Have you ever wonder about the significance of the various vibrant festivals celebrated by the Chinese people every year, or why the Chinese eat with their Chopsticks? Or how did the intricate characters of their written language come to be? Ancient Chinese thinkers like Confucius and Sun-zi have left their mark on the Chinese Culture, but who were they? And with the Chinese cuisine that is available in Chinese restaurants all across the world, there's hardly any needs for introductions! Join us on a tour of the ancient and colourful Chinese culture in this part of this Montage Culture Series! First published in 2003, this book is in its 11th reprint in 2013. ISBN: 9789812293282 Page Count: 166 Year Published: 2003 Language: English

Have you ever wonder about the significance of the various vibrant festivals celebrated by the Chinese people every year, or why the Chinese eat with Chopsticks? How did the intricate characters of their written language come to be? Ancient Chinese thinkers like Confucius and Sun-zi have left their mark on the Chinese Culture, but who were they? And with the Chinese cuisine that is available in Chinese restaurants all across the world, there's hardly any needs for introductions! Join us on a tour of the ancient and colourful Chinese culture in this part of this Montage Culture Series!

There is more to the culture than what's cooking in the peroh rumah, or kitchen. For instance, have you ever wondered why they speak the way they do? And what is the big deal about cherki games? Why are they always singing the dondang sayang? And, more importantly, what does it mean to be a Peranakan?

A practical and accessible guide to an ancient but rapidly changing culture—now revised and updated Perfect for business, pleasure, or armchair travelers, China A to Z explains the customs, culture, and etiquette essential for any trip or for anyone wanting to understand this complex country. In one hundred brief, reader-friendly essays alphabetized by subject, this fully revised and updated edition provides a crash course in the etiquette and politics of contemporary China as well as the nation’s geography and venerable history. In it, readers will discover: · How the recently selected President and his advisors approach global relations · Why China is considered the fastest growing market for fashion and luxury goods · What you should bring when visiting a Chinese household · What’s hot in Chinese art · How recent scandals impact Chinese society From architecture and body language to Confucianism and feng shui, China A to Z offers accessible and authoritative information about China.

Gender, ethnicity, and nation in China, as seen through an ethnography of the changing cultural production of the Miao, a minority population.

Origins of Chinese Culture guides you through the perplexing maze of all things Chinese. Pick up interesting facts about the "Four Treasures of the Study"--the brush, ink, paper and inkstone--which form the cornerstone of Chinese culture. Be enthralled by the charming stories of Chinese icons: * Cao Cao, who hinted that he wanted a door widened just by writing a character on the door. * Shi Kuang, whose music was said to resurrect the dead. * Wu Daozi, who never completed his paintings for fear that they would come alive. You will be amazed by the wisdom and exquisite allure of Chinese culture, and be treated to insights into Chinese music, weiqi, xiangqi, calligraphy and painting!

D. R. Howland explores China’s representations of Japan in the changing world of the late nineteenth century and, in so doing, examines the cultural and social borders between the two neighbors. Looking at Chinese accounts of Japan written during the 1870s and 1880s, he undertakes an unprecedented analysis of the main genres the Chinese used to portray Japan—the travel diary, poetry, and the geographical treatise. In his discussion of the practice of “brushtalk,” in which Chinese scholars communicated with the Japanese by exchanging ideographs, Howland further shows how the Chinese viewed the communication of their language and its dominant modes—history and poetry—as the textual and cultural basis of a shared civilization between the two societies. With Japan’s decision in the 1870s to modernize and westernize, China’s relationship with Japan underwent a crucial change—one that resulted in its decisive separation from Chinese civilization and, according to Howland, a destabilization of China’s worldview. His examination of the ways in which Chinese perceptions of Japan altered in the 1880s reveals the crucial choice faced by the Chinese of whether to interact with Japan as “kin,” based on geographical proximity and the existence of common cultural threads, or as a “barbarian,” an alien force molded by European influence. By probing China’s poetic and expository modes of portraying Japan, Borders of Chinese Civilization exposes the changing world of the nineteenth century and China’s comprehension of it. This broadly appealing work will engage scholars in the fields of Asian studies, Chinese literature, history, and geography, as well as those interested in theoretical reflections on travel or modernism.

Bridging the traditional divide between East and West, the Eurasian people are able to draw on an unmatched wealth of traditions for inspiration in the arts and cuisine. Join us on a voyage of discovery as we explore the rich and unique heritage of a true world culture in this part of the Montage Culture series!

I take this book as an opportunity to share my knowledge of martial arts with you. A lot of people love Chinese kung fu because it has such a long history and rich philosophy behind it. There are so many different styles, and each is a very beautiful art. Each one has its unique fighting system and methods of training to improve balance and health. What is most important is to consistently train yourself to achieve a well-balanced mind and body. Making this your life’s goal allows you to gain wisdom and courage from all the obstacles and hardships you will endure. I have made this book very easy to understand, using a simple way of teaching beginners to grasp the necessary knowledge and train correctly. This should help you plan your kung fu training program, provide clarity to your sense of purpose, grow your martial arts wholesomely and virtuously, and build a solid foundation for your training. We also have online teaching courses that you can use alongside this book. Both of these will help you obtain the important basics of traditional Chinese martial arts and allow you to prosper in your kung fu journey with the proper mindset and understanding.

Through window displays, newspapers, soap operas, gay bars, and other public culture venues, Chinese citizens are negotiating what it means to be cosmopolitan citizens of the world, with appropriate needs, aspirations, and longings. Lisa Rofel argues that the creation of such “desiring subjects” is at the core of China’s contingent, piece-by-piece reconfiguration of its relationship to a post-socialist world. In a study at once ethnographic, historical, and theoretical, she contends that neoliberal subjectivities are created through the production of various desires—material, sexual, and affective—and that it is largely through their engagements with public culture that people in China are imagining and practicing appropriate desires for the post-Mao era. Drawing on her research over the past two decades among urban residents and rural migrants in Hangzhou and Beijing, Rofel analyzes the meanings that individuals attach to various public cultural phenomena and what their interpretations say about their understandings of post-socialist China and their roles within it. She locates the first broad-based public debate about post-Mao social changes in the passionate dialogues about the popular 1991 television soap opera Yearnings. She describes how the emergence of gay identities and practices in China reveals connections to a transnational network of lesbians and gay men at the same time that it brings urban/rural and class divisions to the fore. The 1999–2001 negotiations over China’s entry into the World Trade Organization; a controversial women’s museum; the ways that young single women portray their longings in relation to the privations they imagine their mothers experienced; adjudications of the limits of self-interest in court cases related to homoerotic desire, intellectual property, and consumer fraud—Rofel reveals all of these as sites where desiring subjects come into being.