Everlasting Blossom

C-1 The Laundry Lady(A)

  My father, Dz Yuen was a man with a great sense of purpose. He was a man dedicated to his role in the Air Force but his real purpose in life was to find ways to make my mother's eyes sparkle. Sometimes it would be the simplicity of putting a rose under her blanket before she got into bed. Although she always got into bed long after he went to sleep, she would find the flower with a note that would provoke a smile and that special sparkle. My father was a special man of great kindness. He regretfully spent much of his time looking for jobs but he would always return with new ways to remind my mother of how much he loved her.

   After my father left for looking for job that morning, my mother Yu Wen She was cleaning house and singing. Cleaning house was something new that she learned after her marriage. Actually my mother never had to do any house chores before she married. She began singing one of her favorite Drum Song of Peking, The Story of the West Wing . 

"A sixteen year old young lady

Too lazy to dress up.

Tswei-Ying-Ying lying in bed sluggishly.

Lack of appetite, didn't call any tea

Lonely and miserable.

cold and cheerless,

Holding her cheek with her tinny skinny hands

With her big eyes half opened............. "

This Song always reminded her childhood. As in her memory: that was a cold spring morning............

  In that big living room. Yu Wen stood there as straight as a soldier in front of her mother, who was sitting in a big wooden lounge chair.

  "I said, NO! Didn't you understand what I've just said to you?" Mrs. Lyan said with a rather loud and harsh turn."Who have ever heard of a young lady like you from an illustrious family, would ever learn to sing " Drum Song of Peking ", such low class folk song was only for those people in the street who have to work for their daily bread. If our relatives and friends ever heard of this: the Lyan's only daughter is learning Drum Song of Peking, what would they think about you? How am I going to be able to look for a matched marriage for you?"

  Yu Wen was the pearl of the family, but when she violate Mrs. Lyan's principles, her mother would never tolerate.

  "So, I'll say it again: NO! YOU - ARE - NOT - ALLOWED - TO - LEARN - IT ! " Mrs. Lyan said: "Wong Ma, escort your lady back to her room. Without my permission, your lady should not leave her room."

  Wong Ma was Yu Wen's wet nurse, who took care of Yu Wen ever since she was an infant. She loved Yu Wen so dearly as her own daughter.

   Wong Ma whispered to Yu Wen softly: "My lady, let's go back to your room now. Don't make it difficult for me."

  Yu Wen was going to say something, but when she looked at her mother's angry face and Wong Ma with tears in her eyes, she withdrew quietly from her mother's room.

  While they were walking to her room, she said to herself: 「Ok! Ok! I am not going to learn it, but I really don't understand how could "learning a drum song" being related with " lower one's identity "?」

  Mr. Lyan, Yu Wen's father, a good husband, but he would do his best to be on his daughter's side if he is needed.

  That evening Mr. Lyan heard the servants were talking about the unhappy incident that happened between Mrs. Lyan and his only daughter, Yu Wen, he went into his daughter's room instead of going to his wife's room.

  "My girl, I say, you are playing revolution again! And you upset your mother, right?" He said to Yu Wen.

  "No! I did not."Yu Wen was trying to defend herself.

"I was just telling her that I wish to learn the drum song, -The Story of the West Wing-. I didn't know that could upset my mother that bad and she enumerated all my wrong doings. 」The feeling of wronged her, tears running down her cheeks.

  "Pa-pa! You have to think of some ways to help me. I really want to learn it."

  「The Story of the West Wing? Isn't that the romantic story about Tswei Ying Ying and Jang Jun Rei? I know it. Nice melody! But.............. 」It wouldn't be hard for Mr, Lyan to figure out why that Mrs. Lyan would not allow Yu Wen to learn it. He didn't want the happening gets too complicated.

  「How about the pouch you promised me? En? It should be done by now. Isn't it?」Mr. Lyan changed the subject.

