天天喜气羊羊！Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! Sheep Year 2015

过年好！万事如意！

羊年发羊财！

Happy New Year of The Sheep!

Here's more of my Wuxia makeup photoshoot. Nice and weird!
If you want to see the other frames from this photo shoot check the other entries from this month.

It's the Year of The Sheep, or sometimes translated as goat, or ram. because the word is called "yang" 羊 which just can mean a sheep or a goat. So, if you order mutton in China, you might be eating goat, or sheep. Who knows?

Well, this is my Guonian, my year. I'm a Sheep person. But, I tell you, I am no Sheeple. I'm not dossile, or airheaded.
I've read untold things written about this Zodiac, and they don't all agree about what it means. Allegedly one of the things I read was that people born in the year of the sheep were more of a craftsman than an artist, and I wanted to tear up the book, and smack whomever wrote such trash! Also, because I read that I STOPPED doing "crafts" altogether, until I had my daughter. That same book also said that Sheep people never do anything, never go anywhere, and never travel, and that they're homebodies, boring, bland, play it too safe, and whine all the time about nothing, and do nothing to help the outer world.

Utter rubbish! I've been all over the world, have a pioneering spirit, and am a multi talented artist. I'm also a Gypset, philosopher, and a protestor.

But, as the years have passed, I've read other books about Sheep people, and they always sound good. Like creative, open minded, caring, good with family, family minded, intelligent, and many good characteristics.

However, there's this superstition, which is newer in China, that Sheep people are doomed to a poor life. So, on years when it's the Sheep they have the lowest birth rate fearing their one and only child will be cursed. This is a totally NEW concept, because in the 20th Century I'd never heard of such a thing. In fact, I couldn't find any materials about this dating back last century.

Well, my daughter & I are both born the Year of the Sheep. And, so in my brother-in-law's wife in China. 

Since it's our year, we;re supposed to wear red for protection, and jade. It's a big deal in China. Also, if it's your birth year, everyone is suppose to give you money, and stuff.

So if you wanna give me some money you can Flattr me: 

Year of The Sheep

天天喜气羊羊！

Can you see the little sheep behind me?

Happy New Year!

羊年到，祝三羊开泰，喜气羊羊。

祝你羊年财源滚滚，生意兴隆，工作顺利。

过年好! 万事如意!

I have noticed that on the National Chinese New Year CCTV Show in China, they often mix the Chinese Zodiac Animals of that year with Western Mythology. Like, on the Horse year they use Pegasus, and on the Dragon Year, they often depict Western Dragons also. So, you get a Capricorn!
Here's my artwork:



Capricorn in Color by BlackUniGryphon on DeviantArt

Bohemian Wuxia Inspired Makeup

February 19th is Chinese New Year, which is called "Spring Festival". 

Why? I have no idea, because it takes place during the dead of winter.

I did a photo shoot inspired by the weird, whimsical, and extravagant world of Wuxia. Wuxia stories are incredibly weird, strange, and off-the-wall. 

This is my Wuxia Fusion of some Wuxia characters, like Dong Fang Bu Bai, if you are familiar with the Hong Kong films or TV shows like "The Swordsman".

If I were in China right now, like I was several times before, it would be all out crazy rackets, rows, and dins of noise, and pyromania. In China, during festivals, especially Spring Festival/New Year it's crazy! they call it "renao". It's not like anywhere else, where you can just go home, then you go somewhere to party, or relax, or celebrate... no. It's renao!
It's in the hallways, on the sidewalks, in the streets. If you go home, you can hear the incredibly loud voices of people, people singing opera EVERYWHERE. wild drinking parties, several banquets a day. And there is so much smoke from firecrackers, and fireworks, and you will NEVER see anything as spectacular in the sky like the fireworks in just the local towns.

You cannot exit the celebrations, because the festival is EVERYWHERE. The firecrackers only die down, and stop around 2-3:30 AM.... but, they will start back up whenever the first pyromaniac rouses from his sleep, anywhere from 4AM-5:30AM, and he will get up and set off more firecrackers. THEN, the other pyromaniacs will hear the first Pyro, and feel jealous, then they will get up, and try to be louder than the first guy. Then, they will all become a full-on insanely loud competition in the entire city over whom has the most, and the loudest firecrackers, and who is the MOST extreme pyromaniac! No sleep for YOU!

They NEVER run out out fire crackers, and often have stacks of large boxes to play with all month long. It will continue on like that all day, and all night, and goes on the entire month, and if it's a Festival period (lunar calender) where it stretches through from January and through Feb, you will have almost 2 full months of noise.

You will also have SO MUCH FOOD! Nuts, fruits, candies, etc. NO, not like Christmas. this is so extravagant that and so excessive that you will HATE FOOD, and HATE EATING! Everywhere you go, people peel apples, and oranges and give them to you. Bags & bags of nuts, and sunflower seeds. and, bags of chocolates imported from the West. Loads of fruit by the boxes from the Danwei.

And, so many dumplings, and handmade noodles, you will be sick of it...

Then, there's the banquets. Banquet, after banquet... and several per day.
HOW DO THEY EAT SO MUCH??? THEY ARE SO SKINNY!

You will get so fed up with banquets also... so much good food, THE BEST because it's New Year... but, just TOO MUCH that you can't take it anymore...

I recall becoming so fed up with banquets, that we went to Korean restaurants, or fast food, which is way Ritzier & far more expensive in China... and even that got old.
I love to eat meat... but, by the end of Spring Festival/New Year I would crave every kind of salad I could think of... and day dream about lettuce.

Preview: Wuxia Inspired Chinese New Year Photoshoot

I already posted a small preview of the Pirate cosplay character on my Pirate Wench Blog: HERE.

I am utterly exhausted from this shoot because I also sat through 3 conference calls on my speakerphone since I got up this morning. After my kid left for her bus, around 7:45 I was listening in on several calls, trying to keep track of the fast paced stuff happening.

 I like Wuxia stories, movies, comics, novels, etc. Wuxia is incredibly extravagantly weird. The characters are off the wall strange, and have crazy personality quirks, and a twisted or corrupted sense of morality. The whole point of Wuxia is to be as unrealistic and unlike reality as possible, which is why the characters are so weird. In Wuxia Gungfu is like magic, and people can fly, and do unbelievable feats of amazing, impossibility.
 
Here is a preview of some new stuff I did: