Book Description
Winner of ForeWord Magazine's Architecture "Book of the Year" Award!
Exquisite examples of traditional dwellings are scattered throughout modern-day China. Chinese Houses focuses on 20 well-preserved traditional homes, presenting examples from a range of rural and metropolitan areas throughout China.
The photographs of each are accompanied by extensive background information and historical content. An introductory essay examines the different types of Chinese homes and provides an overview of the rich regional variety of Chinese dwelling forms. It also provides insights into little-known design concepts that emphasize the
flexibility, adaptability, and versatility of traditional building forms and the work of traditional craftsmen.
Richly illustrated with photographs, woodblock prints, historic images, and line drawings, Chinese Houses portrays an architectural tradition of amazing range and resilience.
Customer Reviews:
A serious book that also looks good on a coffee table.......2007-10-18
I can't imagine there being a better book out there on Chinese houses as this book has history and expert photographs. What's more it also has well-drawn sections and plans. Most books on this subject will use old diagrams or ancient drawings that are a hassle to decipher. Here the diagrams are purpose-drawn, clean, and add a great deal to the understanding. About a third is dedicated to a general history of the form, construction methods, social life, and geographical variety; and about two-thirds to about 8 pages each on specific houses. Just enough info on each.
The one gripe I would have is that, in the part of the book where he gives a general introduction of the elements and history of Chinese houses, he uses photos from the twenty or so houses that he discusses individually. It would have given a bit more breadth (and reduced a bit of redundancy later on) if he had used that opportunity for photos of houses that were not given an individual focus.
Thorough and fascinating.......2007-07-19
The amount of detail and research that's in this book is astounding. This is not another coffee table picture book. Its filled with beautiful pictures, and an equal amount of readable, scholarly writing about a culture thats slowly getting lost to the west.
Get it!
Excellent Book.......2007-06-11
This book exceeded my expectations. It has informative text and abundant photographs including many vintage images. For anyone interested in Chinese architecture, this is the book for you.
A strong in-depth history of Chinese home architecture .......2005-10-12
China has seen many social, political and economic changes over the centuries, yet surprisingly, has managed to preserve excellent examples of changing architectural home styles throughout these years, as Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage Of A Nation presents. Packed with color photos of both interior and exterior décor, Chinese Houses also presents an in-depth survey of the rituals, culture, ornamentation influences, and floor plans of homes across China, from urban to rural dwellings. If it's a strong in-depth history of Chinese home architecture which is desired, look no further than the gorgeous Chinese Houses: it's much more than the coffee table picturebook it appears a first glance.
Book Description
Surround yourself with lucky objects, the Chinese believe, and good fortune will come to you. In word and image, this exquisite volume-a delight to hold in the hand-explores the bounteous meanings of the five-fold symbols of happiness: luck, prosperity, longevity, happiness, and wealth. Drenched in color and lavishly illustrated from ancient and modern sources, Five-Fold Happiness interweaves both Chinese and English text. Peaches, the number eight, the imperial color of gold, a cat with one paw beckoning, or the dragon dance-here are some of the familiar images now revealed in their rich significance. Whether readers choose to embrace these symbols in their everyday lives or simply enjoy them on these glorious pages, Five-Fold Happiness is altogether auspicious.
Customer Reviews:
finest design plus chinese culture.......2007-06-10
Vivien Sung has to be congratulated a million times: her book is a lesson of style, design, culture and - above all - the highest knowledge of art!
It is a little masterpiece I have now in my bookcase.
Symbols explained in context.......2003-12-29
Ever look at the art around your favorite Chinese restaurant and the designs on the plates, and wonder if they have a hidden meaning? They do. And Five-Fold Happiness beautifully shows and clearly explains it all. What a reference! Read this, and dazzle your friends with your insights next time you go out for lo mein.
Little Chinese Book of Culture.......2003-08-28
I picked up this book and found that many of the items in it are related to Feng Shui symbols and its origin. It's meant to give beginners a glimpse into the Chinese culture. It's bilingual with Chinese on one side and the English translation on the other side. The pictures are nice. I recommend it for beginners, but it is also a nice coffee table book.
Very nicely done........2003-06-19
I just bought this book and I could not stop reading it. Very very good. Well done, Vivien.
