Chinese Culture Discussion Thread

[Magin]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

One child policy has quite of its downside. The social safety net, retirement support etc. are still quite lacking in China, so most elders still relies on their children for their old age. So one working age couple supporting four elders and one child is an enormous burden. Moreover, one child policy creates quite vulnerability in such a family system, for example if something is to happen to one of the working couple, the blow is so hard that it can destroy families. Besides, the one child policy is limited to Han Chinese only. There is a growing discontent to such inequality. There are many other short coming of this policy. In my opinion, it is time for it to go, and the economy conditions and pressure of urban life will bring down birth rate on their own.

I thought that the Chinese considered themselves Han Chinese in the first place, or does this have to do with the multiple minorities thing that I've also heard about? Or is it more that they might consider themselves Han, but aren't actually Han?

[Chaos2Frozen]

Woohoo! Hungry ghost month!

Shitz about to get buck wilds in here

[Tom Bombadil]

Originally Posted by Magin

I thought that the Chinese considered themselves Han Chinese in the first place, or does this have to do with the multiple minorities thing that I've also heard about? Or is it more that they might consider themselves Han, but aren't actually Han?

It really depends on your definition of Chinese, whether that means a citizen of PRC or the group of people speaking Chinese and practicing Confucianism (at least part of it nowadays) and taking the ancient civilization in the yellow river plains as their ancestors, etc. The latter is what we call Han. The other "major" minorities in China are the Mongols, the Manchu, the Hui, the Tibetans, the Uyghurs, and Zhuang.

You probably have heard of the Tibetans, the Uyghurs and the Mongols. The Hui is essentially Han converted into Muslims since a few hundred years ago. Manchu is the ethnic group who conquered China and found its last dynasty (the Qing dynasty). The only distinction between Hui and Han is the religion, and Manchu and Han are virtually indistinguishable nowadays. Zhuang is actually the most populous minority. They live mostly in southwest China. I believe they are gradually shifting toward the Han also.

There are quite some other minority groups as well. All minorities are all exempt from the one child policy, and get some other benefits such as extra points for fiercely competitive Chinese college entrance exams.

[TinyRedLeaf]

As some of you may have noticed because of the latest Google doodle (it may differ based on which part of the world you're in), today is the seventh day of the seventh Chinese lunar month.

In other words, it is the day of the Qixi ( 七夕 ) Festival, that is, Chinese Valentine's Day. The festival is over 2,000 years old, and celebrates the legendary reunion of the cowherd (Altair) and the weaver girl (Vega). Follow the links to learn more about the festival on Wikipedia.

The stars Vega and Altair have certainly inspired folk legends among the world's different cultures. The Japanese also celebrate Qixi, but they know it as Tanabata, which falls on July 7. That's because the Japanese switched to the Gregorian calendar during the Meiji era. They simply mapped the Chinese lunar date to the equivalent date on the Gregorian calendar.

Having grown up in light-polluted Singapore all my life, I wouldn't be able to point out the two stars even if they were visible in the night sky. Needless to say, neither is the Milky Way visible over here. These are just some of the things urban men have lost knowledge of in the past hundred or so years.

[LeoXiao]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

You probably have heard of the Tibetans, the Uyghurs and the Mongols. The Hui is essentially Han converted into Muslims since a few hundred years ago. Manchu is the ethnic group who conquered China and found its last dynasty (the Qing dynasty). The only distinction between Hui and Han is the religion, and Manchu and Han are virtually indistinguishable nowadays. Zhuang is actually the most populous minority. They live mostly in southwest China. I believe they are gradually shifting toward the Han also.

I'm not sure about the Zhuang per se but I heard that many "minorities" were in fact categorized as such because Soviet-trained linguists decided that this or that village didn't speak a Sinitic language or something, when culturally there was almost no difference.

On a unrelated note: While the PRC government educated everyone in (simplified) Hanzi and all the Chinese dialects are written in Hanzi, the Soviet government under Stalin downplayed written differences in the Russian language but sent linguists to Central Asia to create incredibly differing and confusing orthographies for the local Turkic dialects. This prevented any one of the local tongues from gaining prominence over Russian.

[Tom Bombadil]

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

On a unrelated note: While the PRC government educated everyone in (simplified) Hanzi

Wrong. In Xinjiang for example, there are two types of public schools， 民族学校（minority school) and 汉族学校 (Han school). The minority schools are taught in Uyghur, while the Han schools are taught in Chinese. There are some complaint on the internet, because most of the smaller minority groups, like the Kazakhs, Tajiks etc. are forced into the Uyghur schools.

[LeoXiao]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

Wrong. In Xinjiang for example, there are two types of public schools， 民族学校（minority school) and 汉族学校 (Han school). The minority schools are taught in Uyghur, while the Han schools are taught in Chinese. There are some complaint on the internet, because most of the smaller minority groups, like the Kazakhs, Tajiks etc. are forced into the Uyghur schools.

Sorry, I meant everyone who speaks a Sinitc language/dialect. The Koreans, Uyghrs, Tibetans and Mongols use their own language.

[Fireminer]

Well, I live in Vietnam, so I might not know very much, but Does it true that Japanese and Chinese could communicate without much problem (due to Japanese Languae was influenced by Chinese)?

