6/29/2008
Joke: gas problem
5/29/2008
What's Green Timer?
Green Timer(URL: http://code.google.com/p/greentimer, Chinese name: 绿色报时器) is a little software that can notify you to do something, by displays a little message bolloon in the rightdown position of you screen. It can notity you to have a rest every one hours, or notify you to call a customer tomorrow morning.
So, you won't forget anything important now.
Green Timer aim at a good time managment habit for you. When you can arrange your time rightly, you will find out that your job turnning easy, and you may find that you can spend more time staying with your family. So we call it "Green Timer".
You can learn more of time managment by Green Timer in our wiki:
http://code.google.com/p/greentimer/wiki/GreenIdeal
more info:
Green Timer Download Page:
http://code.google.com/p/greentimer/downloads/list
User Forum:
(Google) http://groups.google.com/group/greentimer
(douban) http://www.douban.com/group/greentimer
Rational:
http://www.gtdlife.cn/
5/22/2008
A song of Chang-gan (The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter)
Today I saw a translation of "The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter", which is a famous poem of Li Bai. To my surprise, I cann't understand what is this poem saying. I planed to find the original Chinese version and at last I understand now: their are some misunderstand in the translation. It's funny, yes?
Here is a better version:
http://www.chinese-poems.com/lb1.html
Another translation:
A Trader's Wife
Li Bai
My forehead covered by my hair cut straight,
I played with flowers pluck'd before the gate.
On hobbyhorse you came upon the scene,
Around the well we played with plumes still green.
We lived, close neighbors on Riverside Lane,
Carefree and innocent, we children twain.
At fourteen years when I became your bride,
I'd often turn my bashful face aside.
Hanging my head, I'd look towards the wall,
A thousand times I'd not answer your call.
At fifteen years when I composed my brows,
To mix my dust with yours were my dear vows.
Rather than break faith, you declared you'd die.
Who knew I'd live alone in a tower high?
I was sixteen when you went far away,
Passing Three Gorges studded with rocks grey,
Where ships were wrecked when spring flood ran high,
Where gibbons' wails seemed coming from the sky.
Green moss now overgrows before our door,
Your footprints, hidden, can be seen no more.
Moss can't be swept away, so thick it grows,
And leaves fall early when the west wind blows.
The yellow butterflies in autumn pass
Two by two o'er our western garden grass.
This sight would break my heart and I'm afraid,
Sitting alone, my rosy cheeks would fade.
Oh, when are you to leave the Western land?
Do not forget to let me know beforehand!
I'll walk to meet you and not call it far
To go to Long Wind Sands or where you are.
长干行 |
作者: 李白 |
| 妾发初覆额，折花门前剧。 郎骑竹马来，绕床弄青梅。 同居长干里，两小无嫌猜。 十四为君妇，羞颜未尝开。 低头向暗壁，千唤不一回。 十五始展眉，愿同尘与灰。 常存抱柱信，岂上望夫台。 十六君远行，瞿塘滟�堆。 五月不可触，猿声天上哀。 门前迟行迹，一一生绿苔。 苔深不能扫，落叶秋风早。 八月蝴蝶黄，双飞西园草。 感此伤妾心，坐愁红颜老。 早晚下三巴，预将书报家。 相迎不道远，直至长风沙。 |
【按】全诗活泼动人，感情细腻，缠绵婉转；语言坦白，音节和谐；格调清新隽永，是诗歌艺术上品。尤其"青梅竹马""两小无猜"为千古佳语。 |
3/06/2008
Real China: Hukou System in China(ZT)
Hukou system is a society control mothod. It changed billions of people's life, in about 50 years.
The origin link of this article is: link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060610_hukou_system_in_china.htm, thanks to Jian shuo Wang.
Chinese translation of this article: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/cn/20080125_ceieaec.htm
Hukou System in China
It is not easy to realize how strange it is when you live in an existing system, but when you have the chance to talk with people from other countries, you realize the huge difference.
I enjoyed my talk with my great friends tonight, and we talked about the Resident Permit (Hokou) system in China. To be honest, I didn't feel it too strange before I explained it with my own mouth. After that, even I think it is not reasonable at all, and astonished to hear what came out of my own mouth. Let me explain it to you.
What is Hukou
Hukou is basically a resident permit given by the government of China. It is issued on family basis. Every family have a Hukou booklet that records information about the family members, including name, birth date, relationship with each other, marriage status (and with whom if married), address and your esmployer...
Everyone has a Hukou in China.
Hukou before 1980
Before 1980, Hukou is extremely important. People are required to stay at the small area they were born (where the Hukou is), and stay there until they die. They cannot move around. They can travel, but there is no access to job, public services, education, or even food in other places. It is just like visiting other places with a B-1 (business) type of visa - you can visit, but cannot work there (it is illegal), cannot go to school (not accepted), cannot go to hospital (without a hukou, you are not treated). For food, in those old days, you cannot buy food no matter how much money you have. You need to use Liangpiao (The currency for food) with money together to get food. Liangpiao is only issued by the government of the place your Hukou is registered. So basically, you can survive with the Liangpiao you get for some days, but not long (especially taken the consideration that Liangpiao issued by one province or city cannot be used in another province or city).
So basically, at that time, without Hukou, people cannot move. There are very few people move around in the country, but their status is practically the same as illegal immigrants in U.S.
To move Hukou from one place to other is very hard - just as hard as getting green card for U.S. It is even harder to move from rural area to city - basically, there are too types of Hukou, one is rural Hukou, and the other is city Hukou. To move from rural to rural is easier, but to move from rural to city is very hard - it takes years. Only in very few situations does the change happen: 1) You enter a university in city, or 2) You marriage someone in city. Both of the cases, you need to wait for a long period of time to get it. There is limited Hukou open every year, so you need to compete to get it.
Hukou after 1980
After the year of 1980, a lot of things change. In practice, Hukou is not enforced as strong as before. The starting point is that Liangpiao is not required to buy food - money along work. For work, there are still huge difference for people with a Hukou or without a Hukou (the same till today), but it is possible to move.
This made it possible for many immigrant workers to leave their land and go to cities to seek for labor-intensive work. Typical works are workers in texile factory, consitruction workers, and nannies. However, the education of their children is still a big problem. They cannot receive education as other children, so some places, they setup school only for people without Hukou (immigrant worker school). Personally, I feel it even bad than the old "black and white seperation" policy.
Today
Today, Hukou does not play that important role as before, but there are still a lot of difference. Here are some examples:
1) Medical Insurance. For example, people living in Shanghai without Shanghai Hukou are not covered by social medical insurance. If the person get ill, he/she needs to pay for it by him/herself. This is not a big deal though, since more and more commercial insurance can help on this.
2) Job. Many job only opens to people with Shanghai Hukou. This is some type of discrimination, but some employers have to do that because there are still difference by the regulation.
3) Safety. Guangzhou is an extreme case. Four years ago, when I visited Guangzhou, my friends told me to bring my national ID card with me at any time. Police may stop anyone at any time on the street to check the ID card. If they find the address of the ID card is not in Guangzhou, and the person don't have a temp resident permit, they have the right to detain the person and return him/her to their place of origin. This is the common practice in many cities. This regulation was abandoned as late as 2003, when a guy named Sun Zhigang was beaten to death during the detain period of time.
Hukou and Me
Hukou has a high impact for me. I didn't go to kindergarten in my whole life, since at the time I moved to city at the age of 5, I didn't get my Hukou yet. It took long time to get it, so the kindergarten refused to accept me. I stayed at home until I am 7 and got Hukou. If I didn't got Hukou at that time, the risk was, I could not even go to primary school. This is a real story.
From my primary school to the end of my high school (1982 - 1995), my Hukou is at Luoyang. When I entered Shanghai Jiaotong University, my Hukou was transferred temporarily to SJTU for four years. When I graduated, it was a critical period of time that I have to find a local high-tech job, and I was qualified for the limited number of open Hukou positions. The standards are high - you have to be in certain major, with good record, and hired by compaines in certain area. It works exactly as how immigration works in Canada or U.S. Back to my story, I obtained the Shanghai Hukou. Then I transferred my Hukou from the university to a place in Shanghai (I even don't know too clearly about what that place is). Only after I bought my own apartment three years later could I transfer my Hukou from that place to the address of my apartment. That is the long story. My current resident permit is at Shanghai, at my own apartment.
