Tour to Fujian 3.2- Gulangyi (福建之旅3.2 --鼓浪嶼)

Cont'd

Directly opposite to Hoi Tin Tong is another famous building on the island The Wong Wing Yuen Mansion (黃榮遠堂) built in the 1920's)

The house has a front porch with some round Greek Doric columns  and a terrace with carved stone fence surrounded by a huge two tiered garden.

                                    Another view of its magnificent front porch.

 A view of the house opposite to its garden

Whilst the main building is built in mixed European style with certain Chinese elements, its main garden is entirely Chinese  decorated with corroded lime stone and Bonsai potted plants and ponds.

 Its Chinese style front gate

But there are some beautiful pavilions to one side of the huge garden built in Western style

 A close up of one of the Indian looking towers at the side of the garden



The Bunyan tree there has been around nearly 300 years!

An old branch of from that tree 

I like its shape: so strong, so natural, so free

The garden walls to the upper tier is covered with cactus style creepers

 a close up on some of the flowers.

 There were some red cactus flowers too

 One side of the building is protected by a round castle tower-like structure

 Its Mediterranean style arched windows has wooden shutters for protection 

The main structure is supported by square structural pilllars

The glass pane of one of its door shaped arched windows on its front hall is shaped liked a man with extended arms

A Gulangyu reconstruction of the birth of infant Jesus at the rear of the main hall on the ground floor.

The owner must have been a Catholic. We are told that the original owner was Sze Kwong Chung (施光叢) an overseas Chinese from Phillipines who made his fortunes in merchant marine plying the coast of China and the Phillippines and that during one of his trips, he played polka with another property merchant Wong Chung Fun (黃仲訓) but by the end of the trip, he lost this villa which was then being built. He then moved his entire family to the Phillippines. But Wong never took posssesion of this villa. He gave it to his brother Wong Chung Ping.

The shepherds and the magis bearing their gifts of gold and spices from Persia

children with their guardian angels

The front hall was separated from the rear hall by this wood and glass mosaic partition also in matching the blue and white theme but more colorful and with more curves

A tray for holding Spanish silver coins and the weights for the scale balance in one of the rooms next to the hall

A chest for holding coins and the money changer's scale. 

Various instruments in copper  for water-filtered tobacco smoking popular the Qing Dynasty

   Various bills of lading and invoices of the merchant fleets in early 20th century

                                                  

Various types of different foreign currency and receipts for money and bills of exchange

More receipts of the period

Chinese style receipts

A beautiful turquoise lamp shade

reflection of another beautiful lamp on the window above a door

Another old ceiling lamp in the style of the 1920s

light and shade inside the main hall

More light and shade

Another lamp hanging from the roof

There's also an old fashioned ceiling fan there

a view of the floor below from the first floor

Various paintings and photographs relating to a famous American Chinese western style painter who was born in Gulangyu周廷旭 (1903-1972) who studied in France and England and won  the Royal College of Art's Turner Gold Medal for one of his paintings. He was married to one of the niece of 宋美齡. He once lived in this mansion but died in Connecticut, USA.

A poster relating to one of his exhibitions

One of his paintings of a quiet street

Another one of his paintings

one of his landscapes

same beach, with more stylized curves

San Marco, Venice

More colorful landscape

A colorful portrait: very stylized

from a different period

another piece from the same period with more blues, browns and white

More stylsed: influence of Chinese ink painting?

strong constrasts

probably from his old age

A photograph of the then Anglo-Chinese School 英華中學 in the 1920s

A photograph relating to a "Boycott Japanese goods campaign" when Japan invaded China in 1931.

A slogan carved on the cell wall of the Japanese embassy in Gulangyu: "Down with the Japanese Dogs"

In 1951, the new China announced resuming jurisdiction over the International Settlement in Gulangyu.

A glazed Chinese peasant hat as a wall decoration

We're in the streets again and the same newly weds we saw in the other great mansion

We were given an hour to walk around 

An old fashioned speaker

                              The walls of some buildings have Western style goddesses on them

They appear to like music here on the island



There are many small local inns on the island operating from some of the former European style houses

There are all kinds of eternal wall decorations. This house owners drawn in a false European style window, a different way of doing what some home owners do in Bulgaria. which paints in non-existent doors and windows on their walls.

