Happy Chinese New Year, Kung Hei Fat Choy! I guess everyone is having a great restful time with family and friends. In this proud Chinese red season, I wish you guys a great year of the snake. Today is the fourth day of our lunar new year, which means our holiday is officially in countdown stage. Somehow, I am quite scared to smell company coffee and hear the hum of the printer again; is this “Post Holiday Stress Disorder”? Hah! I guess so:)
Well, let’s just jump to today’s topic directly: Yes! Being an enchanting Chinese girl! Now just what is an enchanting Chinese girl?
For shooting the little Red’s traditional costume for this Chinese new year’s theme, I went to Nan Lian Garden with my photographer the day before yesterday, and luckily it was a beautiful sunny day after being cloudy for a couple of days in Hong Kong – I wonder why I am always so lucky, perhaps, my name is actually Miss Sunshine, not, the little Red, or probably I just have got the touch to catch a little lucky red all the time. Who knows?
If you are a friend of mine, I guess you know I’m not just crazy about the colour red, but also our own traditional Chinese culture. To be precise, I should say, I’m crazy about all national cultures and respect them as they respect ours. I bought a little red traditional dress for this lunar new year and enjoyed the feeling when wearing the dress strolling in the street and getting attention from foreign tourists. I seemed to hear them say: “LOOK, a traditional Chinese girl.” Hang on, did they say enchanting?
Tying my hair up to show the elegant and classic collar – purple and red printed patterns with a red feather edging. I thought purple couldn’t work well with red, as they are all warm colours. In fact, they seem to work pretty well on this dress, and I just realised that purple is actually part of red, just with a bit of blue; therefore, they should match very nicely for sure. Also, this updo hairstyle let me look very classical, especially when you look at the sight of my back. Surprisingly, I can still see the blue colour from my hair, which reminds me that I coloured my hair bluish black several months ago. The colour looked jet black – making me look like an oriental doll when I am indoors. However, when I step into the sun, then the blue hue will stand out from my hair, like an extra aureola. Yet it is almost faded, and has turned back to my original hair colour – dark brown.
There are several features for traditional Chinese clothing, but the most distinct characteristic should be the Fabric & Frog Buttons and embroidery, both representing Chinese ancient fashion and clothing aesthetics. Exquisite handcrafts carry the dress’ noble and classically elegant contour, and also reflect the Chinese people’s scruples and diligence. Wearing a golden necklace, the one that my grandmother gifted me as a reward when I into a good high school. The pendant is a Chinese ancient currency with four Chinese characters “出入平安“ that mean “Wishing you safety wherever you go”.
I bought a cushion with the Chinese characters “大吉” on it from a lunar new year fair. “大吉“ in Chinese means “Great auspiciousness”. Yes, we love “luck”, that’s why people give each others’ kids lucky money during the lunar new year. In our Chinese culture, we believe in fate and predestined relationships just like God in Western culture– there is some unseen power around us; it could be an energy or a “deity”, which/ who made our past, is guiding our present and will influence our future. The overriding principle: what you are doing now is who you will be in the future.
Wearing a pair of shoes I bought long time before, four years ago I suppose. People suggested I wear boots when wearing this kind of traditional costume. However, this pair of Western vintage shoes matches this little red dress nicely.
After shooting, we started playing in this gorgeous temple garden. My friend suggested me to demonstrate how to be an enchanting Chinese girl, that is, to walk with a bit of a sway. People in the garden stopped in their tracks and watched us. It was fun to show off our traditional culture in this special season, and in a public place, except for a “garden keeper” who kept bothering us saying we can’t do any shooting here. Yeah right, the garden probably saw three thousand visitors in as many hours, all with cameras. Everyone’s taking photos, why single us out? Just because we were doing it more professionally and turning too many heads? Doesn’t make any sense to me.
I won’t lie, the weather was awesome the day. Can you see the cloud in the picture? I haven’t seen such blue skies and bright clouds in HK for ages. What a great day! Isn’t life beautiful!
Art Director: the little Red / Photographer: Sima Aleshko
Dress: Royal Fashion 絲綢坊 / Shoes: H&M / Earring: Aldo