Chinese Culture

[iQing]

In the world the 3 largest civilisations are Chinese, European and Islam civilisation...
the interaction amongst cultures is complicated therefore we need to know moreabout each other in order to live in harmony...

Chinese culture is complex and interesting

one unique feature about chinese civilisation is that chinese civilisation exist the longest compare to other civilisation like rome, greeks etc.
it survives and maintain until today

let's share about the chinese culture...

u can start by discussing any aspect such as the language (ideogram, sound etc) , Fashion, Food, Philosophy etc.

I have read an interesting book by Adeline Yen Mah..
title Watching The Trees

the book covers a lot of aspects on chinese culture...

enjoy!

[Schye]

Koay teow and bihun is in hokkien(one of the chinese language)
Wonder if they are origin from China?

[wwhong]

chinese language is fascinating (at least for me). it's like you can more or less know the meaning of the word even you dunno how to read it or never saw it before. it's beautiful if you write it in caligraphy and it saves space, hehe....

maybe we can like create a forum when reaching chinese new year or mooncake festival or whatever to more or less let others know the reason we celebrate it and not only because we want ang pao and eat mooncake.

kuey teow and bee hun should be originated from china but have being modified to m'sian version. wan tan mee is also originated from hong kong but then we have dry one and they don't have.

[iQing]

Chinese Food

Chinese food has healing effect.. it's something called diet theraphy

it's tasty too... there are so many chinese cooking way and compare to French cousine, chinese food is more popular and healthy

[__earth]

it's tasty too...

no doubt!!!

[littlebigone]

healthy? I guess I won't have any worries the next time I order General Tso's chicken, mmmmmmm!!!!
:D

[silverblue]

I don't think you can generalize Chinese Food as having a healing effect. It really depends much on who cooks it and what kind of Chinese Food it is... as far as I know, every culture has its own 'healthy food'. Nowadays, Chinese Food (esp in America) is being so commercialized and on contrary, is known to be one of the more greasy and unhealthy foods around (as opposed to food like subways and sandwiches, but of course healthier than pizza or fast food la..)

I'd say that you can ONLY get healthy Chinese Food if it was home cooked... no msg and no excess oil/fats (to make it taste nicer)...

[iQing]

I agree that Chinese food is good...
it has lots of healthy philosophy in it..
such as no pouring away the soup... all the goodies are in it...

and the ying yang balance in chinese food stuff is good for us..

But one thing I'm not happy with some chinese food is that

some chinese eat wild animal, including those endangered species

they eat snake blood, scorpion, turtoise

and they eat them cruely.... eg eating monkey's brain when the monkey is still alive... something like what hannibal lector did on one of his victim in "Hannibal"

[Schye]

I am not sure if i am teh only one but i got an email sometime before which show that Chinese eats new borned babies 8O

Actually i think that Japanese food is more healthier , i mean they dont use that much of oil.The food are not sweet, not hot etc...
Although i cant get used to these tasteless food when i first reached here.But well, i have get used to it now.

To me,Chinese food is quite oily but i think those herb cuisines are healthy though.

[iQing]

Oooo... talking about Japanese... they seem to be like chinese but 2 cultures are very different..

talking about food, I see Chinese eats larger portion in a meal and Japanese dishes seem smaller

people say that
Chinese are better than Japanese individually
but Japanese are better than chinese collectively...

what do you think?
i heard stories where individual chinese are having a better chance of being successful in foreign soil compare to individual Japanese...
what do you think about it?

Hmmm...
it seems Japanese are good at making Cartoon and comics and chinese are better at making films.....

see ya guys..

[kelvinlym]

I'm getting hungry already

[soul_out]

i heard stories where individual chinese are having a better chance of being successful in foreign soil compare to individual Japanese...
what do you think about it?



Chinese definately have a better adaptability than any other ethnicity.

[screw3d]

i heard stories where individual chinese are having a better chance of being successful in foreign soil compare to individual Japanese...
what do you think about it?



Chinese definately have a better adaptability than any other ethnicity.

I would say this is a very biased view.. but I do agree that there are chinese people all over the world. I'm not surprised if you can find a dim sum shop somewhere in the middle of Norway or Greenland :P

[Liney]

i always wanted to ask the chinese about chinese funeral. The things I notice about chinese funeral are:

1. keep the decease for a week before burying him/her.

