Chinese Bamboo Culture

People appreciate bamboo carving as one of the special handicrafts of China. This traditional art took shape in the Six Dynasties (222-589) and became popular during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. The intelligent ancient Chinese not only made various daily necessities and tools for production with bamboo, but also engraved them with beautiful decorative patterns. Bamboo carvings cover a wide range of subjects such as images of Buddha, figures, flowers, animals, landscape and pavilions.

Bamboo and Food

Bamboo adds luster to Chinese food. The delicious and crispy bamboo shoot has won the people's favor since ancient times. In his beautiful prose Bamboo Shoot, Liang Shiqiu, a famous modern Chinese writer, vividly described the famous Beijing cuisines of "stewed shrimps and winter bamboo shoots" and "ham with stewed winter bamboo shoots”. People also use bamboo to make wine, which tastes mellow and savory.

Bamboo can also be used as medicine. In his masterpiece Compendium of Materia Medica, the famous Ming-dynasty pharmacologist Li Shizhen recorded the great medical value of bamboo.