February 14, 2010 marks the start of the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese Lunar Calendar, while it is also the Valentine Day in some countries on this day. Chinese New Year is the most important traditional festival in China as well as the Christmas Day in Western countries.
New Year is also called “GuoNian” by Chinese people. It legends of that there was a big monster “Nian” who usually came out to hurt and eat people in the village. But one day people occasionally found that the monster was afraid of the red things and big sound during the fighting against him. At last, the villagers defeated thoroughly of the monster with this way. Therefore, people would celebrate the monster ran away and prevent it come again with red things like wear red cloth and firecrackers on this day in the ancient time. And the word “Guo” in Chinese has both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe".
For the modern people of China, they may neglect the meaning on preventing monster, but they are treat this day as the most important festival which is celebrated with big family gatherings, gift giving, the eating of symbolic foods and display of festive decorations--all focused on bringing good luck for the new year and celebrating the coming of Spring.
In a word, Chinese New Year is full of funs. People will buy all kinds of things to decorate their home, such as variety “福” picture whether on paintings, Chinese knot or others to paste on walls, antithetical red couplets to paste the both side of the door, Chinese paper cutting and so forth. No matter where you go, you can find festival atmosphere.
The New Year of 2010 will come soon, and it is time for people to prepare the things for Chinese New Year. Have you fell behind? 2010 is also the year of tiger, so the tiger will become the main popular goods except those basically things for New Year. If you want to experience some atmosphere of Chinese New Year and buy special Chinese things to your girl/boy friend on Valentine Day, welcome to our Chinese gifts shop.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of China gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best Chinese arts & crafts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

In our daily life, we cannot avoid to communicate with each other which include our foreigner friends. So you must consider of which kind

of gifts you should send to them before contacting. And knowing the culture of different countries on gifts become more and more

important. If you can deal with this manner well, you may gain an unexpected result.
1.    For American, people prefer the goods which have specialness.
Americans are fastidious about the practical and peculiar on gifts. If you send some unique styles or ethnic characteristics gifts to

Americans, it will be welcomed by them. Such as the Chinese knots or Chinese shadows, Americans treat them as rare gift. In addition, you

should not use the black paper as the packaging. Because Americans think that “black” is not an auspicious color.
2.    For English, people will not like to receive expensive gift.
It will be mistaken as a bribe if you send valuable gifts to English; on the country, if you choose the chocolates or beautiful flowers

as your gift, it will be ok.
3.    For French, a romantic country, the gifts always link to arts.
French advocate arts, so the gifts with ancient style will be best. And remember that if you are invited to the home of French, you

should take some flowers except chrysanthemum to the host.
4.    For German, people don’t like the acute gifts.
People will pay more attention on the package of gifts, and you should not package with black, white or brown and package with ribbons;

addition, don’t send acute gifts, they are all treat as bad things.
5.    For Japanese, they are same as the Chinese and don’t like the number “4” and “9”.
The pronunciation of “4” and “9” resemble “Death” and “Hardship” in Japan. Japanese like the well-known brands.
6.    For Russia, they prefer the name brand of western
No matter which well-known brands the gifts belong, Russia will like it.
7.    For African, they would rather prefer practical gifts that valuable gifts.
8.    For Arabs, they prefer the simple gifts. Send some handicraft gifts they will like it very much.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of China gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best Chinese arts & crafts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

What is Chinese knot? Chinese knot is characteristic folk handicraft art and a typical symbol in China. It is also the Chinese people’s intelligence gathering and has long history over thousand years. “Knot” has the meaning of reunion, friendliness, peace, love, etc. In addition, “knot” and “luck, felicity” have the same pronunciation, hence, Chinese people like to weave all kinds of knot to express good wishes, including happiness, prosperity, love, health and so forth in China. Chinese knot looks simple, actually not, it has complex weave methods. We surprised that all Chinese knot purely hand-made with silk thread. I think that teaching and weaving Chinese knot is a challenge but full of interesting.
The exquisitely symmetrical knots that come in so many forms are as profound as the great cultural heritage of the Chinese people. Studying carefully, we can find lots different Chinese knots in the market and each knot named according to their distinctive shapes, usages or origins. They are not only name in tune with their shapes but also have implied meanings. The double coin knot, for example, is shaped like two overlapping coins once used in ancient China and means wealth for people; "Happiness & Longevity", "Double Happiness", "Luck and Auspiciousness as one wish" are Chinese traditional pleasant phrases expressing warmest regards, best wishes and finest ideal, the button knot functions as a button and so on. There are so many types that I can state one by one. Of cause, Chinese knot has variety functions from old time to the modern life, and it become more and more popular among us.
The ancient art of tying Chinese knots was originally used for practical purposes. But as the art developed over the years, people began using the knots for decorative purposes. Today, Chinese knots can be seen dangling from keychains and cars, hanging from walls, and fastened to rearview mirrors. There still many people who like collection collect the Chinese knot as souvenirs. These elegant Chinese knot, whether for its practical or ornamental, all reflecting the grace and depth of Chinese culture.

