Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween

My husband's family always ask me, "Do Chinese celebrate Halloween?" "Do you have X'mas?" which I believe you wonder the same things, too.

Yes, we celebrate pretty much most of the western festivals. Some people put on the costumes on Halloween. But there are not of them. There is no trick-or-treat. Halloween is pretty much only for adults or grown-up.

The attitude of Chinese treating Halloween is totally different from the Chinese Ghost Festival which falls on the 14th day of the 7th month on the Lunar Calendar. People always have a lot of fun on Halloween. But during the 7th month, people are scared of meeting any evil spirit or ghost. And at the same time, they are very respectful of the ancestors and those passed away.

For more interesting story of the Chinese Ghost Festival, stay tuned. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Jade

Many women love diamonds. But in the old China, there was no diamond, but jade.

A lot of emperors and rich people had their belongings, ornaments and jewelry made of jade. It didn’t only represent their superiority and privilege, but also protect them from the evil spirits.

This stone is very human-oriented. Why? If you wear a jade pendent, you will realize it. The more you wear it, the greener it is.

But how does it protect one from evil spirit? I heard this story from my schoolmate several years ago. She wore her jade pendent all the time. She never took it off. One day after getting out of shower, she saw from the mirror that the jade had half of it left. It looked very strange to her. So, she looked down at her pendent. It was in a whole and good shape. She looked back to the mirror again. It was just half of it.

Then, she knew that some evil sprits tried to approach her. It was this jade protecting her from their harm. At the end, she threw the jade away. It was because it had already carried out its mission. It was not able to protect its owner again.

Was that true? I really don’t know and don’t mean to scare you. But I just want to show you the importance of this precious stone to the Chinese society.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of fake products out there. Some professional can even tell. If you really want to buy one, go to the well-known stores.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Myth of Peeling Apple

Apple-picking season just started in upstate NY. So, I thought that it would be a great time to share with you an interesting Chinese myth.

In Hong Kong, a lot of people, especially women, can peel apples by a pairing knife as quick and good as the apple peelers. This myth has been spreading around since I was in my early teen.

Someone said that if you face a mirror and peel the apple without breaking the peel into 2 pieces at midnight sharp, you will see your future husband on the mirror. Very scary, huh?

When I was at school, one of my classmates tried it. But she didn’t succeed.

And it was said that if the peel breaks, your future husband will be hurt.

It’s just something to share with you for fun. :-)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Chinese Typing


The chart showing what each alphabet represents in Chinese (refer to the black squares). In each cell, it shows other Chinese symbols which look similar to the Chinese in the black squares.

Have you ever seen the Chinese computer keyboard before? If you had, you most probably saw some simple Chinese characters next to each alphabet on each key.


There are many different kinds of Chinese typing/input method based on the pronounciation of a character either in Mandarin or Cantonese and also by the structure of the character. But there is one very original input method still used by most of the people now due to its efficiency, i.e. Changjie method. This method was named after the person centuries ago who created most of the Chinese characters of nowdays.

How does it work? First of all, you must be fluent in written and spoken Chinese. The inputting method totally relies on one's knowledge of the structure of each Chinese character. It splits one character up to 5 parts which will be 5 keystrokes on the keyboard. Each alphabet represents each part of the character. It takes some time to learn even you are good at Chinese. Once you grab the theory behind it, it is just a piece of cake.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

National Day

Oct 1 is the National Day in China and Hong Kong. Oct 10 is the National Day in Taiwan. Although there are a few days of difference, the purpose is pretty much the same. It is for the memory of the "Father of the Modern China", Sun Yat Sen, who ended the imperial rule of China.

Being a Chinese and major in Chinese History, I never agreed that he should be named as the "Father of the Modern China". Unlike George Washington, Sun had never been into any revolution. While his colleagues were fighting with their lives, he was somewhere else. Some may say that Sun was doing the negotiation, raising the fund and so forth.

To me, people like Wong Hing, one of the revolutionists at his time should be named.

Anyway, it is just Chinese history shared with you all.