Monday, March 8, 2010

Work Thus Far...



The work and information that I've received thus far was obtained from the following sites:






I found these sites very enlightening and thought that if viewers of my blog wanted to know more information about a particular topic or subject, they could have access to it by clicking on the links above which are the exact sources for my information.

Chinese Religion

China has mainly 5 religions-- Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and other Christian religions.

Buddhism came to China from its bordering country India, in the 1st century AD, and could flourish only after the 4th century. China has more than 13,000 Buddhist temples, with about 200,000 monks and nuns, spreading all over the country.Buddhism falls mainly into three groups: Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism) and Bali Buddhism.


Taoism was brought into existence during the Han dynasty in China. The Chinese philosopher, Lu Xun once said: "China roots deep in Taoism. If one wants to understand Chinese history and culture, one must perceive Taoism first." Taoism is also known as a traditional religion of China and has more than 600 Taoist temples throughout the country with 6,000 resident Taoist priests and nuns.

Islam, which entered China in the 7th century, is followed by about more then 17 million members. There are more than 26,000 mosques with 40,000 Imams. Islam immerged on the coastal lines of China cities during the Tang dynasty -618 - 907 AD and progressively extended to other parts of China. Arab traders, who came to China for the purpose of trade, settled down on the southern coast of China and later established their mosques in great maritime cities like Guangzhou and Quanzhou.


Catholicism was ubiquitously prevalent in China during the Tang Dynasty in the year 635, later on its mark faded but again in the Yuan dynasty -1271 - 1368 the religion endeavor a comeback for a short period. Later, the Italian priest ‘Matteo Ricci’, was authorized to set up churches during the Ming Dynasty- 1368-1644. After the opium war, there was a rapid catholic development in China. Now China is home to 4 million Catholics, including 2,700 clergymen who serve more than 4,000 churches.

Christianity includes Protestant, not of a Catholic or Eastern Church. The religion was introduced to China during the 1930s, when there was a large inflow of missionaries from the world. When new China was founded in 1949, there were some 700,000 Chinese Christians. Today, the followers of Christianity in China believed to rise up to 6.5 million, including 18,000 missionaries. There are more than 8,000 Christian churches and 20,000 meeting halls nationwide. China also has about 48 religious seminaries and colleges, and almost 10 million copies of the Bible have been published all over China.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Chinese Calendar


The Chinese Lunar Calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, and is constructed in a different fashion than the Western solar calendar. In the Chinese calendar, the beginning of the year falls somewhere between late January and early February. The Chinese have adopted the Western calendar since 1911, but the lunar calendar is still used for festive occasions such as the Chinese New Year. Many Chinese calendars will print both the solar dates and the Chinese lunar dates.


ALL 26 LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET

A

ēi

B



C
西


D



E



F
艾弗
ài fú

G



H
艾尺
ài chǐ

I

ài

J

jié

K

kāi

L
艾勒
ài lè

M
艾马
ài mǎ

N
艾娜
ài nà

O

ó

P



Q
吉吾
jí wú

R
艾儿
ài ér

S
艾丝
ài sī

T



U
伊吾
yī wú

V

wéi

W
豆贝尔维
dòu bèi ěr wéi

X
艾克斯
yī kè sī

Y
吾艾
wú ài

Z
贼德
éi dé


Research has revealed that the Chinese language has no alphabet. The Chinese written language does not have an alphabet in the traditional sense of a set of letters that are combined to represent the sounds of words. The idea of the alphabet can be helpful, though, in understanding how Chinese characters are constructed. Just as a standard alphabet consists of a small number of letters that can be recombined to form a large number of words, so the "Chinese alphabet" consists of a (relatively) small number of structural elements that are recombined to form a much larger number of characters.

Chinese Beliefs-Pregnancy & Childhood

During research, I was able to locate a list of things the Chinese cultural believe in during pregnancy. This was interesting to me because of the fact that I am expecting a child of my own very soon.

  • To avoid a miscarriage, women should not do any heavy work or have sexual intercourse in the first trimester.

  • Placing sharp objects on the bed causes the baby being born with a cleft lip or palate.

  • Birthmarks and moles are a result of touching glue or adhensive things.

  • Talking about others or criticizing will result in the baby looking and acting like the person they did that to.

  • Eating shellfish can cause the baby to have rashes and pineapple could assist in miscarraiges.

  • To predict if its a girl or boy, Chinese people look at the shape and size of the belly, if its pointed its a boy and if its rounded its a girl.

  • Another belief they have is a Chinese Gender Chart to predict the gender.It is said to have an accuracy of over 90% based of the age of the mother at the moment of the baby conception.

  • The chart was buried in Beijing in a royal tomb over 700 years ago.

Those are just a few of the things I learned while doing research on the Chinese Cultural and there beliefs with pregnancy.

Introduction

Hello,

My name is Bryant Williams and I've decided to blog on the Chinese Cultural. I have very limited knowledge about the Chinese cultural. The only thing I really know is about the food and the products that read "Made in China" I am interested in learning more about this culture because the whole franchise and marketplace matters tied in with Chinese cultures really amazes me. They have a lot of ways of making money and their empire seems successful. I also want to learn more about the immigration and different tribes within the Chinese Culture.

At the conclusion of this project, I will like to know more about the way Chinese citizens operate, a bit more about their government, and some of the things they do differently from the not just the African American cultural, but the American cultural in general.