Tiger Tears

Inspired by a weird dream in which I saw a tiger bawling.

To answer the question of why he was crying, here's the dream's story :-)

Three friends - a tiger, a human and a donkey were crossing a desert. By the dress and looks of the human, the setting was probably somewhere in South Asia, maybe the Indian state of Rajasthan, which does have a tiger preserve, btw.

Fox spirit, mid-metamorphosis

Grew up reading Chinese folktales about fox spirits/fairies/demons. In Chinese mythology, practically any animal or inanimate object can, after an extensive period of meditation, acquire the spiritual power to shapeshift into human form.¹ Foxes seem to be the most popular subjects of shapeshifter lore.

Saw many beautiful illustrations for these fairy tales done in classical Chinese style, but none of them showed fox spirits in the process of transformation. The fox fairies were either portrayed in fox form or in full human form. (Not counting modern animation/comic book fox fairy characters drawn as humans with fox ears and tails.) Thought it would be interesting to visualize a fox spirit in mid-metamorphosis and in contemporary garb.

The reference used is an Arctic Fox, which has a shorter muzzle than the red fox.

Male fox spirits in Chinese lore

Then and Now

Inspired by, but by no means claiming to be an accurate representation of, the architecture and landscape of Mali.

Mount Penglai, mythical isle of the immortals

Mount Penglai (Japanese pronunciation 'Hourai'), or Penglai Island, is an isle from Chinese mythology. According to Shan Hai Jing ("Anthology of the Mountains and Seas"), an ancient book dating back to the Warring States era : "Penglai Mountain stands in the midst of the sea." Penglai is also mentioned in the Taoist classic Liezi (dating back to the Spring-Autumn/Warring States eras) as one of the 5 mythical islands of the Bohai Sea.

The popular legend of "The 8 Immortals Crossing the Ocean" was also set on Penglai Island.

Source: Baidu entry on Penglai Mountain

Event Poster

Zhuge Liang, husband of the inventor Huang Yueying

Zhuge Liang (181-234 CE), courtesy name Kongming, was a Shu Kingdom politician and military strategist during China's Three Kingdoms era. He is the putative inventor of the sky lantern, aka the Kongming lantern. (Sky lanterns were appropriated by Disney in the 2010 animated film Tangled.)

His wife Huang Yueying, an inventor of automata, was behind of one of Kongming's best known technological innovations, "wooden ox and flowing horse", a military transport used to supply the Shu Army. According to "The Corpus of Zhuge, Marquis of Zhongwu", compiled by by Zhang Shu of the Qing Dynasty:

"When Lord Zhuge dwelled in Longzhong, some visitors arrived. He asked his wife Lady Huang to make noodles. The noodles were ready within a very short time. The Marquis marvelled at his wife's speed, and later observed her work in secret. He saw multiple wooden people cutting noodles and milling flour at the speed of flight. He then supplicated his wife to teach her craft to him. Later he adapted her techniques to create the wooden ox and flowing horse."¹

Similar accounts exist in the the Ming Dynasty work "Anthology of Zhuge of Zhongwu", and the 1709 "Compendium of Zhuge, Marquis of Wu."¹

Obesity Awareness Poster Design

Someone rightly pointed out that a couple more diseases are missing from the list. The omission was a design decision. Srsly, the list of diseases related to obesity is so long that I couldn't fit them all into the available space.