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Created in China>Art Treasures>Chinese Crafts and Fine Arts>Folk Crafts
Chinese Traditional Kite Craft
5. Jiangnan kites
The typical Jiangnan kites are "Symmetrical Fish" and "Snipe-Eagle," both of which are traditional kites made by the techniques of woodblock print.
6. Taiwan kites
The characteristics of Taiwan kites' sculpture are that they place an emphasis on feature and are summarized and simplified as well as magnified and transfigured.
Taiwan kites are good at soft-winged structures.
One kind of the kite figure is shaped according to the imitation of the beautiful part of natural objects. The other kind is the simulation of natural objects. It mainly has 21 kinds approximately, such as peg-top, dragon, aniseed, Chinatown, Eagle, butterfly, dragonfly, goldfish, symmetrical
fish, salangane (a kind of bird), seven stars, seagull, palace lantern, flying tiger , centipede, big butterfly, big colored-butterfly, and so on.
Main categories of Chinese kites
Chinese kites may be differentiated into four main categories:
1. Flat-Kites
Flat kites are constructed within a single plane, and are made of a completely rigid bamboo frame. Spars (longitudinal beams) frame all the four sides of the frame or of the frame segements. Most of these kites, which are very easy to fly, are flown with long tails to grant a stable in-flight
behavior.
A Hard-winged Kite
Flat kites are built in many forms and types, very often with pictorial motives from ancient myths and religious ideas, or very often with a picture of the ying-yang sign or the "Eight Diagrams" (a kind of ancient philosophy-related Chinese diagram).
2. Hard-winged kites
This kind of kite is made of two bamboo strips attached to a rectangular framework, which is covered with paper or silk to form a triangle to ensure a good wind-catching effect and good flight performance.
3. Soft-winged kites
A Soft-winged Kite
A soft-wing kite is made of one bamboo strip. The wings of this kind of kite have rigid upper rims. The lower sections of all these wings are soft and flexible, hence allowing the kite to float in the air lightly and agilely. Very often these kinds of kites have more than one pair of wings, which
are arranged one pair above the other. Pictorial motives and forms represent all kinds of birds, insects, fishes, and so on. When floating in the wind these kites give a very vivid visual flight performance.
4. Centipede kites
Centipedes are kites-trains with a dragonhead and a train of equally dimensioned kite disks. Head and disks are interconnected with one or more often three lines. Centipedes have enormous air traction power. These kites give an attractive and vivid in-flight view, especially when the wind moves
and deforms the kite train. Centipedes with dragonheads are the typical form for this kind of kites and are a specialty of Weifang.
Besides the above four categories, there are also kites with no fixed shapes, but which have various motives and good flight performance.
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