2. the noise they make (not the decease but the people around). My friend once told me the noise they make is to halau hantu...

I wonder what they are for...it is more culture or religion.....

I think are a lot more than that.....

[screw3d]

i always wanted to ask the chinese about chinese funeral. The things I notice about chinese funeral are:

1. keep the decease for a week before burying him/her.

2. the noise they make (not the decease but the people around). My friend once told me the noise they make is to halau hantu...

I wonder what they are for...it is more culture or religion.....

I think are a lot more than that.....

1. I think that's a matter of the family's preference. My grandma's funeral only took place over 3 days.

2. What noise and where and when? During funerals?

[laplace]

First of all, the duration of keeping the decease is depending on how many family members or relatives who have not visit them. For example, if the family members such as sons, daughters, "cucu" who stay quite far away from their hometown, they will keep the decease and wait until all the family members to come back and join in the funeral.

For the noise, actually they are singing. Chinese ppl believe that everyone has sin. When they pass away, they will be judge according to their sin before they die. So, those ppl singing (not singing the modern songs) some stories just to "hope" that this will lighten up the sin.

Some chinese ppl don't ask ppl to sing but they will try to invite some monks to pray for them (monks praying will make less noise). The singing style costs huge amount of money. One night singing normally will cost RM3000 - RM10000 or even more but for monks, they will not ask for money, how many night you want them to pray for the decease, they are willing to do for you. Normally the family will give an "ang pao" for those monks after the funeral, not much, each "ang pao" has about RM2 - RM10 only.

laplace..

[soul_out]

i always wanted to ask the chinese about chinese funeral. The things I notice about chinese funeral are:

1. keep the decease for a week before burying him/her.

2. the noise they make (not the decease but the people around). My friend once told me the noise they make is to halau hantu...

I wonder what they are for...it is more culture or religion.....

I think are a lot more than that.....

1. There are usually 3,5 or 7 days. The more days you keep, the more money you spend. It depends on the family how many days they wanna keep the decease.

2. It might be the praying sound as explained by laplace. It might still noisy at the funeral place in the middle of the night as members of the family are chit chatting among themselves or with visitors.

I think it's the mixing of the culture and religion. Majority of Chinese in Malaysia are influenced by the southern China culture (Hokkien, Teow Chew,Canton,Hakka and Hai Nam). Taoist will "sing songs" and have many more "events" whereas Buddist is more simple and will invite monks to pray for the decease.

[kelvinlym]

Wow! From food to dead people.

I like where this is heading :wink:

[screw3d]

Not to dismiss my own culture, but when I'm dead, I'd rather someone please just burn me and dump me in a longkang.

No I won't come back and haunt your ass :P

[topdog]

urmm...screwed, be careful what u wish for
:)

[luke]

uh, are you really screwed? it's not good to wish like that aaa ...

[Schye]

I prefer cremation as it wont cost much and they may use my ashes to grow a tree if they really want to remember me or they may just pour it somewhere but of course i hope it wont be LONGKANG as i dont want to meet screwed there... :twisted:

In fact i feel that the ceremony is a bit noisy too especially if it is held in the Taoism style.
About keeping the decease for a week, it depends on the condition of the decease and the belief of the family as some believe that the soul will come back on the 7th day.

[luke]

about keeping the deceased for a number of days, is there anything being used to keep the body fresh? I don't know much about biology (although I took one in SPM) but I think human body will start to rot in a few days .. so I wonder do you have something like "preservative" (I don't know if it's the right word ^_^0) used to delay decomposition ...

[laplace]

Normally for those who keep the decease less than 3 days, no special chemical is applied as on the 1st day, the coffin will be closed and the 2nd day it will be sealed by a kind of glue (dark color - ppl use to glue the water pipe). Besides using glue, they will use a long screw (about 4-7 inch) to lock the coffin cover.

For those who intend to keep the body more than 3 days, normally the coffin cover will have a small glass "window" on top, which will show the face of the decease. So, there is a special service, done by a certain chemical user to inject formalin on the face, neck, ear, nose, etc of the decease and this will help to maintain the original look of the decease until the 5th or 7th day.

