Whilst it rained with ice balls in Northern Ireland only a few days ago, people in China have already turned to ice-creams for the cool taste. More popular than the tastes are perhaps the variety of shapes of ice-creams that resemble those local features and places of interest. Here’s what Xuewei YANG (杨雪薇), a QUB alumnus, brings to us.
While many of you may be familiar with this pun-loaded greeting from the Star Wars, Chinese people, especially the youth, have their own special celebration on the day.
Continue readingMay (the) Fourth n. (also 4 May, etc.) Chinese History (attributive) designating or relating to a demonstration held by students in Peking (Beijing) on 4 May 1919 to protest against the Chinese government’s failure to oppose the decision by the Versailles Peace Committee to allocate Germany’s former possessions in China to Japan; (also) designating the wider cultural and intellectual revolution in China for which this demonstration is generally regarded as having been a catalyst; esp. in May (the) Fourth Movement.
Oxford English Dictionary
Calling all our learners of Chinese at Queen’s
The first ever Chinese Language Video Festival has been launched to celebrate this year’s United Nations Chinese Language Day.
The festival gives foreigners from across the world the opportunity to enter a competition by submitting a video that celebrates Chinese culture.
Entrants are invited to submit original videos that showcase Chinese calligraphy, Chinese poetry, as well as Chinese culinary culture by recalling their own stories or narrating memories related to spring time.
From CGTN
The video works can include but not limited to the following themes and topics showcasing:
In addition to the aforementioned topics, candidates can also choose to record their videos by telling their own stories or narrating pieces of memory related to springtime. The format can be flexible, candidates can make their videos through talent show, storytelling, scientific knowledge explanation or Chinese language challenge games etc, as long as the video works are original.
Timetable
The competition is open to all foreigners who love the Chinese culture and language and who have been learning the Chinese language.
Registration is open until promptly at 17:00 on Thursday 15 April. Classes are expected to be extremely popular and usually fill up quickly, so early registration is strongly recommended.
All classes will commence week beginning Monday 19 April 2021. All language courses will comprise of online practice activities, pre-class videos and weekly, live online teaching, delivered by a tutor to groups of no more than 20 learners. Courses will last for 10 weeks, with 1 x 90 minute live online teaching session each week.
Aims:
Preparation:
Thanks for many of you who joined in our CNY2021 celebration launch event last Friday. It was a great opportunity for us to get together in a different way to previous years, and it was great fun being with you! In particular, we would like to thank the volunteers who performed for us, and Dr Frances Wood who shared an interesting and inviting topic on Great Books of China. We hope you all have enjoyed it!
If you missed it, you can view the main parts of the programme via the following link.
At the launch we proudly introduced two exhibitions – the ArtEast Exhibition and Sir Robert Hart Exhibition, both of which are freely accessible online for your appreciation. The ArtEast exhibition will end with an online panel discussion on Friday 5th March. Your thoughts and comments are welcome and we look forward to seeing you in the panel discussion.
Our CNY Culture Forum 2021 will start from Tuesday 16th February until Friday 26th February, covering a wide range of topics shared by scholars and students from AHSS and EPS. You are mostly welcome to join in some sessions, if not all, to enrich conversations within our multicultural campus. We also welcome more people to contribute to the Chinese Culture Forum which remains an ongoing platform of sharing knowledge and enhancing intercultural communication. For full details and registration, click the button below.
If you think that in winter a hot coffee (or tea) is all that you need to treat yourself while outing in China, especially in the north, you may have missed your sweet memory. Our Chinese LIG volunteer, Xiaohui, whose hometown in South China, is receiving pre-service training in Beijing currently. She will tell you what she has discovered in her spare time wandering around capital city, as shown below.
Have you been to China and seen this? Are there anything similar to this in your own country?
Additional information
It has nothing to do with fruit gourd in ingredients but that it somewhat resembles the shape of bottle gourds put together. Hence, the name.
Singles’ Day or Bachelors’ Day (光棍节 Guānggùn Jié) is a day unofficially made for young Chinese who are single to celebrate on the 11th of November (11/11 – two elevens – aka “双十一”节 Shuāng Shíyī Jié). The date was chosen for the connection between singles and the number ‘1’. The four ‘1’s ironically refer to the individuals who have no boyfriends/girlfriends yet, therefore, becoming the bachelors or bachelorettes.
Initiated in 1993, this celebration has become popular among young Chinese, especially university and college students. In celebrating their festival, young singles organise parties and Karaoke to meet new friends or try their fortunes.
In more recent years, the festival has become commercialised as the largest physical and online shopping day in the world, compared with other shopping events such as the Black Friday shopping.
