Mexico City’s Chinatown, Barrio Chino, has the distinction of being the world’s smallest Chinatown: it occupies only two blocks on Dolores Street that teems with thriving Chinese restaurants and shops. Close by is a small park with the traditional arch and stone lions. Jan. 26 to 28 saw in this tiny Chinatown a huge throng […]
讀萬卷書不如行萬里路 is a Chinese proverb that means traveling 10,000 miles is better than reading 10,000 scrolls. I’ve perhaps read thousands of pages about China, so I was extremely delighted when I finally got to do the journey of 10,000 miles last summer. I started at Beijing, China’s capital. At the heart of the city is […]
Eugenio Menegon’s book, Ancestors, Virgins and Friars: Christianity as a local religion in late Imperial China (Harvard University Asia Center, 2009), is a history of a 400-year-old community in Fu’an county (福安市) in Fujian province, China. What makes the book really interesting and significant are historical materials and information about the Chinese in the Philippines […]
Things always happen for a reason. In the wake of the devastation wrought by the 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit Surigao on Feb. 10, seismologists reminded the public that Metro Manila is in for the “Big One” soon. The West Valley Fault caused a major earthquake way back 1658 or 357 years ago. Since that particular […]
The question “What are the most typical examples of Chinese architecture” drove Pu Xiaoyi, who studied architecture in Canada and the United States, on a year-long project investigating in depth the myriad types of Chinese vernacular building styles throughout the country. She explored such structures as yaodong (窯洞), or cave houses in Shaanxi; the Hakka […]
On the 15th day of Chinese New Year, a tranquil city in southwest China’s Sichuan province lights up for the traditional lantern festival. Located about 200 kilometers southeast from the provincial capital city Chengdu, Zigong made its name for salt well drilling and paleontological discoveries. It takes about three hours to get to Zigong from […]
The Jingtai area of the Great Wall, built during the Ming Dynasty in 1599, is at risk of being swallowed up by farmland. Stretching over 90 kilometers, sections in Gansu were largely built using soil and earth, unlike eastern parts of the Great Wall in Beijing and Hebei, which were mostly constructed using stones and […]
Did you know that the popular classic Chinese New Year song “Gong Xi Gong Xi” was never intended as part of greeting a happy Chinese New Year? Chen Gexin, a native of Shanghai and one of the most accomplished songwriters and composers at the time, wrote the song to celebrate China’s victory and liberation following […]
A large cluster of boat coffin tombs dating back 2,200 years was discovered at a construction site in Feihu Village, Pujiang County in southwest China’s Sichuan Province in September last year. Pujiang County was part of the Shu Kingdom, which has no written record of its history. Chinese archaeologists said the latest discovery will help […]
Abu Sayyaf bandits have threatened to execute their German hostage if the P30-million ransom is not paid by Feb. 26. In a video released Feb. 14, the armed group presented 70-year-old German captive Jurgen Kantner at an undisclosed place, believed to be in either Sulu or Basilan. Kantner and his partner Sabine Merz were sailing […]