Gulangyu is now full of tiny boutique-like shops selling all kinds of stuffs

A new style tea shop

You can see that they've put in a lot of work to make the shop look more attractive

 a breakfast and afternoon tea/coffee bar

A candy store

The menu board

Western style tea set

A Gulangyu tea and cake shop sign

The windows are nicely decorated

tea cake shop

The interior of another shop

This one sells cold desserts and drinks



This is a fruit juice specialist

colorful straws

Chinese tourist buying local snacks

This one sells some what they call more traditional "dragon head cakes"

   You can see they don't want anything fancy, just plain old cakes

As it's a just a few hours away on boat to Taiwan, you see Taiwanese influence here too. This one sells "sausage within sausage" popular in Taiwan.

A fast food shop: "Caring Black Cat Meal Set"!

This one sells Turkish icecream which is also popular in Taiwan

They've caught on to the modern idea of using "personal appeal"; This shop emphasizes that it's the shop of Kao Ling Feng, like the French "chez  Heliose" , "chez Jacques" etc.

In bold red and yellow characters "Taiwanese style prawn-egg eggs" . It seems to work. Plenty of customers.

  

This one plays on the pun "FBI" which sounds the same in Chinese as "the federal bureau of tea-brewing". They got another advertising gimmick: letting tourists photograph themselves in front of their shop with ready-made signs for various purpose it lends free of charge to them. 

This sign says" "The Big Uncle Accuses" which sounds the same in Chinese as the "Grand Indictment"

The sign the boy carries says: "Asking to be Adopted" and his girl friend's sign says: " Mindless Girl" which presumably sounds the same as the name for "certificate for non-marriage" which is officially required under Chinese matrimonial law if a woman intends to get legally married. 

This time the boy carries another one which says" Man as pretty as a flower" when that expression is usually reserved for beautiful ladies.

The left one says: "a natural fool" and the other one says, "narcissism"

 This one says, "Natural Barrier" presumbly referring to the condition of stil being a "virgin"? 

This shop sign puns on the traditional Chinese blessing of having "5 Generations united under the same roof"  and changes the last character "roof" into "slightly turns it into "5 Generations united by the same Candy" .

 

They now have a complete different use for previous popular Chinese Communist slogans. With a slight twist, they can now be perfectly serviceable for the cause of consumerism too. This one says: "In the service of 'the masses" . like the old Communist slogan. Its says further: "Free tasting, photography, asking your way. " and made humorous use of the Communist Chinese slogan: "The Revolution is not yet succeeded. All comrades have to work hard still". it's now become, "The Revolution has succeeded. All comrades have to work hard still" iwith an arrow pointing to another dig on the one of old fashioned Chinese ethical principles. It turns the old Confucian ethical principle which says "There are 3 big sins against filial piety: the first is not having issue." into "There are 3 big sins against filial piety: the first is being stingy" to yourself, presumably. A perfect reflection of the ethics of consumerism, which emphasizes dissipation rather than production. 

This one also puns on the expression "Perks" which sounds the same as "something sweet" to sell all sorts of candies

They got shops specializing in sea weed dessert made from what they call "fairy herb" (仙草) which Cantonese call "cold noodles" (涼粉)

This shop specailizes on sweet yam dessert



This explains what they do.



Not very many customers though.

They obviously spent some time designing an attractive shop front.

This one sells Chinese pastries like the famous pineapple cakes and Chinese "dried fish fleece".

I wonder if they engage ad agencies and promotion companies to help them.

This shop claims to be generations old specialists in "Fish Fleece"

This shop sell different kind of candies with a good mix of the traditional and the novel in their containers and wrappings

Another candy store

This young man sells these sissling fish balls

Looks really mouth-watering.

They now use all kinds of modern advertising tricks. This one emphasizes that what they are selling is the "handicraft" of its shop owner "Lu A Ma" or mother of Lo.

This is a close up of their shop front complete with tea sets and nicely packed tea cakes.

This shop selling traditional Chinese wines emphasizes their stringent safety standards

Not only mothers, maternal grandfathers can be the subject of commercial appeal! This shop sells "paternal grandpa's sweet and sour prune drink"

Toy crispies!

  

The toy cripsies

Fish balls in all kinds of sauces and shapes

Of course where's there a good demand, there'll always be other competitors

Some of the delicacies and snacks

bean curd rolls



 Seafood snacks

A sign for a local delicacy : shrimp cakes

Looks a bit like pan cakes




There are not only fish balls, but octopus balls too



Japanese influence via Taiwan



octopus balls on paper boats

Wherever you find Chinese, you find these family style food stalls. This one sells noodles with hot spicy sauce with meat or fish.

Amoy specialties they have on offer: 

All kinds of local "delicacies": curry chicken, fried pork chops, 5-spice rolls, fried yam cake, fried clams, cold octopus, earth-worm in cold jelly, plain duck etc.

