May 24

The color vermilion is often seen in Chinese lacquerware. The lacquer came from a tree resin that, when painted on to wood or metal, hardened into a fine natural plastic. The sap itself is dark brown, but Chinese artisans colored it with powdered cinnabar or red ochre.

“The flowers in the river when the sun rises are redder than flames.”

Bai Juyi (772-846)

Vermilion looks like the color of blood, and thus in China it was regarded as the color of life. Red calligraphic ink was reserved for Emperors and Chinese Taoists associated vermilion with eternity.

I said goodbye to my students for the last time today. Goodbyes are so hard but I am so proud. I have been teaching them for the past three years and have watched them grow in so many different ways. They are curious about the most amusing things – more than once I’ve traded a paper crane in exchange for a complete math worksheet.

Some of my students know how to fold their own cranes now. They know that if they fold a thousand of them, they’ll get a wish. I want to tell them just how many stories and wishes are folded up in those little paper wings.

look: Robert J. Lang, Unicorn and Unicorn Unfolded
listen: Bernard Andrés, Zerbina
read: Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie; Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters #5