24 Solar Terms

Life in China 2017: A Picture a Day, March 5 – As most people do, I grew up with four seasons separating each year. However, in China, and some other Asian countries, there are 24 solar terms that separate the year! These 24 Solar terms, called Jie Qi节气, originated thousands of years ago as a guide for farmers (maybe like the Western Farmers Almanac?), and are still used today. But, they are so much more than agricultural terms to the Chinese people! They offer insight on the weather, the best foods to eat during each time period, and a general guide to daily living.  For many of the terms, our office even sends out notices telling you what kind of weather to expect or even what foods you should eat for the best health during this period!  

Translations of the terms are: Spring Begins, The Rains, Insects Awaken, Vernal Equinox, Clear and Bright, Grain Rain are all in spring.
Summer Begins, Grain Buds, Grain in Ear, Summer Solstice, Slight Heat, Great Heat, are all in summer.
Autumn Begins, Stopping the Heat, White Dews, Autumn Equinox, Cold Dews, Hoar-Frost Falls are all in autumn.
Winter Begins, Light Snow, Heavy Snow, Winter Solstice, Slight Cold, Great Cold are all in winter.

Today, March 5th, 2017, is the 3rd solar term of the year, called Awakening of Insects (Chinese: Jing Zhe). Tradition says that hibernating animals (not just insects) are awakened by the spring thunder. Supposedly, if thunder happens before this date, you can expect unusual weather for the rest of the year! The picture is of some water striders we actually saw a couple of days ago; there were hundreds of them on the pond!

Here is a short YouTube video about the 24 solar terms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSfoDp_rglU

2017 Year of the Chicken/Rooster

Life in China 2017: A Picture a Day, January 20 –  On January 28, 2017, the Year of the Rooster/Chicken will begin. If you were born in 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, or 2005, then, according to the Chinese Zodiac you are a rooster or chicken! However, this isn’t as easy as just the year, as Chinese New Year, or the lunar new year, is on a different day each year. For a complete list of dates, look here: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/rooster.htm

For those who will be born in the upcoming year, 4714 of the Lunar Calendar, they will more specifically be “fire roosters” “or “red fire chickens.” In one place online, I read that according to more specific info, 2017 is actually a female, or chicken year. We are seeing a lot of roosters and chickens as we are out and about, although they don’t seem as plentiful as some of the other zodiac animals in previous years have been. My picture shows a live chicken from where we live, some rooster statues from a Spring Festival Flower Market, and lots of cute plush chickens from the display window of our local variety store. 

Couplets with Custom Calligraphy

Life in China 2017: A Picture a Day, January 14 –  The Chinese New Year preparations have started! Artists doing custom calligraphy are common at this time of year because people like to have custom couplets made to hang on their doorways. This man had a table set-up at our shopping plaza today and was making some couplets for a woman when I went past. I posted some information about couplets last year January 17, 2016. 

In the written Chinese characters, the words are very carefully chosen, as they have very specific guidelines, including that they rhyme, have the same number of characters on each side, and that the two must correspond to and complement each other. Some examples translated would be:

A wide sea lets fish jump; a high sky lets birds fly.

A mountain of books has a way and diligence is the path; the sea of learning has no end and hard work is the boat

Distance tests a horse's strength; time reveals a person's heart.

Smooth sailing with each year; success with each step.

Heaven adds time and people get older; spring fills the world and blessing fills the door.

Dougang Brackets

Life in China 2017: A Picture A Day, January 13 –  The use of dougong brackets goes back thousands of years in Chinese architecture. The word “dougong” literally means “cap and block.” They were/are a system of wooden interlocking pieces that gave the needed support because the walls were not load-bearing. They were layered under the wide eaves to support the load of the roof. The more important the building, the more layers of brackets. This system supposedly holds up very well in earthquakes, holding even when brick walls fall. They are credited as the reason so many ancient Chinese buildings lasted for so long. As time passed, methods changed some and the dougong brackets became more decorative and artistic. Today, you can still see beautiful, brightly colored dougong brackets on special buildings. These in the pictures are from the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou. You can see more pictures of the ones used at the Po Lin Monastery in my blog post here: http://www.myownchinesebrocade.com/travel/2017/1/12/big-buddha-and-ngong-ping

Door Studs and Knocker Bases

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, December 30 –  I posted a picture back on July 28th of Zoomorphic Animals used on the eaves of Chinese architecture, and told how the number used indicated rank in ancient China. Door Studs were another way that rank was indicated in ancient Chinese architecture. The pictured door was on a temple in Guilin. Being a temple, It has the highest number of studs found, which is 81 (9 rows of 9 studs). In modern times, door studs continue to be used as decoration, but originally they held on iron plates to strengthen the doors. Doors also often had, and many times still have, decorative knocker bases. The more important the building, the more elaborate the “pushou” or knocker base. They are usually found in the shape of one of the animals with special meaning in Chinese culture. These date back over 2000 years. As well as being decorative, they were functional as a knocker, and when the doors were closed, a lock could be fastened around the two rings. These two knockers were from the temple area in Ngong Ping, where we visited in Hong Kong last week. 

