Lyn’s order for her Mom’s birthday celebration.

This is her 2nd pull apart cupcakes cake that she order from me, her first order was the most intricate pull apart design I’ve ever made, take a look in here Paw Patrol, this time I learned about Shòu, the Chinese character for Longevity. I wish I know about it earlier. When we used to live in Shanghai I met several expats that learned Chinese character and speak fluent Mandarin, I think its a fantastic thing to do while living in China. Apparently this character can be found on textiles, furniture, ceramics, jewelry and virtually every object conceivable, generally in its more attractive complex ideograph (壽) but also in its simplified (post-1950) form (寿). The ideograph may appear alone or be surrounded by flowers, bats, peach, gourd or other good luck symbols, but will always hold a central position.

Longevity is commonly recognized as one of the Five Blessings (wǔfú 五福 – longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue, a peaceful death) of Chinese belief that are often depicted in the homophonous rendition of five flying bats because the word for “bat” in Chinese (fú 蝠) sounds like the word for “good fortune” or “happiness” or in this case, “blessings”. In this arrangement, the shòu ideograph sometimes takes the dominant central position, replacing the fifth bat.

I really love my job, learning something new everyday.

Shòu shān fú hǎi.