When Chinese people go shopping, they often say “mai dongxi”, which literally means “to buy east and west”, but nobody would say “mai nanbei”(buy south and north). In China, the five elements are metal, wood, water, fire and earth, which are combined with five directions: east, west, south, north and the center. The east belongs […]
Moon cake is the ubiquitous fare at any celebration of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, not only because of its delicious taste and charming looking, but also for the cultural and artistic connotation. It is said that moon cakes were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries in their espionage effort to secretly distribute letters […]
In Chinese history, there are four beautiful women: Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan and Yang Yuhuai. There are a lot of portraits of these four women. Actually, these four women are known not just for their pretty looks but also because each of them played a critical role during their times. Both Diao Chan […]
In Chinese, Kungfu denotes any skill that is developed through great practice and cost a lot of time and energy, such as Chinese painting, martial arts. Kungfu tea ceremony is a way of preparing tea with great skill in Chaozhou and South Fujian. It was first sipped back in the Song Dynasty in Chaozhou in […]
The novel “The True Story of Ah Q” is a masterpiece in the history of modern Chinese fiction. Ah Q was a poor peasant being deprived of all his belongings; he embodies the image of a simple and ignorant farmer who is deeply troubled by the feudal system. He is characterized by the common conservativeness […]
The Snake In the past, the Chinese people believe that the dragon evolved from the snake. Therefore, snakes are also known as small dragon. According to the legend, a long time ago, there was once a large snake in southern China called Baishe. Baishe could eat elephants and would then spend three years spitting up […]
In the ancient times, the Chinese people are quite pride of their hundreds of surnames. However, recently, with the publication of “Dictionary of Chinese Surnames”, there are more than twenty thousand Chinese characters for surnames. The exact number is 23,813. The simplest surname is the surname comes from Lisu people—“一” (yi, means one) and the […]
Study Chinese: 竹 (zhu, bamboo) As you can see, the Chinese character “竹” looks just like a bamboo stem and leaves. The Chinese people are very fond of bamboo. This is because they believe that bamboo is incredibly strong and capable of resisting strong winds and cold temperatures. As a result, bamboo is known as […]
There was a Chinese man of the state of Qi who was worrying that the sky might one day fall down, the earth might sink, and he would not know where to hide himself. This so much troubled him that he could not eat or sleep. Someone went to reassure him about this, saying, “the […]
The custom of sending off the Ghost of Poverty on the 6th day of the 1st lunar month has been passed down from ancient times. The Ghost of Poverty is also called the Poor Wretch. The book, “Records of the Seasonal Festivals” recorded: In the reign of Zhuanxu and Gaoxin, a boy was born and […]