Chinese Ethnic Groups

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, December 29 – Westerners often think of “Chinese” people as all being part of one large group, but this isn’t true. There are actually 56 ethnic groups in China. The people we generally think of as “Chinese” are the Han Chinese, which make up the majority of the population. The other 55 minority groups only account for about 8.5% of the population. Many of these people look nothing like the Han Chinese. The village we stayed in for Christmas was home to many people of the Zhuang ethnic group, the largest of the ethnic minorities. The elderly women around the fire with Leah are Zhuang, you can see they wear a certain style of clothing. They were selling sweet potatoes, taro and eggs cooked over the fire. The ladies also worked as porters for the hotels, carrying peoples luggage in baskets strapped on their backs. The lady weaving is from a nearby village. She is one of the Yao ethnic minority. An interesting fact about these ladies is that they cut their hair when they are 18, but save it and continue regularly adding it in with their current hair. This lady had also cut her hair when she had her 2nd child, so she actually had two cut lengths of hair, (all the hair she grew in her life!) added to her current hair. Traditionally, their families were the only ones who saw them with their hair down, but, now you can pay them a few dollars in US money to take their hair down for you. They have a special way of putting it up and a specially shaped hat holds it in place. She was weaving cloth like the sleeves of her jacket. 

Christmas Eve Apples

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, December 20 – Christmas is NOT a legal holiday in China. It is acknowledged by many people, and of course the Christians in China celebrate the best they can, while working and going to school! Young Chinese people like the idea of celebrating Western holidays, even if they think differently about what they are celebrating, and stores in the bigger cities take advantage of selling Christmas decorations. China has also developed one of its own Christmas traditions: Giving apples on Christmas Eve. This came about because the word for apple, “pingguo,” sounds similar to “ping’an ye, ” which means “peaceful night.” The Chinese connect this to “Silent Night” which to them represents the Western Christmas Eve.  Stores sell special little boxes that apples can be given in on Christmas Eve. I’ve never tried to buy an apple on Christmas Eve, but supposedly the price goes way up because of the high demand. 

Santas and Roosters!

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, December 9 – Our local shopping plaza has just switched its decorations from Halloween to Christmas. And… along with the Santa Claus toys, the first roosters have appeared! Chinese New Year is very early next year, arriving on January 28th. 2017 will be the “Year of the Rooster,” so, it looks like in China, Santa will be sharing the spotlight with the rooster this holiday season :-) 

Chinese Paper-cuts

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, November 2 – When we were at the zoo on Monday, they had a display of Chinese paper-cut monkey designs; Remember, this is the year of the monkey in the Chinese zodiac. Chinese paper cutting is a folk art that can be traced back at least 1500 years, and is still very popular today. Paper-cuts are used as decorations and given as gifts for special occasions like weddings, birthdays, etc. During Chinese New Year celebrations, the “Fu” symbol, which I wrote about with the bat post a few days ago, is a really popular decoration. Paper-cuts are usually made from red paper, but there are also ones in many colors. Sometimes they are made by folding the paper and cutting it with scissors to get a repetitive design, and sometimes a pattern is laid flat over one or more pieces of paper and they are cut with s small knife. Paper-cuts can be extremely detailed! In China, you can often see various items decorated in ways to represent paper-cuts. In my picture, the upper left and lower right monkey designs are some from the zoo display, the upper right is a sale display from back in February at the Spring Festival Flower Market, and the lower left is a large paper-cut we have hanging in our picture window. Ours has “Fu” in the center (although it is backwards here because we hung it to be read correctly from outside), and the four characters at the top basically say “Peace and safety in the four seasons.” 

