chinese decks-which one ?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 18 Oct 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

rosyelf	18 Oct 2004
I like Chinese art very much, so it stands to reason I would like a Chinese-style Tarot deck in my little collection. I acquired the Chinese Tarot a while ago, and I do quite like the art, but I did find it a bit insipid for a deck. I'm aware of the Feng Shui deck and the Golden Dragon deck, both of which look attractive from the scans I've seen. I did read a comment about Golden Dragon not being totally Chinese in imagery-not sure about that. I do want as much authenticity as possible. Do you have any of these decks, or any others that are Chinese in inspiration and/or created by Chinese people ? Comparisons ? thank you very much in advance. love rosyelf

Umbrae	18 Oct 2004
I ventured over to Tarot Garden (The Tarot Garden), and plugged ‘chinese’ into the search field can came up with 6 decks. Then I went to advanced search, and went to ‘country of publication’ and entered China and came up with 43 entries (lots of animae). Entering Japan gave me 131 entries. It’d be a good place to take a gander…

Cerulean	18 Oct 2004
...soft-focus digital collage with pretty faces...anime...historic screen paintings? I like Asian (Chinese and Japanese) art styles as well, so I'd enjoy recommending some...just I have a few different tarots in the different art styles... Thanks for clarifying... Regards Cerulean

rosyelf	18 Oct 2004
Thank you for these answers. Cerulean, I was thinking mainly of screen-painting, silk-scrolls, etc-but am open to other styles too. love rosyelf

Cerulean	18 Oct 2004
The best luck I have had in terms of price and service overall with foreign titles that have Chinese origins is tarotgarden.com. The suggestions below have scans and my small opinion... (I just noticed the Golden Dragon isn't at tarotgarden.com. Alidastore.com also has great service if tarotgarden cannot get it for you.) A. http://mangaart.com/tarotcards/ 1. Of these, Dezhen Chinese and Pandora are lovely painted/photographic covers of novels or calendar Eurasian style girls/boys done in modern digital style. 2. Iris Lam seems pretty and while they say Japanese manga, Tarotgarden attributes it to release in China and pegs it as Chinese. B. Golden Dragon Tarot http://www.themysticeye.com/pics/gdragon.htm http://www.nieznany.com.pl/kgns/tarot/goldendragon.asp Does it look rather Japanese? One reference to Yoshitoshi is a good peg, his art style for the Meiji time was sweeping and unusual...so the mix of art styles is Asian, a mix of Chinese and Japanese Oddly, the two decks that seem very Chinese to me are I-Ching decks (Paul Iki's deck from Grimaud) and the Lo Scarabeo's I-Ching version, as the ideograph is superimposed on golden-earth toned landscapes. C. Longmoment Tarot The American painter really seems to capture a more Chinese brushwork flavor to me, but that's my view. http://www.tarotpassages.com/longmoment-lb.htm I do think I like the Golden Dragon best of the ones mentioned! However the legends I would align it with, I really only know Japanese.. I knew of an Asian from Malaysia (may have been Chinese, I don't know--the name was Chinese, but the heritage might have been mixed) who wanted to have the Feng Shi for comparison, although she never really said to me or not if it seemed to feel 'authentic' in terms of brushwork. Hope some of this mixed musing helped you...sorry that my opinions seem vague as I look this over. Regards Cerulean

MeeWah	18 Oct 2004
Rosyelf: I am very fond of the Chinese Tarot by Jui Guoliang for its artwork & use it as a reading deck.

rosyelf	19 Oct 2004
Cerulean, these musings are very helpful. Thank you for all your work checking everything out. I've decided I will, in due course, go for the Golden Dragon-it IS a very attractive deck, and so what if the influences are not "pure Chinese." (I would be very suspicious of someone insisting on a "pure German" deck, or a "pure British" one, come to that.No such thing as a pure culture. And would we want it anyway ? ) Meewah, thank you. I do have this deck. As mentioned, I did find it a bit. . .difficult. I do rather think now that that was a hasty judgement, so I'm going back to those beautiful images ! :) love rosyelf

yupkigirl	19 Oct 2004
I just have to share this site where I found tarot-deck-in-progress by an artist of Chinese descent. Her deck isn't finished yet but she has stated in her website that she plans to have it published when they are finished. So far, there are 7 cards posted on her site. Although not strictly Chinese in style, one can see the influence of her heritage in her works, most especially in the use of watercolor as her medium. The colors are mostly in soft pastel tones. I, for one, am looking forward to the completion of her work, whenever that may be :) Here's the link: http://www.shadowscapes.com/gal_TAROT.shtml

WolfSpirit	19 Oct 2004
yupkigirl, that is amazing artwork and very detailed - when the deck is published I hope it will be big cards do to the artwork justice.

Fulgour	19 Oct 2004
[font=papyrus] Tarot of the Journey to the Orient [/font] Also known as The Marco Polo Tarot, this deck has all the excitement and intrigue of an imaginative historical novel, an adventure at every turn.

Cerulean	19 Oct 2004
The two Italian decks that I know of that have either art or travelogue theme with some suggestion of a mythological China: 1. From Lo Scarabeo, S. Baraldi's paintings of Tarot of the Journey to the Orient - to me, a fantasy-like Disneysque anime of Marco Polo's travels. Travelogue. I did not like the Queen of Swords, but I do believe other members here enjoy the deck overall very much. http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/journey-to-the-orient/ 2. From Lo Scarabeo, S. Baraldi's paintings of the Dragon Tarot include a fantasy Chinese theme. The oil paintings of the queens are well-done, I just like my characters to have costumes. I think of them as oil paintings done in a fantasy theme. I did not think to even suggest them in original posts---but people are right to suggest them as well. Regards, Cerulean

BlueLotus	29 Dec 2004
I find The Chinese Tarot to be very authentic and beautiful, although I would have prefered the cards to be a bit bigger and the images to fill out most of the cards, without or with limited borders.

The chinese decks-which one ? thread was originally posted on 18 Oct 2004 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.