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  • Wednesday, January 24, 2007

    China to Surpass USA on Internet Users


    China is on pace to surpass the United States within two years as the nation with the most Internet users, the government and news reports said Wednesday.

    China's online population grew by 23.4 percent last year to 137 million people, about 10 percent of its 1.3 billion population, the China Internet Network Information Center reported on its Web site.

    "We believe it will take two years at most for China to overtake the United States," the official China Daily newspaper quoted an official of the agency, Wang Enhai, as saying.

    About 210 million of the United States' 300 million people are online, according to the U.S. government. China would reach 210 million users in two years if it keeps up a 24 percent annual growth rate.

    China's communist government encourages Internet use for education and business but tries to block its public from seeing material authorities consider subversive or obscene. Dozens of people have been jailed for posting political essays online.

    The country had 111 million Internet users in January 2006, according to the Internet agency, also known as CNNIC.

    China also saw strong growth in wireless Internet use, with about 17 million people online from mobile phones, the agency said.

    YMCA Movement in North America

    The Chengdu YMCA asked me to prepare an article on the North American YMCA Movement for the current issue of their YMCA Magazine. Using materials from the web site of the YMCA of the USA, I submitted the following article which is also translated into Chinese.

    YMCAs Build Strong Kids,
    Strong Families, Strong Communities

    America’s 2,617 YMCAs make it the largest not-for-profit community service organization in America, working to meet the health and human service needs of 20.2 million men, women and children who are members in 10,000 communities in the United States. YMCAs are at the heart of community life across the United States: 42 million families and 72 million households live within three miles of a YMCA.

    YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association, but that does not mean that YMCAs are only for "young, Christian men." From its start more than 150 years ago, when George Williams founded the YMCA in London with Bible study and prayer meetings as a substitute for life on the streets, the YMCA was unusual because it included men from all the different churches and social classes in England. This openness was a trait that would lead YMCAs to recognize their strength is in the people they bring together -- Ys are for all people of all faiths, races, nationalities, ages, abilities and incomes. American YMCAs' financial assistance policies ensure that no one is turned away for reasons of inability to pay.

    Volunteers lead YMCAs and are central to their mission, ensuring each Y meets the unique needs of its community. Over 561,000 people serve as YMCA volunteers in America.

    Collaboration is critical to American YMCAs' efforts to develop effective community-based programs. Many YMCAs collaborate with schools, hospitals, churches and juvenile courts to provide human services.

    Because YMCAs are driven by the communities they serve, each American YMCA is different. Child care, teenage leadership training, and sports clubs for older adults may be offered in one community, while another YMCA provides swim lessons, fitness classes, and after-school programming in local schools. Every Y decides what programs to offer and how to operate. From child care to older adult fitness, camping and aquatics, YMCAs offer opportunities for individuals and families to grow in spirit, mind and body at every stage of life.

    YMCAs are the largest providers of child care in the United States, operating nearly 10,000 child care sites across the country, providing high-quality and affordable care to more than 500,000 children. YMCAs also serve nearly 10 million children under the age of 18 through activities such as camping, sports and after-school programs. YMCAs are the largest employers of teenagers in the country.

    The YMCA movement stretches far beyond the United States. YMCAs are at work in more than 120 countries around the world, serving more than 45 million people. About 230 U.S. YMCAs maintain partnerships with YMCAs in other countries. Building strong kids, strong families and strong communities is what the YMCA stands for -- worldwide.

    基督教青年会让儿童更健康、
    让家庭更和睦、让社区更和谐

    遍布美国的2617个基督教青年会使得基督教青年会成为美国最大的非盈利性社区服务组织。它致力于满足美国10000个社区的2020万男女老少的健康及人性化需求。基督教青年会占据了全美社区生活的中心:4200万个家庭和7200万住户居住在离基督教青年会三英里内的地方。

    YMCA虽然是基督教青年会的缩写,但这并不意味着它只针对基督徒青年。从150多年前乔治.威廉姆斯在伦敦创立基督教青年会时起(那时只是通过学习圣经和做礼拜来代替社区生活),基督教青年会就非比寻常。因为它拥有着来自英格兰所有不同教会和社会各阶层的人员。这种公开性使得聚集在基督教青年会的所有人意识到他们的强烈力量:基督教青年会是针对各种信仰、人种、民族、年龄、能力和收入的人群。美国基督教青年会的财政援助政策确保了没有一个人会因为无能力支付而被拒之门外。

