For those of you who have boys ages 5 and up, then I am sure you are experiencing the Star Wars craziness with your kids and all of his friends.  (If your boys are not into Star Wars yet, enjoy!)  Think Geek is selling these Lightsaber chopsticks.  They come in 3 different styles: Red for Darth Vadar, Green for Master Yoda, and Blue for Luke Skywalker.  They are imported from Japan.

Most importantly, I definitely think they will make the dinner experience less stressful and more enjoyable.  But of course, make sure you tell them these Lightsabers do not cook or cut any food for them.

Enjoy!

For the first time, there is a DS games based on the popular kids show Ni Hao Kai-lan. Based on Nickelodeon’s educational entertainment television series for preschoolers and designed for the youngest of gamers, Ni Hao, Kai-lan: New Year’s Celebration is a collection of easy-to-play mini-games featuring six-year-old Kai-lan and her young animal friends, Rintoo the tiger, Tolee the koala, Hoho the monkey, and Grandpa YeYe.

The games, developed by 2KPlay, (given to us to try) involove gentle and engaging activities such as cooking Chinese dumpling, making almond cookies, and marching in parades. This game is designed with young gamers in mind, (3-5 years old), so it’s relatively easy for them to play independently. I only had to show my 4 year old once before he got the gist of the steps. In addition, the game also provides encouraging hints whenever help is needed. My 4 year old was so happy there is a game for him on the DS. He has already asked for one for himself!

While this game is designed for preschoolers, my 7 year old also enjoyed playing the game. It also provided him something common to share with his little brother. It was cute to watch the two of them huddled over the screen while coloring, and clicking through the shapes. According to them, their favorite activity was cooking dumplings as they both love to eat dumplings!

Many of you know I fly often with my boys to visit  families in California. I’m so looking forward to bringing this game with us on our next trip. Anything to contain 3 boys on a 6 hour flight is a lifesaver in my opinion! Oh yeah, it offers some Chinese culture  and words they can buff up with before seeing my parents!

Ni Hao Kai-lan: New Year’s Celebraion game is available at retailers nationwide including Toys R Us and Target.

Geek Chic may seem like an oxymoron, unless the name is Vivienne Tam and HP. In this 2nd generation netbook Tam designed for HP, it is exactly that, Geek Chic.

This month, the designer introduced a champagne gold HP Mini netbook emblazoned with eye-catching butterflies. it is scheduled to hit the market in early Spring 2010. Tam sent these digital cluches down the runway as the modern girll’s must-have accessory. The butterflies desgin, is inspired by the traditional Chinese love story “Butterfly Lovers”. In addition to the outside motif, a single Chinese character, the word for double happiness is also featured on the Enter key.
This is what I call tradition meets functionality meets high fashion!

In the past few months, we’ve heard from many of you out there regarding our website and our offerings. Most of them were congratulatory, and it made us feel really good about what we’ve been able to accompolish in the short time since we launched our business. The feedbacks have also been very positive, and the products are well received acrossed the board.

To further our goal to provide high quality educational material that are also relavent to our customer, we’ve added some new items to our website. The biggest change is that we now have a Simplified Chinese section, for those of you who wish to teach your children simplified version of the written language. We realize this is a continued debate within the Chinese community, and proponents of both have made convincing arguments. I think adding this catagory really helps us to round up the needs of our customers. We are also fortunate enough to find high quality paperbacks in both Simplifed Chinese and English, such as Harold and the Purple Crayon, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Little Pip and the Rainbow Wish. So be sure to check out these and many other titles, your children will love to read or hear these stories!

In addition, we’ve added some great note cards, for Chinese New Year or anytime you want to send a note to that special someone. These beautiful greeting cards are created by artists who mostly reside in Tianjin, China, about 60 miles east of Beijing on the Bohai Bay.  Most of the artists never received formal art training.  Their paintings reflect their daily lives, everyday events, festival, and traditional Chinese culture.

