It is not difficult to spot an old man, or a group of old men, with his wooden bird cage (and the bird inside), in an early Beijing morning, or evening…

There is a group like this near my area, they are often there in the morning.  Put the cages on the ground, or hang them on a tree branch, and they start to chat..

old men and their best friend

Yes, the cages always have a white or plain coloured cover on them, it is to prevent the little bird inside to get scared or terrified by outside when the owner carries it around.

It is a traditional pastime for the content class (male) since the Qing Dynasty (1616 – 1911).  The appreciation of subtlety was very popular at that time, and people started to appreciate tiny things like tiny birds and tiny painted tobacco bottles.

In some theatre scripts of stories in the Qing Dynasty and later, when a charactor carries a little bird cage around, often times:

1. he must be a male;
2. he does not care much about politics or warfare;
3. he’s got content life, or at least pretend to have…

It’s a bit like people today show-off and compare their cars or wi-fi, at those times, they gather and compare their tiny treasure, together with the delicate china pot used to feed the little creature, and the stick used to clean the cage, etc..

Today, little of the tradition and the passion has been past down, but at least I can show you this little cage I spotted outside my place, can you spot the little bird?  Subtlety is beauty, at least in the Qing Dynasty…

find the bird

It is believed that the upper-class were so content and into their little world of appreciating and competing with the tiny things, that they did not have the power and vision to defend themselves from the outside world, thus the end of Qing and the beginning of a century of turmoil and shame..