    在基督教青年会里,义工(志愿者)起核心作用以确保每一个基督教青年会分会都能满足(其区域内)社区的特殊要求。在美国超过56.1万人是基督教青年会的义工。

    合作对于基督教青年会开发有效的以社区为对象的项目至关重要。许多基督教青年会都同学校、医院、教会和少年法庭合作提供人性化服务。

    由于每个基督教青年会都是针对他们所服务的社区,所以每个基督教青年会都不尽相同。有可能这个基督教青年会提供照料儿童、培养青少年领导能力和组建成人健身俱乐部,而另一个基督教青年会则在当地的学校开设游泳、健身课程和课后活动项目。每个基督教青年会都可以自行决定提供什么和怎样开展。从照料儿童到成年人健身、露营和水上运动,基督教青年会为个人和家庭提供机会使得他们在人生的各个阶段均衡发展。

    基督教青年会是美国最大的照料儿童的机构。它为全美近1万个托儿所和超过50万名儿童提供高质量的服务。基督教青年会还为近100018岁以下青少年提供露营、体育和其他课外活动。此外,基督教青年会也是美国最大的青少年雇佣机构。

    基督教青年会开展的活动远非只在本国,它为全世界的120多个国家和超过4500万人提供服务。大约230个美国本土的基督教青年会与其他国家的基督教青年会保持合作关系,让儿童更健康、让家庭更和睦、让社区更和谐是基督教青年会的真正目的所在――它是全世界性的。

    Monday, January 22, 2007

    Songxianqiao Art Center on Dongdajie &
    Exhibition of Contemporary Young Artists

    All of the guide books about Chengdu tell you about Songxinqiao Art City on Qinghua Jie, near Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, which is a large partially covered market of stalls that sell art and antiques. Recently, I discovered there is a second Songxinqiao Art City on Dongda Jie in downtown Chengdu a couple of blocks east of Hongxing Lu.

    On the ground level there are several pedestrian walkways lined with shops like the ones above and below. On the second and third floor there are many more shops, each featuring a particular artist or group of artists or art product. The shop also serves as a studio for many of the artists. The shops sell ancient art, artware, calligraphy, ceramics, classic furniture, jade, jewelry, paintings and Tibetan cultural items -- the full range of art works.
    Currently through February 10th, the Art Center is hosting an exhibition called Prospect -- Exhibition of Invited Contemporary Young Artists, Chengdu 2007 which includes works from over 40 young artists from Chengdu and other cities in China. Most of the display are by artists under the age of 35 and are unveiled to the public for the first time. Most of the artists have a background of academic training in the major fine art institutions of China. Unfortunately for me, the labels on the paintings and biographical material on the artists are all in Chinese. The Chengdu Weekly of 21 January 2007 has an article of the exhibition from which this material was taken.

    While I enjoyed the exhibition, I am always disappointed when I go to a contemporary art exhibition. Guess I just don't appreciate contemporary art as much as some of the works of the older masters. My favorite painting in the exhibit is below.

    Patriotic Christian Association &
    Three-Self Patriotic Movement

    Last week I came across this church picture and caption on the Chengdu Time web site. The church is only a few blocks from my apartment. In December we attended the Christmas Musical Program presented by the Sichuan Theological Seminary in this church. The Seminary is on the same grounds as the church.

    "This photo depicts the outside view of the Patriotic Christian Association of Sichuan Province building. It is one of the few places of worship for Christians in Chengdu. The name of this church sounds a bit strange, but this church is definitely the kind of "state church", as named by Hope Church Singapore. You can tell this by simply looking at the name of this church. Nevertheless, if you are a Christian, you can still go to this church to worship when you come to Chengdu." From Chengdu Time.

    I asked about the name: Patriotic Christian Association in our YMCA English class. They explained to me that the name came from the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Wikipedia offers the following article on the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in China.

