P is for Painting

A few weeks ago on a pleasant not-too-hot, not-yet-wet, fall day, my honey and I borrowed two bikes and rode out of the town we use as home base in Kaiping into the countryside to get a closer look at a couple of the nearby old villages we had so often passed by car.

This is the front of one of several villages we explored a bit. There were old gray-bricked houses, as well as a couple of new tiled ones. Aesthetically I much prefer the old houses.

Kaiping, 2011

What I found especially attractive here were the hand-painted scenes that adorn many of the doors and a few walls. On the doors of this first house you see a traditional auspicious spring couplet that reads (roughly translated):

Everything under the sun is glowing

The spring sun is spreading virtuous luster

The meaning of the couplet depends on the reader's own state of mind.
 

In this close-up you can see more painting on the ceiling and the permanent hooks meant to hold festival lanterns.

Another close-up of an old house's intricately painted entryway:

New houses built with cement and tiles, more often than not paid for by a migrant working - or family living - overseas, still keep the village tradition.

 

This next image gives you a closer look at the painting, as well as the good luck bundle hanging from the hook. This bundle typically consists of fruits and other edibles which in Chinese sound auspicious, like luck, wealth or longevity.

 

These paintings are for ABC Wednesday, where the letter today is P.

I share with you one more close-up from this village that shows more lovely ways the old gray houses are adorned.

The sore behinds we got from the hours of bicycling were well worth seeing these (and many other) treasures we discovered by taking it in at a slower speed.