More than 80,000 pieces of stones and bricks have been restored to Beijing’s Yuanmingyuan (圓明園), known as the Old Summer Palace, Beijing Morning News reported recently. Used as a royal garden during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the palace park was also known for its exquisite architecture and many works of art. Unfortunately, it was destroyed, […]
Chen Yiwen (陳義文), who just celebrated his 88th birthday, is the lone surviving artist possessing a high artistic attainment in wood engraving painting in Hubei province. Chen is a national-level inheritor of Laohekou wood engraving New Year painting (老河口木版年畫雕刻), which originated in the middle of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and thrived during the Qianlong period […]
This saga all started from the name of a special mami and siopao restaurant along C. M. Recto Avenue near Avenida – Pinsec House. Pinsec sounds Chinese. But what does it mean? What is its Chinese origin? Is it related somehow to pansit, the popular Filipino dish? After consulting with a local-born Tsinoy who is […]
Hokkien, on the tongues of Tsinoys, has grown and evolved, taking on a life of its own. Sometimes words simply fail us. With some creativity, Tsinoys have strung together words to form colorful phrases that simply hit the bull’s eye. Here are some expressions unique to Hokkien as favored by Tsinoys. 叫豬叫狗， 不如自己跑 kio ti […]
We are all in the same boat. Our children have too many toys, too many clothes, too many books, too many everything! My brother moved out of our house as soon as he got married. The girls were so excited for him to leave! They were taking over his room. Each would have her own […]
An ancient bronze drum with cloud and thunder patterns may be the largest found in world archaeological history. It was found in Beiliu City in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Its diameter measures 165 centimeters and weighs about 300 kilograms. It is on display at the Anthropology Museum of Guangxi in Nanning City, Guangxi’s capital. Artifacts […]
Inhabitants in this isolated pocket of northwest China may not have heard of the women’s liberation movement that took Western society by storm in the 1960s. But perhaps they do not need to. In a reversal of traditional Chinese roles between genders, women in Kangxian county, Gansu province have traditionally been dominant, with husbands assuming […]
China’s new variety of hybrid rice, called Xiang Liangyou 900, has become the highest-yielding one in the world, said a report by Science and Technology Daily recently. The pilot three plots of rice fields in Handan, Hebei province, yielded 17.2 tons per hectare on average, according to a group of agricultural experts who measured the […]
This imperial writing will last forever: it is carved in stone. Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Emperor Jiaqing’s inscriptions were found on a large stone tablet at Ruyuan Garden, the best preserved garden site at the Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace) ruins. Below the inscriptions were two seals, one featuring an imperial jade seal. Some of the inscriptions are buried […]
A joint editorial committee of scholars from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea is writing a new history textbook to resist efforts to white-wash Japan’s militaristic past. The committee has published two books: The Contemporary and Modern History of Three East Asian Countries in 2005 and A Modern History of East Asia Beyond the […]