Sources and original illustrations

Primary references and the limits of this educational collection.

Primary references

• Beijing Overseas Cultural Exchange Center: The Creative Mind & Dexterous Hands — Colored dough modeled into miniature forms and contemporary development of the documented practice; original gesture exercise.
• Beijing magazine: Beijing Gifts, November 2025 — The documented silk-figurine practice as a multi-material assembly; no complete construction or material formula.
• Beijing magazine: Beijing Gifts, November 2025 — Bristle dolls performing on a copper plate and their operatic association; no mechanism specification.
• Beijing heritage guide: Tang Qian Yan shuttlecock-making — The documented shuttlecock craft’s attention to selection, preparation, balance and control; no performance guarantee.
• Beijing magazine, July 2025: Liuli craft account — The named Beijing glazed craft, shaping and kiln-work context; original distance-legibility exercise.
• Shanghai: Celebrate Chinese New Year at Caojing Shuike Scenic Area — A documented cultural setting for traditional Chinese knot-making; all path diagrams are original analogies.
• Beijing magazine: Chinese Dragons in Everyday Life, February 2024 — The documented sugar-painting medium, flowing line imagery and varied subjects; original pen analogy only.
• Beijing: Fairs Open with Festive Shopping Experiences — The named fanhua paper-flower practice in a documented fair setting; no construction method inferred.
• Shanghai: Explore traditional crafts at TOP Central Park — The documented hand-sewn sachet with aromatic contents; excludes medicinal language and supplies no sewing specification.
• Shanghai: Explore traditional crafts at TOP Central Park — The documented marbled fan effect; all paper composition exercises are original and contain no lacquer procedure.
• V&A: Teapot design through time — The documented Yixing zisha teapot context and identified museum example; not authentication or functional certification.
• The Met: Pendant in the shape of a coiling dragon, 2019.193.1 — The object’s Chinese nephrite identification, Shang-period attribution and recorded dimensions; original negative-space study.
• The Met: Snuff Bottle, 21.175.192a, b — The specific object’s nephrite body and agate stopper identification; no tobacco-use advice or authenticity claim.
• The Met: Snuff bottle with landscape and horses, 21.175.305a, b — The glass-painted-inside medium and separate stopper material of the identified object; no operational painting instructions.
• The Met: Shang and Zhou Dynasties — The Bronze Age of China — The conceptual model, sectional-mold and core relationships in the described casting account; no production procedure.
• The Met: Chinese Hardstone Carvings — The material-aware hardstone craft discussion and identified examples; original fixed-patch design analogy.
• The Met: Square Cup, 24.80.107 — The Chinese amber square-cup identity, recorded dimensions and Kangxi-period attribution; no usability or process certification.
• UNESCO: Chinese traditional architectural craftsmanship for timber-framed structures — Connected wooden components, related building arts and practical transmission; no structural or repair instruction.
• UNESCO: Chinese Zhusuan, knowledge and practices of mathematical calculation through the abacus — Calculation through moving beads under defined rules and the transmission of knowledge; no cognitive-benefit or instant-mastery claim.
• The Met: Carved fan, grapevines and calligraphy, 2020.338 — The 1924 fan’s named carving, painting and calligraphy contributors and paper/carved-bamboo medium; original collaboration exercise.

Original visual material

The diagrams in this edition are original SVG illustrations explaining the sequence or decisions in each guide. They do not show a laboratory experiment, a personal trip or a tested product result. No photographs from the linked sources are reproduced.

Check the source in context

References were consulted during preparation of this edition. A source may cover a broader or narrower question than a particular guide; the support notes above explain why it is listed. Read the original for methodology, exceptions and updates.