Copyright (c) ChineseKnot Team. Largest selection of Chinese decorative knots, Chinese wedding knots and Chinese good luck knots for sale, a symbol of good wishes, wealth, safe and sound, love and the absence of evil, enjoying the grace and depth of Chinese culture. We assure you of our Best Services at all times. 

Chinese peasant paintings, a kind of paintings, are most created by Chinese farmers or peasant artists. The features of Chinese peasant paintings are colorful, exaggerated, and full of enthusiasm for life. Originated in the folk art, the Chinese peasant paintings are very realistic, while do not lack of the exaggerated and bizarre imagination, and can feel the release of enthusiastic on folk artists. It has a primitive beauty of life.
Such as the Chinese peasant painting in Huxian, the best known rural art community in the county in Shaanxi province, HuXian is a beautiful place and people who live there most like painting. Their compositions are linked with the daily life in rural areas, covering farm work and animals, festivals, music, village customs, harvest scenes, dinners and children. These subjects completely free themselves from staleness and are always painted in grand fashion. The style can be described as primitive, with childlike figures, vivid colors, and exaggerated forms that are far beyond the common world of most people.
Other well-known centers are in Jinshan County near Shanghai and in the county of Lunan Yi in the Yunnan Province. Today, there are more than 40 government recognized farmers painters communities, organized in different artists associations on county, provincial and national level. The colors of Chinese farmers' paintings are rather brilliant and vibrant. The whole compositions look like typical naive art.
Chinese peasant paintings have their origins in the 1950s, when the communist party encouraged rural communities as well as the army to engage in art. It was this new understanding of art being exerted by common people, instead of bourgeois, academic professionals, that stood at the cradle of Chinese farmers' paintings. Some communes picked it up, in the beginning for recreational purposes, or as a well-meant means of propaganda, or to express their dreams of a better life. The farmers' vision of the Communist paradise was for them straight-forward and simple. Happiness were good crops, a stable full of healthy cattle, a nice home, healthy children, good and sufficient meals, electricity, and every now and then a bit of fun at local festivities.
Come to our online shop and enjoy the myth of Chinese peasant painting with us!

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team.  Largest selection of  China gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best Chinese arts & crafts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

Chinese traditional wedding, as with all weddings, is filled with tradition and interesting customs that have been passed down through generations and developed over the centuries.

Selecting an Auspicious Wedding Date
Before wedding day, people would like to select an auspicious day for wedding. Auspicious days are subject to interpretation by fortune tellers that perform the analysis based on one’s birth date (day and hour) after consultation with the Chinese almanac. Almanacs containing predictions for the entire year are sold at the beginning of the Lunar New Year by street vendors and in book stores. These paperback books are approximately two inches thick with a wealth of information about Chinese beliefs. It is said to be the oldest continuous publication known. Different versions are published in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, but unfortunately an English version is not available.

Wedding Sedan Chair
The traditional wedding usually begins with the 'jiaozi'. The chair-like sedan enclosed with red-colored silk was one of the main vehicles in the main vehicles in the ancient China. Of course, it was mainly used by the rich. The poor had to rely on donkeys or their own feet to travel, so the sedan chair was a symbol of affluence. On special occasions, such as a wedding ceremony, a sedan chair was used to take the bride to the groom's house, even for the poor.
The Wedding
In contrast to the elaborate preparations, the wedding ceremony itself was simple. The bride and groom were conducted to the family altar, where they paid homage to Heaven and Earth, the family ancestors and the Kitchen God, Tsao-Chün. Tea, generally with two lotus seeds or two red dates in the cup, was offered to the groom’s parents.
Then the bride and groom bowed to each other. This completed the marriage ceremony, except in some regions, where both also drank wine from the same goblet, ate sugar molded in the form of a rooster, and partook of the wedding dinner together.
Red Veil
At a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride is often seen with a red veil covering her head and face. The Chinese red veil is made of a square piece of silk.

People usually decorated the newly-wed house with “Double Happiness”, which consists two "xi" and graphs together represents the wish for the two young newlyweds to have happiness together. 

