Essays on Chinese Culture

Food Speaks Louder than Words Growing up in a Chinese household, one of the things that would always come up while talking to my relatives is asking me “Did you eat yet?” I like to think of that question as one of their ways of...

High-context cultures like China tend to be collectivistic with large interpersonal relationships that likely have a social hierarchy, and information is normally verbally unsaid, where messages instead have deep meanings. Low-context cultures like the USA tend to be individualistic with little interaction between people and...

My whole life has revolved around two distinct cultures: Chinese and American. These two cultures have worked in perfect harmony to shape the way I live. Throughout my life, I have come to recognize both the distinctions that set the two cultures apart as well...

The art of drinking and serving tea, which many call as “Chinese tea ceremony” plays a very vital role in China. In fact, the ritual of preparing tea has held a special place in the hearts and minds of the Chinese. Although the ceremony emphasizes...

Chinese food has been the rage recently in urban cities. I don’t mean those “American-Chinese” restaurants which commonly serve overly sweetened and sauced fried chicken. Authentic Chinese food has almost no resemblance. Traditional Chinese dishes are often hidden away on Chinese-language menus in Chinatown, and...

For Chinese people, the most important meal is the supper of the Chinese New Year ’s Eve. It is a tradition that family members get together to celebrate the New Year. No matter how far away from home, you must come back to sit beside...

Chinese numbers are very similar to each other. The number 0, 6, 8, and 9 have favorable and unfavorable meanings because they either sound similar to other words that have positive meanings or the pronunciation of the number. The most favorable numbers are 6, 8,...

Perhaps, when you hear about Temple Street, the first thing that may come to your mind is the night market, and you’ll be right. Temple Street is known as one of the largest flea markets in Asia and is very popular among tourists, especially those...

It is a well-known fact that next to plain water, the most popular drink on earth is tea. In China, almost every aspect of the growing and production of traditional teas is controlled. The Chinese drink green teas and some oolongs without milk, and black...

Introduction The art of drinking and serving tea plays a very vital cultural role in China. It inspires a lot of artists that the Chinese tea ceremony, as it is called, has been written in songs and poetry. The ritual of preparing and serving tea...

Looking at the long river of history, people would always find that some region which used to thrive for years would return to silence again. Chinatown in Newark was one of example. The book “When Newark Had a Chinatown” by Yoland Skeete-Laessig talks about the...

Chinese culture and traditions are well known, on the basis of modern writing, for their originality and peculiarity. The book Spring Moon by Bette Bao Lord offers a rigorous explanation of this kind of lifestyle through the story of a Chinese girl called Spring Moon,...

Jackson Wang is definitely a triple threat. The famous Chinese entertainer is a rapper, singer and dancer. He is also a member of the popular K-Pop group, GOT 7. He has notably appeared on the Korean reality television show Roommate. Jackson was he was born...

A “Chinatown” is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people who have established their population in an urban setting, often seen in a prospering city like Toronto. Being a multicultural city, the immigrants who have slowly migrated over time have come to see that the acceptance...

The “Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee,” revolved around a very prominent district magistrate named Judge Dee Goong An, a man famous for his ability to solve mysterious cases. Judge Dee digs deep to solve each case and was successful because he combined the three philosophies...

In “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” Chua compares the stereotypical Chinese parents to the Western parents which is an issue raised since many people question how Chinese kids are brought up to be very influential who add a great impact in their community. Chua starts...

Introduction Unlike the colonial era, present-day migration from China is directed to developing, industrialized and post-industrialized countries alike this is in contrast to when Chinese indentured or contract workers went to Southeast Asia and settled in designated Chinatowns or remote plantation and mining areas. Contemporary...

Introduction The following summary of traditional Chinese wedding customs was prepared in response to questions from visitors to this site. It is by no means a scholarly work, nor does the author claim any special expertise. Moreover, there were variations across China’s vast expanse –...

The Review of White Rabbit’s latest exhibition – the reshaped Chinese landscapes of the 21st Century Jiayi Chen z5194640 In ancient China, Chinese artists retired deep into the mountains and indulged amidst the natural landscapes with misty-wreathed mountains and peak, tumbling waterfalls, and gurgling streams....

Mulan is a Disney movie that debuted in 1998. The movie is set in China during the time of the Hun invasion. Mulan does not like to conform to the traditional Chinese daughter and is somewhat a tomboy. Therefore, Mulan takes it upon herself to...

Competition for power is a force that led to the keeping of the Chinese culture apart. For instance, Confucius came into being at a time when Zhou power was in decline and other empires such as the vassal lords and the nomads fought to be...

Could you Imagine being just one year old, and your father says goodbye to you in China and returned to Canada. He wouldn’t see you for the next 18 years, and you were prevented from joining him by a racist Canadian law. This was not...

Idol Producer and Producer 101 China are the two most buzzed topics on the country’s social media in recent months. By the time of this publication, they both received more than 10 billion views on Weibo, one of China’s most important social media channels.(M.Y 2018) They are...

For my final project, I have decided to write a short story comparing the Danish family life with the Chinese family life. My idea was inspired by a book called East Meets West, it is a book written by a graphic artist Yang Liu. At...

Facing against the adversity, western is different from eastern culture even though both of the cultures has no bargaining power. Western women tend to express their thoughts and fights for their right. On the contrary, Eastern women endure unfairness by themselves. Ada has chopped off...

The Chinese Cultural Revolution had a deep and lasting impact on Chinese social and domestic society, the economy, education and most importantly politics. It aimed to transform all aspects of China to eliminate the tensions between sections of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and it’s...

Peking opera is a special unique blend of theater, mime, acrobatics, circus and carnival action. Wichmann stated that “Beijing Opera is a synthesis of stylized action, singing, dialogue and mime, acrobatic fighting and dancing to represent a story or depict different characters and their feelings...

Chinese shoppers have been dominating the luxury goods industry lately. These luxuries were previously exclusive to China’s socialites, but are now a commodity donned by those of all social classes. It was not always like this though; two years ago, the purchases of luxury goods...

Introduction Religion is a system of behaviours and beliefs that deal with the relationship among the humans and the supernatural. Here I want to discuss Chinese type of religion, its belief system, mythologie, symbol and practice and cleric. About Taoism Modern China claims to take...

There is a traditional culture in China called “pattern of the make-up” which has thousand years history from the Chinese traditional art “Peking opera”. In the Tang Dynasties with emperor Xuanzong (721-755 A.D), who founded the Pear Garden (Liyuan, the early Peking opera), the first...