If I go to Beijing, I will have some trouble. According to the regulation, I need to obtain a temp resident permit in Beijing. The "temp resident permit" is a big step ahead from the original Hukou system, since at least, I can get something to proof I can legally stay in that city (v.s. previously there is no way to do that). However, it is still a very bad thing. People cannot help asking "Why I need to TEMPERARILY stay in my OWN country"?
Challenges it Brings
Although the current system is widely regarded as unfair and inhumane, I do see the challenge to remove this system. The benefits the government gives to people with different Hukou are so different, especially in city and village. I believe if it is abandoned, a short time chaos will happen - many people move from village to city, and from smaller city to larger cities. If it is not handled well, it will cause big problem. It is just the case like if all the borders in the world is opened and people can move freely from one country to the other over night, you can imagine what will happen.
How to solve this historical problem is a big challenge for this generation of people in China.
P.S. When we discussed about business, I said, in history, people in China don't move as frequent as in U.S., so the demand for selling and buying houses are not that big. People asks: "Why? Why people don't move". I said "Well. It is a long story to tell." You have seen the whole story here. Pretty long, isn't it? :-)
P.S.2. I drove to my friend's house in San Francisco tonight. It is 51 miles. It is hard to believe in China - to go to a place 82 km away for dinner and get back the same night? It is crazy.
Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at June 10, 2006 3:59 PM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060610_hukou_system_in_china.htm
2/20/2008
Xi'an: the captial of accent China(1)
Their are two cities in China that everyone who came to China must not miss. First is BeiJing, and the second is Xi'an.
I lived in South China(ShenZhen), but I have the opportunity to visit Xi'an several times. A lot of photos are taken. So I would write some articles to interduce it.
1.West Centre street of Xi'an
2/14/2008
Who's Jin Yong(Louis Cha)?
Who's Jin Yong?
[This article is mostly based on wikipedia]
1. general interduction
Jin Yong (Chinese: 金庸; pinyin: Jīn Yōng; Cantonese Yale: Gàm Yùhng), born February 6, 1924, pen name of Louis Cha (traditional Chinese: 查良�; simplified Chinese: 查良镛; pinyin: Zhā Liángyōng), OBE, is one of the most influential modern Chinese-language novelists. Co-founder of the Hong Kong daily Ming Pao, whom he started in 1959, he was the paper's first editor-in-chief and held this position until 1993, when he retired.
Cha's fiction, which are of the wuxia genre, has a widespread following in Chinese-speaking areas, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. His fifteen novels and short fiction composed between 1955 and 1972 earned him a reputation as one of the finest wuxia ("martial arts and chivalry") writer ever. He is currently the best-selling Chinese author alive; over 100 million copies of his works have been sold worldwide[1] (not including unknown number of bootleg copies)
Cha's works have been translated into Korean, English, Japanese, French, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Burmese and Thai and he has many fans abroad as well, thanks to the numerous adaptations of his works made into films, television series, and video games.
Asteroid 10930 Jin Yong (1998 CR2) is named after him.
2. WuXia works of Jin Yong
1. The Book and the Sword - T: ��恩仇� S: 书剑恩仇录 (first published on The New Evening Post in 1955)
2. Sword Stained with Royal Blood - T: 碧血� S: 碧血剑 (first published on Hong Kong Commercial Daily in 1956)
3. The Legend of the Condor Heroes - T: 射�英雄� S: 射雕英雄传 (first published on Hong Kong Commercial Daily in 1957)
4. Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain - T: 雪山�狐 S: 雪山飞狐 (first installment appeared on the first issue of Ming Pao in 1959)
5. The Return of the Condor Heroes - T: 神��� S: 神雕侠侣 (1959)
6. Other Tales of the Flying Fox - T: �狐外� S: 飞狐外传 (1960)
7. Swordswoman Riding West on White Horse T: 白��西� S: 白马啸西风 (first published on Ming Pao in 1961)
8. Blade-dance of the Two Lovers T: ��刀 S: 鸳鸯刀 (first published on Ming Pao in 1961)
9. Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre - T: 倚天屠�� S: 倚天屠龙记 (first published on Ming Pao in 1961)
10. A Deadly Secret - T: �城� S: 连城诀 (first published on Southeast Asia Weekly 《�南�周刊》in 1963)
11. Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils - T: 天�八部 S: 天龙八部 (1963)
12. Ode to Gallantry - T: �客行 S: 侠客行 (1965)
13. The Smiling, Proud Wanderer - 笑傲江湖 (first published on Ming Pao in 1967)
14. The Deer and the Cauldron - T: 鹿鼎� S: 鹿鼎记 (1969-1972)
15. Sword of the Yue Maiden - T: 越女� S: 越女剑 (1970)
After Jin Yong completed all his titles, it was discovered that the first characters of the first 14 titles can be joined together to form a couplet with 7 characters on each line:
Traditional Chinese:
�雪�天射白鹿
笑�神�倚碧�
Simplified Chinese:
飞雪连天射白鹿
笑书神侠倚碧鸳
Loose translation:
Shooting a white deer, snow flutters around the skies;
Smiling, [one] writes about the divine chivalrous one, leaning against bluish lovebirds (or lover)
3. Jinology
The study of Jin Yong's work has spun off an individual area of study and discussion: Jinology. For years, readers and critics have written works discussing, debating and analyzing his fictional world of martial arts; amongst the most famous are by Jin Yong's close friend and famous Chinese sci-fi novelist, Ni Kuang, who has written series of criticism analyzing the various personalities in his books.
Despite Jin Yong's popularity, some of his novels were banned outside Hong Kong due to political reasons. A number of them were outlawed in the People's Republic of China in the 1970s as they were thought to be satires of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution; others were banned in the Republic of China on Taiwan as they were thought to be in support of the Communist Party of China. None of these bans exists today, and Jin Yong's complete collection has been published multiple times in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. Many politicians on both sides of the Straits are known to be readers of his works; Deng Xiaoping, for example, was himself a well-known reader.
In late 2004, the People's Education Publishing House (人民教育出版社) of the People's Republic of China sparked off controversy by including an excerpt from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (天龙八部) in a new senior high school Chinese textbook. While some praised the inclusion of popular literature, others feared that the violence and unrealistic martial arts described in Jin Yong's work were unsuitable for high school students. At about the same time, Singapore's Ministry of Education announced a similar move for Chinese-learning students at secondary and junior college levels.
Cha has also been made an honorary professor by Peking University, Zhejiang University, Nankai University, Soochow University, Huaqiao University, National Tsing Hua University, Hong Kong University (Department of Chinese Studies), the University of British Columbia, and Sichuan University, as well as an honorary doctor by Hong Kong University (Department of Social Science), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Open University of Hong Kong, the University of British Columbia, Soka University and the University of Cambridge. He is also an Honorary Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford and Robinson College, Cambridge, and Wynflete Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
When receiving his honorary doctorate at the University of Cambridge, Cha expressed a wish to be a full-time student at Cambridge for 4 years to attain a non-honorary doctorate.
As of June 2007, Cha is still studying for his PhD in Oriental Studies (Chinese History) at St. John's College, Cambridge.
4. Characters in his novels
The "Five Supreme" martial artists (五�)
One of the most successful portrayal of characters in Jin Yong's works is the creation of the "Five Supreme" martial art practitioners in the Condor Heroes series. The quintet, which originally comprised Huang Yaoshi ("�邪"���) ("East Heretic"), Ouyang Feng of the West ("西毒"���) ("West Venom"), Duan Zhixing ("南帝"段智�) ("South Emperor"), Hong Qigong ("北丐"洪七公) ("North Beggar") and Wang Chongyang ("中神通"王重�) ("Central Divinity") in Condor Heroes after the first Duel of Hua Shan (�山��), proved to be both a source of controversies and a scene of drama as the story proceed through Condor Heroes into The Return of the Condor Heroes. The composition of the quintet was eventually updated to comprise Huang Yaoshi ("�邪"���) ("East Heretic"), Yang Guo ("西狂"��) ("West Obsession"), Yideng the Monk ("南僧"一�) ("South Monk"), Guo Jing ("北�"郭靖) ("North Hero") and Zhou Botong ("中�童"周伯通) ("Central Mischief").
Wang Chongyang (王重�) who was the winner of the Hua Shan duel was a true historical Taoist monk who founded the Quanzhen Sect of Taoism in the Song Dynasty to whom Jin Yong paid the highest accolade in being the winner of the champions in the Five Supremes who taught generations of heroes to follow, and in recognition of Taoism teachings in which many variants of the martial arts terminology in his novels have been derived from, in namesake if not in practice.
Dugu Qiu Bai (�孤求�)
Dugu Qiu Bai was given the nickname "Sword Devil" to reflect his skill and devotion in swordsmanship. Dugu Qiubai's surname, �孤, is a last name from a tribe in northern China. As individual words, the word �means single, and 孤 means alone. His name, 求�, means "seeking defeat". It is generally assumed that he gave this name to himself in his later years, when he could find no one to best him.
5. Patriotism, Jiang Hu and development on Hero-ism
Chinese nationalism or patriotism is a strong theme in Jin Yong's work. Throughout his books, Jin Yong places emphasis on the idea of Han Chinese self-determination and identity, and many of his novels are set in time periods when China proper was occupied or under the threat of occupation by northern peoples such as Khitans, Jurchens, Mongols, or Manchus. However, Jin Yong gradually evolved Chinese nationalism into an inclusionist concept which encompasses all present-day non-Han minorities. Jin Yong himself expresses a fierce admiration for positive traits of non-Han Chinese people, like the Mongols and Manchus. In The Legend of the Condor Heroes, for example, he casts Genghis Khan and his sons as capable and intelligent military leaders against the corrupt and ineffective bureaucrats of the Han Chinese Song Dynasty.
Jin Yong's books references ranging from Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, wushu, music, calligraphy, weiqi, tea culture, philosophical thoughts like Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and imperial Chinese history. Historical figures often intermingle with fictional ones, making it difficult for the layperson to distinguish which is which ― a feature that attests to the believability of his characters.
His works show a great amount of respect and approval for traditional Chinese values, especially Confucian ideals such as the proper relationship between empire and subject, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, and (particularly strongly, due to the wuxia nature of his novels), between master and disciple, and fellow disciples. However, he also questions the validity of these values in the face of a modern society, such as ostracism experienced by his two main characters ― Yang Guo's romantic relationship with his martial arts master Xiaolongnü (which was considered highly improper) in The Return of the Condor Heroes. Jin Yong also places a great amount of emphasis on traditional values such as face and honour.
Jin Yong breaks all the rules down in his final work The Deer and the Cauldron, where Wei Xiaobao is a bastard brothel boy who is greedy, lazy, and utterly disdainful of traditional rules of propriety. In his fourteen other serials, the protagonists or the heroes were explored meticulously in various aspects of their relationships with their masters, their immediate kins and relatives, and with their suitors or spouses. With the exception of Wei XiaoBao, all the heroes have acquired and attained the zenith in martial arts, most would be epitome or embodiment of the traditional Chinese values in words or deeds, i.e. virtuous, honourable, respectable, gentlemenly, responsible, patriotic and so forth.
In The Deer and the Cauldron, Cha intentionally created an anticlimax and an anti-Hero in Wei Xiaobao who possesses none of the desirable traditional values and no knowledge in any form of martial arts, and depends on a protective vest made of alloy to absorb full-frontal attack when in trouble, and a knife that can cut through anything. Wei was a street wise womanising weasel in short, with no admirable qualities whatsoever. One of Cha's contemporaneous fiction writer Ngai Hong or Ni Kuang wrote a connected critique to all of Cha work and concluded that Cha culminated his work with The Deer and the Cauldron as a satire to his earlier work, and a reminder to the readers for a reality check.
6. Jin Yong in English
In the last few years, Jin Yong's novels have been translated into English. The books currently available are:
* The Book and the Sword (��恩仇�) - published by Oxford University Press, translated by Graham Earnshaw, edited by John Minford and Rachel May
* The Deer and the Cauldron (鹿鼎�) (in three volumes) - published by Oxford University Press, translated by John Minford
* The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射�英雄�) - forthcoming from John Minford and Oxford University Press (This project was abandoned a few years ago.)
* Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain (雪山�狐) - published by the China University Press, translated by Olivia Mok
Other works available in English include:
* Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (倚天屠��) - in comic book form by Wing Shing Ma, published by ComicsOne
* The Legendary Couple (神���) - in comic book form by Tony Wong, published by ComicsOne
* Laughing in the Wind (笑傲江湖) - DVD collection of the 2001 CCTV series with English subtitles released in the United States.
