Category: Chinese Culture

Local music of Shanghai

The Traditional Shanghai music diversifies(when an organization or person diversifies into other things, or diversifies their range of something, they increase the variety of things that they do or make) in variety: based on an abundance of folk ballads(a long song or poem which tells a story in simple language) and operas, the music has blended in folk wisdoms, displaying a flourishing scene of "all flowers blossoming"(百花齐放băihuā-qífàng).

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Oatmeal tabbouleh of China

This is a good tabbouleh(塔博勒色拉Tǎbólè sèlā) alternative for those of you who can't tolerate wheat, though you must seek out a brand of steel-cut oats that has been processed in a gluten-free facility if you need to avoid gluten(gluten is a substance found in cereal grains such as wheat).

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Muxi Pork

Wash the wood ears(木耳mùěr) and drain. Soak the golden needles in warm water for five minutes. Drain and cut crosswise(crosswise means diagonally across something) into halves. Set aside.

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Mung bean 绿豆

Speculators have driven up the price of mung beans, popular for their medicinal value. Li Shizhen(李时珍 Lǐ Shízhēn), a pharmacologist in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), identified medical functions of mung beans and recorded them in "Ben Cao Gang Mu" ("Compendium of Materia Medica"), a classic of TCM pharmacopoeia.

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Liangzhu Culture

It is a kind of Neolithic culture located in the northern Zhejiang province and the southern coastal areas of Jiangsu province. It is discovered first in the Liangzhu Township, Hangzhou, Zhejiang in 1931, therefore the similar discoveries afterwards near the site is all together called Liangzhu Culture. With the exquisitely made stone farming tools and the finely polished and regular pottery wares, the period witnessed a quite developed agriculture production. Two species of rice namely japonica rice and indica rice, horsebean and peanuts etc. can be found at that time.

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Acrobatics in Tang Dynasty

300-year period in Chinese history from the Wei and Jin Dynasty (220-420) to the Southern and Northern Dynasty(386-581), witnessed great social turmoil(state of confusion, disorder, uncertainty, or great anxiety) and an intensive cultural amalgamation(verschmelzen;fusionner) amongst various ethnic groups. The Sui Dynasty (581-618) unified China in 589, and Chinese acrobatics reached maturity, becoming a popular performing art with both the rulers and common people during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Acrobats often performed with court singers and dancers in the royal palace.

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