A:TLA Annotations

Dinner at the Bei Fongs: Honey, who the f*ck invited the Avatar?

The Bei Fongs are making it very clear how NOT welcome Aang and his friends are.

For one, the food seems to be terrible. Sokka is not eating the meat. … … Sokka - Mr meat and sarcasm - is eating plain rice, while there are untouched dishes of shrimp, pork, fish and cakes on the table. Those have to be pretty damn bad for Sokka, of all people, to not want to eat them considering that he ate the unfried festival food dough.

Note, also, how there are barely any dishes that do not contain meat. Avatar Aang is the guest of honor. Wouldn’t you make sure that there’s plenty of vegetarian dishes there, unless you are actively trying to insult him?

Those small cups in front of Mrs Bei Fong and Master Yu are for bai jiu, a kind of hard liquor. Just for reference, while it may look like sake or soju, it has nothing in common with either, and you’d be doing those drinks an injustice comparing them to baijiu :P The wiki has a most apt description of what most people think baijiu tastes like.

Toph, and later Aang, being served soup means that the dinner is almost over.

The order of courses in a Chinese banquet is as follows:

• Appetizer / starter: Chinese starters are normally cold dishes.
• Dishes: In Chinese food culture, many dishes can be ordered if a group of people sit around one table.
• Soup Chinese soup are served after main dishes.
• Fruits The most typical dessert in Chinese dinner are fruits.

Image source: One

Sorry for the name confusion. You guys didn’t notice either :P But that is Master Yu and not Xin Fu. *hangs head in shame*

Tea! This post is Uncle-approved!

Toph’s father is drinking tea from a gai wan i.e. a lidded bowl. These kinds of teacups are generally preferred for tea with more delicate aromas, since the lid helps preserve them. The leaves are staying in the cup, the lid is used to keep you from accidentally drinking them.

Image source and more detailed information on how to brew tea using one.

A gai wan 盖碗 is a Chinese lidded bowl used for the infusion and consumption of tea and was invented during the Ming Dynasty.  It consists of a bowl, a lid, and a saucer.

Holding

Usually all three parts are held at once with both hands. Hold the saucer with the 4 fingers of your right hand and let your thumb rests on the edge of the bowl. Use your left hand to hold the lid, with which to brush away any tea leaves before bringing the rim of the bowl to your lips. As the liquid is hot it can take some practice doing this.

Chin The Great vs Emperor Qin

Chin the Great is based on Emperor Qin. Not just in name, Chin and Qin are pronounced nearly identically and could be argued to be different romanizations of the same name, but also in deeds. Compare their histories.

Both united the kingdom and were known for their tyrannic rule, but also for their great achievements.

Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇 (259 BC – 210 BC) was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 246 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period.   He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BC.  He ruled until his death in 210 BC at the age of 49.  Qin Shi Huang is a pivotal figure in Chinese history, ushering nearly two millennia of imperial rule. After unifying China, he and his chief advisor Li Si passed a series of major economic and political reforms.  He undertook gigantic projects, including building and unifying various sections of the Great Wall of China, the now famous city-sized mausoleum guarded by a life-sized Terracotta Army, and a massive national road system, all at the expense of numerous lives. To ensure stability, Qin Shi Huang outlawed and burned many books and buried some scholars alive.  

Chin the Conqueror, also known as Chin the Great, was a ruthless warlord from the northwestern Earth Kingdom born over 370 years ago, during the life of Avatar Kyoshi. He launched a largely successful war against the Earth King before being indirectly killed by Kyoshi in defense of her homeland. Chin was remembered as a capable and tyrannical leader, who successfully took advantage of widespread dissatisfaction with the reign of the 46th Earth King. He used the state of political affairs to launch a military campaign from a little island in the northwestern part of the kingdom, unifying the Earth Kingdom under his control.

Chin’s armor

The armor Chin The Great is wearing does not fit into the same time period, but is late Tang Dynasty (see picture).

His ‘belt buckle’ is based on the lion-dog shoulder pieces of Tang armor. Lion-dog designs were commonly used to decorate the armor and swords of high ranking military leaders.

Chin’s crown/guan

Guan means headgear or crown (depending on rank).

Chin is wearing the guan i.e. headgear of a military leader. The flowing bands/feather are to show the wearer’s bravery. Bumi has similar feathers on his crown for the same reason.

Sources: One, two, three, four

Qin Village, Ladies’ hairstyles

Check out the rest of that blog, it has some cool real people examples of what ancient hairstyles look like on real people and not just paintings.

Also: Booze XD (meaning ‘bar’)

Image source

Money, money, money!

The money Aang tries to buy the Waterbending Scroll with, and the stone coins the Earth Kingdom army uses to fight are both based on ancient Chinese coins.

Note the other cool coins shapes.

Earliest Chinese round coins:

The earliest round coins appeared in 350 BCE. These coinds are called 半兩 ban liang, which means half a liang. A liang is the Chinese ounce, consisted of 24 銖 zhu, and was the equivalent of about 16 grams.

“When Qin united the world, it made two sorts of currency:
that of yellow gold, which was called yi and was the currency of the higher class; and that of bronze, which was similar in quality to the coins of Zhou, but bore an inscription saying Half Ounce, and was equal in weight to its inscription.”

Not to be confused with the sycee - also known as yuanbao 元宝 -  the Chinese gold or silver ingot. 

The dual blades Zuko is wielding as the Blue Spirit are called dao. Dao just translates as ‘knife’. This weapon is called dan dao 單刀 (single knife) when just one is used.

This weapon is part of the ’18 Legendary Weapons of Gongfu’ i.e. the weapons commonly used in Kungfu.

刀 dāo is a category of single-edge Chinese swords primarily used for slashing and chopping, often called a broadsword in English translation because some varieties have wide blades. In China, the dao is known as one of the four major weapons, along with the Gun (staff), Qiang (spear), and the Jian (sword), and referred to as “The General of All Weapons”.

More about Chinese swords

The temple we see in the “Bato of the Watertribe” episode follows the design of a courtyard house.  Courtyard houses (siheyuan 四合院) epitomize traditional Chinese architecture.

A siheyuan 四合院 is a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China, most famously in Beijing. In English, siheyuan are sometimes referred to as Chinese quadrangles. The name literally means a courtyard surrounded by four buildings.

Throughout Chinese history, the siheyuan composition was the basic pattern used for residences, palaces, temples, monasteries, family, businesses and government offices.

Sources: One