The Time Keeper

As we walked through the small streets of Hangzhou this strange character came along with his strange hat and swinging lantern beating out a rhythm on the bamboo stick he held. We found out later that this was the way they used to tell time before clocks and watches. The timekeeper would walk around the streets marking time by playing on the bamboo stick marking the hours.

Chinese Lanterns, Shangcheng, Hangzhou

These colourful Chinese lanterns advertised a light shop in Hangzhou, China. This part of the city, known as Shangcheng, was full of shops and restaurants and even though the evening was bitterly cold many people were out shopping, eating and enjoying the many spectacles along the streets.

Raise The Red Lantern

This photo taken in Shanghai, China reminds me of the famous Chinese movie Raise The Red Lantern, which is one of the very few Chinese movies I have watched and enjoyed.

Raise The Red Lantern is a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaption by Ni Zhen of the 1990 novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong. The film was later adapted into an acclaimed ballet of the same title by the National Ballet of China, also directed by Zhang.

Set in the 1920s, the film tells the story of a young woman who becomes one of the concubines of a wealthy man during the Warlord Era. It is noted for its opulent visuals and sumptuous use of colours. The film was shot in Qiao's Compound near the ancient city of Pingyao, in Shanxi Province. Although the screenplay was approved by Chinese censors, the final version of the film was banned in China for a period. Some film critics have interpreted the film as a veiled allegory against authoritarianism.

Japanese Gardens

Japanese gardens (日本庭園 nihon teien), that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles.

Some of the Japanese gardens most famous in the West, and within Japan as well, are dry gardens or rock gardens, karesansui. The tradition of the Tea masters has produced highly refined Japanese gardens of quite another style, evoking rural simplicity. In Japanese culture, garden-making is a high art, intimately related to the linked arts of calligraphy and ink painting. Since the end of the 19th century, Japanese gardens have also been adapted to Western settings.

Typical Japanese gardens have at their center a home from which the garden is viewed. In addition to residential architecture, depending on the archetype, Japanese gardens often contain several of these elements:

• Water, real or symbolic.
• Rocks or stone arrangements.
• A lantern, typically of stone.
• A teahouse or pavilion.
• An enclosure device such as a hedge, fence, or wall of traditional character.
• A bridge to the island, or stepping stones.