fledge capable of flying, from Middle English flegge, from Old English -flycge; akin to Old High German flucki capable of flying,
Old English flEogan to fly -- more at FLY
intransitive verb, of a young bird : to acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity

Friday, September 2, 2011

Hello yellow!

China's go-to color is red. It's symbolic meaning, derived from the element of fire, is joy and good fortune. Do you want wealth and happiness to come through your front door? Paint it red and let the feng shui do its thing. Plus, what's Communism without red? Other colors just don't pack the same power-to-the-proletariat punch. Go ahead: Try and start a global revolution in any other color. Mauve? Turquoise? Heliotrope? It won't get off the ground. Even though a good 7% of the men you'd want to mobilize are color blind and cannot even see red in its crimson glory, it's the color to go with.

Yellow, however, comes in a close second in China. Traditionally, the Chinese view yellow as the most beautiful color. It symbolizes the earth and generates both Yin and Yang. Yellow is the color once reserved for the royal family. The roof tiles of the Forbidden City and other imperial abodes are yellow.

In Buddhism, yellow represents freedom from earthly bounds and is the color of mourning in China. 

Nic of Luziapimpinella gave us some photographic homework to close out the summer. She said, give me some yellow. This is some yellow I saw.


You can join in the fun, too!



Yellow fire devouring incense offerings to the Buddha and releasing them from their earthly bonds.



"Yellow has the highest symbolic value in Buddhism through its link with the saffron robes of monks. This color, previously worn by criminals, was chosen by Gautam Buddha as a symbol of his humility and separation from materialist society. It thus signifies renunciation, desirelessness, and humility. Yellow is the color of earth, and thus a symbol of rootedness and the equanimity of the earth."


 

And a yellow backpack! And see the close-up of the matching Che Guevara polo shirts? Voted Cutest Communist Couple!


Yellow was the color reserved for the royal family and China's most legendary emperors and empresses were adorned at least partially in the most beautiful color. While visiting historic sites, it is popular for tourists to rent imperial costumes and pose for the family photo album...


...but this cheeky fellow upstaged the empress, don'tcha think?



A yellow garbage truck. I mean, garbage "trike".





Yellow joss sticks to offer to the Buddha. 



A yellow man-fan.


Hello yellow Hello Kitty! Pretty girl with a yellow bag takes a pretty cell phone photo.


 Yellow public telephone.


Yellow imperial roof tiles. The more critters you could have lined up at each corner of your roof, the higher your status in the Middle Kingdom.



Yellow shirt! Yellow dragon! Photographing the photographing.



Local greasy spoon (or oily wok?) set up on old yellow desk. These folks are good at improvising.


A yellow swirl of street art.


Beautiful blushing bride wears yellow.



Wait for it...


There. See it? The yellow writing? It says "Jimmy loves Suzy forever". Or close enough.

So, what yellow said hello in your world recently?

7 comments:

mooi hoor... said...

keep them coming, your china impressoins. it's amazing. i think the lense was practically glued to your face, you captured so many people! love it.

Fledgling said...

Hello Diana!

Glued to my face is right! Beijing is one of those places, where, because of the light, textures and motifs, you can basically set your camera timer, throw it up in the air, take an exposure and--voilá--there is something weird or sublime or poignant or gritty or beautiful or all of that together. And then people. I like people best of all things to photograph. And Beijingers, thankfully, are not adverse to being snapped. Not at all.

Great to hear from you. Going to pop over to your blog right now!

-N.

Nikki said...

Yep... LOVING the photos!! China holds a certain fascination for me, and I love seeing through the eyes of you and your camera.

nic [luzia pimpinella] said...

yep... keep #em coming. yellow or red or blue or whatever. i could dive into your china-photography, nancy!

LOVE 'em all.

thank goodness the camera didn't have to be removed from your face by surgery! ;)

XOXO!
nic, still working on the cali-photos...

p.s. thank you for taking part in my photo project. the linking tool for this mellow yellow goodness will be set up on thursday! ;)

nic [luzia pimpinella] said...

ich habe mir mal erlaubt, dein blogposting als thumbnail zu verlinken! ;)

XOXO!
nic

Tine said...

What amazing photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deine bilder sind absolut klasse!
Schon vor einigen Tagen (Wochen?) haben mich deine Bilder und Portraits der Chinesen in Peking fasziniert... (Mein Favorit: der alte Mann, der seiner schlafenden Frau den Kopf stützt)
Danke für die tollen chinesischen Einblicke,
Grüße von Tine

Fledgling said...

Thank you, Nikki!

Danke, Tine! Auch eins meiner Favoriten ;-)

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