This one specializes in yam and peanut soup, roast pork rice dumpling, hot spicy noodles, spicy beef noodles, melon and duck noodles, rice porridge with own choice of complements, well cooked rice noodle paste, fish ball soup...

 

This one specializes fried sea clams, fish ball soup, beef noodles, assorted seafood noodles, hot spicy noodles



This one claims to be specialist in local specialties

fishes, shrimps, octopus, clams....

Of course, their emphasis is on quality commensurate with price. So they are mininalist as far as decor is concerned

 

a typical restaurant for locals

The market prices for various dishes 

The cook busy preparing his stuffs

The mother feeding her kid

The local market



locals making their purchases

 All kinds of fruits on sale and fruit juices too

The price list

The store next door

The people needs education all the time. This one says: "A gentle reminder: After you're done with my flesh, please take care of my skin"

The new year menus of the fancier restaurants are already out.
 

This Judy's cafe

where two of our tour group members took a coffe. The young man is a professional photographer who used to be a computer expert in Australia
 

The coffee counter

It is obvious that the era of early Communist austerity is now gone forever; consigned to the tombs of history.

Another candy store



They've got shops for romantically inclined young ladies



Who love "cute" things

 and those who prefer something more concretely beautiful: potted plants.

It really took me a while to tell myself that I was really stepping into a book shop run by a country which officially is still Communist 

 

Book lovers trying to sample hidden "treasures". 

Outside, they've got  all kinds of tiny stickers to attract the young

Young people busy filling in their names to send their "personalized" compliments card to their friends and beloved. 

Would you believe it? This is actually a Gulangyu Post Office shop! 

They seem to be proud of the fact that they are in Gulangyu

You see the words China Post branch office, clearly emblazoned on top of the shop

Even the Chinese post office is now completely commercialized.

They got all kinds of telephone booths and mail boxes for sale



old fashioned mail boxes. You can still them in Macau nowadays



And toys

 old and new

even computer mouse pads

and  piggy banks



Amd telephone and post boxes with electronic clocks or watches



and believe it or not, even cakes!

 Another shop selling presumably something from Holland. You can see the windmill on the loft

 A shop selling early Chinese perfume now taking on a more modern look

  

The display table in the middle of the shop

  This is presumably another shop selling jewellery

There are also many teen fashion shops. This one has a banner announcing that customers will get a special purse upon completion of purchases to the  total value of RMB$200. 

  some of the clothes on display on "garment models"

Ah,  a cat, playing with what looks like a plastic toy

An arts and craft shop's mock-antique metal horse

 Some of the other items on sale

A Buddha statue in stone

 They really spent a lot of time on making their shop attractive and some with a very personal touch. I bet this shop must be owned by a lady.

A specialist tea pots shop

A Zen teapot!  I wonder what Zen has got to do with it?




 There's also a personalized pottery shop where you can fire your own personal bottle, pen stands and vases

And a shop specializing in selling old fashioned matches!

 This is a toy shop devoted to piggy characters

Mr Piggy in person with a watch on his wrist

Mr Piggy the policeman

Mr Piggy the Pilot with his shapely girl friend



This man was so happy to have his photo taken. Perhaps he wants to be a pilot too!

 I was wondering what this shop was selling when I first saw all these colors on the shelves upon its walls. 

 This is what they're selling: "fermented" or English-style tea!

  

This shops sells genuine pearls whose cusps are fanned out like butterflies

A sketch portrait workshop.  Amoy is well known for its professional artists. There are two artist villages there with thousands of artists



An artist engaged in a portray of a client

perhaps there can be a market for these old fashioned items too?

There are some handicraft artists who just sell their production in the streets. This one sells miniature furniture

 Another wire toy artist laying out his creations on the ground

 Some of his creations

But the traditions die hard. Not far away, ordinary fisher folks can be found doing business the way their fathers and grandfathers did with minimal fuss. "Geosucks" or the muc

more vivid Chinese name "Elephant tusk clams", displayed like a flower.

 

But no thoughts are given to these humble no nonsense snails and clams: on plastic basins. The name of the game is simplicity!

The pincers of these lobsters are rendered harmless by a simple technical invention, plastic bands with metal clips. 

These lazy 8-legged sea creatures can be left alone without precautions

Old fashioned hand cart and reed tray lying at a street wall with posters emphasizing the island's heritage of the first Western style architecture on Chinese soil.

 But hiding away behind the back streets of the island, you still find some female cobblers working away trying their honest best to earn a day's wages. 

  

As in many parts of China today, there is a strange blending of the old and the new, of the lifestyles of the rich and the poor and of the East and the West but here the contrast seems sharper than elsewhere. But like everywhere in China, there are people and people and people everywhere you go in China.