But trust me, until the 5th days, you will see some abnormality and it is advisable to close the windows after the 5th day.

I am not the undertaker but I used to attend ppls' funeral since I was in primary school.

laplace..

[chenchow]

On how many days the bodies are kept, typically it would be depended on a person social status. Usually teenagers and those not-so-well-to-do family, will keep the bodies for 3 days. The cost would be lower, as food is catered over those few days and many other ceremonies.

Usually those elderly will be kept 5 days, as there would be a lot of their children, grandchildren, relatives that would come to pray.

Usually, 7-days or 9-days are only those who are very rich. Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew was kept for 7 or 9 days, I can't really recalled. Anita Mui was kept was something like 15 days. Her funeral is not yet done, I think some time next week.

[Liney]

Thank you for the explaination. I wasn't trying to offense the chinese by asking about the noise. Thatwas because I do not know what it was...for me it just sounded like noise.....but after your explaination, i know it was the singing I heard.....may be from the monk...sambil ketuk ketuk gendang or kayu or something.....some time in the middle of the night...all of sudden they did that.....that was when I asked one of my friends...and she said ....untuk halau hantu di tengah malam.....

I was in Penang for 7 years....and lived in an apartment near USM...there were a lot af chinese there...so, some time I observed them when they having a funeral...never been to one before...but i also had seen it in the cantonese movie i usually watch

Thanks again....

[Thirdshifter]

Mind my ignorance but what religion is that chen chow? I'm sure it's not buddha, or it might be buddha+Tradiational Chinese Religions.

Please educate me.

[jiinjoo]

I think the "noise" a.k.a. chanting is distinctly Taoist. They chant so that the spirit can go to heaven or something like that.

Another thing I know is that the longer you keep the body, the more "respect" you show to the person who's dead.

Buddhist keep the dead for some other reasons too. The best article I can find is this: http://www.buddhanet.net/bfuneral.htm

But always be warn, just like how Islam is sort of mixed up with local Malay adat, Chinese ancestrial worship, Buddhism, Taosim, and the various other traditions tends to get mixed up too. It is easy to say - let's refer to the Quran to seperate them, or Buddhist scriptures, but in practise, it is pretty "unnatural" (is there a better word?) to think of it that way. You just do what your family did (e.g. what your parents did on / will do during your grandparent's funeral will probably be how you will conduct your parent's funeral in the future).

[Mango_Soon]

Do you think that chinese culture is a burden? I'm glad that malaysia chinese are still proud with their chinese culture and thinkings. As I remembered, one of my colleague from China did ask me the reason why I still choose to burden up myself with the chinese culture that they discarded long time ago?

Let's have a look on the culture from chinese in CHINA now and see how "modern" it is. Again, a lady from China told me that the purpose of getting a husband is to have kids. Kids are belonged to them but not her husband. Taking care of her children is her responsibility but taking care of her husband. Husband is no longer important once you have kid(s).

Another example is a famous debatable article happened in Sinagpore that I read long time ago. There was a couple from China. The wife and two kids were staying in Singapore but the husband was working in Guang Dong. Due to the severe spreading of SARS, the husband decided to come back to S'pore as instructed by his company. When he reached his home, his wife closed the door and windows tightly and asked him to leave immediately. What do you think? Will you still let your family member to come into your house if he/she has just visited a SARS country? If you were the husband, how will you think about your wife?

This is an interesting topic, let's discuss about it...:)

[Mango_Soon]

Do you think that chinese culture is a burden? I'm glad that malaysia chinese are still proud with their chinese culture and thinkings. As I remembered, one of my colleague from China did ask me the reason why I still choose to burden up myself with the chinese culture that they discarded long time ago?

Let's have a look on the culture from chinese in CHINA now and see how "modern" it is. Again, a lady from China told me that the purpose of getting a husband is to have kids. Kids are belonged to them but not her husband. Taking care of her children is her responsibility but taking care of her husband. Husband is no longer important once you have kid(s).

