Sisters of the Red Chamber

0

Caroline Young, artwork and text

Source: The art of Caroline R. Young (2002)

As the evening moon glistens in the distant sky above, a beautiful young girl named Cardinal Spring prepares to become the Imperial consort to the great Emperor of China.

Her younger sister, Quest Spring, lovingly attends to her older sister’s every need, knowing in her heart that the time shared will soon be but a cherished memory.

Cardinal Spring quickly becomes the Emperor’s favorite, and is allowed to return home occasionally to visit her parents and sister. In honor of her first visit, her parents commissioned a magnificent garden to be built in her honor. It is in this garden that all of the stories in The Dream of the Red Chamber play out.

In honor of her visit home, a famous garden was constructed. It is in this garden that Pao-Yu and Black Jade meet to confess their love for each other.

In her release, “Sister of the Red Chamber”, Caroline R. Young has truly captured a tender moment shared between sisters. This is the first in an exquisite series of works based on the Chinese novel, “Dream of the Red Chamber.”

As the evening moon glistens in the distant sky above, the beautiful Cardinal Spring, eldest daughter of the Chia family, prepares to become the Imperial Consort to the great Emperor of China. Her younger sister, Quest Spring, thoughtfully attends to her older sister’s every need, knowing in her heart the time shared will soon be but a cherished memory.

Because of her beauty and virtue, Cardinal Spring soon becomes the Emperor’s favorite, and as such, she is given the rare privilege of visiting her family. In honor of the imperial visit, her parents erect, at great cost, a splendiferous garden called the Grand View Garden, filled with fragrant flowers and weeping willows. In this beautiful setting evolve all the events of “The Dream of the Red Chamber”.

Avatar foto

As an adopted child of Chinese-American expatriates, I have always been intrigued by how the Chinese culture explained the mysteries of the universe.