good news: mum brought some ceramic chopsticks when she went back to china, so we are officially eating slightly less microplastics now
bad news: my dumbass managed to break not ONE but TWO ceramic chopsticks in the span of one night ;0; i was washing the dishes and they just fell onto the ground (we have WOODEN floors COME ONNNNN)
see, if only they had broken at the same length then i could at least have a pair of stubby chopsticks. gotta hide the evidence pronto…
good news: i have a new pair of fancy ceramic hairpins (had to round down the edges with some sandpaper to stop it getting caught in my hair)
ok this turned out to be a great hands-on learning opportunity because it cleared up some of my misconceptions about traditional chinese hairstyles.
I use to think a) the hairstick was just a decorative feature and b) traditional hairstyles like the high updo were crazy complicated, and you HAD to have someone else help you with it, like a servant/wife/buddy ect
hang on let me get some of my library books out:
ok, you see how elaborate this knot is? And how high it is on the head? I once spent an hour trying to replicate this and my shoulders were KILLING me. I COULD NOT, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THAT NEATLY COILED BUN.
turns out, the hairstick is THE essential shaping tool here. after watching two youtube tutorials, i was able to achieve a similar looking knot in seconds, AND crucially, i learned that the stick alone can be enough to keep your hair up. you don’t even need a hair tie.
(Note: this statue is of a qin soldier in his “parade uniform” so if u ignore all the elaborate braiding, the high bun is definitely something he can do himself for daily wear.)
here’s an acrobat with a much simpler hairdo. you see that sticky out bit? Some of the soldiers also have it, and ive seen it called a flat hairpin in some websites but idk for sure.
also while im here, the half-up half-down look im sporting is COMPLETELY ahistorical. 0/10. F- . im only doing it bc my hair is too short. if i see it in a “period-accurate guzhuang” im CHANGING THE CHANNEL.
HOW ARE THE COSTUME DESIGNERS STILL GETTING HAIR WRONG??? its literally gone unchanged from the zhou dynasty all the way until the ming dynasty. CAN WE GET ON THE SAME PAGE PLEASE???
DOES THE WOMAN FROM THE CHENJIADASHAN SILK PAINTINGS MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?
ok so there was ONE hairstyle rule for men and women, and it that it had to be FULLY tied up. thats it thats the minimum requirement. having your hair down, or even messy, meant you were a) a lunatic b) a daoist wizard? c) a barbarian. perhaps even all three. in fact, you weren’t even allowed to cut your hair, because your body was considered a gift from your parents and damaging any part of it was considered unfilial.
see? none of them are running around with messy hair!
very filial. very mindful.
(their buns are all on the right side because the qin considered it to be the “righteous”. and then everything to do with the qin dynasty went out of fashion very quickly. due to reasons)
p.s. i wrote a story where liu bang pulled his hairpin out very dramatically to dig up a thematically-relevant jade pendant. knowing what i know now, depending on how his servant did his hair that day, there was a non-zero chance his hair would have gone cascading down his shoulders like an unfilial slut, and everyone present would have been uncomfortable.
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