COMPANY PROFILE

     Venus Choice Limited was established in 1987. It started with a family business, of which operations include making and selling Tai Mao Pi (baby-hair calligraphy brush), Tai Mao Qi Dai Yin Zhang (baby-hair and umbilical cord with a seal), Tai Mao Shan (baby-hair fan) and other traditional Chinese cultural crafts handed down by the family ancestors.
     Over the past few years, Venus Choice Limited has been selling successfully another business item called Bao Bao Yin (baby palm print made of patented clay). It also conducted classes of making calligraphy brushes in Hong Kong.
     Recently, the company has been awarded by China Broadcasting A& V Publishing House the sole agency of "the Dragon Dynasty Humming" book with CD. With its strong marketing experience, Venus Choice Limited has every confidence on the sales of this new item as well as the promotion of reading Chinese literature in Putonghua.
　

Turn those first wisps of hair into a Tai Mao Pi
     A Baby-hair calligraphy brush has the power to ward of bad luck. It can increase one’s intelligence. It can even ensure your new business venture is a success. Such is the power of a baby-hair calligraphy brush, or Tai Mao Pi in Chinese.
     The earliest recorded use of Tai Mao Pi (Tai meaning womb, Mao hair and Pi pen) dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-906 A.D.). Ancient texts say that the emperor would order one made for each of his children when they turned one month old.
     When a child turned 2 years old, the Chinese believed that bad luck would start to plaque the toddler and demons would enter his body. This marked the first time that the brush would be used. A priest would be called to perform a ceremony on the child using the Tai Mao Pi. Following a strict sequence of strokes, which differed slightly for boys and girls, the priest would brush the child’s eyebrows, eyelids, nose, lips, and then ears with his Tai Mao Pi to “remove” any bad luck that was bothering the child.
     No word was written with the brush until the child reached his or her 5th birthday, when the child was allowed to write just one Chinese character, Hsin. (善)
     The brush would then be locked away for safekeeping until the emperor chose his successor. The new emperor was only allowed to use his Tai Mao Pi on certain occasions, such as writing auspicious couplets for religious festivals to ask for bountiful harvests, peace and prosperity for his subjects.
Commoners picked up this custom and followed the same protocol as the emperor. But they would use their brush to write auspicious couplets and paste them around the doorways of their homes at Chinese New Year, or around the entrance of a new business.

MAN YUE
     Timing then, as it still is today, is important for cutting baby’s hair to make a brush. The most auspicious time is between 24 days to one month after birth. When a baby reaches one month, the Chinese call is Man Yue, or full (man) month (yue), and the milestone is usually celebrated by the parents buying oily rice or cakes for friends and relatives.
     If a baby is still bald at one month old, parents can let the hair grow to about 3-4cm long, the shortest length at which a brush can be made, says Master Cheung, a tai Mao Pi maker in Mongkok.
     But a Tai Mao Pi can only be made from a baby’s first hair. This is because it is believed that the hair which baby grew while still in its mother’s womb (Tai) is charged with both mum’s and baby’s chi – an invincible combination.

IT’S ALL IN THE CUTTING
     Mater Cheung said that there are five different types of hair on the human head, and five different colours of hair – black, dark grey, light grey, brown and gold.
     When he is cutting a tot’s hair to make a Tai Mao Pi, it has to be done in five steps – front, back, left, right and top – (for girls, the back must be cut first).
     Once all the hair has been cut and stored, it is then soaked in a disinfection solution to kill any bacteria which may cause the hair to rot.
     Then, Master Cheung begins the painstaking process of assembling the brush. The key section of the brush is the middle, which uses hair cut from the front of the baby’s head – or back if it is a girl.
     HE said that you can test the quality of a Tai Mao Pi by slowly touching your finger with the tip of the brush, if is had been made correctly, you will be able to feel it touch your finger, but not be able to see the hair that is touching your finger.
     The remaining types of hair are then placed around the brush in a certain order to complete the “head” of the Tai Mao Pi. The whole process takes around seven days.
          The type of handle the hair is mounted on is also important.
     “Parents tell me they want their child to be a doctor, so I suggest they make a pair of brushes. On the end of one handle will be carved a scholars cap, and on the other a medicine pestle,” he said.
     Brush handles can be made from a variety of materials, but rosewood and ebony are the most popular choices.
     The type of handle parents choose also determines the price of a Tai Mao Pi, which range from $388 for a simple rosewood handle to hundreds of thousands for a gold one.
     “It is not important how much you spend on the handle for a Tai Mao Pi, because each brush is one of a kind,” explained Master Cheung. “For the owner, a brush made with a simple rosewood handle is just as valuable as one made out of gold, so the choice of materials for the handle is purely based on personal preference.”
     As such, a Tai Mao Pi is considered a very valuable and auspicious dowry given by parents marring off their daughter. It is used to sign official documents during the wedding ceremony to ensure a happy marriage for the couple.

SUPERCHGARGED BRUSHES
     Master hang said that there are three kinds of Tai Mao Pi. The first is made solely from the hair of a baby. The second is made from the hair of a baby combined with the baby hair of its parents – Tai Mao Pi makers don’t use all the hair and save unused sections of a baby’s hair for just such occasions. The third is made from a baby’ hair, the parents’ and grandparents’ baby hair. Although quite rare, such a Tai Mao Pi is said to be extremely auspicious.
     Today, Master Cheung said that parents who ask him to make a brush for their child may not necessarily believe – or even understand – in the power of the Tai Mao Pi, but do so because they feel it is a unique gift for their child that is rich in culture. Because many people do not understand how and when to use their Tai Mao Pi, mater Cheung, says that when he goes to a client’s home to cut their baby’s hair, he also explains to them the history and techniques of when and how to use their Tai Mao Pi.
     “Parents usually save a locket or two of hair from their baby’s first haircut and put it away in a red envelope for safe keeping, even though they don’t know why they are saving it,” he said. “People in Hong Kong are now just starting to rediscover that we save baby’s hair not just as a keepsake, but to turn it into something unique that can bring good luck.”

Photo of Mrs. Zhang-Yang, the chartered calligraphy brush maker
for Ching Dynasty Emperor Dao Guang and the royal family.

Master Winne Tsui

Master Brounley Cheung