Vintage Male Doll Holding a Peach, China (1301A-EAO)

Description

This vintage wood and cloth doll representing male attendants from China carries a peach, among the most popular Chinese auspicious symbols representing longevity. He is presented as a Chinese- opera figure with his costume decorated with 5-petal plum blossoms also symbolizing longevity and its 5 petals evoking a wish for the Five-Blessings-or-Happinesses. In many cultures, dolls were children’s entertainment and didactic tools to teach beliefs, philosophy, lore, and history specific to each one. In China, dolls were a folk-art tradition for rural and city and residents to communicate and explain cultural symbols, customs, folktales, rituals, holiday celebrations, and family events and milestones where most people were illiterate and required visual education.  Small, charming, and attractively dressed dolls were decorated to the extent funds were available to echo attire people would see at holiday occasions, Chinese-opera, Chinese dance, puppet performances, and other public events. When dolls were soiled from use, their clothing was cleaned or replaced. Children were also taught to recognize in their playthings visual and tonal puns called homophones – similar sounding words with very different meanings from a very early which are a key to Chinese humor.  The four dancer dolls we offer, all mounted on a frosted acrylic stand, are charming as a collection and they are part of the VA collection of Masks-Puppets-and-Dolls.

Sources

Nancy Zeng Berliner, Chinese Folk Art, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1986.

Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art,, San Francisco, The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006.

Patricia Bjaaland Welch, Chinese Art; A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, Rutland, Tuttle Publishing, 2008.