Dragons are Definitely In

The kingfisher feather lantern was a great hit with so many followers who have emailed me about the dragons I live with. I featured the black dragon holding the lantern up but I failed to mention that on four corners there are dragon heads on the lantern. Here is a close up of one of the dragon heads.

Chinese New Year is still with us and has grown in popularity throughout the USA so remarkably the past few years. I’m celebrating heavily this year because as I’ve mentioned before I was born in the Year of the Dragon. This is my year. But I’m breathing happiness not fire!

While I’d like to be in a major city in China to see the fireworks displays, or in San Francisco Chinatown for their great annual parade, the New York Times this morning made me wish I’d been there to attend the Chinese New Year gala performance of the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall. They did it right starting things off with a traditional Chinese dragon dance, the lengthy active dragon performing all over the stage. Not surprisingly Lang Lang, the marvelous Chinese pianist, was guest performer. This is a hard act to follow but conductor Long Yu tried his best conducting the New York Philharmonic in a program that included Li Huanzhi’s Spring Festival Overture. But what I would particularly have enjoyed seeing was the troupe of Mongolian children, the Quintessenseo Mongolian Children’s Choir, performing Mongolian folk songs dressed in traditional costumes. Jennifer Taylor took the following adorable shot for the New York Times:

The children concluded their part of the program with America the Beautiful learned in English with Mongolian accent. This would have been a harder act to follow than the dragon dance!

My last post about dragons I live with brought an amazing response of emails, snail mail and phone calls. And presents! A good friend in Northern California Roberta Quan sent me two treasures with dragons:

My good friend Roberta Quan in northern California is always sending interesting articles and sometimes wonderful little surprise gifts through snail mail. She so enjoyed the Dragons Around My House blog that she contributed to the participants with this wonderful snuff bottle with a perfectly lovely dragon to join my crowd.

Roberta Quan also sent me this lovely antique silver comb with a dragon wiggling its way across the top.

And my friend Joan Selwyn brought me a copy of an enchanting children’s book she wrote using dragons to teach the A,B,C’s:

Joan Selwyn got into the dragon act with a wonderful contribution. A copy of a children’s book “ABC Dragons” she wrote and illustrated. I’ve had more fun with the book than any child could have, it’s so delightfully imaginative.

Then having thought I’d found all the dragons in my house I started looking around and I missed quite a few. How can a person miss a bunch of dragons in the house? Well I did and here they are:

How could I have forgotten my beloved TinTin statue from The Blue Lotus? TinTin has his dragons, a blue one on the vase he’s hiding in. It delights me to see the recognition TinTin is finally achieving in the United States thanks to the new film about him. It has always surprised me most American guests in my home didn’t know who he was. When someone exclaimed happily upon spotting my TinTin “Ah TinTin!” it was always said with a French, Belgian, Italian, Swiss or German accent.

And TinTin has a red dragon with him on the notebook I carry in my tote. You can see TinTin is almost as much a part of my life as my dragons are!

And TinTin has a black dragon on the cover of his book. He’s well covered with dragons too.

Yang Du is a marvelously creative young Chinese designer in London I discovered and sort of adopted. She does the most imaginative giant knitted sweaters, hats, gloves and scarves. Here’s her dragon hat for Chinese New Year of the Dragon.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com