A rabbit leap into the New Year

By Angela Pruszenski

CRI, February 1, 2011

While the upcoming Year of the Rabbit is supposed to be more easygoing than the roaring Year of the Tiger, some are preparing for the Lunar New Year with a little art therapy.

The Gaobeidian Tourism Bureau recently held an art class at Lily's Antiques on Gaobeidian Furniture Street in Beijing where participants tried their hand at painting adorable clay rabbits.

To get there, visitors have to take Beijing subway Line 1 to the eastern terminus, transfer to the Batong Line, and get off at the first stop. The antique furniture street is about 500 meters south of Gaobeidian station.

Ivy Hao, the Operations Manager of the Gaobeidian Tourism Bureau who organizes the handicraft events, has already held four classes at Lily's Antiques. She hopes to eventually hold weekly events there.

"Lily's is beautiful and has a very comfortable environment," Hao said. "We also have several other places for these kind of events. And if there aren't too many participants, we can host an event with a local family."

Lily, the owner of Lily's Antiques who participated in the class, believes the courses will provide customers with another dimension to her store.

"We are not a shopping mall, so we need to provide more things for customers to do," she said.

Each participant in the class was given a clay rabbit with a puffy red tail already attached. Brightly painted rabbits sat on the table as guides for participants to draw on their own rabbits with a pencil, then paint the designs in bright red, black, white and gold paint. As the finishing touch, the teacher showed the students how to paint the lucky Chinese character "fu" on the rabbit's forehead.