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The Cool Guys (冷娃lěng wá) of Shaanxi

In China, the men in Shaanxi are often called “Shaanxi lěn? wá”. It isn’t used to describe coolness. Some people use the words “strong”, “cold(lěn?)”, “hard” and “tough” to describe the personalities of people of Shaanxi. “Strong” describes their courage and ferocity; while “cold” describes their cold expressions; “hard” describes their blunt manner of speaking; “tough”, once they’ve resolved to do something there’s no stopping them. The Terracotta Warriors look like just the cool guys.

There’s an old Chinese saying, “A certain kind of place raises a certain kind of people”. Shaanxi province has also been the meeting place of the agricultural civilization and nomadic culture. The people there have an innocent and straightforward nature as well as the courage and strength of nomadic people. At the same time, the place has been a center of Confucian thought. Confucius spoke about how flattery was poison; the Shaanxi people are unable to say nice things about others. There are several famous people have risen to fame here. These include authors, Chen Zhongshi and Jia Pinagwa, and the movie director—Zhang Yimou. They all owe some of their fame to the rich cultural heritage of Shaanxi.

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