    "The Three-Self Patriotic Movement (officially 中国基督教三自爱国运动委员会, China Christian Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee; colloquially 三自教会, the Three-Self Church) and the China Christian Council (中国基督教协会) are two pro-government ("patriotic") Christian organizations in the People's Republic of China. These together form the only government-sanctioned ("registered") Protestant church in mainland China. They are usually referred to as the 'two associations' (两会). There are large numbers of house churchesin China which are outside of the registered organizations.

    History

    In 1951, a Cantonese Christian named Y. T. Wu (吴耀宗, 1893-1979) initiated the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which promoted a strategy of 'self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation' in order to remove foreign influences from the Chinese churches. This was to assure the communist government that the churches would be patriotic to the newly-established People's Republic of China. The strange-sounding name 'Three-Self' is a characteristically Chinese way of abbreviating 'self-governance, self-support, self-propagation' (自治、自养、自传). The movement began formally in 1954.

    From 1966 to 1976 the Cultural Revolution stopped the expression of religious life for Christians in China. In 1979 the church was restored, and in 1980 the China Christian Council was formed. Through the council, the registered Protestant church participates in the World Council of Churches.

    The two associations claim that Christianity in China is 'post-denominational': Protestant denominations prevalent in other parts of the world have no place in China. Christians are said to congregate on Sunday each week in service, implementing the principle of mutual respect. The public representation of the two associations is usually carried out by Bishop K. H. Ting (丁光訓, 1915-), an Anglican (or post-Anglican) bishop.

    Origin of the Three-Self Principles

    The three principles of self-governance, self-support (i.e., financial support) and self-propagation (i.e., indigenous missionary work) were first put forward by the Henry Venn the younger, General Secretary of the English Church Missionary Society in 1841.

    References

    See also

    External link

    This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer).



    Copyrights:
    Wikipedia information about Three-Self Patriotic Movement
    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Three-Self Patriotic Movement". More from Wikipedia




    Sunday, January 21, 2007

    Street Scene: Plucking a Chicken

    Coming home the back way today from the YMCA, I came across a woman plucking a chicken on the steet outside her home or business (or both). Reminded me of my childhood when my mother killed and plucked the chickens we ate.

    CHENGDU TIME...www.028.com...LAUNCHED

    Last December, when CHENGDU TIME launched their web site, they produced a music video, All You Need to Know About Chengdu, China, to promote their site to English-speaking friends around the world. The music video is a joint production of CHENGDU TIME and a group of comedians known as the Steel Tube Brothers who sing the Mandarin lyrics with English subtitles by Samuel Ma Huaqing, administrator of CHENGDU TIME. It is fun to watch on either TuDou.com or YouTube, or you can download it from CHENGDU TIME.

    Main Construction of Sichuan Museum Completed

    From CHENGDU TIME 2007-1-13
    So far, the Sichuan Museum's main construction works are completed. The museum will be open to the public at the end of this year. More that 160,000 artifacts can thus live in their cosy home.

    The new museum is located in the Chengdu Huanhua Nature Reserve. With a total investment of 300 million yuan, the museum occupies a land aread of 87.9 mu in total, while the building itself occupies an area of about 32000 square metres. This area is already 4 times larger than the old building. The construction of the new museum building started in April 2005.

    3rd International Foods & Tour Festival of China


    The 3rd International Foods & Tour Festival of China will be held from January 27 to February 4 in Chengdu with its main venue being the main conference hall on the new 1369-meter long Yipintianxia Gourmet & Travel Business Street. Major activities will include (1) four exhibitions: (a) International Delicacy Exhibition, (b) Famous Chinese Snacks Exhibition, (c) Pan-delicacy Culture Exhibition including Traditional Herb Cuisine & Tonic Food Culture, Tea Culture and Sichuan Liquor Culture, and (d) Sichuan Specialties Exhibition regarding food and Spring Festival commodities with Sichuan characteristics; (2) three delicacy contests: (a) Innovated Sichuan Dishes Contest and Jinsha Shu Banquet, (b) Pepper King Contest, and (c) the 1st 'Gao Fu Ji' Cup Community Family Cooking Contest; (3) promotion activities: including issuing the new book Chengdu Taste which analyzes the city from the perspective of the gourmet culture; (4) cultural and recreational performances: (a) Street Dance Contest, (b) Cosplay Contest, (c) Extreme Sports Performance, and (d) Martial Arts Arena. Lots of detail about the Festival can be found on its website.