A Beautifully Written and Knowledgable Book. . ........2002-10-02
I bought this book without the slightest beginning knowledge of Chinese culture or history. I just thought it looked interesting. Now, I can tell anyone who is interested in this type of book that it was wonderfully illustrated, extremely easy to understand and intensely knowledgeable and helpful. I am in awe of all the "little" things about Chinese history and culture, and this book goes thoroughly through all of it's promised categories with ease of understanding and helpful information.
This is a quick reading book, but is also a very helpful reference tool. I now know what not to give/not give as a gift, and I even know why! It is helpful in what to surround yourself with or others, your home, business, gift giving or for different types of lifestyles or happenings. Five-fold Happiness is a great gift for anyone of any age, or a wonderful read for yourself. I think that anyone who begins this book will finish it over and over again.
Enjoy and Learn!
Average customer rating:
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Grammar Of Chinese Ornament
Owen Jones
Manufacturer: Gramercy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0517641542
Release Date: 1988-12-27 |
Book Description
300 authentic, solid-silhouette designs printed in colors: phoenix, chrysanthemum, lotus, plum blossom, butterfly, fish, boat, etc. Provides rare source of ideas and direct reproduction wherever Oriental flavor is needed. "One of the most aesthetically pleasing books to cross our desk in a long time!" — Kliatt Paperback Book Guide. 300 plates.
Customer Reviews:
great for tattoos.......2007-06-02
I bought this book at an art store with the purpose of finding a tattoo. I did and 5 years later I got it... Lots of great designs inside.
Good Design Source.......2003-06-21
I have used this book numerous times for the somewhat non-traditional purpose of tattoo designs. My complaint is minor, and it has to do with how the book is formatted. The designs are white on a red or black background. This makes it a little difficult to photocopy for use; especially on the red pages.
Beautiful designs, nicely explained.......2000-08-24
I ran across this title in a small shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. I was running short on cash, and was kicking myself within 24 hours for not purchasing this book. Hawley provides 300 cut paper designs used in traditional Chinese embroidery. Each design is in white on a solid color background (red, blue, black, brown, or purple). The designs are clear and easy to see and enjoy. A brief introduction gives a little background (I would have liked more) on this folk art, and an index at the beginning allows users to look up symbols of specific interest. Do that, but browse the rest of the book as well!
An eight-page supplement at the end illustrates 160 symbols (including ideograms, trigrams from the I Ching, and pictoral symbols) used in traditional decorative arts along with their meanings. Fascinating!
For those interested in learning more about Chinese art, or for those who just enjoy beautiful designs, this is an excellent choice.
Book Description
Over 200 copyright-free motifs: dragons, peonies, plum blossoms, tigers, clouds, geometrics, other favorites.
Customer Reviews:
Chinese patterns.......2005-08-31
It was just what I expected. It is a thin booklet (8 1/2 x 11) with a lot of chinese patterns in it. I wanted to scrapbook my pictures from our trips to China. The booklet is entirely done in black and white. I suppose it depends on what you want to use it for, but I am very happy with it.
good for the quick and dirty.......2004-02-03
a good basic mongage of Chinese designs, but they are pretty limited, and mostly standard. they seem almost 'clip art'. my advice would be to study Chinese art history, learn the motifs and themes, and the way they presented things, and then create your own. but for the quick and dirty approach, this book isn't bad.
a good window to understand Chinese culture.......2000-03-27
Desing is always good coponent in certain culture. this book provide you wonderful materials to get to know thedesign which just belong to CHina.
