A bit of history, facts and how todays modern Chinese kites look like + where to buy online.
When you live in China you can see modern Chinese kites flying around mostly in every park when there are holidays. Colourful dragon kites, diamond shaped kites, fish kites, centipede kites and many more shapes. Especially on Tomb Sweeping day Kite flying is a common amusement for families.
Kites are important in Chinese celebrations and always linked to symbolism because they are decorative, festive and representing Chinese culture. No surprise that the color red is often found on kites in China because this is one of the colors associated with good luck.
Most Chinese modern kites don’t look very different from their ancient versions however the materials are much lighter then centuries ago. Lets have a quick look where this specific Chinese art of building kites originate.
If you are looking for a good book about Chinese kites and how to built and fly them, we recommend: Chinese Kites: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide
History of kites
Chinese Kites were invented in China around 2.800 years ago. Simply because materials ideal for kite building like silk, bamboo and sail material were already available in China. The traditional kite was said to be the invention of the famous 5th century BC Chinese philosophers Mozi and Lu Ban during the Warring States Period (475–221 BC).
At first the usage was mostly during war to send messages and to warn troops. Although there are some stories that tell that there were bigger kites that could lift a lightweight soldier to shoot arrows from the sky, there is no proven evidence. (it was actually Marco Polo who allegedly witnessed the flying of a manned kite while in Weifang in 1282!)
Of course ancient kites were much heavier as our modern constructions due to the used materials like wood and linen cotton. But that changed during the famous Tang Dynasty (618-907) when Chinese started to use Bamboo and paper. Only at the end of the last Qing Dynasty (1614-1911) it was starting to get common for normal people to fly kites for pleasure.
If you have the chance to visit the most famous center of the Chinese kite world in Weifang (between Beijing and Qingdao) you can get much more deeper insights. The kite museum in Weifang displays 2,000 kites from around the world through 12 gallery rooms covering 2,000 square meters. We suggest about an hour to go through the museum to see the models and kites from both ancient China as well as samples from around the world.
There are around 4-5 common Chinese kite forms
Centipede kites
The Centipede kites are the quintessential, iconic, and immensely popular kite forms used in China, with their complex design they look like centipedes but usually with a dragon’s head. The body is often adorned with feathers.
Hard-wing and Soft-wing kites
Hard-winged kites usually represent winged animals, from insects to birds, while soft-winged kites have rigid upper rims only, allowing the material on the lower section of the kite to flow along with the wind.
Flat kites
The flat kites that we are more familiar with in the West, are the most common kites in the world. Usually a geometric shape overdrawn by fabric or paper. They fly instable, therefore they need a stabilizing tail or something similar. But when you have that, it is a good beginners kite since they are easy to fly.
3D Kites
Three dimensional kites are the newest form because they are only possible with modern lightweight material and often have a dramatic look. You can see whales, octopus and other forms that can be really hugh. (and expensive!)
By the way… the longest airborne kite was 6,000 meters long!
in 2015, a 6,000-meter long chinese dragon kite was flown in Chongqing a the Chongqing International Kite Festival by professional flyers from Weifang. This kite then broke the Guinness World Record for the longest kite flown, for which the previous record was 5,000 meters. It took three people about six hours to get it into the sky.
Popular modern chinese kites examples:
Finally where to buy these Chinese kites online?
Since most people are not familiar with the Chinese version of Amazon called Taobao (mainly because of the language barrier) there is still one easy way to get stuff delivered from Chinese companies. Aliexpress from Alibaba is easy to navigate and quite reliable. It usually takes about 20-40 days to ship depending on your country.