Another example is a famous debatable article happened in Sinagpore that I read long time ago. There was a couple from China. The wife and two kids were staying in Singapore but the husband was working in Guang Dong. Due to the severe spreading of SARS, the husband decided to come back to S'pore as instructed by his company. When he reached his home, his wife closed the door and windows tightly and asked him to leave immediately. What do you think? Will you still let your family member to come into your house if he/she has just visited a SARS country? If you were the husband, how will you think about your wife?

This is an interesting topic, let's discuss about it...:)

[wawa]

Well, I think what she did was right. :D
She should have got him to stay in hotel until they're sure that he's SARS free..
I've read about sad cases where almost entire families are wiped out by SARS because they welcomed family members who came from SARS country..
She still has the children's safety to consider, rite? :wink:

[wawa]

Well, I think what she did was right. :D
She should have got him to stay in hotel until they're sure that he's SARS free..
I've read about sad cases where almost entire families are wiped out by SARS because they welcomed family members who came from SARS country..
She still has the children's safety to consider, rite? :wink:

[jiinjoo]

Weird combination of topics :) Let's take them apart? I'll do the first question.

Q. Do you think that chinese culture is a burden?
A. Instead of generalizing, I shall answer in a very specific context, which is whether Chinese in South East Asia, most notably in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia is a burden. To give more perspectives in Malaysia we can just peek at our neighbors.

Singapore is the odd one out in this respect. They are volunteerily giving up more and more of their roots, in favor of the modern outlook. The government had since tried to reverse the trend, most notably by enforcing this speak Chinese campaign in 79. In many parts of Singapore, being Chinese makes you better off, entering high levels of governance, military, etc.

Indonesia used to be on the other end of supression. No Chinese characters, no Chinese names, no Chinese schools, no Chinese cultural practices. Nothing. One country, one nation, one language. In exchange for stripping the Chinese of their culture, they were given leeway to control the economy. The rest is history. Just last year, they finally "reintroduce" Chinese culture. Finally you get to see temples in operation, lion dances, etc on the streets.

Thailand embraced democracy. But this says nothing about the 50 families that control the economy of the country. Not to the extend of Indonesia, Thais all have Thai names, they are predominantly buddhist so there is less of a clash in beliefs. Chinese can be in power (Thaksin is a Chinese), and most Chinese simply assimilate. Culturally, they are unique - and it has been many generations since they assimilate.

What does this tells us about the Chinese cultural burden in Malaysia? The Chinese in Malaysia are not in agreement on assimilation, some of our dirtiest political soap opera comes out of our Chinese practise in general. Yes we can avoid Indonesia's riots and our own May 13 by doing so, but at the same time we will not reach the Thailand stage where it doesn't matter. The Chinese are not out in the majority and the chances of this happening is extremely slim so Singapore's justification of continuously carrying your culture in hopes of better life doesn't fit the mold. If you see it in this light, then it is justifiable to say that carrying the Chinese culture has no future.

What about the other way round? Practising your culture in a multicultural setting freely with friends from other cultural background respecting you might be the best feeling ever! My own experiences says that having Malay and Indian friends coming over for Chinese New Year gatherings is very very valuable. I felt good because I served a number of my Malay friends "Yu Sang" last CNY. Maybe this is why Indo is reintroducing Chinese culture? (save the political ploy) But at the same time, the Chinese carry their culture out of routine and habit, rather than government coercion. Isn't this better than the Singapore story I just made? People actually feeling proud of what they do instead of people doing things that the government telling them it is good for them.

The last thing is about Thailand's way of carrying culture. I'm not sure if I can find any reason not to pursue it in Malaysia. Given a chance, I'd still like to see a multiracial Malaysia, doesn't have to be Meritocratic, but at least everyone stands a chance to be the leader. We shall see.

[jiinjoo]

Weird combination of topics :) Let's take them apart? I'll do the first question.

Q. Do you think that chinese culture is a burden?
A. Instead of generalizing, I shall answer in a very specific context, which is whether Chinese in South East Asia, most notably in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia is a burden. To give more perspectives in Malaysia we can just peek at our neighbors.

Singapore is the odd one out in this respect. They are volunteerily giving up more and more of their roots, in favor of the modern outlook. The government had since tried to reverse the trend, most notably by enforcing this speak Chinese campaign in 79. In many parts of Singapore, being Chinese makes you better off, entering high levels of governance, military, etc.

