Asian Fantasia: February 2013

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Hump Day - are you over it yet?

PopularVirals.com

Monday 18 February 2013

Asian Sports Stars - Li Na (Tennis Player)

By Sascha Grabow www.saschagrabow.com
(Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

By Jean & Nathalie (Na Li)
[CC-BY-2.0 or CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Charlie Cowins (Flickr: that was close)
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Arcimboldo (Eckhard Pecher) (Own work)
[CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Mike McCune from Portland
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Glenn Thomas / Windsok (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Ratazana at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL],
via Wikimedia Commons

By Christopher Johnson [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Charlie Cowins (originally posted to Flickr as Li Na)
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Charlie Cowins (originally posted to Flickr as Li Na smiles)
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Charlie Cowins (originally posted to Flickr as Li Na)
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Yanior (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

Thursday 14 February 2013

Women of Indonesia

By Meutia Chaerani / Indradi Soemardjan http://www.indrani.net (Own work)
[GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

By Peter van der Sluijs (Own work)
[GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Brunod (Indonesian Wikipedia)
[GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

By What's in a name... (originally posted to Flickr as Kimono Blue)
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Rosengurtt at en.wikipedia [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0, GFDL
or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], from Wikimedia Commons

By Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Own work (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By Sigiwimala (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By John Yavuz Can (http://www.flickr.com/photos/yavuzcan/5156475028/)
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Chinese Art: Four Great Beauties

Continuing our celebrations of Chinese Lunar New Year we look at a particular Chinese legend known as the Four Great Beauties. It refers to four women of ancient China who lived at different times, in different dynasties, the earliest in the 6-7th century BC, the latest, Yang Guifei, lived between 719 and 756 AD during the Tang Dynasty. She was said to have a face that put all flowers to shame.

The other three, in chronological order were:

Xi Shi (c. 7th to 6th century BC, Spring and Autumn Period), said to be so entrancingly beautiful that fish would forget how to swim and sink away from the surface when she walks by.
Wang Zhaojun (c. 1st century BC, Western Han Dynasty), said to be so beautiful that her appearance would entice birds in flight to fall from the sky.
Diaochan (c. 3rd century, Late Eastern Han/Three Kingdoms period), said to be so luminously lovely that the moon itself would shy away in embarrassment when compared to her face.

Three of the Four Beauties brought kingdoms to their knees, and the lives of all four ended in tragedy or under mysterious circumstances. Source: Wikipedia.