[Sumeragi]

I have no idea who made up that crazy idea, unless we're talking about using kanji.

[Fireminer]

Well, I read it a long time ago. And it only says that it's easier for Chinese to learn Japanese, just like Vietnames to English and German or Latinese-Language!

[LeoXiao]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

I have no idea who made up that crazy idea, unless we're talking about using kanji.

That would be obvious, no?

As for Vietnamese finding it easier to learn English, I'd imagine that to be incorrect if you're talking about anything beyond the alphabet system. It is probably easier for a Vietnamese to learn (spoken) Chinese than English, because Vietnamese uses a good deal of Sinoxenic vocabulary.

[Fireminer]

Uh, but our main language is developed on the basic of Latinese (actually, a French Missionary invented it). I think it's also about accent.
And the funny part? Me and my twin just couldn't stuffed even a Chinese into our heads, while both our father and grandfather could use it fluently (grandpa actually knows Chinese, French and English!)

[Chaos2Frozen]

Originally Posted by Fireminer

Well, I live in Vietnam, so I might not know very much, but Does it true that Japanese and Chinese could communicate without much problem (due to Japanese Languae was influenced by Chinese)?

I can tell you it allows me to pick out certain key words to tyco my understanding of whatever Japanese passage ! Ohohoho~ !

[Infinite Zenith]

Originally Posted by Fireminer

Well, I live in Vietnam, so I might not know very much, but Does it true that Japanese and Chinese could communicate without much problem (due to Japanese Languae was influenced by Chinese)?

Our languages are mutually unintelligible, although there are spoken pronunciations in both Chinese and Japanese that are similar. As for the written systems, it is possible to get a general idea of what's going on where Kanji is used, but the meanings may be a little skewed. This is hardly unsurprising, since the Japanese language draws influence from Han Dynasty Chinese, but has had a few centuries to diverge and mature into its present form. So no, it's not a "...made up...crazy idea" (in fact, the idea that it's made up is fallacious), it's a fact of history

[Tom Bombadil]

Simple example: 大丈夫　in Chinese means "big man", but "safe; all right" in Japanese.

[LeoXiao]

And 邪魔 means "evil demon" but the Japanese use it as "intrusion".

On the other hand, tons of technical and "educated" terms are interchangeable among Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and probably Vietnamese as well. In the case of Chinese, many words like "democracy", "science", "politics", and many other similar terms were invented in Japan and used by the Chinese as they gave up on Classical Chinese and started moving towards vernacularization.

[Fireminer]

Originally Posted by ForwardUntoDawn

Our languages are mutually unintelligible, although there are spoken pronunciations in both Chinese and Japanese that are similar. As for the written systems, it is possible to get a general idea of what's going on where Kanji is used, but the meanings may be a little skewed. This is hardly unsurprising, since the Japanese language draws influence from Han Dynasty Chinese, but has had a few centuries to diverge and mature into its present form. So no, it's not a "...made up...crazy idea" (in fact, the idea that it's made up is fallacious), it's a fact of history

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

And 邪魔 means "evil demon" but the Japanese use it as "intrusion".

On the other hand, tons of technical and "educated" terms are interchangeable among Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and probably Vietnamese as well. In the case of Chinese, many words like "democracy", "science", "politics", and many other similar terms were invented in Japan and used by the Chinese as they gave up on Classical Chinese and started moving towards vernacularization.

Oh, thanks you guys! I am not very good at these cultural matter. Sometime I was amazed by how much different, and yet also very similar the East Asia Countries are!

[TinyRedLeaf]

Once seed was planted, Chinese headwear fad grew like weeds

YouTube

https://youtu.be/F8rXYut5Ks8

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Beijing (Oct 7, 2015): When Mao stirred China with a call to let a hundred flowers bloom, he surely never imagined anything as frivolous as this.

Across China, people are sporting plastic decorations on their heads in the shape of vegetables, fruit and flowers.

When the trend started a few months ago, it was usually just a humble bean sprout clipped to the hair and erect like a little green flagpole. The slim green shoot seemed to offer a kind of mute protest against the gray, stressed environment of the city.

But as the fad escalated, especially during the current National Day holiday week when Beijing fills with visitors, it has grown to include a riot of plastic vegetation.

Now heads are bristling with clover, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, lavender, mushrooms, chilies, cherries, gourds and pine trees.

No one seems to know how the mania started or why. Wearers and hawkers of the herbaceous headwear offered a bewildering range of speculation, or baffled shrugs.

Li Jinghua, who was selling floral head decorations near the Forbidden City, said the trinkets may still have a world to conquer.

"Does your country have this yet?" she asked. "It will certainly spread abroad."

NEW YORK TIMES

[Juke16]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Once seed was planted, Chinese headwear fad grew like weeds

YouTube

https://youtu.be/F8rXYut5Ks8

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

It's also what happens if you eat seeds they say :P

[deathcoy]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

Woohoo! Hungry ghost month!

Shitz about to get buck wilds in here

I've always tried not to think about the Hungry Ghost month but its always there at the back of my mind. Personally i've never encountered anything supernatural but an incident that happened to my brother during the month when he was very young made me believe in the supernatural.