Chinese Cultural Learning Blog

Chinese Minorities 中国少数民族

There are officially fifty-six ethnic groups in China, including the Miao, Dai, Tibetan, Korean, Mongolian, Tu, Tong, Zhuang, and so forth. The majority group in China are the Han people. Many minority groups reside in the remote areas of Sichuang, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces. Each ethnic group has its own unique traditions, customs and holidays. Many of them have their own dialect and written languages. Festival celebrations of these minority groups often attract tourist attention.

On April 15, 2009, Dai minority in Yunnan province celebrated their New Year. The holiday celebrations include Water Splashing, Worship Ancestors, Dragon Boat Racing, Fireworks, and Singing and Dancing. Buddhism is widely practiced among the Dai people. According to the census in 1990, there are about one million Dai people in China.

This week, I would like you to choose one Chinese minority and introduce us its history, culture, traditions, language, and other characteristics.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2003-01/21/content_700050.htm
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-04/16/content_7683879.htm

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Limitations of Birth: The Abduction of Boys in China

Many American parents adopt children from China, mostly girls. The traditional idea of having male heirs combined with the Communist Party one child policy, on many occasions led to female infanticide. Over the last twenty years, however, educated parents (particularly in the cities), welcome girls and believe they have the same potential to succeed as boys do when a proper education is provided. In the 1970′s and
1980′s, new laws cracked down on the wild-spread abduction of women who were mostly sold into the countryside as brides. Recent reports indicate that the Chinese government needs to forcefully
punish these crimes, including the increasing number of boy abductions and protects
children and parents’ rights.

Please read the following article entitles “Chinese Hunger for Sons Fuels Boys’
Abductions”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/world/asia/05kidnap.html?em

Analyze it from a particular cultural and social point of view. What are the causes of such
social phenomena and their social impact, and what policy and actions
should the Chinese government adopt to prevent such crimes?

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Freedom in China 在中国的自由

As we discussed earlier, the culture and history of China has shaped the differences from the west in terms of human rights and the concept of freedom of speech and democracy. Through the history of China, we see that any anti-government movement only brings tragedy to the dissidents and their families.

Since the establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949, the so-called New China, a tightly controlled media influences how Chinese people think and how they behave. In the past two decades, China’s increasingly active participation in the global economy, along with the breakthrough of Internet, brought flood of new ideas, as well as the unprecedented opportunity for Chinese people to receive information from outside world. While the Chinese people now enjoy the freedom of pursuing a more comfortable material life, they have also started to question the value of individualism and freedom of thought and speech.

This week I would like you to read the following New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/world/asia/14beijing.html?ref=world

And answer the following question: In your opinion, how should the Chinese government balance its fast-paced economic and political reform for its people without causing social turmoil and unrest?

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Chinese Democracy 中国的民主

In the eyes of the Chinese, the US represents the western democracy, a fact which is learned by the Chinese in the classroom and from the media. The word of democracy only appeared in recent Chinese history, but it is written into the Chinese constitution and often mentioned by Chinese party leaders and officials. However, the measurement of democracy by the western countries often conflicts with the so-called democracy that the Chinese government touts. A top Chinese legislator Mr. Wu Bangguo, recently said that China would never adopt western-style democracy at China’s annual parliamentary session.

This week, I would like you to read the news article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7932091.stm and discuss the different views of democracy between China and the west, and how Chinese culture and history affect its foundation and exercises of democracy.

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Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in China and Taiwan Issue
国务卿克林顿在中国以及台湾问题

On Friday evening, Feb. 20, 2009, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton arrived in the icy Beijing winter. Because of the connections built with China while she was first lady, and her continuous active role on political stage, people in China are paying great attention to Hilary’s visit. It has become the top news story in China.

The topics of discussion that Mrs. Clinton engaged in with the Chinese president and other high rank officials on cover economic development, climate change, and the North Korea nuclear issue. During her time in China, Mrs. Clinton also visited a gas-fired power plant with turbines made by General Electric and met with graduate students in science from the famed Qinghua University in Beijing, the so-called “MIT of China.”

There are mixed review among the Chinese about Mrs. Clinton’s visit mainly because of the stand of US government on the issue of selling weapons to Taiwan. On the other hand, many Chinese expressed their favorable impression of Mrs. Clinton’s visit. A famous folk clay artist from Beijing even made an image of Mrs. Clinton in traditional Chinese clothes.

