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 | Adventures in Asian Art |  | |||||||
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| Adventures in Asian Art | | |||||||
We have many options to create artwork with Lucky characters on a wall scroll
or portrait.
If you want to create a cool Lucky Asian character tattoo, you can purchase that on our Chinese and Japanese Tattoo Image Service page and we'll help you select from many forms of ancient Asian symbols that
express the idea of lucky.
Quick links to words on this page...
Mandarin: jí
Japanese: kichi
Korean: 길
A simple way to express the state of being lucky. Also used in conversation to hope that all is well with someone. This is more often seen as part of a compound word with a lucky association (especially in Korean).
Not as often used in Japanese, but still means "good luck" but can also mean "joy" in Japanese.
See Also... Good Luck
Mandarin: xìng
Japanese: saki
Korean: 행
This can mean happiness, good fortune, good luck, and in the old days, good harvest or bounty.
Note: From Japanese, this character is sometimes romanized as "sachi", and is often pronounced "kou" when used in compound words with other Kanji.
Mandarin: fú
Japanese: fuku
Korean: 복
This Character is pronounced "fu" in Chinese.
The character "fu" is posted by virtually all Chinese people on the doors of their homes during the Spring Festival (closely associated with the Chinese New Years).
One tradition from the Zhou Dynasty (beginning in 256 B.C.) holds that putting a fu symbol on your front door will keep the goddess of poverty away.
This character literally means good fortune, prosperity, blessed, happiness, and fulfillment.
Mandarin: xìng yùn
Japanese: kou un
Korean: 행운
This can be translated as "good luck", "fortunate", "lucky" and/or "good fortune" in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Occasionally, this is also translated as a type of happiness.
Mandarin: jī yù
Korean: 기우
This is the kind of opportunity that comes via good luck or good fortune.
This word is sometimes translated as "stroke of good luck".
While there are other ways to express "opportunity", I think this version is best for a calligraphy wall scroll or portrait.
Note: In Korean Hanja, this would also mean "Meeting someone under strange circumstances".
See Also... Good Luck
Mandarin: lóng fèng chéng xiáng
This is often seen at weddings and other celebrations in China. It suggests that he dragon and phoenix will bring you auspicious tidings.
The first character is dragon.
The second is phoenix.
The third is presents or brings.
And the last means auspicious, propitious, or luck.
(single character)
Mandarin: mìng yùn
Japanese: inochi / mei
Korean: 명
This character is often translated as "destiny". Sometimes this character is simply translated as "life", but more in terms of one's lot in life. In certain context, this can mean command or decree (generally from a king or emperor). Of course, such a decree are part of fate and lead you to fulfill your destiny.
In Chinese this word leans toward the fate or destiny definition.
In Korean, it is usually read simply as "life".
In Japanese, it can mean all definitions shown above, depending on context.
See Also... Good Fortune | Good Luck
(two characters)
Mandarin: mìng yùn
Japanese: mei un
These two characters contain the ideas of "fate", "destiny", "fortune" and "luck". You can also say that it means "what life throws at you" or "your lot in life" because the first character contains the idea of "life" or "living".
See Also... Good Fortune | Good Luck
Mandarin: mìng yùn
Japanese: un mei
Korean: 운명
These two characters contain the ideas of "fate", "destiny", "fortune" and "luck". This is often defined as "a person's fate" in various dictionaries.
These two characters can be put in either order with the same meaning in Chinese and Japanese. The character order shown here is more the more natural order for Japanese Kanji and old Korean Hanja.
See Also... Good Fortune | Good Luck
Mandarin: fú zhái
Korean: 복택
Perhaps the Chinese equivalent of "This blessed house" or perhaps "home sweet home". This phrase literally means "Good fortune house" or "Good luck household". It makes any Chinese person who sees it feel that good things happen in the home in which this calligraphy is hung.
Mandarin: yùn mìng
Japanese: un mei
Korean: 운명
These two characters can be reversed (written in either order) and yield roughly the same meaning. Either way it's about your "fate", "destiny", "fortune" and "luck".