  「Almost! Pa! But I don't feel like to do anything anymore after what I got from my mom today.」

  Yu Wen was the pearl in Mr. Lyan's palm. Yu Wen was so precious to him. On one hand Yu Wen's personality was inherited from him, free and easy. On the other Yu Wen's exquisite intelligence was from his wife. In addition to this, Mrs. Lyan had painstakingly educated Yu Wen with the Chinese traditional needle works. Yu Wen was a priceless treasure to him. Therefore Mr. Lyan always granted whatever Yu Wen requested .

  Mr. Lyan was very proud of his daughter's needle works. Whatever Yu Wen embroidered were beautiful and unique. He had a handkerchief was embroidered by Yu Wen. He always carry one or two pieces of Yu Wen's needle works with him. When he had some social active with his friends, he wouldn't miss any opportunity to show off.

  Mr. Lyan was a pipe-smoker and carried a pouch with him all the time. He thought, it would be the best chance to show off Yu Wen's masterpiece each time when he was loading his pipe. And people will not notice that he did it purposely! Therefore he asked Yu Wen to embroider a pouch for him. Now when he realize his daughter will go on a strike, he gave-in.

  "OK! You tell me what's in your mind? How would you learn it?"Mr. Lyan asked.

  "I'm ......wondering if it is OK to employ a Drum Song actress to come to our home to teach me?" Yu Wen thought that would be the best way, which would be complete in both respects.

  "You mean to learn it secretly at home, so that our relatives and friends will not know it and also it wouldn't embarrass your mother too, right? But should we let your mother know about it?"

  Yu Wen laughed happily because she knew her father will help her now.

  A beautiful young lady came to Lyan's residence the next afternoon to teach Yu Wen secretly! Whom Yu Wen found out later that she was a very famous Peking Drum Song actress, Jang-Tswei-Feng. May be it was because of that Jang Tswei Feng was famous, therefore Mrs. Lyan accepted the whole idea and did not give Yu Wen any more hard time. Yu Wen remembered after class when Miss Jang was about to leave, she lowered her head and walked backward for a few stapes, then turn around walked quickly out of room. Because she was of humble birth.

  "Meow!" A cute little kitten came to the kitchen door. It woke Yu Wen up from her day dreaming, and put her back to the reality.

  Big tear drops dropped to her hands. Yu Wen shook her head, trying to shake off what was in her mind. But tears said "No!" kept on running down to her cheeks and wet her blouse.

  Yu Wen resolutely wiped off her tears and kept her chin up, looking out the windows with her red eyes,

  "What am I going to do next?" Yu Wen asked herself the question with no answer. 

Evelasting Blossoms

B. The Author's Preface

My mother, Ho Lyan Yu Wen, with her love and her whole life experiences created the realistic fine yarn crochet flowers, 「Everlasting Blossom」, which was named by my father, Ho dz Yuen. You get it’s picture why it was named so; because they are always looking vivid, beautiful and breath taking as if they were blossoming in spring.

I try to begin the story with where my mother was born, her family and the living environment. When she was a young girl, she was influenced gradually by the traditional Chinese needlework, which led her stepped into the area of fine art, thus formed her artistic hands. Even the environment kept on changing from best to worse, suffering from destitution, she was always kept her utter innocence and optimistic delightful spirit. She always appreciated with keen sense toward nature. She always enjoyed watching a butterfly or the beauty of a small flower, and forgot the difficulties of the life.

I believe the beginning of Everlasting Blossom was not an adventitious, It was the fruit of love and life experiences.

In the early years, if my mother was not being painstakingly and formed by her family to needlework;

If she had never gotten a chance to touched the old tradition fine art;

If she did not keep a heart of child; Everlasting Blossom will never blossom in the world.

