FINE, BE THAT WAY

The dream ended up in a spartan and very clean store where there was a porcelain object with a pale blue crackly glaze. Which is what had pulled me in. It was lovely. The proprietor and I ended up talking about various things, agreeing that the educated man should smoke Taishan cigarettes (named after one of the famous mountains in China), because they are refined and elegant, slim ciggies which Hello Kitty would like, with a flavour capsule in the filter which when popped imparts a discreet jasmine tea fragrance.

Mount Tai (泰山), which lends these distinct cigarettes its name, is one of the five legendary peaks. It's located in Shantung. The cigarettes are made by the same company that made the Hatamen (哈德門) cigarettes, once very popular and advertised by celebrities. Etsong Tobacco Holdings (颐中烟草有限公司 'yi jung yin chou yau haan gung si'; Etsong Tobacco Limited) formerly the Qingdao Cigarette Factory on Zhuzhou Road (株洲路), I believe at the intersection of Taishan Road (泰山路), located in Qingdao, Shantung.

To savour Taishan cigarettes is to taste history.


He accepted one of the smokes I offered him, and we admired the ceramic object in silence. Restrained and evocative, the kind of thing you would find in a sholar's residence.

It was a lovely dream. Courtesy of sleeping late. Sometime today or tomorrow I'll have to buy some more Taishan cigarettes (泰山香煙). They come in a cream-ivory hued hard pack. Understated and stylish. Very civilized. Makes the inner Hello Kitty happy.

The object in question was not, strictly speaking a Qingbai (青白 'ching paak') glaze, more tinted, and quite possibly Guan ware (官窯 'kun yiu') in style, though of recent make.
A more modern interpretation of a ruyi (如意 'yü yi')



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