This character order happens to be more common in old Korean and less common in modern Chinese.
See Also... Good Fortune | Good Luck
Wall scroll artwork shown on this page is priced as follows:
1 character $29.88 each
2-3 characters $39.88 each
4 characters $49.88 each
After you select your calligraphy, our website will take you through the process of customizing your artwork.
Options for other mounting such as portraits are available for $13 less.
We also offer the services of a famous master calligrapher for a $40 fee on any scroll if you are looking for investment-quality calligraphy.
If you chose our famous master-calligrapher, you also get more choices for silk and paper colors and the option for larger artwork.
All of our calligraphy is completely done by hand in the ancient way.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to our art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Therefore, allow at least 3 weeks for delivery from the time you place your order.
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
Prices for
custom wall scrolls
shown on this page:
Single-Character:
USD $29.88
GBP £18.01
EUR €20.10
CAD $32.01
AUS $32.64
2-3 Characters:
USD $39.88
GBP £24.04
EUR €26.83
CAD $42.73
AUS $43.56
4 Characters:
USD $49.88
GBP £30.07
EUR €33.56
CAD $53.44
AUS $54.49
Customizations that you select may raise or lower the price.
The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "regular size"
4-character wall scroll.
As you can see, it is a great size to hang on your wall.
(We also offer custom wall scrolls in larger sizes)
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
The following table is only helpful for those studying Chinese (or Japanese), and perhaps helps search engines to find this page when someone enters Romanized Chinese or Japanese
| Title | Characters Simplified Traditional |
Japanese Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Hanyu-Pinyin (Romanized Chinese) | |||
| Lucky / Auspicious | 吉 吉 | kichi | jí ji | ji2 ji | ||
| Happiness / Fortune / Lucky | 幸 幸 | saki | xìng | xing4 | ||
| Good Luck / Good Fortune | 福 福 | fuku | fú fu | fu2 fu | ||
| Good Luck | 幸运 幸運 | kou un kouun ko un | xìng yùn xing yun | xing4 yun4 xingyun | ||
| Opportunity / Good Luck | 机遇 機遇 | n/a | jī yù ji yu | ji1 yu4 jiyu | ||
| Dragon and Phoenix Brings Luck | 龙凤呈祥 龍鳳呈祥 | n/a | lóng fèng chéng xiáng long feng cheng xiang | long2 feng4 cheng2 xiang2 longfengchengxiang | ||
| Destiny / Fate | 命 命 | inochi / mei inochi/mei | mìng yùn ming | ming4 ming | ||
| Destiny / Fate | 命运 命運 | mei un meiun | mìng yùn ming yun | ming4 yun4 mingyun | ||
| Destiny / Fate | 运命 運命 | un mei unmei | mìng yùn yun ming | yun4 ming4 yunming | ||
| House of Good Fortune | 福宅 福宅 | n/a | fú zhái fu zhai | fu2 zhai2 fuzhai | ||
| Personal Fate or Destiny | 运命 運命 | un mei unmei | yùn mìng yun ming | yun4 ming4 yunming | ||
| If you have not set up your computer to display Chinese, the characters in this table probably look like empty boxes or random text garbage.
This is why we spent hundreds of hours making images so that you could view the characters in the "Lucky" listings above. If you want your Windows computer to be able to display Chinese characters you can either head to your Regional and Language options in your Win XP control panel, select the [Languages] tab and click on [Install files for East Asian Languages]. This task will ask for your Win XP CD to complete in most cases. If you don't have your Windows XP CD, or are running Windows 98, you can also download/run the simplified Chinese font package installer from Microsoft which works independently with Win 98, ME, 2000, and XP. It's a 2.5MB download, so if you are on dial up, start the download and go make a sandwich. | ||||||
All custom calligraphy items are made-to-order in our little Beijing artwork-mounting workshop.
Normal delivery isjust over 3 weeksfor these handmade items.
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