    Saturday, January 20, 2007

    YMCA's New American Neighbor

    About a year ago, Chengdu's municipal government rebuilt the predestrian Jinhuaguan Street which runs along side the YMCA, including new buildings in a historical style to house several shops. Already some shops have opened and closed. This month the two larger shop spaces have been renovated and equipped for new shops. The women's clothing store Ein opened last week.

    The other new shop put up their signs this week -- it will be a Swensens - the American Ice Cream Restaurant! Met the manager today. The first floor will open next week and offer ice cream, coffee and soft drinks. In April, the second and third floors will open with a more complete food service. Guess I'll have to try some American coffee and ice cream this week.

    Arts School's New English Class Poster

    Last week for the first time, I assisted Lu Haitao (Henry), the teacher of the YMCA Arts School's English class and assisted again today for the last class of this term. The new term will begin in March. Last week, Zhou Yun Hai, Director of the Arts School, took a lot of pictures of Henry and me teaching. Today, several of these pictures appeared on the new poster at the entrance to the YMCA promoting next term's English enrollment.

    Sunday, January 14, 2007

    Administrative Divisions of Mainland China

    When reading about different places in China, they are often described in terms of the administrative or political divisions in or near which they are located. At times I have found this confusing; so we briefing discussed it in the Y staff English class on Friday. Then, I did a search on the Internet and found a good (hopefully up-to-date) explanation on Answers.com from material published on Wikipedia. [Note: Wikipedia cannot be directly accessed from China.]

    The constitution of the People's Republic of China provides for three levels of government; however, currently there are five practical (de facto) levels of local government in mainland China: the province, prefecture, county, township and village. Their is a sixth level, the district public office, under counties, but it is being abolished.

    The People's Republic of China administers 33 province-level (省级 shengji) divisions, including 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions. Chengdu is in Sichuan Province. Wikipedia provides the following provincial-level map of the People's Republic of China. Sichuan is in southwestern China.


    Sichuan
    is made up of the following administrative divisions: 21 prefecture-level divisions (18 prefecture-level cities and 3 autonomous prefectures), 181 county-level divisions (14 county-level cities, 120 counties, 4 autonomous counties and 43 districts), and 4782 township-level divisions (1865 towns, 2586 townships, 93 ethnic townships and 238 sub-districts).

    Chengdu city is one of the 21 prefecture-level divisions of Sichuan. Below, from Answers.com/Wikipedia, is a list of the county-level administrative divisions in Chengdu city.

    Prefecture level County Level
    Name Chinese (S) Hanyu Pinyin
    Chengdu City
    成都市
    Chéngdū Shì
    Qingyang District 青羊区 Qīngyáng Qū
    Jinjiang District 锦江区 Jǐnjiāng Qū
    Jinniu District 金牛区 Jīnniú Qū
    Wuhou District 武侯区 Wǔhóu Qū
    Chenghua District 成华区 Chénghuá Qū
    Longquanyi District 龙泉驿区 Lóngquányì Qū
    Qingbaijiang District 青白江区 Qīngbáijiāng Qū
    Xindu District 新都区 Xīndū Qū
    Wenjiang District 温江区 Wēnjiāng Qū
    Dujiangyan City 都江堰市 Dūjiāngyàn Shì
    Pengzhou City 彭州市 Péngzhōu Shì
    Qionglai City 邛崃市 Qiónglái Shì
    Chongzhou City 崇州市 Chóngzhōu Shì
    Jintang County 金堂县 Jīntáng Xiàn
    Shuangliu County 双流县 Shuāngliú Xiàn
    Pi County 郫县 Pí Xiàn
    Dayi County 大邑县 Dàyì Xiàn
    Pujiang County 蒲江县 Pújiāng Xiàn
    Xinjin County 新津县 Xīnjīn Xiàn



    Saturday, January 13, 2007

    Dance of the World 2006 China Tour

    On December 28th, I went to the performance of Dance of the World which was finishing its 2006 China Tour at the Sichuan Jincheng Art Palace on Tianfu Square. The program consisted of 18 acts representing various dance styles from around the world: Austria, Quickstep, France, Retro, Turkish Dance, Men's Tango, Adagio, Dance Party, Russia, Shalom Aleihem, Waltz of Dogy, Modern, Sex Bomb, Spain, Cats, Staffage, Happy Birthday, and Mamba.