We hope you enjoy these new additions to our product offerings, and please continue to email us with your feedback. We know we can do even better with your input. Happy New Year!

Start the new year with a little bit of a bling! Check out these adorable chinese take out box in gold from Estee Lauder. Boasting beautiful crystallized swarovski elements, intricate details, and decorative enamel, this special take out box is the newest entry in Estee Lauder’s limited edition collection of solid perfume compacts. The fragrance is Plesures, a sheer floral.  They are available for $89 each at www.esteelauder.com.

In keeping with our theme for this week, Chinese New Year is only about 6 weeks again, and this year, it will be the Year of the Tiger.  People born in the year of Tiger is said to be completely honest about how they feel and expect the same of you. They will be  On the other hand, they seek approval from peers and family. Generally, because of their charming personalities Tigers are well liked. Often, failing at a given task or being unproductive in his personal or professional life can cause a Tiger to experience a depression. Criticism from loved ones can also generate this type of Tiger reaction. Still, like all felines, Tigers always land on their feet, ready for their next act in life, pursuing it with unyielding energy and hunting it infallibly.

To get ready for the New Year, why not get these adorable tiger slippers for your kids? They are cute and cozy. Slippers are also a Chinese tradition.

Like I promised, the holidays aren’t over until Chinese New Year.  If there’s something you had wanted to resolve by the end of year, give yourself a little break, and extend it till Chinese New Year’s eve.  My goal this year is that I desperately need to shred about 15 lbs.  I’ve had a very “satisfying” holiday!  However, I will have to at least share this eye candy with you.  I found these Chinese New Year cupcakes from Cupcakes Take the Cake blog, and it made me feel so much better when I found out that one of their founders is a personal trainer!!

Enjoy!!

How about adding a little Chinese to your Chirstmas tree?  This beautiful ornament is available at Red Fermata for only $12.50.  This ornament is part of a series of vintage photos from around the world with the phrase “Merry Christmas” in their respective languages. Perfect for a lover of culture or travel.  This ornament says “Merry Christmas” in Chinese, and shows a vintage photo of the Great wall.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

This holiday, we present you with our best sellers to help select the perfect gifts for the children.  We’ve had so much positive feedbacks about these 10 products that we pick for you, hurry before they run out!

1.  Chinese Cookbook kit by Handstand Kids. 

2.  Monkey: The Classic Chinese Adventure Tale

3.  Ruby’s Wish

4.  Dora DVD Gift Set

5.  The Horse Race

6.  Chinese Fables Remembered

7.  The Best Christmas Ever

8.  The Story of the Chinese Zodiac

9.  Elmer

10.  Disney Classic Cartoon

Here we go, the count down begins.  We put together our top 10 favorites from our website for the stocking stuffers, Hannukkah presents, or just something small and delightful.  Happy Shopping!

1. Chinese food erasers - these cute puzzle erasers come as individuals or as sets.  We promised you they will love them.  They are huge amongst the 1st thru 4th graders according to our cutest customers we met at a local school.
2. Kai-Lan books – The newest Chinese character has quickly become a favorite!
3. One-Piece learning chopsticks – they come in cute farm animals, dinosaurs, and sea creatures.  They are fun to use as chopsticks, and also make great party favors!
4. All Purpose Mat with map of China - this cute mat is great to use for meals, activities, or anything to protect your table.  Dishwasher safe too!                                                       
5. Dora DVD - if your little ones like Dora in English, they will like her in Chinese too.
6. Discovery DVD - perfect for the curious animal lovers.       
7. Origami paper in beautiful pattern - spend some crafty, quality time this winter making some origami projects, especially for those cold days.
8. Design your own Paper Fan - another great craft idea.  The package comes with 2 fans which is perfect for the siblings.              
9. Classic Fairy Tales DVD - hot chocolate, fire place, popcorn, movie night for everyone.
10. Origami Playset - Last and not least, these origami playsets are so adorable with a pop up scene for the pretend play.