You can find some translation of his works by his fans in following website:
Legend Of The Condor Heroes - Jin Yong
Yitian Sword, Tulong Saber Book 4
Smiling Proud Wanderer Chapter 36-40
7. Adaptations
There are more than sixty TV series and films adapted from Jin Yong's novel. Dozens of role-playing games are based on Jin Yong's novels, a notable example of which is Heroes of Jin Yong (金庸群��), which was based on the major characters in Jin Yong's novels.
china history chronicle
| | Mao ZeDong, Deng XiaoPing, Louis Cha |
| | Jiang JieShi, Lu Xun |
| | The Most Famous Chinese Classic Novel: A Dream of Red Mansions |
| | Great Classic Novel: Journey to the West Historical Literature: Three Kingdoms |
| | Yuan Poems |
| | |
| | |
| ---- Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279) ---- Northern Song Dynasty (960 - 1127) | Water Margin, or Outlaws of Margin |
| | |
| | Tang Poems people: li bai, Du Fu |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Cao Cao |
| ---- Eastern Han (25 - 220) ---- Western Han (206 BC - 23 AD) | Wu Emporor, Sima Qian, Su Wu, Zhang Qian |
| | <=== 1st Emperior who united China Qin Shi Huang |
| ---- E. Zhou Dynasty (770 BC - 221 BC) ---- W. Zhou Dynasty (1066 BC - 711 BC) | The Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean |
| |
Chinese, China Today :spring festival
Chinese Spring Festival | |
| source: China.org.cn | |
|
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees. 
On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko. 
Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners' wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance. 
Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room. 2/09/2008
China New Year - Spring Festival
Yes, you may known the answer: Spring Festival(春节, chun1 jie2), you can call it Chinese New Year also.
You may kown it, cause the bbc may told you:
Snow delays Chinese return home for Spring Festival by Steph Ball
China has been left reeling this week, struggling to cope with the deluge of snow and rain which has hit the length and breadth of the country. The snow has blighted the journey for millions as they return home to celebrate the "Spring Festival"...
In Spring Festival, when people meet, they will say "gong xi fa cai" to each other(恭喜发财, gong1 xi2 fa1 cai 2, which means: you will be happy, for you will get lots of money! It's funny, yes?)
In Chinese, "get lots of money" is "发"(fa1), which means flower is openning too.
So that is why I sent you the picture above.
The flowing is bloomimg. The metaphor is a best wishes for you: Happy new year! You will be rich!
Fwd: 看到的人都��
��特�的花ㄧ定要寄�你们， 希望大家在未�的日子都走好�
�就是仙人掌 (cactus)�花 !!
Yes, you may known the answer: Spring Festival(春节, chun1 jie2), you can call it Chinese New Year also.
You may kown it, cause the BBC may told you:Snow delays Chinese return home for Spring Festival by Steph Ball
China has been left reeling this week, struggling to cope with the deluge of snow and rain which has hit the length and breadth of the country. The snow has blighted the journey for millions as they return home to celebrate the "Spring Festival"...
I will tell you why millions of people would be blighted next day.
In Spring Festival, when people meet, they will say "gong xi fa cai" to each other(恭喜发财, gong1 xi2 fa1 cai 2, which means: you will be happy, for you will get lots of money! It's funny, yes?)
In Chinese, "get lots of money" is "发"(fa1), which means flower is openning too.
So that is why I sent you the picture above.
The flowing is bloomimg. The metaphor is a best wishes for you: Happy new year! You will be rich!
What is China, moon and flower?
the Moon in the water, and the flower in the mirror
(in Chinese:镜花水月，pingyin:jing4 hua1 shui3 yue4）
Sounds nice?
But it's use to description the kind of things that looks nice, but not true; or the things that you have try hardly to get, but false at last.
Not a good word, right? But don't you think that it's a beautiful word?
Actually, this word is first appeared in Chinese Buddhism books. The Buddha told us that everything is not exist. Everything you are longing for, would destroy and disppare; and at last, youself will be dead and disppared too.
So, it's a sad and beautiful world.
All the Chinese Articles are like these: saddly,but beautifully.
If you understand it, you can understand China.
This why I named my blog: China, moon and flower.
I living in China, Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a beautiful city in South China, lying next to HongKong. As the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games come closer and closer, I find that lots of Foreigners show great interest at my country. What is more, I find that their are so many misunderstand around my country. So, I decided to write this blog, to interduce China to so many friends in other countries.
My English is not so well. Writing articles in English is hard to me, but I'll try my best. If you find any problems in the article, tell me please.
And the most important is: if you have any problem in China, tell me at once, I'll write the answer in my blog.
