Resources

http://www.chinavoc.com/arts/inside/bat.htm
Talks about lazy summer evenings laying back gazing at bats in flight. It has the bat throughout Chinese history.

http://www.chineseparade.com/history/stories/traditions.asp
This one has lots of interesting information about the Chinese New Year.

Calligraphy

History and how to

http://www.zein.se/patrick/chinen9p.html

China the Beautiful

Classical Chinese Art, Calligraphy, Poetry, History, Literature, Painting and Philosophy

http://www.chinapage.com/china.html

Chinese Characters

Downloadable

http://formosa-translation.com/chinese/c/cz48.html

Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

List of Chinese festivals and holidays; explanation of the Chinese zodiac

http://www.c-c-c.org/

Chinese Opera

The basics

http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/culture/0895_cu2.html

Meaning of the colors on Chinese Opera masks

http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Opera/China-opera-colors.html

Chinese New Year

Downloadable designs

http://dyn.c-ij.com/english/greetings/browsing.page?lang=en&cat1=hol&cat2=cnewy

Chinese Poems

Classical Chinese Poetry, with audio

http://www.chinapage.org/poetry9.html

Death Beliefs

Chinese Buddhist

http://www.yogichen.org/efiles/mbk16.html

English to Chinese

A somewhat confusing site.

http://www.zhongwen.com

Fables

Over 30 Chinese Tales

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/extra/story/blyrh.htm

Feng Shui

Copyright-free variations on the “good luck” character

http://www.fengshuiprophet.com/gallery/index.php

Festivals and Holidays

List of Chinese festivals and holidays

http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/index.asp

The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, and Ming Tombs:

http://www.stuebegreen.com/wonderland/photos/fc/pix0.html

Funeral Customs

Ceremony for a Dowager Princess

http://www.romanization.com/books/courtlifeinchina/chap18.html

Some general comments about the funeral process in China

http://www.newsfinder.org/index.php?id=P134

Joss Papers

There is no vendor affiliation here, just a search for meaning.

http://www.fsdi.com/htm/cups.htm

http://www.stampington.com/html/treasures_from_chinatown.html

Knots

A nice site with basic knots and suggestions for more complex ones. Good list of books to get, too.

http://www.chineseknotting.org/

Literature

An AMAZING site with the texts in Chinese (and each character is translated if you hold your mouse over it!) and English.

http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php

A compilation of many different sites with Chinese literature.

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/World_Literature/Chinese/Classic/

Origami Patterns

Downloadable and printable patterns for the paper, as well as folding patterns (look for more folding patterns on the Techniques page)

http://cp.c-ij.com/english/3D-papercraft/origami/junishi_e.html

Papercutting

Site detailing the history and technique of papercutting. Offers a huge collection of papercuts to admire.

http://membres.lycos.fr/nguyenvanvalerie/English/Accueilx.html

Very intricate modern examples (and slow-loading)

http://www.qingyunge.com/qygnews/english/jianzhi/gg.htm

Peranakan Culture

Baba culture is truly a unique creation of Southeast Asia. It is the culture of an old immigrant Chinese community that settled in what was known as the Straits Settlements: Malacca, Penang and Singapore. The community can trace its presence in Malacca to at least the 17th century. Here are some general cultural sites:
http://www.peranakan.org.sg/Culture/culturehome.html

http://www.freewebs.com/peranakanweb/

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/p/pe/peranakan.htm

Proverbs

Several pages of proverbs in English.

http://www.thinkexist.com/English/Author/x/Author_2543_1.htm

More

http://www.chinapage.com/quote/quote.html

Zodiac

How to draw the various characters.

http://www.ocrat.com/chargif/zodiac.html

Postage stamps

http://www.clarencelee.com/stamps.htm

Roosters

http://www.poultryclub.org/Stamps.htm

The legend behind the Zodiac animals: The Great Race

http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.2137.html

General

Asia Society

Dedicated to fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. Provides a forum for building awareness of the more than thirty countries broadly defined as the Asia-Pacific region – the area from Japan to Iran, and from Central Asia to New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

http://www.asiasociety.org/

Ask Asia

A K-12 resource of the Asia Society (one section in particular has some very nice drawings)

http://www.askasia.org/

What is “Asia“?

A list compiled from Google

What is Asia?

Asian Costumes

An incredible gallery of Asian women portraits in native costume

http://www.tendreams.org/costumes2.htm

Buddhist Symbols

Good explanations

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/symbols.htm

Dragonflies in Asian Art

Interesting tidbits

http://cassfos02.ucsd.edu/personal/ron/

Dragons

Find out how many toes Chinese vs. Japanese dragons have, and other juicy information:

http://www.asianideas.com/desofdrag.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/chinadragons.html

General

A bunch of links at Artneko

http://www.artneko.com/links.php

General Artwork Samples

Contemporary artists from many Asian countries

http://www.asianfineart.com/japanese_artwork.htm

Proverbs

A list of links to proverbs from all across Asia

http://dmoz.org/Society/Folklore/Literature/Proverbs_and_Sayings/Asian/

Japan

.
.