Indonesia used to be on the other end of supression. No Chinese characters, no Chinese names, no Chinese schools, no Chinese cultural practices. Nothing. One country, one nation, one language. In exchange for stripping the Chinese of their culture, they were given leeway to control the economy. The rest is history. Just last year, they finally "reintroduce" Chinese culture. Finally you get to see temples in operation, lion dances, etc on the streets.

Thailand embraced democracy. But this says nothing about the 50 families that control the economy of the country. Not to the extend of Indonesia, Thais all have Thai names, they are predominantly buddhist so there is less of a clash in beliefs. Chinese can be in power (Thaksin is a Chinese), and most Chinese simply assimilate. Culturally, they are unique - and it has been many generations since they assimilate.

What does this tells us about the Chinese cultural burden in Malaysia? The Chinese in Malaysia are not in agreement on assimilation, some of our dirtiest political soap opera comes out of our Chinese practise in general. Yes we can avoid Indonesia's riots and our own May 13 by doing so, but at the same time we will not reach the Thailand stage where it doesn't matter. The Chinese are not out in the majority and the chances of this happening is extremely slim so Singapore's justification of continuously carrying your culture in hopes of better life doesn't fit the mold. If you see it in this light, then it is justifiable to say that carrying the Chinese culture has no future.

What about the other way round? Practising your culture in a multicultural setting freely with friends from other cultural background respecting you might be the best feeling ever! My own experiences says that having Malay and Indian friends coming over for Chinese New Year gatherings is very very valuable. I felt good because I served a number of my Malay friends "Yu Sang" last CNY. Maybe this is why Indo is reintroducing Chinese culture? (save the political ploy) But at the same time, the Chinese carry their culture out of routine and habit, rather than government coercion. Isn't this better than the Singapore story I just made? People actually feeling proud of what they do instead of people doing things that the government telling them it is good for them.

The last thing is about Thailand's way of carrying culture. I'm not sure if I can find any reason not to pursue it in Malaysia. Given a chance, I'd still like to see a multiracial Malaysia, doesn't have to be Meritocratic, but at least everyone stands a chance to be the leader. We shall see.

[Cadence_hope]

I'm totally agreed with what luminodreamer89 had mentioned in the thread 'Chinese Articles to Share' which stated that the usage of a language is not to differentiate the people, but instead to bring us closer to understand and communicate with each other. Therefore, language should not be a barrier to explore the uniqueness of Chinese culture. :)

It seemed like there was a bit digression in the thread 'Chinese Articles to Share'. So I created this thread to enable every recom-er, regardless of race and religion, to discuss and understand more about the Chinese culture. All discussion should be in English. The topic 'Chinese culture' covers a very wide scope, which ranges from Chinese language, literature, music(opera), to martial arts(KungFu) and believes(Feng Shui, Yin Yang). Well maybe we won't touch so deeply in so many things. :P

I would like to give out some questions as kickstarts for discussion. How much do we, as a malaysian, know about Chinese culture(including Chinese language)? How many of them willing to learn Chinese culture although they are not growing up in Chinese speaking/learning environment? What do you think of those 'bananas'? (I'm sorry for using this word, no offense)

[nickvl]

An interesting thread....i think i'll touch on the banana-ness ....lol
These two groups exists...in school there are usually groups where some just speak mandarin and the other just English and they don't really mix socially...

I don't think xiang jiao-s (banana) are any less chinese...they just grew up in a different environment where ppl around them happen to speak English.

I grew up with my granparents and parents who spoke english...as a result i don't speak chinese (my mum sent me to learn chinese but i was a total failure..lol) but it doesn't make me less a chinese. I know most customs and traditions n i follow them (eg rolling tong yuen for winter solstice)....

Another thing...chinese-speaking ppl tend to think that english speaking chinese are usually christians...what do u think?

[Miracle_seed]

Another thing...chinese-speaking ppl tend to think that english speaking chinese are usually christians...what do u think?Because Christians are more predominant in English-speaking society than Chinese-speaking society? However I've seen some friends attending Chinese church too... And guess what? I think Penang has most number of Christians after Sarawak (Among Chinese).

[nickvl]

Because Christians are more predominant in English-speaking society than Chinese-speaking society? However I've seen some friends attending Chinese church too... And guess what? I think Penang has most number of Christians after Sarawak (Among Ghinese).

While it is true sometimes, it is a misconception because certain things are assumed before you eben get to know the person...

[yanno_yamster]

While it is true sometimes, it is a misconception because certain things are assumed before you eben get to know the person...

Yes, I agree. This has happened to me before. There was one person who was so surprised that I am a Buddhist instead of a Christian just because I speak English. And we know each other.

My case is almost like nickvl, but I do speak chinese with my grandparents (usually in cantonese). According to my friend, if you observe your surroundings in NS, you will notice there are mainly 4 groups of people: The malay speaking group, the Indian language speaking group, the chinese speaking group and lastly, the English speaking group... The so-called bananas seem to be indirectly treated as if they're outsiders... I don't know if this is true or not though, so correct me if I'm wrong.

[henry_yew]

The so-called bananas seem to be indirectly treated as if they're outsiders... I don't know if this is true or not though, so correct me if I'm wrong.

This happens as we speak or write in this forum. I know because I am English-educated and honestly, my main language is English. I speak Mandarin and I could still write a bit of Mandarin but nothing very advanced. I have often encountered situations where students who speak mainly in Mandarin would shy away from me. As I was a staunch English user back in school, I made very few friends from Chinese schools.

Now that I am in university, I can't help but feeling that in order to be easily accepted, it would be better if I start conversing with people in Mandarin. Those who are comfortable about using English with me would find that I am more than willing to use English in my daily conversations, while those who are more comfortable in using Mandarin would find that I am equally proficient in the language, although they may need to explain some more technical terms.

Recently my university had a Chinese orchestra performance where we had also invited four schools, three of which are Chinese schools, to perform with us, namely SMJK Hua Lian (Taiping), SMK Valdor (Penang), Chung Ling Private High School (Penang) and SMJK Keat Hwa (Alor Setar). Students from these schools are definitely more comfortable with me speaking to them in Mandarin. I have, in the past, used English to converse with my own orchestra members in front of the school students, and they have cynically passed remark about us university students speaking "difficult" English. However, the moment I used Mandarin in giving instructions, they are significantly more at ease. Of course, I would need to provide my instructions in English as well, as there are indeed "bananas" and non-Chinese members.

However things are not black and white all the while. There is always a grey area. You see, "bananas" are often referred to Chinese who do not know how to speak or read Mandarin, while "non-bananas" are, of course, Chinese who can speak and read Mandarin very well. But there are people who are always "in between things", like me. So what are the prospects for such people who are "in between things"? There are Chinese who can speak well in Mandarin and yet they do not know how to read a single Chinese word. There are Chinese who, like me, can speak and write in Mandarin but possess a limited vocabulary.

Those who do not know Mandarin may not have the interest to study about Chinese literature at all, but what about those "in between things"? People like me may have the intention to further understand Chinese literature but could not do so because of our poor command of Mandarin. Oftentimes it is not that we do not want to learn but rather the steep learning curve that we will need to face, especially at our age now. You will find that at this time, more effort would be put into your medical, engineering or other subjects rather than for picking up a new language, unless you take it as part of your university course.

P/S: The recent performance I put up in university really put my Mandarin to the test. We invited a soloist from Shanghai, and I had to correspond to her via e-mail about our programme, so I had to use Mandarin. Also, while corresponding with representatives from the secondary schools, I also used Mandarin and they sent me details of their performers in Mandarin, too. The worst part was that I was given the biography of the soloist in Mandarin and I had to translate it to English there and then, and my other friends were not around to help me! It was agony at first, then gradually I have got myself used to communicating in Mandarin even through SMS. I am particularly happy when I received a compliment from one of the Keat Hwa performers saying that my Mandarin has improved. :P:nuts:))

[luminodreamer89]

Chinese culture, such a hefty and vast topic to be talked about.

As you may see, cadence hope has listed some of them out above, like martial arts, chinese orchestra and believes.

Well, those could be just the surface of the whole culture. If we were to study the chinese culture, we have to start from the history and literature. It is very unique that for the chinese, the literature will always have a connection with the specific dynasty. (eg: The Three Kingdoms is a fiction written based on the historically famous Three Kingdoms dynasty, which is the backbone storyline for a movie in cinema months ago.)

