Chinese Kites
How to Make and Fly Them
CHINESE KITES
How to Make and Fly Them
by David F. Jue
CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY
Rutland. Vermont & Tokyo. Japan
Representatives
For Continental Europe:
BOXERBOOKS, INC., Zurich
For the British Isles:
PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London
For Australasia.
BOOK WISE (AUSTRALIA) PTY. LTD.
104-108 Sussex Street, Sydney 2000
Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.
of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan
with editorial offices at
Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032
Copyright in Japan, 1967 by Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 67-16412
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0967-4 (ebook)
First edition, 1967
Fourteenth printing, 1987
Book design by Keiko Chiba
PRINTED IN JAPAN
Contents
Introduction by John D. Romano 7
Fishing with Kites 14
Firecracker Scarecrows 15
Centipede Kites 16
The Festival of Ascending on High 19
Kite Fights 20
The Fertility Kite 22
Making Your Own Chinese Kite 24
Materials and Where to Get Them 24
Tools Required 27
Making Kite Frames 28
Covering Kite Frames 29
Decorating Kite Covers 29
Making and Attaching the Tail 30
Bridles 31
Launching Your Kite 33
Kite Designs and Instructions 34
Orange Kite 34
Pine Tree Kite 35
Schoolhouse Kite 36
Octagon Kite 38
Tree Kite 40
Butterfly Kite 42
Redtail Hawk Kite 44
Three-Deck High Flyer 46
Fish Kite 48
Flying Lampshade 50
Introduction
David F. Jue (rhymes with "dew") was born in Kwangtung Province in southeastern China, the province in which the city of Canton is located. He migrated to America at the age of fourteen.
Facing the challenge of a new life, he earned money for his education and prospered as a salesman in California. During the many years of his residence in Fresno, I came to know this gentleman intimately. He retired in 1948 and made his home in Palo Alto, but his abundant energy found no outlet. He joined the brokerage office of Sutro & Co., retiring again in 1963.
Beside an avenue near his Palo Alto home, Mr. Jue noticed a fine clump of green bamboo destined to be uprooted in a street-widening project. In the culture of Mr. Jue's boyhood, the bamboo is a pervasive symbol, a gift from nature of grace and beauty-and, to the eminently practical Chinese, a uniquely useful item. This gift of nature was meant to be either cherished or harvested for use. He proceeded to rescue the bamboo from the indignity of the bulldozer and the waste of the trash heap.
What more natural than that the feel of the bamboo in his hands should recall pleasant memories from his boyhood-and that kite-making should be one of them? Mr. Jue had found a new and consuming interest in life. He began making kites as he remembered them of old, eventually inventing new designs and adapting the old techniques to the materials at hand in his community.
A soaring kite, beautifully formed and painted, with colorful streaming tails, is a striking sight in this increasingly mechanical and prosaic age. The children of the neighborhood flocked about whenever Mr. Jue lofted his kites and soon joined in the fun. Inevitably, they invaded his workshop and joined in the fun of making and painting the kites, as well.
Mr. jue's personal diversion had gained a new dimension. Teaching children and sharing their unreserved delight at a first launching was mote fun than merely making kites for his own amusement. And the sudden upsurge of interest in an exotic handicraft and constructive sport soon leaped the boundaries of Mr. jue's neighborhood. Feature articles appeared in the newspapers of Palo Alto, San jose, and San Francisco. Schools and department stores invited Mr. Jue to give demonstrations. Hundreds of inquiries came by mail and telephone. The spreading interest in Chinese kite-making has encouraged Mr. Jue in his effort to bring an ancient and rewarding folk-art to the youth of his adopted land.
by JOHN D. ROMANO
Chinese Kites
How to Make and Fly Them
The History of Kites
Kites were in use in China long before the beginnings of written history. Bamboo for frames was native to the land. Silk has been produced in China since stone-age times, as long ago as 2600 B.C. With bamboo available for frames and silk for the coverings and the flying lines, the art of kite-making arose as an amusement and as an adjunct of the primitive religions. By the beginning of historical times, kites were already widely used from Korea to Southeast Asia.
According to a Chinese legend, the Chinese people of the Han dynasty were saved from being conquered by a barbarian army through ingenious use of a kite. A certain Huan Theng, a great scholar and advisor to the emperor, was called upon for a plan to defeat or rout the superior forces of the invader.
Huan Theng put his clever mind to work. The palace walls were vulnerable only from one side, so the enemy forces were deployed only in one direction from the palace. As Huan Theng stood on the ramparts, surveying the scene and pondering the problem, his hat was lifted off by the strong, steady wind and sailed away across the fields. In Huan Theng's quick mind, the problem was solved. He advised the emperor to cause a number of kites to be made. Huang Theng busied himself making a number of special sounding devices. He trimmed a piece of bamboo very, very thin, and tied each end to a bow-shaped twig and attached it to the top of the kite.
In the darkest, eeriest time of the night, the kites were lofted above the positions of the enemy. The wind vibrating the sounding 'devices produced sounds like low moans and high-pitched wails.' Spies sent into the enemy lines spread the word that the gods were warning them that they would