Almost everyone who had visited the exhibition of Everlasting Blossom would with one voice:

「They are gorgeous !」

「It is unbelievable that with yarn you can crochet a flower that as vivid as life ones!」

「My goodness! I though they are real flowers!」

「Even the pistils and stamens look like the real thing! 」

While the exhibit of the “Everlasting Blossom” was hold in San Francisco, Professor Sye Bing Ying had affirmed and keeping on telling her friends :「I have never visited the same exhibit twice, but this is my third visiting to Everlasting Blossom!」

After I retired, I live in a senior apartment in Oakland. There is a big pagoda tree in our yard, which draw me back to my childhood when I was in Si-An, northern China. I lived with my parents and my sisters and brothers. It was during the war with the Japanese. Everyone in China was in a very difficult situation and living in poverty. My mother used to pick a lot of pagoda flowers and mixed them with flour, sesame oil, Chinese spices , salt and steamed them, which was one of our most favorite food. They were always so testy and delicious!. While she was watching us enjoying it happily, she often sung a nursery rhyme:

Pagoda tree, pagoda tree,

There is an opera showing under thee

Call for daughters, call for daughter-in-laws,

The wee little grandbabies clamorous restlessly

A strong wind came and ended up the show shortly.

And blow the little ones home swiftly.

「Why the wind ended up the show shortly?」I asked my mother.

「Oh, I think it’s because their misbehavior.」My mother answered smilingly.

「If we were visiting my grand-mom, will the wind blow me back too?」

「No! Of course not. Grand-mom will be so delight to see such a nice grand-daughter. Definitely she’ll love you dearly, and huddle you tightly, she will never let the wind to blow you away 」

「When shall we visit her ? 」

「Well…….very soon,…………one of these days.」

「Mom, one of these days? But when will that be?」

「……」

This conversation was taken place during the 2^nd world war, the invasion of the Japanese in China. We lived in Si-An, the capital of Shan-Syi Province, which was free from the Japanese, while my grandparents were lived in Pei-King, which was in the enemy's hands. They were not just too far away from each other, it was just impossible to get there. Therefore, until my grand-mom past away, I had never had a chance to visit her.

Before I had the stroke, while I was visiting a friend of mine. We were walking down the street. I smelled some kind of sweet jasmine smell. But there were no jasmine flowers around. Only big tall trees on both sides of the street. I saw strings of small light lavender flowers hanging in the trees.

They looked like wisteria flowers, but wisteria are vines, they would never grow into big trees like what I saw at that moment!

「It is possible the sweet smell come from those flowers? Those are not wisteria, aren't they? 」I can’t help but asked my friend.

My friend laughed and said,「No! They are not wisteria flowers, They are Pagoda tree flowers.」

「Really? When I was a little kid, my mother used to steam pagoda tree flowers for us. How come that I don’t remember if they ever smell like these?」

「Are the flowers of pagoda tree eatable？」My friend asked curiously.

「Of course they are eatable.」I answered absent-mindedly. There were question marks filled my heart:

「Are pagoda flower smells so sweet like these? How come I ‘ve never remembered they smelled sweet? It would wonderful if mom was still around. 」

At that very night, I had a sweet dream. I dreamed that my mother came to see me. I was loaded with joy. Suddenly the pagoda flower pop up in my mind:

「Mom, are the pagoda flowers smell sweet?」

「Of course they smell sweet.」

「Is that so! But I remembered the flowers you steamed, they smelled sesame oil, prickly ash, star anise, cinnamon, clover and fennel. They never smell like the fragrant of flowers.  」

「My silly child! 」She said graciously.「The flowers you ate, were well steamed, the fragrant of the flower had already vaporized.」

Mother’s benign smile was gone when I woke up. My pillow was wet with tears. That was two years later after my mother had passed away.

Ever since then, I yearning to write a book about my mother and about her unique handcraft, Everlasting Blossom. I started to collect all kinds of information about Everlasting Blossom, I wanted to have the book to be as a tribute to my mother . And pass on the beautiful memory to my children.