    New Year's Eve - New Zealand Symphony

    On New Year's Eve, I attended the concert of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in the Jiaozi Concert Hall at the Chengdu Art Center which is only a few blocks from my apartment.

    The Orchestra is conducted by Iamish McKeigh (above). The program included D. Lilburn's Aotearoa Overture, Huanzhi Li's Spring Festival Overture, Brahms' Four Hungarian Dances, Tieshan Liu's & Yuan Mao's Yao Dance, and J. Strauss, Jr.'s Rosen aus dem Suden, Fledermaus Overture, Kaiser Waltz, Vergnugungszug Polka, Blue Danube Waltz, Trisch Trash Polka and Radetsky March.

    Also on the program, soloist Madeleine Pierard, Mezzo-Soprano, sang Mozart's Come Scoglio & Laudeamus te from Mass No. 18 in C Minor and Rossini's Une Voce Poco Fa.

    YMCA Art School's English Class

    Zhou Yun Hai, Director of the YMCA's Art School, asked if I would be willing to help with the English class offered by the Art School on Saturday afternoons. Today, I met with Lu Haitao (Henry), the teacher of the class, and then assisted him with the class which included two 40 minute sessions with a ten minute rest between them. Henry is an English teacher in another school.

    The class has six students -- one pre-schooler, one fourth grader and the rest in between. Today's class focused on learning the English words for selected animals -- cow, bird, dog, cat, tiger, lion, peacock, panda and frog and on learning to write the letters k through p. Below are Henry and I with the six students.

    Henry asked if we assigned home work in the English classes at the YMCA School in Jintang. He said, if you don't assign home work, parents will think you are not a very good teacher.

    Thanks to Zhou Yun Hai for the pictures included in this post.

    Thursday, January 11, 2007

    HK YMCA Jintang School Play Competition

    Since before the New Year's holiday, preparations have been underway for yesterday's inter-school English play competition in Jintang. Eleven schools competed yesterday for four slots in the final competition. Our students ranked in the top four teams and will proceed to the finals next week.

    Above are Kenna, Lisa, David, Ann and Peter. They preformed the Hong Kong YMCA Primary School's Birthday Party play in the competition.

    Ye Yu (Suzanne), Headmaster of the Hong Kong YMCA Primary School, helps Kenna with his play costume.

    "Sandwich," a volunteer from Hong Kong with the YMCA Yellow House Orphanage, took a very active part in training and practicing the students for the play competition. Idol Pong, of Yellow House, wrote the original script for the play. Several YMCA, orphanage and school staff assisted with training the children to perform the play.

    Yao Hong Mei, first and fourth grade English teacher at the Jintang school, helps a student get dressed prior to the competition.

    Our students were the fourth team to perform. Two of the teams prior to us had elaborate costumes and scenery; but the competition was about speaking English and our children did very, very well. Two of earlier teams, below, performed a play about animals and a Cinderella type play.



    Wednesday, January 10, 2007

    Young Pioneers - Investiture Ceremony

    Today at the Hong Kong YMCA Jintang Primary School's opening exercises, the Investiture Ceremony was conducted bringing the first grade students into the Young Pioneers of China. The Young Pioneers of China is a mass youth organization for children in the People's Republic of China. The YP of China is run by the Communist Youth League, an organization of older youth that comes under the Communist Party of China. The YP of China is similar to Pioneer Movements that exist or existed in many Communist countries around the world.

    YP members consist of children between the ages of six and fourteen; upon reaching the age of fourteen, YP members automatically exit the YP and may go on to join the Communist Youth League. In 2003, there were an estimated 130 million YP members in China.

    The YP Salute consists of bending the right arm and raising the right hand directly above the head, the palm flat and facing downward, and the fingers together. It symbolizes that the interests of the People supersede all. The YP Promise is: I am a member of the Young Pioneers of China. Under the Pioneers Flag I promise that: I love the Communist Party of China, I love the motherland, I love the people; I will study well and keep myself fit, to prepare for: contributing my effort to the cause of communism.

    The red scarf is the only uniform item. Young Pioneers are often referred to simply as "Red Scarves"; the Investiture Ceremony consists of new members having their scarves tied for them by existing members. The red scarf is generally worn around the neck and tied, with no woggle. The YP Constitution explains that the scarf corresponds to the missing triangle on the medium detachment flag and the red of the scarf comes from the blood sacrificed by martyrs of the Revolution, and that the members should therefore wear the scarf with reverence.



    Two new members of the Young Pioneers of China.


    The group of first graders who were made members
    of the Young Pioneers of China.



    NOTE: The above information was taken from the entry Young Pioneers of China in Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors. I accessed the article through Answers.com since Wikipedia cannot be accessed from China.

    Tuesday, January 09, 2007

    Two Days of Sunshine!!!!!

    This morning I could see the sun (above) when it rose above the horizon which has not been the case for over two weeks because of the clouds and fog! Yesterday afternoon we had sun for the whole afternoon and I walked in Tazishan Park taking pictures which I hope to post later this week. This afternoon the sun was bright and I took a short walk to take some pictures. It sure is wonderful to be able to walk in the sun -- although it is still cold. The forecast for today was 2 to 6 degrees Celsius ... cold, but not as cold as Lords Valley PA! Let's hope that Wednesday will make three days of sunshine in a row!

    Hot Pot - Sichuan's Most Famous Dish

    Last night, Paul (one of our YMCA Branch Directors) invited me to join his family and the family of one of his daughter's classmates who are from America to have Sichuan Hotpot. We ate at a Chongqing Kongliang Restaurant in Chengdu which Paul said was one of the best places to have Hotpot. Since I didn't take pictures last night, the Hotpot picture above is from the Chongqing Kongliang web site and looks like what we had last evening. Among the ingredients we had were beef tail, duck tongue, beef, mushrooms, bean spouts, fish, lotus, winter squash, meat balls, dates, and other meats and vegetables. Surprisingly, it was not as spicy hot as I expected. The double wok shown above makes it possible for folks to put their meats and/or vegetables into boiling oil with lots or little spices. I enjoyed both the Hotpot and the conversation with Paul's family and their guests who are here for one year while the father does research in Chinese History on a Fulbright. The had previously lived in Chengdu for two years while teaching English at a language institute connected with Sichuan University.

    For those not familiar with Hot Pot, the following description is from Theodore Johnson's Sichuan English Guide (Tourism Education Press, 2003), pages 167-168:

    "Hotpot is the most famous and favorite dish in Sichuan. It is noted for its peppery and hot taste. Customers gather around a small pot heated with charcoal, electricity, or gas. Each pot is filled with a nutritious soup base. Around the wok are placed a dozen plates of paper-thin slices of raw meat and other ingredients. The customers pick up the raw ingredients and boil them in the soup base. Then they take them out of the wok, dip them in a little bowl of special sauce and eat them.
    "Hotpot supposedly originated in Chongqing city. In the 1920s, there were several oxen slaughterhouses located on the northern side of the Yangzhi River in Chongqing. The slaughterhouses often sold oxen entrails at a cheap price to vendors who owned stalls near the river ferry. The vendors cleaned the entrails and cut them into small pieces before putting them into pots of stew with hot pepper and other sauces. The vendors usually sold the stewed entrails soup to boatmen, laborers and peddlers. It was cheap and tasty.
    "However, the sliced oxen entrails in soup could only be eaten while it was hot. As weather changed and wind blew from the river, the soup soon became cool, and the cool entrails didn't taste good. So some boatmen set up a big wok full of hot, spiced oil. They skewed sliced entrails and at them hot. This new way of hotpot eating gradually spread far and wide in Sichuan province. Now it is very popular and can be found at every corner of the city. Many sidewalk hotpot operations and exquisite hotpot restaurants have been set up to meet the demand from the local people.
    "There are a great variety of hotpots. They include Yuanyang Hotpot, Four Tastes Hotpot, Yachang Hotpot and Fish Head Hotpot. Restaurant owners offer spicy hotpot at different levels based on customers' tastes so that friends and family with different tastes can huddle around the hotpot. One of the most popular hotpots is the Yuan yang Hotpot in Sichuan. The Yuanyang hotpot refers to the wok, which has been partitioned into two parts by a thin metal plate. One part is filled with traditional hot-spicy soup and the other with non-hot-spicy broth. This typical hotpot suits many customers at home and abroad. Whatever your tastes are and wherever you travel in Sichuan, you will find something you like to eat."