This week, I would like your thoughts on Mrs. Clinton’s visit to China and please research why Taiwan has been such a historical sorepoint between the US and China.
http://www.zaobao.com/photoweb/pages1/clay090221.shtml

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Sino-US Relationship Review: Secretary of State Clinton Visits China

中美关系回顾：国务卿克林顿访问中国

During the last two decades, despite the disagreement among the two countries such as Taiwan and Tibet, and occasional abrasions caused by incidents such as the U.S.-led NATO attack of the Chinese Embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1997 and 2001 war plane collision, overall the Sino-US relationship has been tenacious. In addition to presidential exchange visits to each country, many high-ranking official visits also helped open the dialogue and strengthen the relationship between the two countries. On February 15, Secretary Clinton will start her official visit to several Asian nations, among them Japan, South Korea, China, as well as Indonesia. Secretary Clinton has singled out China and expressed hope in elevating dialogue between the two countries during her time in China from Feb. 20 to Feb. 22.

I remember the day unexpectedly I ran into Hilary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton at Shanghai Museum in 1997. Hilary Clinton has been active on politics during the last twelve years since. She is visiting China again, only this time her role has changed from First Lady to Secretary of State. This week, I would like you to do some research on the relationship between US and China during Clinton and Bush eras, and share your thoughts on what direction Obama administration will lead in terms of Sino-US relationship. What is the significance of the Secretary Hilary Clinton’s return to China so early in the new administration? Please use credible sources to support your argument. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/06/ST2009020600245.html

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春节快乐    牛年大吉
Happy Spring Festival, Great Prosperity in the Year of Ox
Welcome to 2009 the Spring Semester!

The time US college students return to campus for the spring semester, Chinese college students return home and celebrate the most important holiday in China for family reunions: Spring Festival. The date of Chinese Spring Festival varies every year according to the lunar calendar, and how people celebrate the New Year also varies region to region. This year, the Chinese New Year starts on January 26, 2009.

Although there are different ways that individual families celebrate, the New Year usually includes preparing a feast for the family gathering. Tradition also includes posting auspicious couplets on doors, hanging objects on the wall (mostly red in color to bring good luck), and conviviality that lasts for several days.

This week, I would like you to speak with a Chinese individual to find out how he or she celebrates the Chinese New Year in the US compared with the celebrations back home in China. There will be Chinese New Year celebrations in Des Moines, 11am-9pm, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009 at Valley High School, 3650 Woodland Ave, West Des Moines and I hope you will be able to attend.

http://www.cnsphoto.com/NewsPhoto/ViewNews.asp?type=6&ColumnID=7

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News Stories of China (中国新闻故事)

For the last blog entry of this semester, I would like you to choose one area that you are interested in from the news stories listed below and further explore the topic and share your findings with everybody.

News Story One:
Following the two offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, the Shanghai Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was established on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 in Shanghai. Knowing that there is now a US state bureau overseeing the food and drug industry in China, what will the impact be? Chinese people have been relying on Chinese traditional medicines and enjoy the convenience of purchasing medicines over the counter without seeing a doctor or having prescription, which is considered time and money saving. Will increased regulations be created and implemented resulted of the establishment the HHS and FDA? With the increasing living and medical expenses, what kind of impact will HHS and FDA bring to Chinese people’s daily life?

News Story Two:
Huangpu River (黄浦江), the mother river of Shanghai, divides Shanghai into two parts: east side and west side. The Bund  (外滩) area along the Huangpu River bank has become one of the most popular attractions for domestic and international tourists, with the European colonial stone architecture on one side and modern buildings across the river. The Shanghai World Financial Center on the east side of the river was named “the world’s best skyscraper this year by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a Chicago-based group of architects and engineers.” On the west side of the River, the famous Peace Hotel (和平饭店) with nearly 100 year-old history, is on the way of reconstruction. The Peace Hotel witnessed the change of history and Shanghai. Many Americans stationed in Shanghai during WWII still remember vividly that the Peace Hotel represented the luxury of the Old Shanghai, the Oriental Paris (东方巴黎) in the 1930s. I would like you explore the history and change of Shanghai through the architecture of the Peace Hotel.

