Category: Chinese Character & Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls
DOUBLE HAPPINESS Happy Marriage Chinese Character Wall Scroll
87.5cm
34½″
19½″
Approximate Measurements
Painting: 31.4cm x 31.4cm ≈ 12¼" x 12¼"
Silk Scroll: 40.6cm x 87.5cm ≈ 16" x 34½"
Width at Wooden Knobs: 49.6cm ≈ 19½"
Information about caring for your new Wall Scroll
See Larger ImageDouble Happiness
Chinese Calligraphy Scroll
This is a common gift for Chinese couples getting married or newly married couples, but it appropriate for anyone for whom you wish the greatest of happiness.
As we say in the west, "Two heads are better than one" Well, in the east, two "happinesses" are certainly better than one.
This is not really a character that is pronounced very often - it's almost exclusively used in written form. However, if pressed, most Chinese people will pronounce this "shuang xi" (double happy) although literally there are two "xi" characters combined in this calligraphy (but nobody will say "xi xi").
In Chinese, "xi" is pronounced like "she" but with your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth and your teeth slightly open (there is no sound in English exactly like this).
This piece is painted with special Chinese ink on rice paper mounted to a traditional silk scroll.
Chinese Calligraphy is only practiced by those with a keen and agile hand. It is an art that dates back thousands of years, and great artists, writers, and poets are often admired for their calligraphy ability and style.
The artist's name is "Li Dan Qing" who is from Beijing, China. He is an older man with good calligraphy skills.
To create this art, Li Dan Qing used special Chinese ink on thick rice paper. Then I took it to the best painting mounters in Beijing to mount the painting on a silk scroll.
This hanging scroll is really nice since it doesn't require framing. Just hang it on your wall as Chinese people have done for centuries.
The scroll that you receive may vary slightly from the image above, as this series of calligraphy artwork is all handmade to order.
Custom Double Happiness Calligraphy Wall Scrolls & Portraits
I like the festive red and white double happiness scroll that you see above, but if you want different colors, a larger size, or higher-quality calligraphy...
We can have a custom Double Happiness wall scroll created for you, simply click on the button above, and start customizing your Double Happiness artwork.
Custom wall scrolls start at $29.88
and portraits start at $13 less ($16.88).
If you are looking for something very special, we also have investment-quality calligraphy available from a famous master-calligrapher in Beijing for an additional $40 fee.
Click the "Select & Customize" button above to see all the options.
Married to China...
Surprise, you're married!
It all happened so fast, and yet in some ways it takes forever.
My new wife, Ling Hua (Cat) and I
goof off at our semi-informal wedding dinner.
I think that from the day we met in 2002 Ling Hua (known by her friends as "Cat") and I became best friends. From that day on, we spent a lot of time playing badminton, hiking, and backpacking together.
Somewhere along the way, she became a girlfriend. At the same time, I was supposed to return to "the real world" in America. I flew home, leaving a lifetime of memories in China.
Coming back to America, I felt a certain amount of culture-shock as I tried to re-adjust back to an American lifestyle.
I returned to my old job and started making about 10 times what I did in China - but money does not equal happiness. I really missed Cat and my life back in Asia.
I flew to China for a visit, only a few months later. Before I did, I asked Cat if we ought to look into what's involved in getting married. I am sure this freaked her out, but it also made her happy. When I arrived in China, she had done her homework. She told me it should take 30 days to complete the process with all of the Chinese government red tape (and I do mean red).
Knowing that it is impossible to complete the process in the short one week trip that I was on, we started to do it for fun. The medical exam was first, and involved the standard pokes, turning your head and coughing, and super-small Chinese-sized hospital gowns that left me mooning half of the people waiting in the hospital.
The next day we headed to the American embassy, to get a "certificate of marriageability". Picking up the certificate the next morning, we headed to the Bureau of Foreign Marriages in Beijing. Turning in the paperwork, Cat began to plead our case to see if we could speed up the process. I put in my two cent and said a few things in Chinese. This shocked the government official who complimented me on my Chinese. I replied in the typical Chinese way of being humble, "Where where?" which in Chinese culture means, "Where and who are you talking about? It can't be me!" The official laughed and we had a good time joking around with him. He told us to come back in the afternoon, and we said goodbye.
Cat enjoying her time on our "camel train"
across a desert near Inner-Mongolia.
