CHAO Emperor & Yin Yang Foiled Back Playing Cards

See our Kickstarter campaign here.

CHAO Emperor & Yin Yang Foiled Back Playing Cards

CHAO history

What is CHAO? Find out more in the video below:

CHAO Playing Cards, 2nd Generation

Emperor Edition and Yin Yang Edition

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 Emperor edition and Yin Yang edition CHAO playing cards has a limited production run of 3000 each.

Yin Yang Edition

Emperor Edition

Gold and bronze foil stamped (Emperor Edition)

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.

This is the 2nd generation CHAO playing cards which is marked with a "II" on the tuck box flap:

Emperor and Yin Yang Edition

Gold and black foil stamped (Yin Yang Edition)

Yin Yang symbol on foiled card back (Yin Yang Playing cards)

This project introduces the sixth and seventh edition of the CHAO playing card deck series which also marks a new generation where the card back is printed and foiled, the card front is colored and the tuck box is double foiled on an extended design from the 1st generation of CHAO.

Double foiled tuck boxes

Emperor Edition

The 1st of the 2 new decks is the Emperor edition which is newly color printed on the front and bronze colored back with a layer of gold foil precisely added on top containing the CHAO pattern design.

Card backs (Emperor Edition and Yin Yang Edition)

The tuck box contains a meticulously extended design where it is embossed and double foil stamped with bronze and gold. There is a limited production of 3000 decks only on this edition. Never to be produced again. So once they are sold out they're gone.

Tuck box back (Yin Yang Edition)

Yin Yang Edition

The 2nd deck in this project is our Yin Yang edition which takes on a gold and black theme. The cards fronts are colored and the card back is black printed with the CHAO pattern as well as a centered Yin Yang symbol foil stamped on top in gold. The tuck box is beautifully black and gold foiled onto black colored card. Simply sublime. Only 3000 will be produced.

Yin Yang Edition

Tuck box back (Emperor Edition)

Foil card back on Yin Yang Playing Cards

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.

Yin Yang Edition

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.

Colored Queen cards

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.

Colored Jack cards

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.

Aces cards

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.

Colored King cards

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

Colored Joker cards

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.

The CHAO Wooden Box and Velvet Bag

We have included a beautiful wooden box and velvet bag in this project with the CHAO logo engraved / imprinted onto the front.

Engraved wooden box

Velvet bag

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, buttery smooth handling.

Cards fanning with Emperor Edition

Premium Linen card stock

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.

Emperor Edition

The tuck box completes the overall aesthetics of the deck and come in a carefully chosen color to represent each of the decks. Bronze and gold hot foil for Emperor edition and a different gold and black foil stamped on the Yin Yang edition.

Yin Yang Edition

Get all 7 decks

Complete your CHAO playing cards collection. Decks from our previous project includes the Porcelain Blue, Vermilion Red, Jade Green and Imperial Yellow and Han Purple. While stocks last.

Complete 7 Chao decks

The CHAO Playing Cards are designed and manufactured by MakePlayingCards.com (MPC), a professional playing cards manufacturer with over 40 years of experience specializing in custom playing cards and game cards. We are very proud to introduce the 6th and 7th decks from the popular CHAO Playing Cards series.

Stretch goals - Metal Embossed CHAO Coin

Beautiful imperial gold metal CHAO coins, great for collectors as well as for coin tricks. To get one, see the below:

- At present, we’ll be able to give 1 gold metal embossed CHAO coin to each and every backer of HKD300 (~USD$40) and above.

Gold metal CHAO coins

- Stretch goal of $25K, we’ll be able to give 1 to each and every backer of HKD200 (~USD$25) and above and 2 to each backer of HKD550 (~USD$70) and above.

Pledges List

Add-Ons List