News Story Three:
In November, world leaders gathered in the “hall of Washington’s National Building Museum for a major economic summit to address the urgent and quickly deepening global financial crisis.” Leaders from China, India, and Brazil were also in the group, which distinguished this meeting from previous ones where Europeans and Japanese normally participated. One month after the economic summit in Washington, the Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President George W. Bush met again and held talks on a series of major issues, including the increase in bilateral ties at the Asian-Pacific Economic

Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru. The Wall Street financial crisis in many ways has strengthened the ties between China and the US closer among all the global economic players for their common interests. What role will China play on the international financial and economic stage in the future? In what ways will economics tie China to the U.S. and affect their political relationship?

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/

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Economic Crisis (经济危机)

The global economy has brought mutual benefit to all its participants, however any crisis in that economy results in a chain reaction. For instance, even people in China are gradually feeling the crisis that brought on by the Wall Street (华尔街) financial crisis. Chinese industries such as finance, IT, and real estate were the first effected. Manufacturing companies are shutting down and the buying power of the Yuan has weakened. At the end of June 2008, 67 thousand manufacturing companies were shut down in China, and by September, 8.3 million people registered unemployment in cities alone.

Knowing the negative effects an economic crisis can bring to a society, the Chinese government announced today a stimulus package worth about 4 trillion yuan (570 billion U.S. dollars) that will be “spent over the next two years to finance programs in 10 major areas, such as low-income housing, rural infrastructure, water, electricity, transportation, the environment, technological innovation and rebuilding from several disasters, most notably the May 12 earthquake.” The government meanwhile will “loosen credit conditions, cut taxes and embark on a massive infrastructure spending program in a wide-ranging effort to offset adverse global economic conditions by boosting domestic demand.” Hongkong, the financial center of China, will also be fully supported and assisted by the government through the financial crisis.

This is not the only financial crisis during which the Chinese government stepped up to stablize its domestic market in recent history. Looking back, the 1997 Asian financial crisis (亚洲金融危机) happened only a decade ago (and severely damaged the economy and finance in most Asian countries), however, with the prompt plan, Chinese government was able to minimize the effect Asian financial by holding its currency steady.

Although China is still a communist country, as least in terms of one party rule, its economic model is actually a capitalist free market system with government regulation.

This week, I would like you to answer the following questions:

Is the capitalist economic model working under the communist political party leadership in China? Explain why or why not and describe its positive and negative effects.

Reviewing the Chinese stimulus package that includes low-income housing, rural infrastructure, water, electricity, transportation, the environment, technological innovation and rebuilding from several disasters, loosening credit conditions, cutting taxes and embarking on a massive infrastructure spending program in a wide-ranging effort to offset adverse global economic conditions by boosting domestic demand, what kind of effects will this bring to China? Are any of the plans suitable to, or could be adapted by the U.S. and why?

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-10-29/120216548971.shtml
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/09/content_10331324.htm

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With an increasingly open policy to the world, the number of Chinese people traveling in the country and overseas increases every year, and the number of international tourists to China also increased. According to the Chinese Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China, the number of domestic travels within the country was 1.6 billion, an 15.5% increase than last year, and the resulting revenue reached 777 billion RMB (119 billion dollars) in 2007.

Because of the Olympic Games, Beijing became the hottest destination for tourism during the golden week of this 2008 National Holiday—making it the first year for Beijing to surpass Shanghai. 2.35 millions people visited Beijing, and places like the Bird Nest Olympic Stadium became one of the most popular sites.

In September, the Chinese Tourism Administration announced that the Chinese government has decided to open North Korea as a new tourism destination for the Chinese tour groups and hopefully the first group can set off in Spring 2009. To travel to North Korea, the Chinese tourists must strictly follow the rules of the North Korean Customs: no cell phones allowed, no sexual pictures on newspapers and magazines, no objects with the US and South Korean national flag or national emblems allowed. Although the tourists are allowed to use cameras and MP3 players, the custom officers have the right to delete any undesirable pictures in the camera and fine the tourists. The entire trip in North Korea must be accompanied by designated North Korean officials, and any anti government comments and behaviors will not be tolerated.

For this week, I would like you to explore the relationship between China and Korea and answer the following questions:

Why would North Korea, a country has closed its door to the outside, particularly to the west, allows the Chinese tourists in?

Can the Chinese tourist program potentially affect the economic development of North Korea? If so, what significance can it bring in terms of bringing North Korea to the international stage?

What role has US been playing in the relationship between China and North Korea?

http://news.sina.com.cn/m/xwzk/index.html
http://www.chinatravel.com/facts/general-china/china-national-day.htm
http://www.cnta.gov.cn/html/2008-9/2008-9-10-11-35-98624.html

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