Ando Hiroshige Woodblock Prints

Links to gorgeous reproductions of these scenic, and sometimes amusing, woodblock prints

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~johnxyz/index.html

Art

A collection for sale

http://www.artelino.com/default.asp

Chigiri-e Painting

Imperial Robes – history, folklore

http://www.washi-shiori.com/ChigirieEng.html

Dolls

Impressive explanation of traditional doll crafting in Japan

http://www.nihon-kogeikai.com/TEBIKI-E/6.html

Pictures of antiques

http://www.akanezumiya.com/gal_ningyo.htm and

http://www.akanezumiya.com/artinfocus.htm

Dragon Robes

Paper painting (collage)

http://www.sdmart.org/dragonrobes/contents.html

Eastwind Art

Japanese fabrics, patterns and books–shows how some of the clothing is made

http://www.eastwindart.com/

Fabrics

A large collection of fabric designs

http://www.intfab.com/fabjapsc.html, http://www.orientalfabric.com/

Funeral Customs

A very informative article on Buddhist customs

http://tanutech.com/japan/jfunerals.html

Geishas

A very informative site on all aspects of geisha culture

http://www.immortalgeisha.com

Copyright-free antique colored reproductions of geisha photos

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/vie4jap.html

Glossary of Japanese Art Terms

http://www.michionline.org/resources/Glossary/

Haiku of Kobayashi Issa

Large collection of his haiku

http://webusers.xula.edu/dlanoue/issa/index.html

Japan 101

A large collection of photography of modern-day Japan, including cities, festivals, and sports. Also has a couple of galleries of historical photographs, and of historic illustrations and line art(!).

http://www.japan-101.com/gallery/

Japanese color combinations

Primarily for fabric, but is interesting

http://www.color-guide.com/e_kasane.htm

Japanese clip-art

I believe these to be copy-right free, but it’s your responsibility to check and make sure!

http://www.countryfriends.org/KWClipArtAug.html

http://park19.wakwak.com/~kaleido/index-e2.html

Japanese Holidays

Short descriptions and dates for traditional and modern holidays

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~tc9w-ball/useful/holiday2005.htm
and

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~tc9w-ball/useful/holidaymore.htm#AnimalYear

Japanese Matches

Library of matchbook covers

http://server18.joeswebhosting.net/~xx9185/english/index.html

Japanese Proverbs

Several pages of proverbs in English.

http://www.thinkexist.com/English/Author/x/Author_3240_1.htm

Japanese Words & Phrases

Yuki’s page: several pages on 1st grade writing (kanji, hirigana, etc.), with translations and writing of many common phrases/words in Japanese.

http://www2.tokai.or.jp/yuki/japanese_words_and_phrases.htm

Ka-Mon (Japanese Crests)

An interesting, brief history and a comparison with European crests.

http://www.japan-society.org/crest_jssdt.html

http://www.familyemblem.com/index.html

http://www.netpersons.co.jp/kamon/10.html
(site explaining the meaning or origins of the various mon)

Kanji

All about Japanese kanji

http://www.kanjisite.com/index.html

Kimono

OSA Spectrum September 2006 e-zine

Beautiful renditions of modern kimono

http://www.theblackmoon.com/Kimono/kimono.html

Resource on periods and different types of kimono

http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/jkimono.html

Beautiful modern sculpture with interesting materials in the shape of kimono

http://www.okadadesign.com/kimono.html

Interesting, thorough article which includes social stations as they relate to kimono, and talks about men’s kimono

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono

Short article about a kimono gallery viewing, with tips on how to “interpret” the designs

http://www.coloradoan.com/

Oshi-e (Puffy 3-D Craft)

An overview, then a private gallery

http://www.saiga-jp.com/gift/handicrafts/about_oshie.html

http://moonwaltz.fc2web.com/oshie/oshie-en.htm

Lucky Cat (Maneki Neko)

Wonderful overview of ancient to modern lucky cats and the legends behind them.

http://www.akanezumiya.com/publications/mag1.htm

Maps

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~HW3T-TKD/usgs/jpn_k/jpn0a1.jpg
(topographical map)

http://geography.about.com/library/blank/blxjapan.htm
(blank outline map)

http://www.abcteach.com/japan/map1.htm
(and another)

Mizuhiki

History, How To’s, and cultural associations

http://www.026.co.jp/mizuhiki/englishindex.html

Noh Masks & Theater

An incredibly informative site rich in photos.

http://www.nohmask21.com/eu/mlist.html

Good basic site on Kabuki:

http://www.fragrancex.com/Fragrance-Information/the-kabuki-story.html

Outdoor Japan

Beautiful color photographs from different photographers.

http://www.outdoorjapan.com/section-gallery.html

Paper

Interesting video on papermaking

http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/video/japanese_paper.html

Poetry and Ukiyo-e

Terminology of classical and pre-modern poetry as it relates to ukiyo-e.

http://optometry.berkeley.edu/
(link shortened)

Rubber Stamps (at various locations in Japan)

A fascinating collection of rubber stamp images that exist at historical locations in Japan.

http://www.dotpattern.com/artwerk/rubber-stamps/japan-rubber-stamps.html

Samurai

Large site covering history, crests (mon), Emperors, famous women, and more.

http://www.samurai-archives.com/index.html

Season Words

A brief discussion of the many words used for seasons in Japan.

http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~beck/kametaro/more-season.html
and

http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~beck/kametaro/seasonwords.html

Seldom Asked Questions

A fascinating collection of disparate facts

http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/saq.html

Senryu

A Japanese poem structurally similar to the haiku but primarily concerned with human nature. It is usually humorous or satiric. Used loosely, the term means a poem similar to the haiku that does not meet the criteria for haiku.

http://simplysenryu.blogspot.com/

http://raysweb.net/senryu/links.html

http://members.tripod.com/~Startag/HkSenDiff.html

http://members.optushome.com.au/kazoom/poetry/senryu.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senryu

http://www.poetrylives.com/SimplyHaiku/SHpages/introduction_senryu.html

http://linuxgazette.net/118/senryu.html

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/haiku/haiku.html

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/2004/07/23

http://www.geocities.com/vgendrano/index.html

http://www.edhelper.com/ReadingComprehension_27_82.html

http://www.ozyandmillie.org/2005/om20050124.html