Chengdu's Intangible Cultural Heritage

The November 26th Chengdu Weekly's lead article highlighted the Chengdu Municipal Culture Bureau's announcement of a new Chengdu Intangible Cultural Heritage List with 41 items in nine areas involving literature, music, dance and quyi (Chinese folk art forms). Mr. Chen Lizhi, Municipal Culture Bureau Chief, said "With distinctive local characteristics, all of the items are important representatives of the local folk art culture and tradition, or of great value and significance to the research and development of local history, art, ethnology, folklore, sociology, anthropology and literature." Many of the items are on the verge of extinction and effective measures need to be taken to preserve and protect them.

The nine areas and 41 specific items are:

1. Folklore: (a) Xinjin Riddles Written on Lanterns.
2. Folk Music: (a) Tuojiang Haozi*, (b) Zhuma Haozi*, (c) Spring Festival Gong and Drum Dance, (d) Qingcheng Dongjing Ancient Music, and (e) Chengdu Taoist Music. [*Haozi is a work song sung by boat trackers to synchronize movements with one person leading.]
   
3. Folk Dance: (a) Fire Dragon Dance.
   
4. Traditional Drama: (a) Chengdu Puppet Show and (b) Chengdu Shadow Play.
   
5. Quyi: (a) Daoqing - chanting folk tales to the accompament of simple percussion instruments, (b) Heyi - a Sichuan folk art form, (c) Sichuan Qingyin - arias sung without makeup or musical accompaniment, (d) Jinqianban - ballad-singing to the accompaniment of three-inch bamboo pieces which make a metallic sound when beaten together, (e) Yangqin - dulcimer, (f) Lianxiao - a Sichuan folk art form, (g) Feidao Drum Dance, and (h) Yaomei Huadeng Opera.
   
6. Acrobatics and Athletics: (a) Gaotai Lion Dance.
   
7. Traditional Handicrafts: (a) Caramel Painting, (b) Shuijingfang Wine-brewing Technique, (c) Processing Skills of Pixian Broad-bean Sauce, (d) Sichuan-style Bonsai Making Skill, (e) Coil-binding Skill of Sichuan Bonsai, (f) Making Skill of Kongming Lantern - an early type of hot air balloon used for military signaling, (g) Woven Bamboo Ware with Porcelain Body, (h) Qionglai Porcelain, (i) Guihua Pottery, (j) Straw-woven Ware, (k) Chengdu Silve Filigree Skill, (l) Handicraft with Palm Fibre, (m) Rattan-woven Ware, (n) Daoming Bamboo-woven Ware, (o) Skills for Producing Costumes and Accessories for Sichuan Opera, (p) Chengdu Lacquer Art, (q) Weaving Skills of Sichuan Brocade, and (r) Skills of Sichuan Embroidery.
   
8. Traditional Chinese Medicine: (a) Chengdu's Local Processing Skills of TCM and (b) Local Processing Skills of Traditional Herbs.
   
9. Folk Customs: (a) Dujiangyan Water Releasing Festival, (b) Wangcong Folk Song Competition, and (c) Xinjin Huoniuzhen.
   

YWCA Kindergarten Program

成都市宝宝家幼儿园

The Chengdu YWCA Kindergarten Program was started in 1985 with five children by the YWCA President. It is now located in a rented facility about two blocks from the Chengdu YMCA building. It serves approximately 160 children with a head person (yuán zhǎng) and a staff of 15.

The Kindergarten offers three major programs: (1) a regular child care type program Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, (2) special enrichment classes Monday through Thursday from 5:15 PM to 6:15 PM, and (3) a week-long child care service from Monday morning through Friday afternoon for parents who cannot care for their children during the week.The teachers have completed special training at a vocational school which is at the high school level. The program is licensed by the Department of Education which inspects the program and determines its category of service and the fees which the parents pay for the children's programs.

There are three categories of kindergartens in Chengdu. Category A Kindergartens have the highest level of facilities and are most often privately run by a company; Category B Kindergartens are mostly owned and operated by the government for children of government employees; and Category C Kindergartens have minimal facilities and are the most affordable for parents. The YWCA Kindergarten is a Category C kindergarten.

The program is divided into five classes by age: (1) 1.5 to 3 year olds; (2) 3-4 year olds; (3) 4-5 year olds; (4) 5-6 year olds; and (5) 6-7 year olds. The monthly fee for the youngest age group is 270 RMB Yuan (about US $34); the monthly fee for the other age groups is 245 RMB Yuan (about US $31). The fee includes lunch and dinner each day; breakfast can be secured as an option. The 20 children in the full-week program are charged 400 RMB Yuan (about US $50) each month; their program includes breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. In addition to the monthly fee, parents are charged a "special fee" yearly, or every three or four years, to improve the facility.

