The Chinese gift

Qufu

For the Rosetta stone project  I had the opportunity to work with the group representing Asia. Two of us represented China, one Japan, and one Cambodia. Because the majority of our group represented China, and China represents the majority of the world, we thought it best to portray China in our project.
Our first thought was to have a quote from Confucius on rice paper. This would have been culturally significant because paper was invented in China (see Shuan's post on this). However, attempts at making rice paper were disastrous. Contrary to popular belief, at least my own and that of my group members, rice paper is not actually made out of rice. It is made out of rice straw or more modernly wood fiber,, mulberry, or bamboo. Also the arguably most famous Confucius artifact is actually the Confucius temple of Qufu. Confucius sayings are inscribed in stone.

A wall scroll

We are not skilled masons so decided it would be better if we chose a different medium. Another iconic piece of Chinese culture is scroll calligraphy. These scrolls were very easy to transport and were often given as gifts. We wanted e decided that we would like to present our artifact as a traditional gift scroll, one that could be given to a child. In addition to paper, scrolls could also be made of bamboo slats. This made them more durable. We thought this was a unique design. Sadly, you cannot write on round sticks tied together so we got some bamboo place mats. They roll up nicely just like a scroll and we think they look very authentic.
After determining exactly what we wanted to do, we divided assignments. Scott and I were responsible for gathering supplies. Montana for bringing our excellent and sneaky quote. Shuan put our pieces together. She did a wonderful job on the lettering. I learned that the direction of Chinese lettering (up and down vs. side to side) depends on the style of the art. Also you need different kinds of ink for writing on paper and bamboo, with a pen and with a brush. That was an interesting learning moment too We were very excited with our finished project and look forward to seeing what the next group's "Rosetta Stone" will look like.