Chinese – Pronunciation

Chinese is romanized into English with the pinyin system, which allows non-readers and speakers of Chinese to easily get a grasp of the language. The pronunciation of Chinese includes sounds that are the same in English, sounds that are similar to English, as well as sounds that are totally alien to English. You’ll discover that beyond the challenges of the tones and a few of the initial consonants and the finals, Chinese pronunciation is relatively easy for English speakers to master.

Chinese syllables are divided into two parts – the initial consonant and the final. Chinese syllables start with the initial or initial consonant and end with final. (more…)

CHINESE PAINTING

Chinese painting originated over 5,000 years ago. Steeped in Chinese history, literature and philosophy, Chinese painting is different from that of the West in its motifs, form and technique.

One basic distinctive feature of Chinese painting is that ideas and motifs are mainly presented in inked lines and dots, rather than color, proportion and perspective.

Chinese paintings are created using brush pens made of a penholder and a pen head. The penholder is usually made of bamboo or wood, while the pen head is made of animal hair – typically wolf or sheep. The brush heads are soft and flexible, and match well with the style of Chinese paintings. Generally, only black ink is used in Chinese paintings and delicate silk and paper are used as the “canvas” in Chinese paintings. (more…)

Over the ages, many religions have entered China and at present, there are five main religions, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. Each religion has added its own mark to the cultural history of China.

According to recent surveys, China has over 100 million followers of various religions. Buddhism and Taoism has the largest number of followers, though accurate numbers are hard to come by because Buddhism and Taoism has become a blended faith with many following both religions.

NATURE WORSHIP & ANCESTOR WORSHIP

From ancient times, China has been a multi-ethnic country, with a multitude of religions. According archeological evidence between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Chinese first became conscious of religion. It was discovered that bodies were buried with their heads in alignment at the site of the “Upper Caveman” (shāndǐngdòng rén 山顶洞人), unearthed in a mountaintop cave overlooking Zhoukoudian (zhōukǒudiàn 周口店), on the outskirts of Beijing. The bodies were also buried with spindles, arrowheads and finely made decorations. There’s hematite powder scattered around the bodies, which isn’t produced in the local area with the closest source a few hundred of kilometers away. From the archeological evidence, it appears the cavemen attached much importance to burials and archeologists conclude the cavemen believed in the concept of an afterlife, in other words, in the concept of a soul. This is the earliest evidence of a religious belief found in China. (more…)

As early as in the 6th century, Japan had already known of Chinese garden landscaping with Europeans learning of the Chinese style through Marco Polo who visited many Song dynasty gardens in southern China during the Yuan dynasty. In the 17th century, Chinese garden landscaping was introduced to England where it then spread to France and the rest of Europe. In the late 18th century, Chinese garden landscaping had a huge influence on the European Romantic Movement, European landscaping moved away from a stiff aristocratic style to a more natural style found in Chinese gardens.

Western and Eastern garden landscaping bear different forms and styles because of different philosophies and sense of aesthetic beauty. In form, Western landscaping embodies artificial beauty with symmetrical, regular and well-knit layouts. Geometry is ever-present as flowers and plants are pruned upright and square. Chinese garden landscaping doesn’t require symmetry or fixed regulations as plants, trees and buildings are built to a natural form. Whereas Western landscaping theory aims to remedy the defects of nature, Chinese garden landscaping blends plants and buildings into an organic whole and imitates nature by building mountains (rocky outcroppings) with flowing water to present a quality suggestive of poetry or painting. To fully enjoy the beauty of Chinese gardens, it’s important to understand the philosophy implied through the sceneries. (more…)

ARCHEOLOGY & ANCIENT HISTORY

China’s culture is one of the oldest of the world. Legend has it that the three nobles and five emperors (sānhuáng wǔdì 三皇五帝) were the first rulers of China. They’re also considered as the ancestors of the Chinese people. Of these legendary figures, some taught the Chinese to build houses, others how to grow grain. All of them were idealized figures during a time when mankind was first learning how to survive in the world. The most famous two of these eight semi-deities were the emperors Yan and Huang. Today the Chinese often refer to themselves as Yan Huang Zisun (Yánhuáng Zǐsūn 炎黄子孙) – descendants of the Yan and Huang emperors.

Despite a lack of written records in prehistoric China, through rich archaeological finds, it’s possible to build a picture what life was like during this period. Fossils of an ancient humanoid dating back 1.7 million years were found in Yuanmou County in Yunnan Province. The Yuanmou fossils are the earliest trace of homo sapiens in China. Research has shown that during the prehistoric era there were many patches of human inhabitation throughout China. Unearthed jade and pottery show the civilization of that time was technologically advanced. (more…)

The most important Chinese holiday is Chinese New Year, which is known in China as Spring Festival (chūnjié 春节). The festival ushers in the lunar New Year and is the West’s Christmas and New Year’s Eve rolled into one. From sun up to sun down, this is a time when the whole country throws itself into celebrating and eating.

No one is quite sure exactly when or where the festival originated. Legend has it that once upon a time, there was a monster called Nian (nián 年) that attacked Chinese villages every spring, eating anything that came its way – people, animals, plants and the odd building. One spring, villagers hung red paper on their doors and threw bamboo on a fire when Nian arrived. The monster was so startled by the bright colors and loud crackling noise of the burning bamboo that it turned and fled. Today the word “nian” is the Chinese word for year. (more…)

The 18th century saw international trade with China blossom, but there was one problem: Western countries had little that pre-industrial China wanted. This trade imbalance frustrated British merchants, who needed to supply an increasing demand for a new drink – tea, which was rapidly becoming popular. They found their answer in the poppy fields of colonial India.

Opium-smoking had been banned by the imperial Chinese government in 1729, but British traders bribed the local officials, who turned a blind eye to their activities, and started shipping large quantities of the drug from British India to the southern Chinese port. Their intention was to create a nation of addicts and thus, an endless market.

2,330 chests of opium were imported in 1788, but that number had risen to 17,257 by 1830. Opium dens spread throughout the country. Officials, often addicts themselves, found it impossible to refuse the sweeteners offered by the now-wealthy British companies. (more…)

Silk was first cultivated in China around 2600 BC, but it would take two and a half millennia for it to spread west. The Romans first encountered the material while battling the Parthians in 53 BC and were told it came from a mysterious tribe in the east. Roman agents were dispatched, commodities bartered and the “Silk Road” established.

The Chinese had known about trade routes going west across the Taklamakan Desert for centuries, however these routes only became important when Emperor Wudi of the Han dynasty formed alliances with western tribes against the northern nomads, China’s old enemy. (more…)

China’s Grand Canal certainly lives up to its moniker, stretching over 1,700km, it’s ten times longer than the Suez Canal and twenty times that of the Panama Canal.

It took several dynasties to build the massive canal network. Work began as early as 506 BC during the Spring and Autumn period lead by King Wu, who led his people to dig the first canals in a big to control central China. Since most of China’s major rivers flow from west to east, building a water link from north to south to connect the rivers would greatly facilitate transportation and this became the dream of many emperors. (more…)