Chinese Culture (General)

Dear Anon, I believe, th Sung dynasty Chinese poetry and painting associates the horse with military greatness. The horse also symbolises courage and strength. The galloping horse represents engery, perserverance and speed. Thus overall, the hourse has many auspicous meanings and thus, featured widely even under the Sung dynasty. In fact, the horse, turned out to originate from the west and brought into China since as early as the Shang Dynasty period. Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, 1. In ancient China, camels were used as `workhorse' mainly to transport salt between China and Central Asia especially through the harsh Gobi desert. 2. Actually, the Chinese do not have a good impression of the camels as they considered it a lazy animal. 3. Only during one of the dynasties i.e. Tang that art and artwork on camels arise. Otherwise, it has always been an `uninteresting' animal as compared to the Dragon etc... Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, Yes, this is true based on Chinese Astrology, taking into consideration, a person's YEAR Chinese Astrology chart. Reference: http://www.geomancy.net/love/cdragon.htm Under the above link, where possible, pairings `best avoided' is between a dragon and dog:- "A mismatch. There is a serious clash of personalities. The problem is that both have strong characters and unyielding character. There must be compromises and sacrificies but it is hard to relate to each other and there will be no communication between the two and tempers will fly. There will be constant bickering and the relationship may be short-lived." Need to work real hard on the above relationship. Ge…

Dear Anon, 1. So far, if I can recall, no Chinese, who represent China has got a nobel prize. Anyway, I may be wrong about this. 2. One interesting thing to note thou is that in one of my books, I believe it was the Applied Feng Shui book, I mentioned that because of the Chinese hexagram or 8 x 8 combinations, one Nobel prize winner mentioned that he attributed his discovery to this: 2.1 This is where he jointly discovered the DNA structure which is based on 8 x 8 or the 64 hexagrams. 2.2 Another person said that the same 64 hexagram lead to the discovery of the binary numbers in computer language. 3. Chinese which has more than 4,000 year civilization, has quite an amazi…

Dear Anon, 1. Sharks fin soup is indeed a delicacy amongst the Chinese. 2. It is a tedious task to boil the sharks fins in broth until it becomes soft, yet `cruncy' (I hope I said this correctly). Sometimes, crap meat is added to the soup. 3. On other occassions, it comes concentrated with a `lump' of sharks fins. Depending on the quantity and restaurant, it can costs as much as US$30 or more for one small plate of this delicacy. 4. Usually, the restaurants buy the sharks fins in bulk and as they can easily be `kept' e.g. dried, they can be boiled whenever needed. Contrast this with the meat of sharks. Shark meat like other fish meat, need proper storage. 5. Sharks meat …

Dear Anon, 1. Yes, in a recent documentary on China, I saw that this is still popular especially in the rural areas. 2. The documentary includes how these simple kites were made. And even complex ones that looks like a dragon etc... 3. It is also interesting to note that glass is often pounded into fine grains of glass. `Glue' e.g. rice glue is used to coat the string with these fine grains of glass. Here, the kite owner would fly his/her kite close to another kite and try to pull or jerk the kite to `cut-it'. The action of the fine glass piece can easily cut another kite like a mini saw. This is considered `Kite fighting' and adds excitement to the activity for some peop…

Dear Anon, 1. Yes, this is quite true for some overly superstitious Chinese. 2. Not all Chinese belief in this but there are some who considered it inauspicious to use water from the bathroom. 3. Anyway, these are just a `small group' of Chinese. 4. In modern times, so long as the water comes from the tap, many fish lovers have instead, collected water from the rain or use tap water. But if tap water is used, the water is not immediately poured into the fish tank but kept for several days (in order for the flouride and other neutralising agents to settle). Some hobbist even purchase neutralising agents and add a few drops to the water to neutralise this. So that the wate…

Dear Anon, 1. Traditionally, it is common to find a pair of Lions guarding each side of a main entrance in China. 2. Here, many Chinese especially overseas Chinese have followed this belief and placed similar sets of lions on both sides of their main door. 3. One good example is the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, where you find two bronze statues on each side of the main entrance. 4. While in China, these statues are carved in stone. But since Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank is in the Banking area (Metal element) it thus use Metal (bronze) lions instead of stone ones. 5. Usually, these lion guardians are simply statues and serves more to give an impression (to human beings) rather …

Dear Anon, 1. Yes, indeed, this is a popular belief that a home should not have too many `holes'. 2. Most importantly, the frontage of the house should have windows and main door in the right proportion ie. the windows should not be extremely large. At the same time, if the main door has sliding glass panels, avoid opening all the panels. Some houses have both sliding panels and main door. Avoid opening the sliding panels if you can. 3. Under commonsense approach, it is best to avoid having too many windows. This is to avoid, an unsecured home e.g. attractive to a `cat burgler' especially if the house is a corner house or there is a forest behind the house. Warmest Regar…

Dear Anon, 1. So far, no mainland Chinese has been crowned in Miss World beauty pagent. 2. In Chinese cities e.g. Shanghai, there are beauty contests. Plus there are many Chinese models. There are Chinese "beauties". (However, it depends on the eye of the beholder). Warmest Regards, Cecil