We can actually reel back to the time during the governance of San Huang Wu Di (Three Kings and Five Emperors) and the earliest dynasties in the history, namely Xia, Shang and Zhou. Then, we have the War Countries and Spring and Autumn Eras. Many famous Chinese stories are based on these two eras. Soon, we have the notorious Shih Huang Ti who are believed to have buried the books and the scholars. The unbelievably long Great Wall of China was said to have started to be built on that dynasty, Qin, as well as the Terracotta which have been unearthed years ago.

Then, we have arrived in the Three Kingdoms Era. With the famous trio, Liu Bei, Shun Quan and Chao cao, we have witnessed a legacy in strategic wars and witty plans. Of course, not to forget the all-time brilliant adviser of Liu Bei, Zhu Ge Liang.

Soon after, Si Ma Yi from the Dynasty Wei (Chao cao) rose up to unite the three, and created the new dynasty, Jin.

We continued our journey to the last five dynasties, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing. These five have left us with many precious literatures and historical reference. Tang Dynasty is the dynasty which is the time line for the masterpiece-Journey to the West.

In Chinese, we have Tang Shi , Song Ci, Yuan Qu and Ming Yao. They are actually poems, and lyrics, but in different writing methods. Just like Malay pantun and sajak.

In Song Dynasty, we have these two famous patriotic poets, Yue Fei with his Man Jiang Hong and Wen Tian Xiang with his Chang Xiao Ge.

Yuan Dynasty is governed by Mongolians. The famous Genghis Khan conquered the whole China mainland, includes some European territories as well. Ming is started of with the riots lead by Zhu Yuan Zhang. And, when the Manchurian entered, it marked the end of Ming Dynasty, and the beginning of Qing Dynasty.

Qing Dynasty has the famous Opiums Wars, where Eight Countries Union attacked China, and it was also during that time when HK and Macau was forced to give out to the Westerners. When Shun Yat Sen's revolution was successful, the legacy of the thousand years' Emperor Governance System has come to an end.


(I typed this at about 2am. haha. I omitted some parts. Not that complete lar. U can get a detailed compilation of China history in wikipedia. This is meant to give a brief idea on the timeline.)

[Miracle_seed]

Since henry_yew wrote a long post on "banana", I would like to leave some comments. First, how would I classify a banana?
Full banana: Mandarin is an alien language to them, can't even understand Mandarin, or barely able to understand, I guess this type is rare.
Quite banana: Can understand simple Mandarin, but couldn't speak.
Half banana: Can understand fairly well, and have no problems in daily conversation, but couldn't read and write in Chinese.
Quarter banana: Can understand, speak, and read a simple Chinese article but couldn't write.
Non-banana: Can understand, speak, read and write.

I think it's okay to be a banana, many bananas didn't choose to be one, it's due to their parents' choice, or environment. However I think it's not okay to have the feeling of "proud to be a banana", showing no interest in Chinese at all, or even feel superior because he/she knows English but not Chinese.

I think bananas are quite discriminated in predominantly Mandarin speaking students society, if they don't speak a single word of Mandarin. However, I would say that it's more to "fear" than "dislike" in this case, because many students are not fluent in English and afraid or have no confidence to converse with bananas. Furthermore, bananas are frequently labeled as cocky, because the different type of education they went through. English-educated students are taught to be more confident, while Chinese education stresses on importance of humble. The confidence, in the Chinese-educated students' eyes turn into cocky, boastfulness etc... I guess both sides need some good communication and tolerance on this.

[youngyew]

Moderator Note: A redundant thread merged here.

By the way, I once wrote a blog article about this:
My Little Moments...: Of Chinese-Ed, English-Ed and the Many Kinds of Chinese (http://changyang1230.blogspot.com/2008/03/of-chinese-ed-english-ed-and-many-kinds.html)

[nickvl]

Since henry_yew wrote a long post on "banana", I would like to leave some comments. First, how would I classify a banana?
Full banana: Mandarin is an alien language to them, can't even understand Mandarin, or barely able to understand, I guess this type is rare.
Quite banana: Can understand simple Mandarin, but couldn't speak.
Half banana: Can understand fairly well, and have no problems in daily conversation, but couldn't read and write in Chinese.
Quarter banana: Can understand, speak, and read a simple Chinese article but couldn't write.
Non-banana: Can understand, speak, read and write.

