bj51 Forbidden City

Cheers

I like the way you framed the pic! Very creative! My only critique here is that the combination of the beaded edging, the patterned papers, and the circle title letters is a bit distracting when combined. I would suggest perhaps using more subtle paper on the outside edges. However, this is a terrific layout as is!

November 01, 2006

I like how you framed the picture of the door way with a frame around the entire picture. It is like a picture within a picture and draws us into the story being told.

August 21, 2006

bj51 Forbidden City

This lo is an example of the courtyard gardens and alleys looked like in the residential district of the Forbidden City. The alley on the right was a main thoroughfare though the domain of a high ranking female of the court, probably an empress. When a concubine became pregnant, she was imediately treated as special and became sexually unavailable to the emperor. If her child was a son, she was promoted to empress. Unfortunately, her son was designated as the child of the first empress. Such was the case with a concubine called Lady Yehenara, who bore a son to the Emperor Hsien Feng in 1856. She became the Empress of the West 'Cixi', known in the west as the Dowager Empress. Most of what westerners have heard of Cixi is fiction, as the empresses were strictly controlled and not allowed to interact with westerners. As an elderly woman, Cixi tried to counter some of the mysteries and misconceptions surrounding her, by arranging carefully controlled teas with western women. Unfortunately, westerners did not learn the truth about Cixi, and readily adopted the salacious rumors made up about her by westerners who pretended to know a lot more about the court than they actually did. Most of the ugly things that were said about her in the west were generated by people she never met, and would never have been allowed to meet according to the strict protocol of the court. If Cixi had violated this protocol it would likely have cost her her life. If yu have heard of the Empress Dowager, it is likely that much of what you have heard is false. She was a clever but ineducated woman. She was beautiful and known to be vain. She changed her clothing several times a day, but it was a responsibility to her to do so because she felt obligated to display the beautiful gifts that were lavished upon her as empress from the wealthiest and most powerful families in China. Most of the political moves she is so scorned for in the west, were made at times when she was afraid for her life and/or that of her son, who became the Emperor Tung Chih.

Created digitally, using PSP 9, Photoshop Elements 2.0, and digital scrapbooking files (like Ekits) from Cottage Arts.