Two Education Technology Officers came to my school to judge whether the school resource would qualify to enter the national levels competition. The thing that attracted the two judges was not the infrastructure nor the variety of herbs in our garden. The thing that caught their interest were the calabash gourds in various stages of being dried.

I guess the calabash or wu lou is something that I am very familiar with and therefore the thought of it being the star attraction of the library never even crossed my mind.

For your information, the calabash or wul lou is an ancient remedy for health. In olden China the doctors or sinsehs would carry medicine inside so it has fabled properties for healing. The hulu is believed to absorb negative earth-based qi (energy) that would otherwise affect health and is a traditional Chinese medicine cure. Dried calabash is also used as containers of liquids, often liquors or medicine. Calabash were also grown in earthen moulds to form different shapes and dried to house pet crickets, which were kept for their song and fighting abilities. The texture of the gourd lends itself nicely to the sound of the animal, much like a musical instrument. It is a symbol of the Xian immortals.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabash