The culture of meals in China

It is well known that China has a long time history, which brings us lots of food and culture related to food. Maybe, you can not think that eating is a serious activity, but actually in Chinese's eye there are many rules that you should follow in the dinning table.

Chinese food culture is more than 2,000 years. Yes, that long! According to historical records, 2500 years age, a ruler of a small state in China held a big event to celebrate a victory of a war. Of course, a big meal was necessary. He had a special product---a kind of soup cooked by his Personal Executive Chef. It was so yummy that no one had it would say bad words about the soup any more. Because it was a big event. He invited everyone contributed to victory to have his special soup. However, since everyone wants to try its taste, there were too many people to drink soup. One of the people did not get the soup in the end. In Chinese culture, people with the top position should eat firstly and the people with lowest position should eat lastly. The person who did not get the soup became so angry, since he thought he was treated with prejudice. He went to the bar, had some drinks and told the people in the bar that one day he would destroy this state. Finally, he really did it. He became an advisor of other state and destroy this "uneven" state by him. 

Chinese also have some interesting things which even can not be found in wikipedia. For example, maybe Chinese firstly invented bankruptcy protection in the world. Amazing? It's called "Big Piece Meat Meal"(I have not idea how to translate it). You may ask what relationship is between bankruptcy and meal. Don't worry. It is easy to understand. When a family of farmers in a small village is so poor that they can not meet their liability in more than 100 years. Then, when a highly respected person of the village sees their situation, the respected one may give them an idea:"Big Piece Meat Meal". The respected one invites all the family's creditors to the poor family's house. They kill a fat pig to make a "Big Piece Meat Meal"---big pieces of pork. The respected person usually does a speech before the meal. He will say :"As you can see, he is too poor to pay back your money. I, as a guarantee, hold this event. After this meal, you can take whatever you want in this house, but should follow two rules. One, do not destroy the house. Two, after taking the things you want, you have no debtorcreditor relationship with this family." Once creditors started eating, it gives the meaning that they agree with these rules and will no longer ask this poor family to pay back. As a cost, the poor family will consider to be the lowest level in the small village for a long time. How long it is? I have no idea. But I was told that if a person have a "Big Piece Meat Meal", his great great grandson, maybe a rich man, has no rights to come to others' wedding, if not be invited, in this village. 

Chinese Internet culture --- celebration for Singles Day

Do you know there is an "important" festival for young Chinese (mainlanders) this week? Even an expert of Chinese could not give the right answer. Because it is a new festival and only Chinese---- a part of Chinese celebrate it. But it sounds so "international" that I used to think American also celebrate it. It is on the 11th of Nov, Singles Day or Bachelors Day. The reason that 11.11 is the Singles Day is that 1 means single and there are a few of singles on the number of date which is the date with the most single lines of whole year. Moreover, bachelors also mean single lines or tubes in Chinese. Therefore, people use 11.11 as a represent of singles.

From its name, you can easily catch the main point of this festival, a day for Bachelors. However, I have to say that I have not figure out what is real meaning of the festival. From the Wikipedia, I found this festival started from 1990s, by 4 roommates (singles) in a university having a big party for themselves on 11.11. However, these beginners did not make a clear definition of this festival, so the meaning of this festival is various from person to person in China.

China is a developing countries. "Developing" means everything in China is changing over time, especially people's thoughts. The people with old ideas, like some parents, assume that people should get married as soon as possible. They always "fly around" young people who are simple and said something like:"Where, when could I see my grandchild?" or "To be a single one, or not? It is a command!" Their words to the younger without boyfriends or girlfriends,"Are you going to celebrating the Singles Day, this year?" is more like a kind of "irony," which means,"You are still a bachelor this year!" (Chinese talking wisdom)

To some singles, Singles Day is just their Black Friday. The words from relatives becomes nails to crucify them on the cross named "BACHELORS." As a result, some people choose 11.10, the day before Singles Day, to profess their hiding loves, just because they do not want to be singles on Singles Day. Some other people hold some parties for single boys and girls on Singles Day (They call the parties "Celebrating Singles Day") and some people may just come for trying their luck to avoid celebrating this festival next year.

However, there are still some people with different new ideas about this festival. Just like me, I am a single one, but I do not feel any uncomfortable to be a single. I even feel free, since I do not have to lift the packages, do not have to call someone at least once a day, and I do not have to be worried if I do not follow the rules setting by girls. (If you really love Chinese girls, be careful. They would be angry about you, maybe just due to one missing phone call). In my mind, Singles Day is a day to get-together with fellows and have fun to claim our freedom. By the way, there are still a group of people called FFF(Fire, Fire, Fire) on the Internet to celebrate this festival by a different way. In their eyes, the couples always throw flashbomb like the behavior of kissing in public. Therefore, once a couple posts their loves on online. They will just follow by "Fire," and some of the controllers of BBS may just blocks the couples to make this world "clean."

FFF

Unlike traditional festivals, the development of Singles Day is mainly due to new media----the Internet. When single ones make complaints about life, he or she may firstly post it online. Ma Yun, the CEO of Taobao, the biggest shopping platform online in China, saw the big market of Singles Day. He decided to use this new festival. He told the sellers on Taobao to have a 50% discount on some of their goods on Nov. 11th for 24 hours. He said that since we are all ones, not twos, why not enjoy shopping the goods with only one second discount. He is very smart, his decision lead to the photos on the right. There are so many packages shipping after Nov. 11th that people have to walk in the "sea" of package. One of his success is that he clearly saw the differences between traditional festivals and this new festival. For traditional culture, Chinese usually have a big meal with all their family members at traditional festival, so people do not have enough time to shop online. Singles Day is a festival only celebrate by youngsters online. Singes day is just a excuse to attract customers.

I feel so strange why Americans do not have any festivals for singles. There are so many singles on earth. They are a huge power of the world. In addition, I predict that 20 years later, most of the people in the world will accept this festival and maybe you and your children could have a fierce argument about how to celebrate this festival, because of the effect of the globalization.  

THINKING TOO MUCH----- I really do not like this

Why should people always think too much? Because the only difference between the people and animals is that people can think?

Ok, guys. I just want to complain about our essay--- it is so much, yes it tells me to think so much and I have to admit “I real dislike it!” Let me give you an example which is quite similar with this situation. Here is a question in the Chinese exam in China about reading:” why writer use the color “blue” to descript the curtain? “My answer may be due to the bad mood of the author at that time. Here is the “true” answer of the question: “The blue represent the melancholy. The writer used blue to express his dissatisfaction with the situation and helplessness since he cannot do anything to change it…..” However, the writer said that the only reason it was “blue” is that the curtain in his house is truly blue! There is not so many reason for the thing existing. Why Venus does not have arms? Researchers and artists have done many study on it and many of them have claimed that the reason Venus is beautiful is because it make disability become more beautiful. However, archaeologist found out Venus used to have her arms and they are just be destroyed. In my mind, the artists who always praise idea of Venus’s with no arms and even write millions of word to do researches on it are just thinking too much. The beauty of Venus always exists and will not disappear no matter she had arms or not. They just focuses too much on the “arms” and forget about her true beauty.

Same things happened on Christians and Darwin. Darwin claimed his theory of evolution and Christians became angry----“it is a kind of Denial of God!!!” As a result, there was great argument about the theory of evolution. In my mind, they just think too much. Darwin was fighting for his truth and Christians were fighting for God. If finally the theory of evolution is proved to be real, what will the Christians do? Do nothing changed. If in their mind the theory and God are all existing, then only thing can be proved is that this theory is created by the God, since God creates everything and it should include this theory. In the end, nothing will change. God is always there and will not be affected by Darwin. They just think too much.

Example from our own life is also easy to find. A girl toughing a boy’s hand accidently makes the boy think too much. A bad mood of the boss will make the employees think too much. A comment about China from CNN will make Chinese government think too much.

Let’s talk about this homework. A post ad with around 2,000words? What? What can we say? We are not the creators of those ad, what can we do? Just think too much. We can only use our imagination to make up some lie which is even unrelated. Maybe when we ask the creator of one ad about the meaning of the ad, he may just say because it is beautiful. YES. Just some kinds of feeling and inspiration creates many interesting things. There is not so much reason. These are no explanation of our lives and death. The universe is not built for a reason. We are just thinking too much and want to explain everything. Stop it. Humans do not have the right to definite everything and understand everything. If we do not think too much what will happen? Will we become common animals? No. Nothing will change. So, keep it and let it be.

What am I talking about? I am just thinking too much.

Fall

what is live? what is dead?

what is leaving? what is coming?

The white on the ground. The red in the sky.

The hot is leaving. The cool is coming. 

P&G's ad, the best job

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ywO8DR-5NY<= here is the advertisement for P&G, which is the best ad I have seen so far.

When I told Dr. Scott Sanders that I already found out the advertisement to write about, he just said,"Well, what I want you to write is just about the paper ad." and here is the change of my face:
from this (・∀・) to this(°□°；) to this （╯－＿－）╯╧╧, and finally became this (′・ω・`).
Therefore, I decided to talk about the ad I chose before Monday.

This 2-min-long ad is specially for the 2012 London Olympics. In the beginning, soothing piano song started with different languages for moms to waken their children in morning in different family. With the music becoming increasingly faster, their daily life starts. Different kinds of food shows on the screen, little bun(a traditional Chinese food, which my mom always used as my breakfast when in China), bread with beans, and bananas. The moms then sends their children for schools for different modes of transports, metro, bus and cars. The children do their daily practice or play with their peers with different sports, volleyball, swimming, balance beam, and running, while their mothers just sit in distance and watch their children quietly with smiles on their faces. Time passes, while the children have grown in their training, life, hurt, and small success. Their mothers just support them in their back, washing their clothes, do the dishes, comfort them when be hurt. When a little girl stands at  the balance beam and looks at her mom with little fear and excitement, music reach a its climax. With a beautiful forward somersault, the little girl suddenly becomes an adult dressing with America's shirt, which means she is now fighting in the 2012 Olympics Game. The little Chinese girl has become a swimmers and won the golden medal in the Olympics after hard training for several years, when her mom and family are sitting around the TV and celebrate her. The children in the video are all becoming a successful athletes and win the medal in 2012 Olympics Game. At this time, the pace of music and story becomes slow. The black youngster are kneeling on the runway and throw his mom a kiss. The girl are running to her mom and giving her mom a huge, so is the young fellow from Brazil. Although the Chinese girl could not meet her mom immediately, she still expresses her thank to her mom. Then, words appear on the screen," The hardest job in the world, is the best job in the world. Thank you, Mom."

People in the world have many differences, which always leads to conflicts in the world. However, the love of mom, the simplest love in the world , remains the same. "One world, one dream." This ad give another explanation of it. The dream that every mom to their child is the same. Every dream needs the support of mom. Thank you,mom.

China a civilization state rather than a nation state

China is really not a nation state, even though most of the Chinese governments in the past 200 years assumed it as a nation state, but it is not. The concept of Chinese to be Chinese, a group of people, was built in more than 3000 years even before the time of the birth of Jesus. What a amazing things! The Chinese have been all be Chinese for thousands of years, during the time when the European was breakdown(the fragmentation of the Holy Rome Empire) and never have been a whole ever since. Actually China is not always governed by the Han(most of the Chinese are) in the history, like Yuan dynasty and Qing dynasty. In the Yuan dynasty, millions of the Chinese were killed, but the China remained. At present, China is oldest country in the world since most of ancient civilizations were destroyed, like old India. The reason that the China can remain is due to its civilization---- a very distinctive notion of the family, social relationship "guanxi" and Confucian Values.

In fact, Qing who made the China become a whole is not a tradition Chinese. He is an ethnic from the main race in China Han. However, since his countries learnt Chinese culture and he weared Chinese clothes, so the leaders of other countries think his country is a part of China. When Chinese met other countries did not follow the rule of Chinese culture, the leaders of the country would conquer their lands or view them as enemies. Old Korea was learning for the China so in the ancient map of China, Korea was a land belong to the China.

Even though the dynasties are changed, the rulers were using the system of the countries created by Han. Throughout the increase in learning the culture of Han, those races would become a part of Han. For example, if you see a Chinese whose last name is Hu, his/her great great great great great great great great great may not a Han, but he or she is a Han in the Chinese id card.

The power of Internet

The Internet can make China get better 

People always wants to make our life better, but how? Throughout the Internet. Although China-net is controlled by the government, it still can be a threat to some officers in China.

One of the best examples is the accident in Wenzhou a city located in the southern part of China in 2011.In jury, two trains in China crashed and many Chinese lost their lives in this accident. Right after this train accident, the authorities wanted to cover up the fact and  even wanted to bury the trains. As a result, it angers the Chinese netizens. Many netizens posted almost 10 million criticisms, even though there are no negative news about the officers in the traditional public media. One year later, the rail officer was sentenced to jail for 10 years, which is never happened during the Chinese history. 

You know that in China you have no rights to gather in the street, even if you just want to celebrate winning a football game. People in China have no platform to speak what they need. Here comes the Inthernet. Right now there are more than 300 milion internet users in China. With the restriction of the public media (TV, radio, and newspapers), the Internet can provide more information to the Chinese. Nowadays, people in China usually choose to get information from the Internet rather than books or TV. Since there are many cheating "datas" in China. For instance, in Beijing because the weather forecast uses PM10 to measure the pollution, it still seems misty outside but the weather forcast may encourage people to exercise outside. If you see the PM2.5 measured by the US Embassy, it will tell you it is toxic outside. These different datas made the Chinese to think if they are "cheated" and made the government to really care about the problem of pollution.

The society of the China could not change immediately but the the changes really happened on the land of China due to the China-net. I am sure the Internet can make our life better.

Chinese Internet culture II "free Internet"

It seems to be a interesting  topic to talk about China? And I think there are some misconstruction about Chinese Internet, so I want to provide some other information about Chinese online culture.

As many of you have known, there two kinds of logic in the world. One is the logic and the other is Chinese logic. There are also two different kind of Internet on earth. One is the Internet, and the other is the China-net. In my last article, I say that the Chinese government has add many restrictions on the Internet and prevent the user to get the bad news about Party. You may think the China-net is like a dead land. But, actually it is not. It is much "free". 

"Free" means you do not need to pay money to get what you want. For instance, Music is free to download or listen online in China. Video and TV series are free to watch online in China. Most of the Android games are free to download! And there is even no taxes when you shopping online. It's free! You may say it is illegal or it is against the law! But it is a kind of legal thing in China at present. Let me explain to you. Why most of the Android games are free? You know that Google has quit the market of the China. So in China your Google play is not working. However, people can not live without game and the producers of the game want to earn the money. So they earn the money by adding advertisements in their apps. 

Advertisement! It is the key word how China-net works at present. The TV producers sell the right to broadcast their TV series to the particular websites to earn money. These websites earn money from their ad. 

The main reason is that the Chinese government do not have special laws to control the actions of sharing things online, which is just the model of P2P at first. Since the power of the market, some big websites want to benefit from "sharing". So they use ad. to earn their money. However, there are still many illegal sharing online in China. Like many American movies, you can watch Pacific Rim with 1080p online and these sharers and down loaders do not pay the money. Some producers of Japanese anime is much clever in this way. They know their product can not enter the Chinese market.(Actually there are more restriction on the physical products) So they sell the the rights to broadcast to Chinese websites and block the sites. 

Thanks you, Marx. Since there is no Internet at your time, Chinese government do not how to really control it. 

Let us tell about  Chinese mainland online culture I

If you have been to China , you must find that you can not log in facebook. That is it. Congratulation, you have find the mystery of Chinese mainland Internet-----the "Great Wall" online, which leads to special Internet culture in Chinese mainland.

In the north of China, ancestor empire  built a Great Wall to present the enemies from the north. At present the Chinese government also built a Great Wall, a firewall which is the biggest digital boundary in the whole world. This Great Firewall not only prevent the value of the west, but also let Chinese  citizens not to get access to the globe free Internet. In China, there are no facebook, no twitter and no youtobe.  You may think it is boring to live in the environment without such social network access.(A:It's killing people! ) But Chinese companies is not stupid. Since there is no facebook, Chinese companies copy its mode and become their own product. You may ask why Chinese government can allow the network access rather than facebook. The reason is simple the Chinese government wants to control the information online. How can it do it? Actually, it just control the company. Now, you may understand why facebook can not enter the Chinese market since the its server is based on the US.

There is another way to control the data that is bad for the Party and Government. Indeed, Chinese can not type the word of "Chinese government" and it will become ******. ALL the political  words or dirt words will become ****. But, Chinese are not stupid, either. We use some other words which sound like what we want to say to express our feeling like. For example, people use "Grass Mud Horse" as motherfucker. Even though, we do not dear to say bad words to the government since recently there is a Chinese news that if someone say bad words of other with no reasons which becomes hot online, this person who post the blog with bad words will be in jail.

That is Chinese Internet culture, living with data controlled by government. 

     Puella Magi Madoka Magica  (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ) is a Japanese anime produced in 2010, which is one of my favorite anime.

You may ask: “what this anime is about?” Well, it is about the life of magical girls. Have no ideas about “magical girls”?  Literally, it tells stories about young girls to use magical powers (from cute animals) to save the world. If you still cannot understand, here are some examples.

Sailor Moon, known in Japan as Pretty Soldier Sailormoon, is most famous anime in Magical girls genre. The story is about a cute little animal Luna (a black cat), who appears to a young girl Usagi, bestows on her magical power to defeat evil and save the world.

