Category: Chinese customs

Hemudu Site Museum

The Hemudu Site(河姆渡遗址 Hémǔdù yízhǐ) Museum is located in Hemudu Town, Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province. The site dates from the early Neolithic period in southern China. It covers forty thousand square meters and has a cultural layer that is a total of 3.7 meters in depth. Four separate cultural layers can be distinguished that, after calibrated carbon fourteen testing, date to between 7,000 and 3,500 years ago. In 1982, this site was declared a National Key Cultural Protected Unit.

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The Teahouse 茶馆

Today let's take a brief introduction of a famous Chinese movie named "The TeaThe movie The Teahouse was adapted from Lao She's play of the same name. Released in 1982 and directed by Xie Tian, it starred Yu Shizhi, Zheng Rong and Lan Tianye, etc. The story is set in a typical teahouse in Beijing. It depicts the sufferings and collapse of China in the 1920s. This movie won special award of the 3rd Golden Rooster Award(1983) and special award of Excellent Film Award by Ministry of Culture in 1982.

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Writings on Silk in Ancient China

In the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) and over a long period of time in ancient China, plain silk of various descriptions joined bamboo and wood slips as the material for writing or painting on. Silk(丝绸sīchóu) had advantages over the slips in that it was much lighter and could be cut in desired shapes and sizes and folded, the better to be kept and carried. But owing to its much greater cost, silk was never so popularly used as the slips.

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About Chinese Zodiac 中国的生肖

Shengxiao is an important part of Chinese traditional culture. The Chinese word "Shengxiao(生肖 shēngxiāo)",  better known in English as the Chinese Zodiac, is a scheme that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to a 12-year cycle. The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat, and the twelve zodiac signs are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The zodiac signs cycles continuously, and determines the animal or sign under which a person is born.

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Beijing Man Site

Zhoukoudian(周口店 Zhōukǒudiàn), 50 kilometers to the southwest of Beijing, is famous for discovering one of the origins of early man-Beijing man in a low hill called Dragon-Bone Mountain. And the site was declared an important National Cultural Protected Unit in 1961, and was listed as one of UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage Sites in 1987.

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Ancient Papermaking Tradition Preserved in China

Around 1800 years ago, during the Eastern Han Dynasty(25-220)of China, Cai Lun improved China's papermaking(造纸zàozhǐ) technique using bark and hemp. This then became one of the four great ancient inventions of China. Today, ancient papermaking has been replaced by modern means of production, but in some places in southwestern China's Guizhou Province, where many people of ethnic-minority groups live, this ancient technique is still practiced.

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Xinle Site Museum

In the northern part of the Huanggu District f Shenyang City, Liaoning Province there is a prehistoric culture museum called the Xinle Site Museum(新乐遗址博物馆 Xīnlè yízhǐ bówùguǎn). It is divided into northern and southern components: the southern has an exhibition hall for displaying cultural relics, while the northern is the actual archaeological site and is an important protected cultural property. The northern section covers an area of 22,500 square meters and preserves a large-scale primitive dwelling site by reproducing in open?air form ten dwellings from the Neolithic period, together with a simulated lifestyle of people living at that time.

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Cheongsam

Combining the elaborate elegance with unique elements of style, t he cheongsam(旗袍Q íp áo ) is a female dress with distinctive Chinese features and enjoys a growing popularity in the international world of high fashion.

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