Bats - Fu

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, October 29 – Since it is time for Halloween, and bats are associated with Halloween in the Western world, I thought I’d write about bats in China. Unlike how bats are traditionally considered “scary” for Halloween, they are a symbol of good luck in Chinese culture. The Chinese characters for bat, 蝠 fú (pronounced “foo”), and good fortune 福 fú, are pronounced the same.  Quoting from online: “Often the bat is shown flying upside down because the character (dao 倒) for "upside-down" and the character (dao 到) meaning "to have arrived" are both pronounced dao (like “dow” rhyming with cow).  Therefore, if a person were to say "the bat is flying upside down" a listener could just as easily hear this as "happiness has arrived" which, of course, has a very auspicious connotation.” According to Feng Shui, two bats bring double happiness, and five bats represent the five blessings in Chinese culture: longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue and a natural death.  My pictures show bats on a tea cup and also on a complete tea set. The character written on the upper part of the cup is the “good fortune” 福 fú. Can you recognize it? Quote from http://primaltrek.com/impliedmeaning.html

Dragons

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, October 23 – I’m not sure how I’ve made it this far into the year without posting specifically about dragons! Dragons, called龙 long, are HUGE in China and there is no way I’ll cover everything there is to learn about them in this paragraph! Most importantly, dragons in China are GOOD, unlike dragons in Western lore that are/were mean, ferocious enemies. Chinese dragons are mainly symbols of power and good luck. They have a very different look than most Western dragons. They have NO wings (although they can fly) and they don’t breathe fire; They have scales like a fish, the mane of a lion, the claws of a hawk, a long tail like a snake, the antlers of a deer, the mouth of a bull, the beard of a catfish, the nose of a dog, and eyes like a shrimp! Legend says that the emperor was a direct descendant of the dragon. Legend also says that the Imperial dragon had 9 dragon sons; today, you can still recognize nine different specific dragons, used in different ways. The dragon is also one of the Chinese Zodiac animals, the only mythological one of the group. Long ago, the dragon symbol was only allowed to be used by the emperor, but, today dragon symbols are widely used as a decorative symbol. This large ornamental pillar with a dragon wrapped around it is located in the Dalingshan Town Square, in Dongguan. 

Misspelled Words

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, October 20 – Often in China you see misspelled words and think someone has made a big mistake, and sometimes they probably have, but, it’s often done on purpose. There are LOADS of fake or copied brands and products in China, and I was once told by a Chinese friend that companies will do this to protect themselves from copyright lawsuits. I guess it’s hard to really know when it’s a mistake and when it’s on purpose, either way, for the many Chinese people who don’t know English, it doesn’t really matter to them. It looks very similar, and in the case of this shirt we saw today, whether it says Snpooy” or “Snoopy,” the picture is something they recognize, so they buy it. Have you ever bought a shirt with something written in another language? Did you know for sure what it said? A few other misspellings we’ve seen are: Pink – Pnik, Nike – Mike, Adidas – Adides, Calvin Klein – Calein Klvin, and …. Samsung – Snmsang, Sansumg, and Sumsanc (all in a row at a phone store!) If you’ve been in China and saw some good ones, feel free to share in the comments. 

Moon Gate

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, October 11 – Moon gates are very old elements used in Chinese architecture and gardens. They can be indoor or outdoor and serve as a connection or transition between two places. Sometimes you actually have to step over a threshold, which adds even more emphasis to the concept of entering a new place. The full moon is “worshipped” in China, and considered a symbol of happiness. The moon gate represents the full moon rising and is therefore very inviting for people to pass through. Today we visited the Lingnan Museum of Fine Art and Keyuan Park and this moon gate was in a garden area between the two. We had planned to visit Keyuan Garden, a very well-known garden in Guangdong Province, but it was closed today :-( We will have to go back! I’m sure they have more moon gates in the garden! 

Rocks in Chinese Gardens

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 28 – The neccessary elements of a Chinese garden are: water, architecture, plants, and rocks. Often walls and winding paths are also included. Different types of rocks serve different purposes, but one of the most treasured types of rocks are unique limestone formations. The most famous gardens have rocks from a place called Tai Lake (Taihu), which is near Suzhou, where there are many famous classical gardens. This picture shows a limestone rock formation near the Lotus Pavilion in Songshan Lake. It looks like the Taihu rocks I’ve seen in Suzhou, but I really don’t know, I’m no rock expert! I included Leah in the picture so you could see the size of the rock. Rock formations like these are actually considered to be “sculptures.” There are also many smaller rocks of different kinds around the park, and also, all of the much smaller ones that make up the footpaths I posted a picture of back in May. It seems rocks in Chinese gardens are basically equivalent to flower plantings in Western gardens. We also have a specific Rock Garden near us. Here is a 5 minute video about a replica of a Classical Chinese garden in New York City. It tells a lot about the meaning of rocks in Chinese gardens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttb2UtMUbIU