I didn't know what we were going back for in the afternoon, but when we returned, I was a bit startled. Official certificates of marriage were handed to both of us, and we were sworn in and announced as husband and wife with amazing efficiency. Fifteen minutes after arriving, we both left, stunned, as husband and wife. A process everyone said would take at least 30 days and be really difficult!
Her family was shocked too, but in a very Chinese way, they apologized for not having a ceremony planned for us. Cat's family had become very dear and close to me in the past, and when they got the news, I was told by Cat's father that I was as much a part of the family as if we shared the same blood.
I returned to America, and started getting all the paperwork together to get a visa and residency for Cat in the states. After the application was refused by U.S. Immigration, because "I was not a resident of America" - regardless of the fact that I was a natural born citizen. I sent the paperwork to Cat in China, and told her to take it to the Embassy. Well, nothing is easy, and they refused to take the paperwork from her, insisting that I be present. Three days later, I was in China again, and suddenly I discovered how difficult my own government could be. All the U.S. Government websites had the wrong information, and the Embassy in Beijing said that I was not a resident of China either (even though my passport had 4 years worth of almost continuous Chinese visas).
Although I was distraught, I returned to my new family home in Beijing, to find that with 4 days notice, about 20 to 30 of Cat's extended family members had flown in from around China to come and celebrate our marriage. I didn't expect it, but in Chinese culture, family means everything. I was humbled and honored as we had a somewhat informal, but traditional wedding celebration. I even had a Chinese silk tunic custom-tailored for the occasion (pictured above).
I won't go into the rest of my woes, but I have been flying back and forth to China, fighting the government for my wife's rights to live in the states with me.
About 10 visits to my congresswoman's office, 2 letters to a U.S. Senator, one letter to George Bush (waste of time), numerous emails to the U.S. Consulate, and 16 months later, the U.S. Government finally issued a visa, and my wife and I were allowed to reunite.
Cat and I in Southern China...
Heading up river to a mountain village, looking for artists.
Item Location: 
This is not a Print!
This artwork is 100% hand-painted.
This item was listed or modified
Dec 18th, 2011
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Gary's random little things about China:
Vehicular and Pedestrian Yielding Quotient
When crossing a street, or merely making your way down the road, there is a certain law of physics that comes into play: When two forces meet, one must yield.
Here is the general yielding scheme in China:
Cars yield to big buses and trucks.
Bicycles and cars mingle and narrowly avoid each other. When push comes to shove, the bicyclist knows he will lose the fight. But the car driver knows that the bicycle will scratch his car when he runs it over, and will only yield on that premise.
Cars will not yield to, but are required to avoid pedestrians. When you hit a pedestrian at low speed, it does very little damage, and unlike a bicycle, will almost never scratch your car. Therefore pedestrians are given a smaller margin.
Note: Regardless of green or red stop lights, it is against the law to come to a complete stop when making a right hand turn in China (no matter how many pedestrians are in the way). The rule is "honk and avoid, then continue on your way".
Motor scooters yield to no one, not even when they are being driven on a pedestrian-filled sidewalk. Motor scooters zip around like they have nothing to lose - this may be true, as smaller motor scooters require no license of any kind and are very cheap.
If you are driving on the wrong side of the road, or going the wrong way on a one-way street, you do not have to yield to anyone, no matter what kind of vehicle you are operating.
Cars will yield (not by choice) to pedestrians crossing the street in numbers greater than 10 (it is best in China to invite 9 of your friends for an outing if you plan to cross a lot of streets).
In lieu of yielding, drivers are required to honk at pedestrians. I swear to God, this is the law! It's a safety issue: If you are passing a pedestrian that is walking on the side of the road, you are required by law to honk at them to let them know you are there.
Note: All streets in Chinese cities, sound like a New York traffic jam 24 hours per day with all this "safety honking".
I have not been able to find a traffic law that states you must yield to ambulances. And in practice, very few drivers do.
When two large vehicles come face to face on a narrow roadway, and neither can pass, neither will yield. They will sit there, honking at each other for a while. After several cars are lined up behind them, they will decide that they should have yielded earlier, and start to back up. This is to the great dismay of all the cars behind them who will honk in unison. This could go on for an hour or more. It ends when a police officer arrives, tells both drivers what idiots they are, issues tickets to both of them, and then systematically makes the situation worse by insisting that all the smaller cars turn around (rather than back up) by making 162-point turns in the small roadway. Eventually, two of the cars will hit each other, for which both drivers will be cited and fined on the spot.
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Other currencies shown for reference at approximate exchange rates.