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Dragon kite |
| CCTV.COM 2003-04-27 16:04:02 |
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Flying a kite is one of the major folkways in Beijing. When spring comes around, different sorts of kites contest beauty and fascination. The dragon kite is most eye－catching.
The dragon kite is one of the different types of kites. The dragon kite is typical of the dragon in Beijing. The dragon in the Imperial Palace in Beijing is swinging its head. It has the deer’s horns, the shrimp’s eyes, the crocodile’s mouth and the lion’s nose. It has also the bull’s ears and its hair. It looks mighty and splendid.
But during the Qing Dynasty, the common people couldn’t fly such a kite in the sky, because the dragon represented the emperor Only after liberation can the craftsmen make such progress dragon heads.
Making a kite includes 3 steps of binding, pasting and painting. Dragon kite is made in the same way, but each step is much more complicated. A craftsman must be very skillful. In particular, the craftsman has to use his imagination to make a three－dimensional dragon head. One has to learn for a few years before he can make such a kite. Even a skilled craftsman has to use two or three months to bind, paste and paint a dragon head.
The making of a dragon head has gone through a long history of development. Red, green and blue are the main colors of the decorated patterns. Usually we can see the dragon head of the facial make－up type.
The dragon head is mainly for beautification. It cannot make the kite fly. The dragon body makes the kite fly. The dragon body can be big or small, long or short. But we Chinese are particular about the number “9”.
Its length and the number of segments are usually based on “9”. For example, we can make a small kite with 9 segments known as 9－segment chain. We can also make a longer one with 81 segments.
Dragon kites can be divided into super large, large, medium－sized, small and mini types. The smallest dragon kite is only a few centimeters long. Large ones are hundreds of meters long. It needs about a dozen of people to fly such a long kite.
The way of flying a dragon kite is not as simple as flying an ordinary kite. Sometimes the dragon tail should be sent up first, and the dragon head later. Sometimes the dragon tail and the dragon head should be sent up simultaneously.
A mighty Chinese dragon is soaring the sky, sending up good luck and hopes for the Chinese people.
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Editor: Inner Wu CCTV.com
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