Classroom activities include story telling, drawing, crafts, physical activities, games, singing, Chinese and math. Children have a nap time after lunch.

Five Pictures of the Youngest Age Group - Under Three Years Old

Enrichment Programs

Parents pay extra for the special after care enrichment programs. Five programs are offered which meet twice a week from 5:15 PM to 6:15 PM. The programs are: (1) Drawing (Měishù), (2) Count with the Heart and Abacus (Xhūxīnsuàn), (3) Dance (Wǔdǎo), (4) English (Yīngyǔ), and (5) Chinese (Zhōngwén).

One of the Special Classes is Count with the Heart and Abacus or Xhūxīnsuàn

One of the Special Classes is Drawing or Měishù

Four Students' Pictures Currently On Display at the Kindergarten

Annual Fashion Show and Special Events

The Kindergarten also holds an Annual Fashion Show with clothes the teachers make from old newspapers and magazines provided by the parents and the YMCA Public Reading Room.
Sometimes the Kindergarten is invited to participate in a company's anniversary celebration party; the company often gives the children a small gift, like a T-shirt, at the party.

Chinese-English Food Dictionary ... MORE

I've added the Chinese words for the following food items to my Chinese-English Food Dictionary: tea, black tea, green tea, Jasmine tea, frujit, jan, baked wheat cake, vegetable, rice (cooked and raw), cake, cauliflower, champagne, cherry, chicken, prickly ash, snacks, lotus root, chocolate, cider, cookie, curry and custard.

My Home in Zongfu Garden in Chengdu

Earlier I posted pictures of my 30-floor apartment building which has become home for six months while I serve as the NAFYRE volunteer in Chengdu. The Chengdu YMCA provides an apartment for the NAFYRE volunteer while in Chengdu. The apartment is about a twenty minute walk from the YMCA and the center of Chengdu. It is one block from the Fu River.
The entrance to Zongfu Garden is on the garden side of the building away from the street. The ground floor on the street side is occupied by a bank and a car wash/detail center.

The garden is nicely landscaped and includes a bird cage with birds, a wonderful bridge over the small stream that runs through the garden, flowers and fruits, a fish pond and a swimming pool for the hot summer days.




My Chengdu home includes a sitting/dining room, study, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom with shower and balcony. Below are four shots of my sitting/dining room which includes a sofa and two matching chairs, a small dining table with two chairs, a cable TV with DVD player, a small refrigerator/freezer, a water cooler/heater, and a cabinet at the door for outside and house shoes.


The study includes a desk and chair, a rocker with foot rest, closet, book shelves and drawers. I brought my laptop with me and purchased a printer in Chengdu.


The kitchen includes a double sink (above it is the instant hot water heater for the kitchen and bathroom which works great), a two-burner cooktop with hood, a microwave, clothes washer and cabinets. The two-burner cooktop seems normal in Chengdu. Combined with a rice cooker and a crock pot (or slow cooker) for soup, it makes for a compete cooking area.


The bedroom includes a large, very comfortable bed with good reading lights, two bedside tables, a large double closet and a drying rack for clothes.

The well lit lavatory is in the small hall that connects the sitting room, bathroom and kitchen.

My balcony is out sliding doors from the bedroom or viewed from the windows in the study. It came with beautiful red flowers and green plants which I water regularly.

The balcony also includes a drying rack with many clothes pins which are great for hanging socks and other clothes. Now I've brought it inside to the drying rack since it has been raining the past few days.

The balcony provides a view to the east over the Fu RIver into the normal foggy sky of Chengdu. The apartment makes a wonderful home for the six months of volunteer service with the Chengdu YMCA.

New Metro - Chengdu's First Subway

In several locations throughout Chengdu, you come upon construction sites and signs related to the new Metro Subway System being built in Chengdu. Another large construction project is the reconstruction of Tianfu Square in the center of Chengdu. The final design for Tianfu Square was recently approved and should be completed in 2007. These two projects in the center of Chengdu, provide lots advertising opportunities.

Sichuan Art Museum

On Friday afternoon, I visited the Sichuan Art Museum on West Renmin Road in Chengdu, near The People's Park.


The Museum is hosting a special exhibit of the works of Tahir Salakhov and Andrei Milnikov, contemporary Russian masters. The museum has two very large galleries on the first two floors; each gallery featured one of the artists with nearly fifty paintings from each. The museum apparently only presents special exhibits as there was no display of a permanent collection. In front of the museum are a series of modern sculptures, below are two of them with a detail from each.

Christmas Sales Kick-off on Friday

While Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated in China (except for American guests like me), the Friday after Thanksgiving Day kicks-off the seasonal Christmas sales. On Friday, the stores were newly decorated and Merry Christmas signs greeted you every where. This sign is over the main entrance to Ito Yokado - the large Japanese owned department store near the YMCA.