In China, it is quite common to find children catch crickets in the autumn. These children will train the crickets for fighting. And in some cases, the prize for a winning cricket is an handsome reward of an animal. The cricket signifies `fighting spirit'. Thus, it is generally considered auspicious. But it is not necessary true that it should be given as a gift i.e. the real insect. For a piece of jewellery, it depends on marketing of the piece as it is not a well known `object'. Warmest Regards, Cecil

A comical look at Chinese Names and their `meaning'/`significance':- Anne Chang (in Mandarin) - dirty Anne Chin (in Mandarin) - keep quiet Faye Chen (in Mandarin) - dusty Carl Chng (in Hokkien) - buttock Monica Cheng (in Hokkien) - touching your buttocks Michael Tan (in Cantonese) - selling eggs Tommy Huang (in Mandarin) - Tang Ming Huang : Ming Dynasty's emperor Lucy Liaw (in Hokkien) - you are dead Judy Soo (in Malay) - lost in gamble Jane Tan (in Mandarin) - fried egg Suzie Leow (in Hokkien) - lost till death Henry Tan (in Hokkien) - let you wait Henry Mah (in Mandarin) - hate your mum=20 Corrine Tai (in Hokkien) - poor fellow Paul Chan (in Mandarin) - bankrupt Nelson …

To help better understand the relationship of Korea and China, here is another extract of Korea-China relations. Credit and Source: Britannica.com Yi Dynasty also called CHOSON DYNASTY, the last and longest-lived imperial dynasty (1392-1910) of Korea. Founded by General Yi Song-gye, who established the capital at Hanyang (present-day Seoul), the kingdom was named Choson after the state of the same name that had dominated the Korean peninsula in ancient times. But the regime is also frequently referred to as the Yi dynasty, after its ruling family. General Yi established close relationships with the neighbouring Ming dynasty (1368-1644) of China, which considered Korea a …

For those who are interested to find out what the `Fu' graphic illustration looks like, this link will show a picture of an upside down `Fu':- http://www.geomancy.net/on/about.htm

Dear Anon, 1. The most famous legend of the peach is its association with immortality. Here, the story is that the immortality peach ripens only every 1,000 years. Here, this tree stood in the famous Kun Lun mountains. On this day that the fruit ripened, the Goddess of Heavn invited immortals to her palace for a feast. On this day, the Monkey called Sun, wondered into the garden and ate the peach. He later became an immortal because of this. Thus, the peach is associated with longeivity. 2. The colour of the skin of the peach also brings to mind `peach blossom spring'. Here, it is compared to the skin of a young girl. Some people associate it with a flirting or easy to b…

There is this saying from ancient Chinese. Here goes:- That man is ruled by the numerology Eight: 1. At 8 months, we get our milk teeth. 2. At 8 years, we lose our milk teeth. 3. At double Eights (2 x 8 = 16) we become a man. 4. At 8 x 8 we age...and ... most of us wait for our turn... Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, 1. A `popular' painting is an eagle perched on a pine tree. This is considered a suitable gift for an elderly person: 1.1. the eagle represents strength. 1.2. the pine tree represents longevity. 2. Thus the significance of the painting is symbolic of strength and longevity for the elderly. 3. Given the above combined significance, it should not be considered inauspicious to keep `an eagle' inside that house because it is a predatory bird. Thus, with many books comes various opinions and on the final analysis, each of us have to form our own judgements. In my opinion, such a painting, with its combined significiance should not be considered inauspicious. In Eur…

Dear Anon, Fortunately or unfortunately, Chinese Valentine day is seldom known by the Chinese. I believe many Chinese are not aware that there is such a date especially the young. Often than not, if their parents do not celebrate an event, the child, from a young age to courtship age would have never known of it nor its existence. Thus, only commercialisation can create such an awareness. In Singapore, because of western influence and many of us study English, (ENGLISH) Valentine day is commercialised to the extent that restaurants, boutiques etc.. publish it widely. And fortunately, they will try to get a pie of the business. So, if one day, many companies start to pu…

Dear Anon, 1. In Singapore and Malaysia (which are close neigbhours), majority of the time the air is clean. On the government intervention: Most of the industries are highly regulated to ensure that they do not pollute the air or waterways. In Malaysia, `pollution' is isolated to factories or industrial areas. Malaysia is one of the largest rubber producers and if one smell latex before, it is pretty smelly. But the smell is confined to within a small radius within the factory or warehouse. 2. For Malaysia and Singapore, unfortunately because the two countries are close to its neighbour Indonesia, Indonesia is considered the biggest culprit. Its farmers do `slash and bu…

For those who have never visited Asia; in particular, Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia. It is worth the effort to try out the `King of Fruits' - The durian. The smell can be over powering until it is banned from Singapore Mass rapid transit stations, taxis etc.... For more information, here is one link:- http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~durian/ Warmest Regards, Cecil

This is article about a ghost and trees. I hope you find it interesting.

Dear Glyn, 1. From what I understand, it does not have anything to do with the planetary line up which occured on Friday. 2. The interesting thing is that it is once a year occurence in Korea. Frankly, I find it quite `scary' to stand at the centre or close to the middle. Although the tide will slowly recide, by imagine if water suddenly pours in and covers it up. Yes, I believe it happens only in a specific period and by chance, it occurred on that day. It may happen, a few days prior to it but this could not be predicted. One must be lucky to be there on the occurence. Warmest Regards, Cecil