The photos below were taken when I undertook my fieldwork in China on 10/11/2008. With great interest I attended an English class in a university in which two students were presenting their topic on the Singles’ Day. The mascots they explained are represented by two common and typical Chinese breakfast food – 油条 (yóutiáo) and 包子 (bāozi).
In their presentation, the two girls claimed that only in China a special day was set for the singles. Is that true? What about in your country/culture? Please leave a reply below in the comment box.
This year the Double Ninth Day falls on Sunday 25th October. In Chinese it is called as 重阳 (Chóngyáng), also known as Seniors’ Day. What does it mean then? Why is it related to the elderly historically and contemporarily in Chinese society? What do Chinese people do on the day?
Come join in our latest session of the Chinese Culture Forum 2020 series, delivered by Sihua Tang, a Master in Education candidate from SSESW, Queen’s and also enthusiastic volunteer in promoting language and culture.
For members of the public who would like to attend, please leave your name and email contact in the comment box (will not be displayed) below so that we can send you the invitation link.
This year the Mid-Autumn Festival, 中秋节 (Zhōngqiū jié) in Chinese, falls rightly on the 1st October, which coincides the Chinese National Day.
At Queen’s we are hosting an online celebration including a culture talk with language taster session, cultural performances, a culture quiz and poem appreciation, contributed by Queen’s Chinese students and alumni. The event is scheduled between 12:30 and 13:45 on the day. You are all very welcome to attend the session with the information and registration link below:
Normally people would greet each other by saying 中秋节快乐 (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival). However, in this special time of facing pandemic threat, we can add 安康 (ānkāng), meaning peace and healthy, after 快乐 (kuàilè), which becomes “中秋节快乐安康 (Zhōngqiū jié kuàilè ānkāng)”.
To learn more Chinese vocabulary and expressions in a structured way, you are welcome to attend one of our Chinese courses for non-specialist purposes.
Please submit your answers in the comment box below.
Q1. Mid-Autumn Festival is the time for people to ______ in China.
A. travel for sightseeing
B. have dragon boat races
C. worship family ancestors
D. have family reunion
Q2. When is the Mid-Autumn Festival due, according to the Chinese lunar calendar?
A. the 1st day of the 8th month
B. the 8th day of the 8th month
C. the 15th day of the 8th month
D. the last day of the 8th month
Q3. What particular dessert do Chinese people like to eat on Mid-Autumn Festival?
A. pan cake
B. moon cake
C. pork pie
D. jiaozi dumpling
Q4. What do Chinese people, home and abroad, particularly do on this particular occasion?
A. watching TV and playing cards
B. making moon cakes and pies
C. watching the moon and thinking of family
D. going to pubs and eating out
Q5. In which year did the Mid-Autumn festival become an official holiday in China?
A. 2008
B. 2004
C. 2010
D. 2001
Q6. What kinds of Chinese mythology are closely related to Mid-Autumn Festival?
A. The Monkey Myth
B. The Moon Goddess Chang’e
C. Yu, the hero who rebuilt the Earth
D. Yi, the hero who shot suns
Q7. How many suns did Yi shoot down from the sky?
A. 10
B. 9
C. 8
D. 1
Q8. Why did Chang’e leave Yi?
A. Yi could not afford the cost of living
B. Chang’e’s parents did not allow her to be with him
C. Chang’e did not love Yi anymore
D. In order to keep the elixir, Chang’e swallowed it and ascended to the moon
Q9. What does this radical part ‘𥫗’ mean in the character of ‘筝 (zheng, or Chinese zither)’?
A. bamboo
B. wood
C. Stone
D. Grass
Q10. What is normally written on the surface of a mooncake?
A. Greetings and wishes for the festival celebration
B. The company trademark/logo/slogan which made the mooncake
C. Instructions of how to taste the mooncake
D. The ingredients of the mooncake
With new students’ arrival and returning students back to Queen’s, the campus is full of welcomes and smiles – although social distance should still be maintained. The first charted airplane from Beijing to Belfast in ready on its way, due to departure in the evening on the 18th Sept. Let’s wish them a smooth and pleasant journey!
So, to say ‘welcome’ in Chinese, one would at least say the word ‘欢迎’ twice to demonstrate a real welcoming atmosphere, plus a smiling face, and perhaps shaking hands in formal and business contexts. One seldom hugs or kisses to welcome people in the Chinese culture.
Now that you know how to say ‘welcome’ – 欢迎, the order of the message is exactly the same as in English in this expression. Let’s learn a few more vocabulary, including Queen’s in Chinese.
Queen’s University Belfast (Queen’s in a known context) has its Chinese equivalence， which is called 贝尔法斯特女王大学. It can be further shortened as 女王大学 in the local context. Therefore, put together, the whole expression can be 欢迎来(贝尔法斯特)女王大学！
