Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1920 Nov
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Photograph by I)orothy 1). .\Andrews CAMEL-BACK BRID1E IN TIHE GROUNDS OF TIlE IMPERIAL SI' I MER PALACE Note the elaborately carved white marble railings. The spirit of the building demands that the beholder draw near gradually and with reverence, not pop upon it like a jack out of the box. THIE DRAGON SCREEN A MARVEL OF PICTORIAL ART Another of the unexpected treasures of Peking is the dragon screen. It is barely mentioned in some of the guide books and not mentioned at all in others. It is hidden behind a hillock in the winter palace grounds, and nine-tenths of the visitors to Peking walk within a hundred yards of it and never dream of its exist ence. It is a wall perhaps twenty feet high and a hundred long, faced completely with tile cast to represent nine life-size dragons in bas-relief, of various colors yellow, purple, buff, maroon, orange dancing gaily above emerald billows, against a pale-blue sky. Doubtless one should not speak of "life-size" dragons; but these creatures of the screen are the alivest dragons one may ever hope to see; they give rise to the feeling that if a dragon lived he would be exactly like one of these. Most sculptured Chinese dragons are lifeless, angular beasts: but here there is an almost un-Chinese vigor and audacity in the spring and twist of the lithe bodies. They leap, whirl, lunge, and writhe until the spectator steps back, half afraid that they will come tumbling off the screen. striking at the unwary with their sturdy claws. There are, I believe, critics who teach that plastic art should never under take to portray moments of activity. If this be correct, the dragons stand con demned; but if the sculptor may ever rightly give us life in its vivid, moving moments, here is a masterpiece. THiIl WOMEN OF I'PEKING A SOURCE 01" SUR'RPRISE Dragons and donkeys, fanes and thor oughfares, caravans and castles, do not exhaust the list of things unexpected which await the traveler in Peking. There also are the people. The first strikingly surprising custom among them is that the women wear skirts. To a traveler fresh from Amer ica this would seem as it should be, but to one resident in the land of trousered women it appears almost immodest! 344
Links
Archive
1920 Dec
1920 Oct
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page
