Double Happiness
Chinese Calligraphy Scroll
This is a common gift for Chinese couples getting married or newly married couples, but it appropriate for anyone for whom you wish the greatest of happiness.
As we say in the west, "Two heads are better than one" Well, in the east, two "happinesses" are certainly better than one.
This is not really a character that is pronounced very often - it's almost exclusively used in written form. However, if pressed, most Chinese people will pronounce this "shuang xi" (double happy) although literally there are two "xi" characters combined in this calligraphy (but nobody will say "xi xi").
In Chinese, "xi" is pronounced like "she" but with your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth and your teeth slightly open (there is no sound in English exactly like this).
This piece is painted with special Chinese ink on rice paper mounted to a traditional silk scroll.
Chinese Calligraphy is only practiced by those with a keen and agile hand. It is an art that dates back thousands of years, and great artists, writers, and poets are often admired for their calligraphy ability and style.
The artist's name is "Li Dan Qing" who is from Beijing, China. He is an older man with good calligraphy skills.
To create this art, Li Dan Qing used special Chinese ink on thick rice paper. Then I took it to the best painting mounters in Beijing to mount the painting on a silk scroll.
This hanging scroll is really nice since it doesn't require framing. Just hang it on your wall as Chinese people have done for centuries.
The scroll that you receive may vary slightly from the image above, as this series of calligraphy artwork is all handmade to order.
Custom Double Happiness Calligraphy Wall Scrolls & Portraits
I like the festive red and white double happiness scroll that you see above, but if you want different colors, a larger size, or higher-quality calligraphy...
We can have a custom Double Happiness wall scroll created for you, simply click on the button above, and start customizing your Double Happiness artwork.
Custom wall scrolls start at $28.88
and portraits start at $12 less ($16.88).
If you are looking for something very special, we also have investment-quality calligraphy available from a famous master-calligrapher in Beijing for an additional $40 fee.
Click the "Select & Customize" button above to see all the options.
Married to China...
Surprise, you're married!
It all happened so fast, and yet in some ways it takes forever.
I think that from the day we met in 2002 Ling Hua (known by her friends as "Cat") and I became best friends. From that day on, we spent a lot of time playing badminton,
hiking, and backpacking together.
Somewhere along the way,
she became a girlfriend. At the same time, I was supposed to return to
"the real world" in America. I flew home, leaving a lifetime of
memories in China.
Coming back to America, I
felt a certain amount of culture-shock as I tried to re-adjust back to an
American lifestyle.
I returned to my old job
and started making about 10 times what I did in China - but money does not equal
happiness. I really missed Cat and my life back in Asia.
I flew to China for a
visit, only a few months later. Before I did, I asked Cat if we ought to look
into what's involved in getting married. I am sure this freaked her out,
but it also made her happy. When I arrived in China, she had done her
homework. She told me it should take 30 days to complete the process with
all of the Chinese government red tape (and I do mean red).
Knowing that it is
impossible to complete the process in the short one week trip that I was on, we
started to do it for fun. The medical exam was first, and involved the
standard pokes, turning your head and coughing, and super-small Chinese-sized
hospital gowns that left me mooning half of the people waiting in the hospital.
The next day we headed to
the American embassy, to get a "certificate of marriageability".
Picking up the certificate the next morning, we headed to the Bureau of Foreign
Marriages in Beijing. Turning in the paperwork, Cat began to plead our
case to see if we could speed up the process. I put in my two cent and
said a few things in Chinese. This shocked the government official who complimented me
on my Chinese. I replied in the typical Chinese way of being humble,
"Where where?" which in Chinese culture means, "Where and who are
you talking about? It can't be me!" The official laughed and we
had a good time joking around with him. He told us to come back in the
afternoon, and we said goodbye.
I didn't know what we were going back for in the afternoon, but when we returned, I was a bit startled. Official certificates of marriage were handed to both of us, and
we were sworn in and announced as husband and wife with amazing efficiency. Fifteen minutes after arriving, we both left, stunned, as
husband and wife. A process everyone said would take at least 30 days and be really difficult!
Her family was shocked too, but in a very Chinese way, they apologized for not having a ceremony planned for us. Cat's family had become very dear and close to me in the past, and when they got the news, I was told by Cat's father that I was as much a part of
the family as if we shared the same blood.
I returned to America, and started getting all the paperwork together to get a visa and residency for
Cat in the states. After the application was refused by U.S. Immigration, because "I was not a resident of America" - regardless of the fact that I
was a natural born citizen. I sent the paperwork to Cat in China, and told her to take it to the Embassy. Well, nothing is easy, and they refused to
take the paperwork from her, insisting that I be present. Three days later, I was in China again, and suddenly I discovered how difficult my own
government could be. All the U.S. Government websites had the wrong information, and the Embassy in Beijing said that I was not a resident of China
either (even though my passport had 4 years worth of almost continuous Chinese visas).
Although I was distraught, I returned to my new family home in Beijing, to find that with 4 days notice, about 20 to 30 of Cat's extended family members had flown in from around
China to come and celebrate our marriage. I didn't expect it, but in Chinese culture, family means everything. I was humbled and honored as we
had a somewhat informal, but traditional wedding celebration. I even had a Chinese silk tunic custom-tailored for the occasion (pictured above).
I won't go into the rest of my woes, but I have been flying back and forth to China, fighting the
government for my wife's rights to live in the states with me.
About 10 visits to my congresswoman's office, 2 letters to a U.S. Senator, one letter to George Bush (waste of time), numerous emails to the U.S. Consulate, and 16 months later, the U.S. Government finally issued a visa, and my wife and I were allowed to reunite.
