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22 hours ago
The scale of the Uighur protest and its level of violence took everyone by surprise. Witnesses describe a peaceful, but noisy crowd in the Central Square at 7pm that turned into an angry mob that set upon Han passers-by. Many victims were slashed, stabbed and beaten to death. The government says 184 people were killed, including 137 Han Chinese, 46 Uighurs and one from the Hui ethnic group, and more than 1,000 injured. The vast majority were Han.
The state media have published graphic images of the bloodied bodies of Han victims in Urumqi, but pictures and video of the violence against Uighurs in Shaoguan remains censored.
A day after the riots in Urumqi, police rounded up more than 1,000 Uighur suspects. But it was not until the following day – 10 days after the toy factory fight – that the Shaoguan police announced that they had detained anyone suspected of killing the Uighur migrants.
On the night of 25 June, two Uighurs were killed by a Han mob. The fury and hatred from that episode was rapidly transmitted back across the country via internet and mobile phone to Xinjiang, the Uighurs' home. Little more than a week later, thousands of Uighur protesters took to the streets of Urumqi, capital of the far western province of Xinjiang, slaughtering Han people in the worst race riots in modern Chinese history. The explosion of violence on one side of China was far deadlier than the distant spark that ignited it.
These clashes come only a year after the Han clashes with Tibetans but is considerably worse in terms of deaths and injuries. Though less publicised because of last years Olympics had the eyes of the world on Beijing.
At the heart of the escalating problem are China's antiquated policies towards its ethnic minorities - a raft of Marxist measures that are now pleasing neither the ethnic Han, nor the minorities. As China's gargantuan economy has advanced, former leader Mao Zedong's vision of political and economic equality between Han and non-Han has gradually been undermined.
The end result could be seen on the bloody streets of Urumqi.
News Source:
Guardian
Asia Times
Guardian
It would be hard to exaggerate the symbolism, or the embarassment, of the Chinese President Hu Jintao having to rush away from the G8 summit in Italy to cope with the outbreak of violence from the Uighur people back home. This was after all the meeting of the world's Big Boys to which China had been invited as the coming power, a moment when it could exert its new-found influence in the discussions on trade, recession and the environment, while the riots which were forcing Hu Jintao's return had been presented as a provincial disturbance which the Chinese authorities had brought quickly under control.
News Source:
Independent
An earthquake reaching 6.0 on the Richter scale hits Yunnan in South-West China, leaving 400,000 homeless and one confirmed death.
Thursday's quake centered in Yunnan province's Yao'an county, 60 miles northeast of the tourist city of Dali. The quake injured 325, 24 seriously, the Xinhua News Agency said.
Yunnan is a quake-prone, mountainous region that lies on China's southern border with Thailand and Burma It also borders Sichuan province, where a magnitude-7.9 quake last year left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.
News Source:
Telegraph
The Chinese creation myth, as most others serves as the explanation of the birth of the world, and equivalent Heaven and Earth, as in many other cultures. There are several creation myths in China, however Pan Gu, previously traslated as P’an Ku (盘古) is most widely known as the Creator, whilst Lao Tzu puts forward a more philosophical approach to creation.
The term creation myth here, refers to the imaginative expression in narrative form, of the beginning of things, whether by the will and act of a transcendent being, by emanation from some ultimate source, or in any other way. Here are the two most popular and influential of the Chinese Creation Myths.
The most influential of these two creation myths is included in Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu, who says of the universe;
“There was something undefined and complete, existing before Heaven and Earth. How still it was, how formless, standing alone and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere with no danger of being exhausted. It may be regarded as the mother of all things. Truthfully it has no name, but I call it Tao. (or The Way).”
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 25.
Tao is often compared to water: clear, colourless, unremarkable, yet all beings depend on it for life, and even the hardest stone cannot stand in its way forever. This way of thought has spawned Taoism, Chinese Buddhism as well as philosophical schools of thought.
The creation though for most is described in the tale of Pan Gu and the creation not only of heaven and earth, but of the separation of Yin and Yang.
The P'an Ku Creation story though there are many many translations and versions, goes something like this:
"In the beginning the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos.
The universe was like a big black egg with Pan Gu asleep inside.
After 18 thousand years Pan Gu woke from his long sleep. He took a
broad axe and swung it with all his might to crack open the egg. The light part of it floated up and formed the heavens and the other, colder matter stayed below to form the earth. Pan Gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth.
The heavens and the earth began to grow and Pan Gu grew with them. After another 18 thousand years the sky was higher and Pan Gu stood between the heavens and earth so they would never join again.
When he died, he filled in the rest of the world. His breath created the wind and clouds. His flesh became soil, his bones rock, and his blood filled the rivers and seas. His limbs and body became the five major mountains in China. His hair became the stars in the sky. From his sweat came the rain to nourish the land. His eyes became the sun and the moon. And finally, from the small creatures on his body, which has been equated to parasites in some translations, came man.
Others say that the half-dragon goddess Nuwa was born after Pan-gu died, from part of the mixture of yin and yang that he had separated. She decided to create humans to have some other beings to talk to and share ideas with, but mostly just to love.
Nuwa went down to the edge of the Yellow River where there were vast, soft mud banks. She began forming figures out of clay. She decided that it would be much more practical for her creations to have legs instead of a dragon tail, thus her humans were not made in her image.
No sooner did she set the first little mud man on the ground did he start to jump, and dance and sing. He began to speak. “Look at me!”
Nuwa was delighted and began making more and more humans.
She made hundreds and hundreds of mud humans, but soon realized that it would take centuries for her to make enough people to fill the vast earth completely. Nuwa grabbed hold of a muddy stick and flung drops of mud across the land.
