I love all things Chinese. That’s probably because I spent 3 months last year living in China with my family. My wife is a teacher and we did a stint living in a Chinese school teaching English. I’m not a teacher but I taught too. It was a wonderful time doing something completely different.

It was great. Our kids loved it as well.

Now we have a house full of Chinese arts and crafts.

A lot of the stuff in our local stores is made in China, and a lot of it is poor quality. But Chinese arts and crafts are wonderful, and good quality.

In particular I love Chinese calligraphy. We have 2 wonderful wall hangings of Chinese calligraphy hanging at the top of our stairs, and they have been much remarked on by visitors.

Chinese arts and crafts make wonderful and unique gift ideas for a mans gift.

Particularly for a man who has an arty house or apartment, Chinese art makes a wonderful decoration. Just ask anyone who visits out house.

Chinese art is a perfect gift for so many occasions, just because it is so unusual. Whether it’s a birthday gift for him, a Christmas gift, or even a unique thank you gift idea, there are so many occasions where you could consider Chinese art.

Suffice to say, if you’re looking to find unique gifts online for a man who loves his art, Chinese arts and crafts certainly fit the bill. They are certainly unique, and quite beautiful.

And one of the beauties of Chinese art is that it is extremely inexpensive. The wall hangings we have were around $10 each and are hand made and stunning. You wouldn’t even buy a reproduction of any good western artwork for $10, or anywhere near it.

Now of course we bought ours right there in China. Isn’t it a whole lot more expensive if you’re at home and want to buy Chinese art?

No, you’d be surprised. There are websites where you can buy extremely attractive Chinese arts and crafts for under $20. That’s cheap for a unique and high quality mens gift.

And there are also some beautiful cards there as well. Traditional Chinese birthday cards are stunning, and at $10 – $15 for a pack they are again extremely good value.

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Here’s a lovely idea for a gift for a dad. Fathers day, birthday or Christmas, or maybe it’s just a good day to give dad a gift for no reason at all!

It’s called Coupons For Dad. It’s a gift book of coupons that he can redeem when he wants. A gift that allows him to determine what sort of day he’s going to have, and when he has it.

Coupons include a coupon for a peaceful car ride, a long bath, your bedroom cleaned, breakfast in bed, a phone call without being interrupted, an hour’s worth of peace and quiet, no arguing for an afternoon, setting the table and quiet and sleeping late.

So if he’s had a really bad day at the office he can settle in and use his coupon for an hours worth of peace and quiet and have some time out from the kids, or the whatever it is that he needs a break from.

I like it because it displays a little initiative in it’s conception and design. It’s a good gift for a father when you’re really stuck for ideas on what to buy for him. Better than a simple gift certificate for him.

I found it in the Tonic Gifts blog. Apparently it made it to page 3 of the local Sun/Herald fathers day gifts guide. As I noted on this site recently, it was fathers day a couple of weekends ago in Australia. Tonic Gifts is an Australian site.

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Most of the readers of my site are women. Not all of course, there are plenty of men who buy gifts for men, including me. It was my brothers birthday lately.

But it’s generally true that my readers are women. And I have come across an article recently that I think women will find interesting.

It’s called “How to Correctly Ask a Man for What You Want”. It’s by Edith Yeung, a woman from Indiana who has a fascinating blog on all sorts of life topics.

She makes the point that a lot of communication success comes from understanding what the person with whom you are communicating is feeling. And it offers 5 tips to help women understand men, thereby helping them in the communication process.

And if you need to ask your man for something, understanding him better could go a long way towards helping.

Edith got the inspiration from John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex Now available in audio. It’s a classic book, read it if you haven’t already.

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