Bindis in Chinese art and culture

[Babylon]

In modern Chinese no the bindi culture at all, the maker of those figurines might only feel it's fun or beautiful to add them. but the Indian women really like it, refers to the culture of Assam.

better to say 架筷子 or 筷子架 in colloquial language

[TheBigZaboon]

Because someone helpfully bumped this thread, and I reread it in it's entirety, I feel I really should apologize in full for my uncalled for snarkiness...

 

So l do, I apologize... In full...

 

TBZ

[sanchuan]

That's alright; you had already. 

 

To aid with future reference, and to guide the eye of any other interested soul wandering the Art and Literature corner of this forum, I've edited the title of this thread (previously: "What do these figurines represent?") to better reflect the content of the questions at hand as opposed to the figurines that inspired them.

[Babylon]

I see, it comes from the "年画" New Year pictures, a lot of chubby children with that red point on head, another famous figure with the bindi is "哪吒" Nezha, who is an immortal in ancient Chinese mythology and legends.
 

[sanchuan]

Fantastic! Thanks again, @Babylon, for your useful pointers there. It looks like 哪吒 has always been drawn, or otherwise represented, wearing a bindi, so he could certainly have played a role in, at the very least, popularising this practice through Chinese folk religion. It seems to have originally spilled over from Buddhism into daoist pedagogy and, from there, to 年画 and other good-luck imagery. 

 

I'm curious but unable to speculate any further on whether 哪吒 was the first one of his ilk to wear a bindi in China (unlikely) and indeed how else we might trace the historical connection between bindis, daoist 修身养性 practices in general and modern-day 开笔礼s (where, as mentioned upthread, pupils are or were made to wear one).