My left hand and left foot paralyzed since the stroke, I can’t arrange those crocheted flowers any more. I can’t have any more exhibitions of Everlasting Blossom. But My right hand is still working fine. After I had some information ready , I started tp typy with three fingers: my index finger, medius and the 4th finger. Each time when I hit a key on the keyboard, sounds like I’m talking to my mother. Telling her that how much I love her, how much I missed her.

With a wish in my heart：「Hopefully with this book, it will wake up those flowers from where they stored. May be they will have a chance to meet some one who will make the Everlasting Blossom blossomed again.  

The pictures in the following chapters, may tell you the value of Everlasting Blossoms. They may not be very clear, but those blurred ones may look more like real flowers! However the blurry and dim pictures in this book it's because either they were copied from the originals, or taken by a camera which was not a professional one in the year of 1967! But each time when those flowers were setting in the showroom, people at their first look would think they were looking at some real, fresh flowers! They are very unique, artistic and never been produced before.

My mother, Ho Lyan Yu Wen’s work, not only shows the beauty of the traditional art of Chinese needlework, it also surmount the tradition and created a new vision of art in cultural circles .

There are 37 masterpieces of different kind of Everlasting Blossoms in this book, as well as 8 butterflies, 7 corsages and some very rear, valuable pins with animal heads. Those animal heads are only as big as a coin.

The very first time when Everlasting Blossoms met the publics at the Tai-chung Library in Taiwan, attracted so many visitors. The showroom was never lake of audience during that 9 days' exhibition. Reporters of Taiwan Central Daily News and other paper, and TV reporters came to interviewed my mother. The Women Union of Taiwan presented her a silver trophy with golden Chinese characters; 【巧奪天工】, which means “Superb Craftsmanship Excelling Nature”

Everlasting Blossoms

A. The Beginning of The Story

by Jang Tau

「Aging with no exceptions, flowers all wither and fall」, as we always say ; but Ho Lyan Yu wen, an Chinese Air Force captain’s wife, had created a kind of crochet flowers that will never wither or fall. These vivid, life looking

”Everlasting Blossoms”, will never be changed by time or weather of the seasons.

There were many exhibitions of her pieces held in Taiwan as well in California. They had been appreciated and highly admired be the viewers. These unique “Everlasting Blossoms,” not only manifest a special craft art among Chinese women, and it also inaugurates a new field in art.

I went to the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco Chinese Town, June 6, 1987. Visited the exhibition of Everlasting Blossoms, crocheted by Madam Ho Lyan Yu Wen, on the 3^rd floor. When you think of 「Everlasting Blossoms」, it gives you a sense of beauty. It’s so poetic, which attracted a lot of visitors. I was one of them.

There were a lot of pictures of「Everlasting Blossoms」posted on the wall and 4 pots of crocheted flowers placed on the exhibit table. They’ve drew a lot of viewers from all over the Bay areas. At the exhibition chamber, I met Madam Sye Bin Ying, a well known professor and author from Taiwan, who told me: “There has never been one exhibition could ever attract me to visit the second time, but to this one, this is my 3^rd visit.”

Mrs. Myra Chang, daughter of Madam Ho Lyan Yu Wen, explained to the visitors: “These flowers were crocheted with fine yarns.”

We all banded over to the flowers to give a closer look and touch with our hands. Yes! They are not real flowers but crocheted by human hands! You could hear the praise all over the chamber.

I was told that there was big insurance company in Taiwan, had made a very good offer to buy the entire collections. But Myra refused. She said, these flowers are only for people who really appreciate the beauty of the art of handcraft, they are not merchandise. And they will be passing down in her family.

Madam Ho Lyan Yu Wen had passed away many years ago, but her master piece has been well kept in the family. Now her daughter Myra wrote this book “Everlasting Blossom” in honor of her mother and also, to introduce her art along with some instructions of how to crochet some of the flowers and butterflies. To have 「Everlasting Blossoms」blossomed everywhere, and last forever!

