Monday, December 31, 2012

禮部尚書

I have no idea how to translate the name into English, but this shop specilising in Chinese suits that was made popular by Sun Yat San 孫中山. This shop doesn't cater to regular walk in customers, it mainly welcomes friends and guests of high ranking Chinese officials, they would be there to chat and have tea while choosing something they fancy within the shop whether it's a full suit, night gown or a silk scarf. The reason why we were able to visit and have tea there was because our cousin had connections with the manager of the place. Everything in the shop is a work of art with one thing in mind, to impress, and to be honest, it is really quite impressive, every detail is the result of meticulous brain storming, they even had a working brand new grammaphone in the shop, they even had a section for Chinese calligraphy if guests were in the mood.
 
The exterior of the shop and my cousin in the foreground.



Paper weight.

Beautiful silk dresses, this was my wife's favourtie.


Calligraphy tools.

Silk scarfs smooth to the touch.

Box for the silk scarfs.

Tea preparation.






Grammaphone.




 
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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Ancestral Home Visit

It had been years, like 20 years since I had last visited our ancestral home in China,I only carry faint memories of the place, none of us, except for my father had lived in that house, it had been abandoned for a long time and now it is considered for the Chinese government to be of historical importance so nobody can knock it down. It isn't the best kept place on earth, however through my pictures you can still see that it was a magnificant marvel in it's prime many years ago.










Dad describing the photographs to us.





Soot covered walls of what was the old kitchen.

Astonishing detail on the smallests of things in the house.








An old broom.


Beautiful stained glass window.



Display of light through the stained glass caught by my wife.

This is an ornamental pomelo, my dad said there was four when he was young, probably stolen, so I took it home as a souvenir.


More souvenir I took home.




 
All rights reserved - Copyright © RND Memoir