Jade Cabbage

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 26 – Jade has been a highly sought after gemstone in China for thousands of years. It actually was first used for its hardness as tools before being used for its beauty. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says “You can put a price on gold, but jade is priceless.” I never knew much about jade (I still don’t really!) and when I came to China, I was surprised at all the colors of jade! I always associated it with green, but it can naturally be red, yellow, lavender, white, black, or green. There is a lot of jade jewelry in China, many ornaments and decorations, and even special jade markets. An interesting jade piece you see often is the jade cabbage. Chinese cabbage is called “bai cai,” which has the same sound (but different characters) as “bai cai” the words for “numerous wealth.” Thus, the jade cabbage is another good luck charm, put in your home or your business to bring in wealth. There is a famous jadeite cabbage statue in a museum in Taiwan, which also has a cricket and a katydid carved in it. There is an old poem where supposedly these insects represent having many children and grandchildren, so I’ve been told that there are often insects hidden in the carved cabbages (but I’ve never been able to find one!) The pictures are from various places around us where we’ve seen jade cabbages, and also an art print of the cabbage and insects. jade, cabbage, 

Herons

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 22 – Today we went for a bike ride and saw these three different types of herons all in one area. In Chinese culture, herons symbolize strength, purity, patience, and longevity. In Chinese, lu (loo), the word for heron, sounds similar to the word lu used for ‘path’ or ‘way’ (same as street). In Chinese art and poetry, herons are often shown or written about together with a lotus flower. This is because the word for lotus is ‘lian’ and it sounds the same as the word for ‘successive.’ So … the phrase, lù lián sheng, is a wish for good fortune, a positive future, or success in what you are doing. In Chinese legend, white herons were responsible for taking the souls of departed people to heaven, so the white heron represented the path to heaven. The pictures, starting with the top left, are the Little Egret (egrets are a type of heron), top right is the Great Egret, lower right is the Chinese Pond Heron (in non-breeding plumage), and the lower left is a painting I saw last year displayed at a small art gallery at Shenzhen University. In the painting, you can see the lotus flowers behind the heron. 

Moon Goddess and Moon Rabbit

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 13 – Although Western Culture traditionally has a “man in the moon,” did you know that China (and some other Asian countries) have a lady and a rabbit in/on the moon? Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival in China supposedly dates back more than 3000 years and although the legends vary slightly, the typical story is that Chang-e, now called the Moon Goddess, took either an elixir or pill of immortality and ended up making the moon her home. Her husband missed her so much that he gave sacrifices to her. Others soon followed, and starting worshipping the moon because of her, thus the beginning of the Mid-Autumn, or Moon Festival. In Chinese mythology (and many other cultures), there is also a rabbit, called the Moon Rabbit or the Jade Rabbit, who lives on the moon and makes elixirs for Chang-e with his pestle. So, you will often see them together in decorations for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Next time you look at the moon, see if you can find the Moon Rabbit and his pestle! Here is a short video of the more complete legend of Chang-e.

http://chinese4kids.net/the-legend-of-chang-e/

Today, Leah and I were in the ‘downtown’ Dongguan area and we passed this large display being set up. 

Toy Lanterns

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 12 – One of the traditions of the Mid-Autumn, or Chinese Moon Festival is for children to parade around carrying lanterns, under the full moon, on the festival night. Traditionally, these were handmade, often to look like animals or flowers, but today many can also be purchased ready-made. In addition to children carrying them, they can be hung in trees or around houses, some kinds are floated on water, and some are let loose to float skyward. The stores near us have many options for sale, from kits to make or decorate your own, basic paper accordion style lanterns, ones with modern day characters, and modern, plastic ones with flashing lights! Here are various lanterns we’ve seen for sale near us, as well as a couple pretty ones (with flowers and birds) that I bought for decorations :-)

Panda Statues

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 11 – Have you heard the good news that giant pandas have been taken off the world’s endangered animals list? We don’t live in the part of China where pandas are native, but we have some in the zoos around us, and they are very much a part of the Chinese culture. And right now our local shopping plaza seems to have been taken over by pandas! Balloons flying high above the buildings, and little 2 foot high statues all around the plaza, some wearing clothes, some with bikes, some playing sports, and some just sitting around! Planters have new covers with panda designs as well as panda decals on the upper level glass railings! There’s even a nice spot set-up for taking pictures :-)

Large Decorative Lanterns

Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, September 8 – One week from today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, so I’ll be posting some pictures for this holiday. While we were in Hong Kong on Tuesday, we walked through Victoria Park, and they were setting up a display of the large, colorful, modern style lanterns. There were so many that I loved: fish, turtles, penguins, elephants, llamas, rabbits, monkeys, ladybugs, the Monkey King, and other Chinese characters! I wish I could go back and see them all set up and glowing at night, but here are some pictures of getting ready for the holiday.