Chinese Souvenirs: Iron Paintings
The US may not do anything for International Women’s Day (March 8th), but China does. There’s always something happening on that day. When I lived in Hefei in 2005, the local government held a big show at the park and asked the female foreign teachers from my school to perform a few musical numbers. As a thank you, the government gave them all one of these iron paintings. I got one, too, just for showing up with them. I’m that special.
The painting is of the welcoming pine from the Yellow Mountains. It’s one of the most iconic features of the mountain range, and yet… I don’t think I actually noticed it when I was there. Guess I missed out. I was told this painting was made from real iron from the Yellow Mountains, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Chinese Souvenirs: Novelty Pencil Holders
Of all the things I packed home from China, this was the one souvenir that didn’t make it unharmed. His head broke off. My brother bought one, too, that didn’t survive the suitcase trip, either. I’m not sure if the airline’s treatment of our luggage is to blame or if it was the poor craftsmanship of Chinese toys. Probably both.
I know this isn’t a very Chinese-looking souvenir, but I wanted to mention it, because it highlights a popular trend in shopping in China: the novelty junk store. These little shops are everywhere and sell a strange assortment of jewelry, stuffed animals, cell phone toys, anime figurines, keychains, stickers, cutesy notebooks, and gag gifts. In other words, they’re a godsend to every Chinese girl and a bane to every Chinese boyfriend.
Chinese Souvenirs: Silk Shirts
The first time I went to a market in China, I had two weaknesses: Game Boy Advance games and silk clothes. I loved shopping for silk clothes. I don’t even use the silk jackets or silk pajamas I bought for myself, but knowing they are hanging up in my closet makes me feel pretty darn special.
The silk shirt in the above picture is actually a woman’s shirt. I don’t wear it, either. And I’m not about to give it away as a gift, because I spent way too much money on it. It was the first article of silk clothing I bought, and I thought I was getting a good deal at 250 yuan (equivalent to $36). The next day, I went to another market and stumbled across a booth selling full silk dresses for only 35 yuan.
When things like that happen, it makes you feel sick inside. You want to go back to the other vendor and chew them out for ripping you off, but you know it’s all your fault for not playing the game right. My only consolation was knowing that that vendor and her family probably ate a little better that week. And since I spent so much on the silk shirt, I decided to keep it as my own souvenir.
Chinese Souvenirs: Protection Decorations
I’m pretty much at a loss what to call this thing. It was given to me by the first school I taught at in Hefei. The school had a little farewell lunch for all the foreigners. One of the people present was our Chinese teacher, though we both knew not a lot of teaching got done. Mr. Liu sometimes didn’t show up to Chinese class or showed up drunk, and, truth be told, the foreigners just weren’t good students to begin with.
Mr. Liu had tried to teach us a song in his class. Now that we were leaving the school, he thought he would redeem himself in front of his peers and asked, “Would the foreign teachers sing the song that we learned together?” We all said, “Uh….” Nobody knew the song. Mr. Liu, embarrassed, sat back down, and somebody else presented the item above to each of us.
The most I can tell you about it is that the characters on the front, 镇宅 (zhen zhai), refer to protecting one’s house from bad spirits. Order yours today!
Chinese Souvenirs: Monkey King Puppets
There is really nothing to do in the little town of Wuwei, so my time there was mostly spent watching Chinese television and not understanding a lick of it. One show in particular intrigued me, because it was about a magical monkey fighting ridiculously cheesy visual effects and didn’t make any sense at all. When I started watching it, though, I noticed just about everyone in China liked watching it. This “monkey show” would be playing in the restaurants. The Chinese teachers would be watching it in the break room. It was everywhere.
A few years later, I finally read an English translation of Journey to the West (also known as The Monkey King) and finally understood what the TV show was about. Now that I got the story, I started recognizing pieces of it in other aspects of Chinese culture. It comes up all the time in the form of other shows, cartoons, books, paintings, figurines, advertisements, and toys. That said, it was only appropriate I took some kind of Monkey King memorabilia home. The story is about a group of four that set off to retrieve religious scrolls, but the shop in Xuzhou only had a puppet of the monk.
Near the end of my stay in Changzhou, there was a surge of toy/junk/novelty stores. Many of them started selling the Monkey King puppets in complete sets. Every time I walked by one of these shops, I thought, “I need to remember to buy the rest of the set.” I couldn’t buy it at that moment, of course, because I didn’t want to carry it around all day! Then every day, I’d go home and say, “Crap, I forgot to buy the puppets!” Alas, I ended up leaving Changzhou with none of the other puppets. Oh well. The monk was my favorite, anyway.
Chinese Souvenirs: Wood Shaving Pictures
Unlike the past few souvenirs I’ve covered, this one is pretty common in markets across China. The first time I saw it, however, was in the small waterway town of Zhouzhuang. Several people were making them, meticulously gluing together tiny wood shavings and pieces of barley. Most of their work was very elaborate and fancy, like a recreation of the Great Wall or a dragon or a couple of kittens playing, but the one that stood out to me the most was this simple, little picture.
You don’t think about how you’re going to get something home until after you buy it, though. I was so protective of it on the bus ride to Suzhou and the train ride to Hefei. Every time somebody came near my bag or put something next to it, I panicked, thinking, “Oh no! My picture’s going to break!” Then I had to find a way to safely pack it back to the US. Of all the things I took home, I was the most afraid of this one breaking. But it was worth all the heartache.
Chinese Souvenirs: Olympic Mascot Dolls
This has got to be my favorite souvenir from China… and my favorite stuffed animal ever. I love the Beijing Olympic mascots. While Olympic mascots are usually rather ugly, the Chinese designers put a lot of thought into theirs, and it shows.
Interesting fact, if you’re not going to visit the link above: the names of the five “Fuwa,” as they are called, are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. When the syllables of their names are strung together, they say, “Beijing huanying ni,” or, “Beijing welcomes you.”
Before the Olympics, there was a sort of “Fuwa hysteria” where every street vendor worth their weight was selling knock-off stuffed animals, key chains, posters, buttons, T-shirts, and what have you. All around Beijing and Shanghai, there were also official stores selling the same things but at a higher price (and higher quality, of course).
The Yingying doll in the picture was bought at an official store in Beijing. One of my biggest regrets about that trip was only buying one. When I went back to Beijing after the Olympics were over, all the Fuwa stores were gone. The street vendors stopped selling Fuwa merchandise, too. Everyone had moved on to the Shanghai Expo and its lovable mascot, Haibao.
Chinese Souvenirs: Hangzhou Yarn Dolls
When I went to Hangzhou, I was on the lookout for a gift for somebody back in Changzhou. A booth near West Lake was selling these yarn dolls (and the dolls were surely a Hangzhou original, as they had “Hangzhou” written all over the tag and never appeared in any other city). The doll was perfect, but I didn’t want to buy one just yet and carry it around the whole day, so I passed.
Several hours later, I hadn’t seen another doll shop anywhere. I was beginning to regret not buying one earlier. I kept walking around the lake, though, killing my feet and hoping the next booth would have them. No luck. I finally gave up and headed towards my hostel, bitter that I’d found no gift.
But at night, on a street near my hostel, Hangzhou opens up a huge market. And every other booth was selling the dolls! Great… I just had to wear myself out looking for these during the day when they were in abundance right here. I bought a blue one and a pink one. The blue doll was for me. I gave the pink doll to a girl who, a month later, ended up being my girlfriend.
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