Come to our shop and have a look on the goods for Chinese wedding. To find the difference between your country and China and feel its interest and specialness.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of China gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best Chinese arts & crafts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

According to the ancient customs, Chinese people believe they can attract “Good Luck” if they take “lucky” objects or speak “lucky” words and this customs has already passed down until now. Therefore, Auspicious Chinese symbols are found everywhere – on arts, crafts, architecture, household objects, and are part of celebrations, special occasions etc.
For example:
1.    福, this is a Chinese character, and means "Happiness", "Good Fortune" or "Luck" in general. It is usually decorated on Chinese Knots, painting, or other goods.
2.    Chinese scepter, it is usually called “RuYi” in China, which means “Everything as you wish”. In other words, things are going as desired. The shape of the Chinese scepter is said to be derived from the "magic fungus of immortality" lingzhi or reishi in Japanese.
3.    “寿”, this is a Chinese character, and means “Longevity”, it is very popular among the Chinese good fortune symbols. Such is the esteemed value of shou in China that many homes display this Chinese longevity symbol.
The crane, tortoise, peach, pine tree, etc, are all have the meaning of “Longevity” in China.
4.    “囍” , it is consisted with two Chinese characters “喜”, and means “celebration” or “happy”. The Chinese double happiness symbol is synonymous with marriage. In ancient time, it is usually decorated on the Chinese paper cutting. The red paper cuts of xi are pasted on doors and walls of Chinese weddings and in the bridal chamber, and it represents the wish for the two young newlyweds to have happiness together. But now, you can see this character everywhere.
5.    “Fish” is the ultimate symbol of wealth and abundance, for its sounds like abundance. As such, business people love to place a bowl of gold fish in their offices or homes as a wealth symbol. It is usually combined with a little boy and lotus and means “Successive years of abundance”. This is because the word for “lotus” lian is pronounced the same as the word for “continuous”.
Know more information, please come to our online shop, you will find the deep culture of China on Good Fortune Symbols.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of handmade crafts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best Chinese gifts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

Shadow puppet, as one of the Chinese traditional folk art, is a handicraft artwork created by processing cattle hide, donkey hide, or sheepskin into a translucent pelt, then painting it with colors before it is baked dry inside a brick oven, and use for shadow play, an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment using opaque, often articulated figures in front of an illuminated backdrop to create the illusion of moving images.
The shadow puppet has a long history in China. It estimated that the first born in the shadow of the Western Han Dynasty two thousand years ago, also known as sheep drama, commonly known as the head drama, shadow play. Shadow theatre became quite popular as early as the Song Dynasty when holidays were marked by the presentation of many shadow plays. During the Ming Dynasty there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone. In the 13th century, the shadow show became a regular recreation in the barracks of the Mongolian troops. It was spread by the conquering Mongols to distant countries like Persia, Arabia, and Turkey. Later, it was introduced to other Southeastern Asian countries.
Shadow play needs a high technology, and requests the artists who should have the flexible fingers. It is not only a need a skillful hand, but need the artists to speak, play, sing. The screen for playing shadow is made of white gauze. The shadow puppet should close to the screen when performance is going. It always makes the audience dazzle.
It is said that the shadow began to spread to Europe from the middle of the eighteenth century, and in 1767, the French missionaries took the China’s shadow back to France, and performed in Paris, Marseille.
The shadow play divided into many styles, such as Tangshang shadow play, Jinan shadow play, Xiaoyi shadow play, Fuzhou shadow play, Hanning shadow play, Jianghan shadow play, Lufeng shadow play, Huaxian shadow play and so on. Each kind of shadow play has its own feature, so if you like the shadow play, you should know more and choose the play which you like.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of China gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best Chinese arts & crafts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

China, a country has a long history and profound culture, is really worthy of notice for it has already draw more attention from the world.
Today, let’s talk about the gifts in Chinese culture.
Chinese people have their own culture when it comes to giving relatives or friends gifts.
First, you should remember that no matter which gifts you send, you had better not send clocks, particular on some significance days such as someone’s birthday, because in Chinese people’s mind the pronunciation of “clock” resembles termination, which means death.
Don’t send books to those people who are frequent players in races because the pronunciation of “book” resembles the sound of “loss”.
You should also know that don’t send pears to couples or newlyweds, because the pronunciation of “pear” resembles depart.
Chinese people rather the ever numbers than the odd numbers, because they believe that good things should be in pairs. Actually, with the development and open to outside of China, modern Chinese don’t seem mind them so much, and you just judge it depend on the different occasions.
I think for the modern people the gifts with traditional culture will be meaningful. For example, you can send pair of tiger shoes to the babies because most tiger shoes were hand-made, and mean the tiger would scare away ghosts.
Chinese knots, tiger pillows are all OK to as special gifts.
If you are a foreigner, you will be awkward when your friend says “You need not to buy anything when you come here” or “Keep it to yourself, I have a lot of these”. When you meet this situation, don’t be surprised. This is Chinese people’s habit. What you need to do is to insist on him receiving the gift.
Another thing you should not mind is that Chinese people would not like to open your present immediately, because they think it is not impolite to open the present in front of you. Of cause, they will open it after you left.
Don’t worry too much when you visit Chinese friends or family, in fact, Chinese people are very warm to guest.
Do you want more information? Come to our Chinese knot store, you will know more different customs in China.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of Chinese handicraft gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best handmade Chinese crafts & gifts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.