My Gulanfang

My WHAT?, you ask.

My Gulanfang collection.

When Ken was doing contract work in Chengdu, China, in 2005 and 2006, I would join him there for a few weeks at a time during several of his trips.

We had a housekeeper, of course, because every Westerner in China has a housekeeper. (This, incidentally, is the only time in my life that I had a housekeeper, but sadly it was the only time in my life when I didn't need one.)

So, to help pass the time while Ken was at work each day, I'd leave on a walking sightseeing tour. I felt perfectly safe in this city of 11,000,000 and I knew how to keep my bearings in order to return to our apartment at some point later in the morning.

I must have walked several miles each day, and I came upon a multitude of interesting sites.

One day I stumbled upon a small shop selling Gulanfangs.

I recognized them immediately, because I'd seen a story about Gulanfang on CCTV (Central China TV) just days earlier.

Gulanfang are small, elaborately embroidered animals made in a specific region of China. The embroidery is hand done, so of course that's what attracted me to these colorful creatures.

I browsed the shop quite some time before selecting the animals I wanted. Then I went back to the shop the next day and selected more.

I left the price tags on the underside of the animals. This morning as I dusted my collection and looked at their prices, I was reminded I'd paid roughly 25 yuan per animal. That was roughly $3.00 each in 2005-2006.

Some of the animals are easy to identify; others are a bit of a mystery to me. Then there's the two-headed donkey. I'm not sure what the story might be regarding him!

So these are my gulanfangs. It's another snowy day here in Maine, and these creatures are adding much color to an otherwise white world.