Windmill

There is an old legend saying a bird with 10 heads in heaven was depreciated into human's world. Not repenting though, it made destruction anywhere and brought misery to humans. So the king of Zhou ordered his courtier, Jiang Ziya, the most talented person at that time to handle this. Jiang ziya figured out that this bird was mostly afraid of windmill and he made such a thing to repel evil. The bird with 10 heads disappeared then. The citizens learned to do windmill from Jiang Ziya and it became a popular thing In Beijing. 


Lamps with cycling horses

It is one kind of folk color lamps starting from Song Dynasty. There are two layers in the lamp and beautiful pictures are stick into the inner side. When light on, the inside layer begins to cycle because of heat and it seems from outside that horses and people are walking here and there.

In the past, in the traditional Spring Festival and other happy days, lamps with cycling horses are shown together with dozens of children dancing and sing around to express people's happiness and wishes to the future. 

Facial mask-like makeup art

It is first originate from totem in the old times and gradually changed into opera facial make up. In the Tang Dynasty, when performers were dancing and singing, they used to wear a facial mask. Later, they gave up the masks and painted the designs in masks directly into face. A distinguishing feature of this art is that it shows people's character and status according to different colors. For example, red represents loyal and yellow means brutality.

Facial art enjoys great popularity in China. Now you can see this art not only in opera shows, but also in paintings, ceramics, eggs, stamps etc. 


Tiger-head-pillow

Tiger-head-pillow is one kind of folk embroidery. The shape of this pillow is like tigers with different designs, for example, two-heads tigers, tigers with human's face or with fish's tail.

In Chinese old saying, tiger is the king of all animals in forests. When babies are 1 years old, their aunts should make tiger-head-pillow for them to bless them safety and peace.

In the folk, the make-up of tiger-head-pillow is very elegant. Some are embroidered by red silks some are blue, or yellow. And the tiger head is also with different kinds. Some like dragon some like lion, living and colorful

Sugar Figures

Making sugar figures is an old profession in Beijing. Sugar figure makers went from street to street with shoulder poles, carrying a cupboard on each side. One of the cupboards held charcoal and was the sugar figure makers' seat. The other one carried tools, a charcoal stove with a cuprum spoon full of maltose in the centre. On top of it were models of different kinds of sugar figures on straws. These , attracted lots of kids who followed the sugar figure maker around.

In the past, whenever the makers went to a hutong with their shoulder poles, the kids couldn't help but watch. First, the maker takes a little maltose with a small spoon, and then nips the soft maltose by hands, plugs it into a wheat straw pole, blowing gently, using his hands to form a figure. . Soon, the soft maltose turns into a striking creature.

Many people think they can make sugar figures themselves. Although the makers will sell you some maltose, you won't be able to make even a simple bubble. Soon, the maltose will become dry and unusable.

Kids will be more excited about seeing the sugar figures than about eating them. In old times, kids rarely had pocket money and if one of them bought a sugar figure, all the other children would crowd around and admire it. For kids, sugar figures make attractive toys, but for adults, they are pieces of edible artwork that carry memories of childhood.

 Making art from dough

According to a Chinese fairy tale, humans were created out of clay by a goddess.

In the hands of the folk artists, this myth is repeated over and over as the otherwise worthless clay is molded into fascinating sculptures via kneading, basking, coloring and baking.

They look like glittering, translucent flying fairies, or beauties with shining kites, but these handicrafts are not made from precious jade, ivory or coral. They are made from an edible material- common dough. It sounds unbelievable, but it's true; it's an old, magical Chinese folk art. The dough has the characters of high plasticity. Craftsmen combine fermented flour or rice powder with colored dyes, preservatives, paraffin, honey and glutinous rice powder, steam the mixture, then sculpt the dough into figurines of animals, people, flowers and plants.