Zhēnguì

I started a new "Stuffed" piece today. It's my little Chinese doll that I got in Los Angeles' Chinatown, when I was thirteen. She's one of my few childhood possessions and is dear to me. She's so old that all her stringing has long since rotted limp and her head hangs down to her chest while her little arms flop, unattached inside her silk kimono and her little legs sit akimbo as they try to support her chubby torso. Her hair is an odd shade of red due to sitting too near a sunny window, but her sweet face is still the same with it's smooth almost white "skin" and little red lips slightly parted and her almond eyes that gaze downward. It just occurred to me - I never named her! For forty-four years she has been nameless... I guess I never gave it any thought that I should name her. Tonight I change that. Her name shall be 珍贵, Zhēnguì which mean "Precious".