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 […]
Literally, the idiom “xian yue ye he” means “free clouds and wild crane”. It is not a meaningless idiom. It refers to the people who live a quite free life and have no other concerns and worries except his or her own life. In ancient times, there were many famous people who did not get […]
As everyone knows, the most important holiday in China is the Spring Festival—“春节(chūnjié)”. The Chinese people use the phrase “过年(?uònián)”—celebrate the New Year. What’s the meaning of “年”. It is one of the Chinese people favorite characters. The original meaning of this character was not the period of time that we commonly refer to today […]
Ancient Chinese poetry, tells us that poets didn’t need material thongs to be happy, all they needed was a pleasant scene, a poem and alcohol. This so-called “pleasant scene” was really just Mother Nature and their poetry and alcohol were the same as self-reflection and friends. To recite the words from an ancient verse, “I […]
Even today, the Nakhi people in Lijiang are still a matrilineal society where the women are the head of their household. During the wedding ceremony, it is traditional for the bride to demonstrate she is capable of providing her husband by carrying him around in a circle several times. The women are responsible for the […]
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; […]
Master Ai had a grandson about 10 years old. As he was wicked and not eager to learn, his grandfather often gave him a good caning. His father, therefore, was awfully afraid this only son would not survive this frequent caning. So every time Master Ai took his son to task, he would weep and […]
Fuxi and Nvwa; Chang’e In the primitive times, the Chinese people took Fuxi and Nvwa as the gods of marriage and worshipped them. According to legends, Fuxi and Nvwa were the ancestors of all humanity. They arranged marriages for human beings and worked out formalities of marriage. Therefore, they became the gods of marriage. A […]
Hezhes, with Shamanism as their belief, believe that everything has its mystical powers and that the world and the heavenly bodies, though controlled by gods, each have its soul. Hezhes make sacrificial offerings to varieties of gods for their blessing. Shamanism, as a kind of culture, has played an important role in many aspects of […]