As the sun dried each drop, it became a new man or woman. Some say that these humans were the less intelligent ones. Those formed by Nuwa’s own hands became great leaders.
She told them to go and populate the earth. As they grew she loved them and protected them, and was revered as the mother of all humans."
The Pan Gu or P’an Ku myth is similar to that of Lao Tzu’s theory, as the egg or planet was still, and undisturbed, prior to Pan Gu awakening. Both of which could be seen to have existed prior to what we know now as Heaven and Earth. This creation story is one of many told across China, because of its dis-separate tribal history.
If you have any further creation stories that are told in China, please let me know andi will try to include them in a further post.
Sources:
Mythic Journeys
Living Myths
Brittanica
Officials said in a riot that erupted on Sunday evening in the heart of the city of Urumqi in the west of China. They said the number of fatalities was almost certain to rise.
At least 140 people have been killed in rioting in the capital of China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, with the government blaming exiled separatists for the Muslim area's worst case of unrest in years.
UPDATE!!!
*** This has now been confirmed as 156 had been killed, and 828 people injured****
Hundreds of rioters have been arrested, the official Xinhua news agency reported, after rock-throwing Uighurs took to the streets of the regional capital yesterday, some burning and smashing vehicles and confronting ranks of anti-riot police.
Li Zhi, the Communist Party boss of Urumqi told a news conference that the death toll from the rioting had risen to 140, the semi-official China News Agency said. Xinhua said 816 people were injured and hospitalised.
Police rounded up "several hundred" who participated in the violence, including more than 10 key players who fanned unrest, Xinhua said, and are searching for 90 others.
News Source:
Great Blogs About Mandarin
Bill Glover - Great links and knowledge about Mandarin Learning
Yago Singapore Blog - Singapore Based Mandarin School
Mandarin Segments - Mandarin Learner that blogs about current experiences
Bloggers in China
Eating Cake with Chopsticks - A Brit in China
Daily Chinese Words
Nciku Daily Chinese Words & Dictionary
Learn Chinese Everday - Daily words with Stroke pattern, Audio and sentences with meanings.
Great Resources for Mandarin Learners
MDBG - Incredibly good translator with lots of useful functions [use with care]
PopupChinese - Simplified Characters to Pinyin Converter
Anki - Free Flashcards - Independently Custom for the user
ZDT - More Flashcard Software
News Sites
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Shanghai Daily
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Telegraph
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Although I have started to make this blog public now, there are still a lot of things that need doing and I realise that for a while, there are many sections that appear in my menus that won't have any content yet.
I assure you I am getting to it, I am happy for people to request anything they cannot find, and I will try to prioritise this information. If you are interested in writing for me, and helping this procedure speed up, then also feel free to get in touch.
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If there is anything that you would like to see here that isn't already, or any further information about anything specific please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Hope you are enjoying and learning from what is already here.
Charlie @ Discovering Mandarin
Kuaizi
Chopsticks play an important role in Chinese food culture. Chopsticks are called "Kuaizi" in Chinese and were called "Zhu" in ancient times (see the characters above). Chinese people have been using kuaizi as one of the main tableware for more than 3,000 years.
It was recorded in Liji (The Book of Rites) that chopsticks were used in the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC - 1100 BC). It was mentioned in Shiji (the Chinese history book) by Sima Qian (about 145 BC) that Zhou, the last king of the Shang Dynasty (around 1100 BC), used ivory chopsticks. Experts believe the history of wood or bamboo chopsticks can be dated to about 1,000 years earlier than ivory chopsticks. Bronze chopsticks were invented in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1100 BC - 771 BC). Lacquer chopsticks from the Western Han (206 BC - 24 AD) were discovered in Mawangdui, China. Gold and silver chopsticks became popular in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). It was believed that silver chopsticks could detect poisons in food.
There are a few things to avoid when using chopsticks. Chinese people usually don't beat their bowls while eating, since the behaviour used to be practices by beggars. Also don't insert chopsticks in a bowl upright because it is a custom exclusively used in sacrifice.
If you are really interested in chopsticks, you may want to visit the Kuaizi Museum in Shanghai. The museum collected over 1,000 pairs of chopsticks. The oldest one was from the Tang Dynasty.
Discovering Mandarin is a site set up to bring together people that are interested in learning Mandarin, and to help others like me who are just starting to learn.
I am Charlie: A 21-year old Marketing Student who has set up his own marketing/rebranding company with one of his housemates which also does webdesign and graphics work. I have always been enthralled by Chinese culture and have wanted to learn Mandarin for years. But never had the opportunity until last year when I got a little disillusioned with my university course, and I vowed to myself over the summer I would start to learn Mandarin.
The main aim is to move to China with my girlfriend (who isn't Chinese; though one of her favourite cuisines is Chinese food) after a couple of years, possibly to teach English, or if things go really well, maybe even links to business.
I initially wanted to set this blog up so I could have dialogue with other Mandarin learners to inspire me to learn and stay committed. My housemates, started to learn Japanese as I started to learn Mandarin, and although it's not a race. I want to get fluent as they do, but they have each other to test each other on.
I hope that Discovering Mandarin will be able to document my progression through the language with others, and also start to write about the Chinese culture, and offer some interesting articles giving you further insight into the diverse and mysterious Chinese culture.
I also intend this to be a reference bank full of material that can be used for everyone in the future, and there are thoughts of getting my own hosting and a forum...
If there is anything in the site that isn't here that you think should be; please email me I welcome any feedback or comments and feel free to get in touch.
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I would be glad to hear from you regarding anything to do with the site, content, advertising or writing guest posts.
Feel free to get in touch.
Charlie.