Card captor Sakura, also known as Card captor, tells a story focusing on Sakura Kinomoto, an elementary school student who discovers that she possesses magical powers after accidentally freeing a set of magical cards from the book they had been sealed in for years. She is then tasked with retrieving those cards in order to avoid an unknown catastrophe from befalling the world.

Now, let us come back to Madoka Magica.  It is about Madoka Kaname, an eighth grader who lived a peaceful life until she met a transfer student named Homura and saved a cute animal called QB.                                                      (QB→ →

So, in this vein you may think Madoka Magica is about a cute animal QB who appears to Maduka and gives her magical powers to fight the evil witches and saved the world.   Well, it is true, but it shows more than this.

It asks the some questions that others won’t mention. Like: Where does the QB come from?  What is its purpose?  Why it appears to Maduka? Where do the evil witches come from? Why do they become evil? What drives the young girls to make contracts to QB  to get the magical powers? And what is it that the girls have to give up to get the magical powers since nothing is ever free?

Everyone and everything serves a purpose and has a reason to be there. If you look carefully, you can find a lot of foreshadowing in the episodes. Each episode adds to arching storyline. The anime also makes people think about the problems in reality, like: the conflict of the ideal and the reality, the definition of justice, and etc.  

In all, it is definitely not for children, it is mature and worth thinking about it. Even though, it is not a happy ending in the end and most main characters do not achieve their aspersion, it is still an ending with “hope” which gives me great satisfaction. 

introduction of myself

The purpose of this article is to briefly introduce myself as an international student from China.  I am going to tell you about my background, character, and my goals.

Nanjing is my hometown, a large city located in the eastern part of China. Like Blacksburg, Nanjing is a beautiful place surrounding by green mountains and Qinghai River. People can go boating in spring, go climbing in summer, enjoy the lantern show in mid-autumn, and enjoy the fragrance of wintersweet in Chinese New Year with relatives and friends.  For this reason, I really look forward to living in the city with natural scenery, which, I think, is one of the reason that I chose to study in VT with bio-major.I have many hobbies: reading, Ping-Pong, chess, etc. My favorite one is Ping-Pong and I will never miss the chance to play it. (PS: I am also a big fan of Japanese anime, so do not feel weird if you find lots of Japanese anime comments in my blog. )Moreover, throughout this sport, I met some new foreign friends who also love table tennis in VT. Generally speaking, I am a little bit introverted. I may prefer reading alone to playing intense sports like basketball. However, I am open, modest, and honest person. It is easy for me to accept different opinions from others.

I think the main reason that I become an international student at VT is the effect from the people around me. My mother used to live in the countryside at her childhood. She often told me the experience when she became a college student in the metropolis. It was the first time for an 18-year-old girl to see the “outside world”.  Everything seemed new, magical, and wonderful in her discussion. My mother always told me that unless people stand on a higher step, they will never find more beautiful view of the world. She always encourage me to try new things, go to different place and learn from real life. Teachers from my high school were giving my motion to study aboard. My history teacher often satirized the teaching system in Chinese education; my geography teacher usually told us the interesting experience as an exchange scholar. Through the subtle influence of the teacher, and I even aspire to study abroad. I study here for another reason: an American friend, who has been one of the hokies for a long time and spent 4 years college life here, recommended to me. He gave praise to VT, his university. He said this university brought him many good memories. I was impressed by his words. In addition, I want to have precious memories in this university. I have great interest in nature, which made me chose biology as my major. (Actually, I already find some difficulty in studying bio lecture, tough words, and lab reports(QAQ). Because of this, you may find some complaint about these. Please do not mind it. )

In all, I really love this school and I hope I can graduate on time. Now, here I am. A biology freshman student who came all the way crosses half of the earth in VT campus.  I hope after four years of studying, I can use what I learn to contribute to the world. ( I have no ideas if it is too "large", since I have not decided my jobs after graduation.But I am willing to help others for free. [A: why you say "jobs"? I: well, maybe I will change my job often. who knows?])

Next week, maybe I will talk about the difference between American and Chinese or a comment of movie for Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  By the way, I find a interesting thing: when I typed the Magical Girl Madoka in Chinese in Google translation, it's immediately giving me the real English name of it rather than just translating it word by word. How smart the Google is!

introducing

THIS is  a blog, maybe containing several  things, like comment, thoughts and so on.