WHAT IS CHAO?

China’s extraordinary history dates back to more than 5000 years and provides a rich collection of royal subjects which forms the basis of the Chao Playing Cards. The Han Purple edition CHAO playing cards has a limited production run of 2500.

Over the lengthy span of Chinese history, each Chao (which is the pronounced word for dynasty in the Chinese language) is distinguished by the name and the impact of the individuals that ruled over that period of time. This very special and unique deck of cards pays tribute to four of the greatest and most recognized dynasties in Chinese history – Han, Tang, Ming and Qing. Each dynasty has an outstanding and reputable Emperor, Empress and General, each with their own notorious traits and fascinating stories. The CHAO depict these influential men and women that were renowned and celebrated from each of the four famous dynasties.

Han Purple CHAO

This is the fifth edition of the CHAO playing card deck series which takes on a Han purple color. Purple is a very important and traditional color in China and used in ancient and imperial China from the Western Zhou period (1045-771 BC) until the end of the Han dynasty (circa 220 AD).

Han Purple was first used in paints in the Qin dynasty for the Terracotta Army in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang symbolizing luxury and strong status. This symbolism comes from the Emperor period when the king’s advisors were dressed in purple. Also, in ancient Chinese myths, especially those related to Taoism, fairies often dressed in purple.

The Han Purple is used on the card backs and also on the tuck box where it is also embossed and imperially gold foil stamped. There is a limited production of 2500 decks only on this edition. Never to be produced again. So once they are sold out they’re gone.

To capture the essence of each dynasty, much time and resource was put into the research part of this project. The illustrations and design takes inspiration from not only the renowned rulers of the four Dynasties but also from Chinese culture itself, which is visible throughout the deck.

The chosen Chinese Emperors, Empresses and Generals for the King, Queen and Jack cards all represent great power, wealth and wisdom, each with different traits and personalities and each dynasty holds their own trademarks to differentiate them from others. Inspired by these different elements, each Emperor features distinct clothing and accessories from their era, Empress’s have different hair pieces and holds the instrument that they played and Generals wear armor and yield the weapon used to fight in their notorious battles. Fine intricate details are added onto each court card, allowing each individual to possess different facial features which best reflects their character.

The Chao was designed to closely follow that of a traditional deck of cards in terms of positioning including head facing direction, hand placements and the presence of weapons and artifacts.

The 4 Aces includes very detailed Chinese patterns. We also added a Chinese dragon on the ace of spades – a symbolism of imperial power and strength.

Each suit i.e. Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds reflects one of the four chosen dynasties (Han, Tang, Ming and Qing).

The Joker cards contains 2 very important figures of historic China which who are still looked very highly upon even up until this present day.

Manufactured by MPC. The card stock used is the M32 linen air coupled with the highly sought after BETA finishing which was made for truly exceptional handling.

Feel the unique difference on these newly engineered deck of cards if you haven’t already. As this deck is a limited edition, once it runs out, that’ll be it. If we have any more decks left after this project, they will be sold at a higher retail price on our website until they run out.

The tuck box completes the overall aesthetics of the deck and come in a carefully chosen color to represent Han Purple, a symbol of honor and a representative color of China. Embossing and gold foil stamping is used to symbolize wealth and royalty.

The sticker seal on tuck box uses a stamp cutting design. The Chinese text shown is the name of MPC’s mother company QP Group with a traditional Chinese red ink stamp design.