    NOTE: Theodore Johnson's Sichuan English Guide [Tourism Education Press, 2003; ISBN 7563711619] was written as a resource for Chinese tour guides to provide descriptions in English; but it is an excellent tour guide for anyone traveling in Sichuan.

    Sunday, January 07, 2007

    Cultural China & Chinese Religous Series

    A couple of weeks ago I purchased Chinese Literature by Yao Dan. It is one of nine books in the second series (volume) of the Cultural China Series published by the China International Press. The other books in the second series are: China Tea, Chinese Festivals, Chinese Ceramics, Ancient Chinese Inventions, The Art of Chinese Painting, Chinese Architecture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Chinese Arts & Crafts.

    The first series (volume) of the Cultural China Series also includes nine books: Chinese Calligraphy, Chinese Gardens, Peking Opera, Chinese Vernacular Dwelling, Chinese Clothing, Chinese Foods, China's Cultural Relics, China's Museums, and Chinese Folk Arts. The nine books in the first series can be downloaded as e-books free of charge from the ShowChina.com web site. While the display (above) is in Chinese, the books are in English.

    The People's Republic of China officially recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Protestant Christianity and Catholic Christianity. The Chinese Religions Series contains five books - one on each of the recognized religions in China. They may also be downloaded as e-books free of charge from the ShowChina.com web site. These two sets of free e-books offer a rich background of information on China's cultural and religious life.

    Sugar Painting in Chengdu

    Hongfei Zhang, in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, gives a wonderful description of Chengdu Sugar Painting. It describes exactly what I've seen on the streets and in the parks. These artisans produce some amazing results -- like the bicycle shown above. Hongfei Zhang writes (page 89): "Sugar Painting in Chengdu was most popular in the years of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty. At that time, many people made a living by sugar painting, shouldering a carrying pole and setting up stalls in crowded streets, in front of theatres and busy public places. There used to be an old handicraftsman with many prentices, who led prentices to place the stall in Erxian Temple of the Green Goat Palace [Qingyang Temple] for the temple fair. Many sugar painters gathered and competed against each other, with a lot of people surrounding to watch.

    On the right of the sugar paining stall is a small wooden table, on which is placed a smooth marble slab. Beside the table is a small stove used to boil thick syrup which is made and sold. Using a small spoon to scoop the syrup which looks like silk and thread, the handicraftsman concentrates his strength on the wrist and takes the spoon as a brush pen, rising and pausing strokes, up and down, left and right. Soon a vivid sugar painting is finished, which in then stuck to a bamboo slice and scooped up with a small shovel, shining in the sunlight, sparkling and crystal-clear, nice and lovely in look.


    On the left of the stall is placed a turntable, on which are drawn many grids marked with cock, dragon, flower, plant, human figure and so on. The indicative hand is also made of bamboo sheet. Run it slightly and you will get whatever it points at. On the stall, there is also a bundle tied to a bamboo stick and made of straw, on which are plugged comleted sugar paintings as a signboard to solicit customers.

    "Sugar painting is especially popular among kids. They cry for it yet are reluctant to eat it, licking it gently and then looking at it for a long time. Some young boys and girls also want to try their luck and shout and jump for joy if they get a dragon. Actually, they just do it for a joyful mood instead of really wanting something."
    Note: Chengdu Sichuan China [The Printing House of UESTC, 2006] was written in Chinese by Zhang Hongfei, a Chengdu-based management consultant, translated into English by several translators, and proofread and de-Chinglified by expatriate writer Warren Rodwell who teaches postgraduates at The University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. The book is sold at several outlets in Chengdu. For specific information email Warren Rodwell at woccamedia@gmail.com for current sale locations.