Average customer rating:
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Chinoiserie
Dawn Jacobson
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0714838365 |
Amazon.com
The late-'90s fascination with China in the political and business realms is reflected in fashion as well, and Chinoiserie explores a mix of 14th- to 20th-century decorative styles based on European fantasies of "Cathay." Emphatically not historically correct, chinoiserie is a style that grew out of a mélange of travelers' tales, exaggerations, odd lots from India to Japan, and the European imagination of the exotic. This book is peopled with characters ranging from Marco Polo to Madame de Pompadour to P.T. Barnum. Profuse illustrations conjure the visions of Watteau and Boucher, pot painters in Delft and Minton, garden and kiosk designers from England to Poland, and creators of 1920s movie palaces--the style's final incarnation. Tracing the history of commerce as well as the image, chapters cover the time when intercontinental travel and trade were difficult if not impossible, the flowering of French rococo chinoiserie and its spread across 18th-century Europe. It also looks at the jardin anglo-chinois, the descendants of originally aristocratic styles in middle-class English and American homes, and finally the withering of the fantastic Cathay as more reliable information and objects arrived in the West from China in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Should you be curious about the intricately carved dragon on a theater ceiling or wallpaper peopled with "monkeys dressed as Chinamen," this smartly designed book written with verve, a love of the subject, and an insider's point of view provides a jumping-off point for further study and includes a list of places to visit. --Alex Lawrence
Book Description
The late-'90s fascination with China in the political and business realms is reflected in fashion as well, and Chinoiserie explores a mix of 14th- to 20th-century decorative styles based on European fantasies of "Cathay." Emphatically not historically correct, chinoiserie is a style that grew out of a m+lange of travelers' tales, exaggerations, odd lots from India to Japan, and the European imagination of the exotic. This book is peopled with characters ranging from Marco Polo to Madame de Pompadour to P.T. Barnum. Profuse illustrations conjure the visions of Watteau and Boucher, pot painters in Delft and Minton, garden and kiosk designers from England to Poland, and creators of 1920s movie palaces--the style's final incarnation. Tracing the history of commerce as well as the image, chapters cover the time when intercontinental travel and trade were difficult if not impossible, the flowering of French rococo chinoiserie and its spread across 18th-century Europe. It also looks at the jardin anglo-chinois, the descendants of originally aristocratic styles in middle-class English and American homes, and finally the withering of the fantastic Cathay as more reliable information and objects arrived in the West from China in the 19th and 20th centuries. Should you be curious about the intricately carved dragon on a theater ceiling or wallpaper peopled with "monkeys dressed as Chinamen," this smartly designed book written with verve, a love of the subject, and an insider's point of view provides a jumping-off point for further study and includes a list of places to visit. --Alex Lawrence
Customer Reviews:
West Meets East.......2002-03-26
The Far East has inspired Western fashion, interior design and film in recent years: think cropped jeans embellished with embroidered silk, sleeveless Mandarin collar tops, Ralph Lauren's bold mix of red and pink silk bedding, or the profusion of Asian-focused films including Seven Years in Tibet. But this trend is nothing new. Eastern imagery has appeared in Western design for centuries, never really going out of style, and peaking in popularity at various points in history. Ever since the fourteenth century when Europeans first read The Travels of Marco Polo, Westerners have romanticized China and its neighbors, and Western decorative arts have been especially affected by Eastern style. In her book Chinoiserie, Dawn Jacobson explains the phenomenon in great detail. Her focus is on furniture, accessories, interiors and architecture and she highlights the Chinoiserie craze in creations ranging from Chippendale furniture to Delftware to Grauman's Chinese Theater. The illustrations are exquisite and plentiful. Jacobson's text is scholarly-this is an art history text as well as a coffee table book-and the chapters are well organized.
Book Description
Authentic graphics offer a wide selection of birds, fruit, trees, flowers, butterflies, and women in traditional costumes. A valuable addition to resource libraries of commercial artists and designers; a versatile source of inspiration and motifs for crafters working in decoupage and creating fabric, needlework, and wallpaper designs. 216 black-and-white designs.
Customer Reviews:
Exquisite.......2007-08-23
These images are just beautiful. Although do come in the .eps format on the CD they are nevertheless raster images. However, since they are in black and white they are very versatile. Using any layer-based or object-based program like PhotoImpact, Photoshop, PS Elements, or Paint Shop Pro, it's easy to remove them from the background and then use them for anything you want. They've been scanned onto the CDROM at a generous 600 ppi.
Book Description
Classic work, both in West and in China, on the intricate geometric window grids is a rich source of patterns and ideas for wallpaper, stained glass, fabric work, embroidery, more. 372 lattice designs never before published, expand Dye's earlier classic work. Frames, borders, octagons, swastikas, intricate patterns. Introduction.
Customer Reviews:
The New Book of Chinese Lattice Designs.......2005-07-06
The second best book on Chinese Lattice Designs, the first also by Daniel Sheets Dye (Chinese Lattice Designs). This is a very worthwhile addition to the first book and contains a wonderful selection of illustrations. It is not a repeat of the first book, and the larger format provides for larger illustrations. If you are into flat pattern design this just brilliant.
Book Description
Outstanding selection of 41 attractive and fascinating designs for embroidering, doing appliqué work, painting on fabric, and more: dragons, cranes, fish, lotuses, peonies, chrysanthemums, other popular motifs. Stitch and color information.
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