I think it's okay to be a banana, many bananas didn't choose to be one, it's due to their parents' choice, or environment. However I think it's not okay to have the feeling of "proud to be a banana", showing no interest in Chinese at all, or even feel superior because he/she knows English but not Chinese.

I think bananas are quite discriminated in predominantly Mandarin speaking students society, if they don't speak a single word of Mandarin. However, I would say that it's more to "fear" than "dislike" in this case, because many students are not fluent in English and afraid or have no confidence to converse with bananas. Furthermore, bananas are frequently labeled as cocky, because the different type of education they went through. English-educated students are taught to be more confident, while Chinese education stresses on importance of humble. The confidence, in the Chinese-educated students' eyes turn into cocky, boastfulness etc... I guess both sides need some good communication and tolerance on this.


I certainly don't feel proud to be one...in fact it's a subject of total embarassment to me..in your ranking...i guess i would be 'quite banana and a fraction'...since i can speak simple sentences (though it takes a looong time for me to get it out)

i think i know why those chinese-speaking thinks bananas are cocky...especially when they speak to u in chinese u answer in english...they think you're too proud to speak mandarin..but sometimes it a case of misunderstanding. When a question is asked in chinese, the banana understands but cannot find the words in mandarin to reply and so replies in english instead. The bananas feels slighted when they start chattering in mandarin when they noe full well he/she is a banana... this where problems start and cliques then form...

What about those peranakan chinese...are they considered bananas since they dun know mandarin?

[yanno_yamster]

One Chinese tradition that I always love: Lion dance!!! :nod

[Keiko123]

Chinese traditions, countless.

Chinese culture and traditions, can read here (http://www.chinatownconnection.com/chinese_culture.htm).

[teddyen]

i'm probably around a quarter banana... though i can write some...
my case is more like henry_yew

because i was in chinese primary school was took up chinese until form3... but i've always been better in english than mandarin (academic-wise) and prefer to read english books rather than mandarin ones because of my limited vocabulary too...

my chinese started to go downhill ever since i leave std 6 due to lack of practice and i found it harder to remember how to write certain characters and all... i still can speak fluently enough but there are words, vocabulary that i don't know what it means and this was what made it difficult for me to communicate when i went to a trip to china recently (besides the different slang)

the mandarin i speak in daily life are just simple and basic mandarin with the addition and mix of english and malay = bahasa rojak
while the chinese in china uses more profound and accurate words, and the younger ones who have english education speaks better english than me (with an american slang too!)

so... i might consider relearning my mandarin... lol XD

btw, i'm not sure whether it's because there are many chinese who is banana in my school or anything, but i also drop chinese for spm and besides some teasing, my friends are fine with it. though the chinese-ed and eng-ed still stick together, we actually mix well and doesn't actually discriminate those who don't know chinese, probably cause most of us knows how to speak english as well~

[starlemon]

Chinese banana are more humble. They are willing to learn but sometimes the way they speak english make them sound so cocky, however,that is not case.They are willing to learn chinese too, they are not borned to have nile knowledge on mandarin language, but the will to learn make them to mingle well with other mandarin-edu friends.That is for my case.

[youngyew]

The whole thing about "banana" (or english-educated people to be precise) being cocky is often an ignorant generalisation due to lack of understanding. It's analogous to people saying Westerners being "annoying", "loud", "arrogant" and so on after seeing them in passing on a Malaysian street being loud, vocal and opinionated.

The fact is that we have very different cultures, the very Chinese-educated people tend to inherit the "Confucian" way of carrying oneself, namely subservience to authority, keeping thy dissent to thyself, making your brilliance unnoticed and hanging your head below the horizon at all times. On the other hand, Western culture tends to be quite the opposite of the above. Self-confidence should be exuded in social interaction, dissent is allowed or even encouraged, non-participation is anti-social. But often people don't empathise the difference in culture, and simply take the simple way out by interpreting and labelling others' behaviour from within the narrow lens of their own cultural upbringing.