ÿþ<html> <header><title>Card Design 2007</title></header> <body bgcolor="#bbbbdd"> <center> <h2>Card Design 2007</h2> <hr> <table width=50% cellpadding=5> <tr> <td width=50% valign=top align=right><a href="yoda04.jpg"><img src="yoda04.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td width=50% valign=top> <p>The theme of the 2007 designs is great literary works. The character is Yoda, from the Star Wars movies. </p> </td> </tr> </table> <table width=90% cellpadding=5> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_cny.jpg"><img src="2007_cny.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> </td><td valign=top> <b><i>Chinese New Year</i></b><br> <p>The Year of the Boar</P></td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_DonQuixote.jpg"><img src="2007_DonQuixote.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="don06.jpg"><img src="don06.jpg" border="0" height=180></a><br> </td><td> <p><b><i>Don Quixote</i></b></p> <P>By Miguel de Cervantes, 1605 and 1615</p> <P>The book tells the story of Alonso Quixano, a man who has read so many stories about brave errant knights that in a half-mad and confused state, he believes himself to be a knight, re-names himself Don Quixote de la Mancha, and sets out to fight injustice in the name of his beloved maiden Aldonsa, or as he knows her in his mind, Dulcinea del Toboso.</P> <P>The adjective "quixotic", at present meaning "idealistic and impractical", derives from the protagonist's name, and the expressions "tilting at windmills" and "fighting windmills" come from this story.</P> </p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_DreamOfTheRedChamber.jpg"><img src="2007_DreamOfTheRedChamber.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="red08lin.jpg"><img src="red08lin.jpg" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>Dream of the Red Chamber (¢~|i¦h)</i></b></p> <p>By Cao Xue Qin (ùfê–¹‚), 18th century (Qing Dynasty)</p> <p>The novel is a detailed, episodic record of the lives of the extended Jia family, made up of two clans (the Ning-guo and Rong-guo houses), which occupies two large family compounds in the capital, Beijing. Originally extremely wealthy, with a female member who was made an Imperial Concubine, the family eventually fell into disfavour with the Emperor, and had their mansions raided and confiscated.</P> <P>The story is prefaced with supernatural Taoist and Buddhist overtones. A sentient Stone, abandoned by the Goddess Nüwa when she mends the heavens, enters the mortal realm after begging a Taoist priest and Buddhist monk to bring it to see the world.</P> <P>The main character, Jia Baoyu, is the adolescent heir of the family, apparently the reincarnation of the Stone. In that previous life he had a relationship with a flower, who is incarnated now as Baoyu's sickly cousin, the emotional Lin Daiyu. However, he is predestined in this life, despite his love for Daiyu, to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai. The novel follows this love triangle against the backdrop of the family's declining fortunes.</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_JourneyToTheWest.jpg"><img src="2007_JourneyToTheWest.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="west04.JPG"><img src="west04.JPG" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>Journey to the West (‰8n°‹)</i></b></p> <p>by Wu Cheng En(4Tbi`), 1590 s</p> <p>The novel is a fictionalized account of the legends around the Buddhist monk Xuan Zang's pilgrimage to India during the Tang Dynasty in order to obtain Buddhist religious texts called Sutras. The Bodhisattva Guan Yin on instruction from the Buddha, gives this task to the monk and his three protectors in the form of disciples  namely Sun Wu Kong, Zhu Ba Jie and Sha Wu Jing  together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuan Zang's horse mount. These four characters have agreed to help Xuan Zang as an atonement for past sins. The pilgrims undergo eighty-one calamities of all sorts before bringing the sutras back to the Chinese capital of Chang An (present-day Xi An).</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_LesMiserables.jpg"><img src="2007_LesMiserables.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <table bgcolor="#112233"><a href="lesmis02.gif"><img src="lesmis02.gif" border="0" height=180></a></table> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>Les Miserables</i></b></p> <p>By Victor Hugo, 1862</p> <p>Les Miserables follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a twenty year period in the early 19th century that includes the Napoleonic wars and subsequent decades. Principally focusing on the struggles of the protagonist ex-convict Jean Valjean struggling to redeem himself through good works, the novel examines the impact of Valjean's actions as social commentary. It examines the nature of good, evil, and the law, in a sweeping story that expounds upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, law, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love.</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_LordOfTheRings.jpg"><img src="2007_LordOfTheRings.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="LOTR001.jpg"><img src="LOTR001.jpg" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>The Lord of the Rings</i></b></p> <p>by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1949</p> <p>The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier fantasy book The Hobbit and soon developed into a much larger story. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, with much of it being created during World War II. </P> <P>The story concerns peoples such as Hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Wizards, and Orcs, and centres on the Ring of Power made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Starting from quiet beginnings in The Shire, the story ranges across Middle-earth and follows the courses of the War of the Ring. The main character, Frodo the hobbit, and his companions embark on a journey to destroy the One Ring. It was the only hope to save Middle-earth from Sauron. </p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_MobyDick.jpg"><img src="2007_MobyDick.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="moby06.jpg"><img src="moby06.jpg" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>Moby Dick</i></b></p> <p>By Herman Melville, 1851</p> <p>It describes the ill-fated voyage of the whaling ship Pequod to find and destroy the eponymous white whale, driven by the obsessive Captain Ahab. The language is highly symbolic and many themes run throughout the work. The narrator's reflections, along with complex descriptions of the grueling work of whaling and personalities of his shipmates, are woven into a profound meditation on hubris, providence, nature, society, and the human struggle for meaning, happiness, and salvation. Moby-Dick is often considered the epitome of American Romanticism.</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_TomSawyer.jpg"><img src="2007_TomSawyer.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="tom08.jpg"><img src="tom08.jpg" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>Tom Sawyer</i></b></p> <p>By Mark Twain, 1876</p> <p>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a famous novel about a young boy growing up in the antebellum South. This popular tale of the scrapes and adventures of boyhood is set in St. Petersburg, Missouri, and tells of the childhood adventures of Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn: racing bugs, impressing girls - particularly Becky Thatcher - with fights and stunts in the schoolyard, getting lost in a cave, and playing pirates on the Mississippi River. The best-known passage in the book describes how Sawyer persuades his friends to white-wash, or paint, a long fence for him.</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_TreasureIsland.jpg"><img src="2007_TreasureIsland.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="trea07.jpg"><img src="trea07.jpg" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>Treasure Island</i></b></p> <p>By Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883</p> <p>Traditionally considered a coming of age story, it is an adventure tale known for its superb atmosphere, character and action, and also a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality as seen in Long John Silver unusual for children's literature then and now. It is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perception of pirates is vast including treasure maps with an X, black schooners, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders.</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_WarAndPeace.jpg"><img src="2007_WarAndPeace.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="war02.jpg"><img src="war02.jpg" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>War and Peace</i></b></p> <p>By Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, 1865 - 1869</p> <p>The novel tells the story of a number of aristocratic families (particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskis, and the Rostovs) and the entanglements of their personal lives with the history of 1805 1813, specifically Napoleon's invasion of Russia. As events proceed, Tolstoy systematically denies his subjects any significant free choice: the onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike.</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_WaterMargin.jpg"><img src="2007_WaterMargin.jpg" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> <a href="water04.jpg"><img src="water04.jpg" border="0" height=180></a> <BR></TD><TD> <P><B><i>Water Margin (4lRm O)</i></b></p> <p>by Shi Nai An (½e€µ^)</p> <p>Water Margin is vaguely based upon the historical bandit Song Jiang and his thirty-six companions. The group was active in the Huai River region and eventually surrendered to government troops in 1119. They are recorded in the official history of Song (‹[òS), the name of Song Jiang appearing in the chapter of Emperor Huizhong, the activities of the gang in the chapter for Zhang Shuye (5_ÔSY). Folk stories about Song Jiang circulated during the Southern Song. The first text to name Song Jiang's thirty-six companions was the 12th century Guixin Zashi. Among the thirty-six are Lu Junyi, Guan Sheng, Ruan Xiaoer, Ruan Xiaowu, Ruan Xiaoqi, Liu Tang, Hua Rong and Wu Yong. Some of the characters to later become associated with Song Jiang also appeared around this time. They include Sun Li, Yang Zhi, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen and Wu Song.</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> <tr> <td valign=top align=right><a href="2007_xmas09.gif"><img src="2007_xmas09.gif" border="0" height=300></a></td> <td valign=top> </td><td valign=top> <b><i>Merry Christmas!</i></b><br> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan=3><hr></td></tr> </table> <P><FONT="-1"> Research work when designing these cards were done using www.google.com image search, and www.wikipedia.org for content. </FONT></P> <hr> <p>Return to <a href="http://choksienhiew.tripod.com">homepage</a></p> <hr> </center> </body> </html>