of Sun Wukong. So this is how I will commemorate the Year of the Monkey.

The Chinese gods of the elements

 You might remember that I blogged earlier in the year about this book, from which I took this image. I am reading it at the moment, so I might blog about it in the future. It is overcast today and it reminded me of this image. This represents the gods of the elements: the lady in the center is the Lightning God (goddess), projecting beams of lights from the mirror she is holding. On the left you see the Thunder God, ugly and rather scary looking with his beak, clawed feet and bat wings and on the right you have the Wind God, barely less nasty looking. For some reason, completing the picture are two beautiful Chinese dragons. Apparently, the Thunder God was the most featured in legends and he looked far more threatening than he was, in fact he was known to help humans from time to time. So here it is. I thought the image looked quite nice and deserved to be shared on Vraie Fiction.

Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology

I have learned that today is the Lunar/Chinese New Year. Strangely enough, I bought two days ago, completely randomly, the book Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology. I walked in a second-hand bookshop, it was there, I bought it. I spent five minutes in the shop, if that. I promised myself to go easy on books purchases, as my bookshelves are full, but I simply could not resist. And to rationalize it (by insights), it was far cheaper than what I would have paid on Amazon). The worst thing is, I have this book, in its translation in French, since my childhood. It is from the same publisher and the same collection as my book on Viking mythology. I just wanted the original.

So I will revisit, again, a childhood memory. You can see on the cover Sun Wukong fighting a dragon. I blogged about him before, here and here. This was I think my favorite story in the whole book. But I will happily re-read all of them. I am kind of tempted to get my hands on all the books of this collection, which were real treasures. Until then, I will read this one eagerly.

Ancient Earthquake Detector

Here is another treasure I saw during my last visit to the Natural History Museum. It it is an ancient... seismomether. An earthquake detector. It is from China, and is maybe the earliest thing we had to identify earthquake. Basically, it is a vase made of bronze with dragon's heads carved in it and surrounded by toads. Each dragon's head was holding a bronze ball. When an earthquake was coming, one of the heads would let the ball drop, indicating where the earthquake was coming from. Simple and elegant. And since people thought at the time that earthquakes were supernatural phenomenons, I find it fitting that the Chinese used a dragon to indicate their coming. Old myths meeting scientific and technological progress. The NHM has many attractions, this one is lesser known, but it is one that I particularly loved. It is a artifact of early human creativity and curiosity.

Encore Ciné-cadeau

Je bloguais sur Ciné-cadeau hier. Je reblogue sur le sujet ce soir. D'abord parce que j'ai appris que mon filleul (qui me considère comme "le meilleur parrain du monde", la la lère!) regarde Ciné-cadeau. C'est quand même remarquable qu'une émission des Fêtes puisse comme ça passer d'une génération à l'autre, sans vraiment vieillir. Ensuite parce que Richard Therrien a blogué sur le sujet le 10 décembre. Petite anecdote: je me rappelle encore de ceux qui ont été oubliés et qui étaient à l'affiche en 1982: je n'ai qu'un vague souvenir de Saxane à l'école des sorcières, mais je me rappelle un peu plus du Vieux Chasseur d'ours, lequel était sérieux et plutôt déprimant pour un film pour enfants. Je me rappelle beaucoup plus du Roi des singes (j'ai même blogué là dessus). Les dessins animés sur les légendes chinoises me manquent beaucoup. Y en a-t-il d'autres que vous aimeriez revoir et qui ne font plus partie des cuvées Ciné-cadeau? J'aimerais savoir.

Sun Wu Kong

English below...

J'ai appris un truc ou deux sur Sun Wu Kong, qui a été utlisé pour la publicité de la BBC pour les Jeux olympiques. J'en savais déjà sur lui car enfant j'avais vu Le Roi des Singes, un film que j'ai bien aimé malgré l'idéologie communiste et anti-religieuse qui le sous-tendait (un singe réussissait à devenir immortel et à vaincre les dieux qui cherchaient à le dominer). Plus tard, ayant lu Les plus belles légendes chinoises, j'ai lu une version plus proche de la légende où les dieux chinois n'étaient pas complètement dans leur tort. On peut en savoir plus sur le personnage ici. Je ne sais pas trop pourquoi j'aimais cette légende, sans doute parce que Sun Wu Kong se battait tout le temps et passait le reste du film à se goinfrer et à fêter. La vie d'un Roi Singe ne me semblait pas mal du tout. Plus bas, le début du film qui me l'a fait découvrir.

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I found out more about the character of Sun Wu Kong, who was used for the BBC advertisement for the Olympics. I used to watch Havoc in Heaven (also known in various other titles) when I was a child, I loved it, oblivious to its communist and anti-religious ideology (a monkey was getting immortality, then fighting and winning a war against the gods). Later on in my life, I read Les plus belles légendes chinoises and found out more about Sun Wu Kong, in a story where the gods were not the badguys. More on the character here. I don't know why I loved the story so much. Maybe because there was lots of fighting, and Sun seemed to enjoy the finest things in life: he seemed to eat and party all the time in the movie. The life of a Monkey King seemed quite pleasant. I put below the beginning of Havoc in Heaven.