- - -By Jang Tau, an author of Chinese Air Force,

  San Francisco, CA, July,2010- - -

What is black garlic?

If you go to google, you'll find a lot of information about "black garlic". It can Lower high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, etc., etc ..... Even good for fighting with cancer. But the market price is rather high as well. The reason for it's high cost not only because the garlic is a little expensive, it's because of the complicated procedures and time consume. It was said on the website. They say the whole process would take 2-3 months!

But it only took 8-15 days for a friend of mine!  And I made it!

Since black garlic may benefit so many people I want to share with you. You can make your own black garlic right at your own home. It's easy! And it is much more economical!

Here is your recipe:

A. Ingredient: Row Garlic heads. Best with the fresh new garlic.

 B. tools:

    a rice cooker, 3-4 pieces of booboo weaved partitioners as the picture shows. 2 pieces of paper towels.

C.  preparation:

      1. soak one piece of  paper towel with clear water, then squeeze the water out with one hand for further need. 

       2. put the dry piece of paper towel at the bottom of the rice cooker.

       3. put one sheet of the bamboo partitioner on top of the paper towel.

       4. Put row garlic heads on.

       5. do the same way for two more layers.

       6. spread the wit paper towel on the top. and close the lid.

D. What's next?

     Set the cooker on "warm", do not open the lid until the 8thd day, if the garlic become soft,  take one out and peel the skin you'll see the garlic has changed it color to black. But if you have some kind of difficulty to peel the skin and the garlic is too soft, you can hardly get the garlic out, then close the lid and keep it warm for two more days, than try again. Until it is easy to peel and easy to pick up the black colored garlic.

Congratulations! Your home made black garlic is done.   

By the way, don't throw the garlic peels away. Try to gather them boil with water for 20 minutes, you'll have some nice garlic skin tea!  

Now I am going to start to post my story: "Everlasting Blossoms".
I suppose you would like to know what contents  are: 

Everlasting Blossoms

Contain

A. The beginning of the story

B. Author's Preface

C. The life Story of Everlasting Blossom

c1.The Laundry Lady

c2. Renew A Sweet Experience of Bygone

c3. The Princesses Etiquette

c4. The Ladle Head

c5. Import Event in Yu Wen's Life

c6. First Time Being A Mother

c7. Visiting Dz Yun's Parents

c8. Air Raid

c9. Needlework

c10. The War Heroes of the Japanese Invasion

c11. Settled Down un Taiwan

c12. Rose, The Flower of Love

c13. Everlasting Blossom Blossomed

c14. Wanda

c15. Plum Blossom

c16. Sakura

c17. Peony

c18. Rohdea japonica

c19. Nasturtium

c20. Lily, Rose and Carnation

c21. Water Lily

c22. The First Exhibition of Everlasting Blossom

c23. The Bellflower

c24. Spider Chrysanthemum

c25. Barbados Lily

c24. Meeting New Friends

c25. More Blossoms

D. Addendum

E. Unveil the Methods of Crochet Everlasting Blossom

F. How to Crochet your own Butterfly

                      Everlasting Blossoms

Do you like stories?
If so,I'm going to share a true story of an artist,Mrs Ho Lyan Yu Wen, and her fine art with you. 

She didn't know how to draw. But crochet hooks and a small needle were her painting brushes. Small fine yarns and silk threads were her paints and pigments. Thus she created "Esverlasting Blossoms". Those long lasting yarn crocheted flowers always look as beautiful as if they were blossoming in spring.

The motive of crochet those long lasting flowers were love!  

The first picture shows that Mrs Ho was sitting at her working table and working. The red rose in the bonsai was the very first flower she crocheted for her husband. The silver trophy was presented by the Women Union of Taiwan for her superb craftsmanship.  
  

The red rose in this picture was the first ancestor of "Everlasting Blossoms".