Chinese Culture (General)

Dear Anon, 1. Yes, the circular incense is quite huge. 2. There are several sizes available. The `smaller' ones burn for an hour or so. For the larger ones as seen in the picture, they burn around several hours. The time taken to burn depends also on the atmosphere. If it is hung outside and quite windy, it would burn much faster. 3. Usually, the temple guardians burn these candles. As they can be quite smoky, for this temple, it is burned outside the temple. Furthermore, this temple has quite a small and congested interior and not possible to burn so many incense inside the temple. It can become quite `smoky'. Actually, when I wrote the earlier message, I mentioned `lon…

Dear Anon, Usually, the traditional Goldsmith shops have the four types of gold. Actually, it has to do with the mixture of gold and their pureness that gives the gold different colours. Thus the `four types of gold'. This is a common practise of the Teochew dialect group. Warmest Regards, Cecil

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

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, 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…

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. 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

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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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, 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, The best example would be Taiwan. Many Chinese fled to Taiwan from mainland China after the near defeat of Nationalist Army defeat is a good example. For other overseas Chinese, in the past, prior to the Communist rule i.e. many Chinese wanted to seek better pastures overseas. Thus, many Chinese immigrated to neighbouring countries like Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in the hope of making money. Many Chinese, the poorer ones would make money and remit it to their loved ones in China especially in the 1800s to 1940s. Many Chinese are thus very successful in their adopted country. Majority of them control vast empires of commerce and the wholesale, middlema…

Dear Anon, 1. It should be `charcoal' instead of coal. 2. Usually, this is kept inside a built in cabinet e.g. in the kitchen together with the charocal stove indefinitely. (Especially for at least one year). Warmest Regards, Cecil

Dear Anon, 1. Not all overseas Chinese eat dog meat. Especially the `English' educated or if they are staying in a more affluent country away from China. 2. In Hong Kong, it is still common for Chinese to eat dogs. These dogs are specially breed to be slaughtered unlike pet dogs. If you do go to a Chinese food store, or those that do stock Chinese canned food, it is equally common to find `Rabbit's meat'. To some of us, rabbits are considered pets and no way we want to eat them. 3. Like sharks fins, abalone, some Chinese find it a delicacy to eat dog's meat. There are even some Chinese shows that `suggest' that when these people eat dog's meat, when they go near to dogs…

Dear Anon, 1. In my opinion, it is indeed very disappointing to reflect on the achievement of Chinese in China. Other than bringing `stability' to the country, I believe not much achievement is made especially since the Communist take-over. 2. However, if one objectively look at some of the achievements made by overseas Chinese, many overseas Chinese have contributed to the development of their `adopted' country abeit some of them (in my opinion) being discriminated in some of their adopted countries. In my opinion, these overseas Chinese have either contributed to scientific field and many are good in commerce. In commerce, many Chinese hold prominent positions and earn…

Dear Anon, 1. In my opinion, many Chinese even before learning English, have to learn `many languages'. 2. For example, take the case of a Chinese in Malaysia. Usually, the child picks up one or two Chinese dialects in their home. This is because more often, each parent may speak one or more dialect even before they go to school. 3. When the child goes to school, he/she has to learn e.g. English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin. Thus, imagine, a child this young has to grope with 5 languages! Each language has it own `gramma' etc... While in an `English' speaking country, one's mother tongue may be `English' and later on, the child gets to learn e.g. Spanish. In my opinion,…

Dear Anon, 1. It is very often to hear the phonetic sound of a word and relate it with being auspicious or inauspicious. It implies: "Hey, you want me to go `quickly' to my death is it?" Unfortunately, the pear in Mandarin is called `li' which can mean separation. 2. Thus it is inauspicious or considered inauspicious for married couples to cut pear in halves. Which symbolically implies separation. 3. There is some truth in what you have mentioned. 4. The Chinese dread the `7th month'. This is the month where it is said that ghosts are let free to roam on earth. It is far worse to give pears on the 15th day of the 7th month as it is said to bring more sadness to loved o…

Dear Anon, No, this is not true. China, does have its own commercial airlines. Like in the US, there are domestic, regional and international airlines. A few Chinese commercial airlines have offices in Singapore. In the past, it is quite `scary' to take their domestic flights because of the poor reputation of maintenance. Especially the poor safety. But things have improved today. For international flights, these are generaly safe as they conform to the International safety standards. Warmest Regards, Cecil