Posted By: Bill H
Posted Date: Dec 23, 2011 (01:12 AM)
Falconry has been around in China since about day one, I believe, and keeping homing pigeons is a national pastime that I think has deep roots too. If we can take Tang-era tomb art as a clue, then scenes of women playing polo suggest that sports weren't evenly divided along male and female lines at that time.
The Manchu practice of foot-binding may have kept women of the elite set off horseback, but women involved in falconry was much a standard pattern in Qing porcelain. Here's an 18th century Qianlong-period plate with matching cup and saucer in a popular pattern, showing a servant bringing a falcon to the apparent mistress of the house.
Best regards,
Bill H.
