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In this issue:
travel
Pack your bags for Manchuria to explore the history of the region and the rise of the Qing dynasty.
recent articles
The Trade in Tigers by Sementawy Horemheb
A Brief History of Ice Lanterns and How To Make Them by Jia Li Shen Chi
The History of Mahjong by Feiyan Zhou
Kimono Glossary by Shibori Murasaka
socialize
Stop by our famous watering hole, The Kublai Khantina to share a drink and a meal with your neighbors. You never know who (or what) you might run into!
family names project
I am happy to report that we now have Family Plaques for each of our Oriental families. Night~Owl Nyentsen has done a grand job with them. Thank you for all your hard work, Night~Owl!
We've been slowly adding information about our Oriental family names, but there are still a lot to do and we're hoping for your help. Take a look at the list of surnames in the Orient Names Project thread and adopt your favorite today!
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Lunar Light Festival 2010
The Orient welcomed in the Year of the Tiger in grand style during the last weekend of February. This year's Lunar Festival was held in lovely downtown Harbin, Manchuria, one of our newest hoods, expertly created by Sementawy Horemheb and Shinjukin Kotoku.
When a New Year is dawning, people are always interested to find out what it might hold for them. Sementawy's most excellent Year of the Tiger Horoscopes were a great hit, and our visitors also enjoyed learning about other Harbingers of their futures. It's not to late to see what might be in store for you!
A highlight of our celebration was the Dancing Tigers Parade, conceived of and hosted by Xena ApilSin and Jia Li Chen Chi. Our visitors greatly enjoyed the floats and bands, and the interesting local street food. Lao Zhou, that canny vendor of Parade Snacks likely made enough money off the parade goers to retire. Lucky man!
Maahes Sekhmet was crowned King of the parade, and he's obviously quite the man, since he had not just one, but three queens! Leah Enkidu, Reylari Socrates, and Night~Owl Nyentsen all looked quite regal on their float, specially designed for them by Jia Li. Other prizes were awarded to Sun Wukong Tang, for best costume, and Feiyan Zhou, for best float.
We were lucky enough to wangle interviews with our honorees. Read on!
Queen Reylari:
"It is good to be a Queen for a day, a month, a year! This was a beautiful festival and great fun. There is much appreciation for all of the excellent brilliant work and creative play that is done here. Thank you to all and to all Tiger blessings."
Queen Night~Owl:
*humming* "We three Queens of Orient are. Travelling here in search of the Bar! We all could not have had the blast we did if it weren't for those talented and generous folks who made the Lunar/Lantern Fest possible. Thank you!"
Qween Leah:
I was sorry pleased to make my debute in The Orient, at the Lunarfest....whatever the hell that is...
I was honored to be nominated as one of three Queens of the Dancing Tigers Parade. BUT, I am sure I was the main Queen, the other two Queens being..lesser Queens, practically servants of mine.
anyway...
I enjoyed myself even though I had to be around smelly Tigers, which was better then being near those Ugly, lazy, black and white bears that smell really bad and eat you out of house and home! *cough*
So,..this is going to hurt..Thank You, The Orient, for treating a Queen as she should be treated and bestowing this honor upon my gorgeous head.
King Maahes:
Our King, like any proper royal, has important affairs of state to attend to. But he did give us a regal salute as he strode by the interview booth.
Feiyan:
"Well, there was all that snow, and all those people obviously looking for throws from the floats and well, what else was there to do but give them what they wanted?"
Sun Wukong:
The Monkey King said that he was happy the judges liked his freshly made kill and when leaving on his cloud were heard echoes on the wind. "I got him quickly ironed out tooooooo....."
Upcoming Events in the Orient
In the Spring, we plan to hold the Grand Opening of a brand new neighborhood, and later in the summer, watch for a possible celebration in Japan.
Archaeology News
New findings from the Toba ash sites in India
7,000 year old bricks found in China
Yuan and Qing tombs discovered in Hebei Province
The Orient Site Map
Have you ever forgotten where you saw that interesting group or hood home in the Orient? Help is at hand! Aria Murasaka has created a wonderful Oriental site map to help us navigate our complicated world. Take some time to explore this most useful resource. You'll wonder how we ever did without it!
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