The first photos that went around the world last week showing bloody ethnic riots in China were shocking. One memorable photo depicted two Chinese women, dripping with blood, reaching out to comfort each other.

Here in China, people understood the women were Han Chinese, victims of an attack by rioting ethnic Uighurs. State-run television endlessly ran film of the women, dazed and stumbling on the streets of Urumqi.

But by the time that image reached the Evening Standard newspaper in London, it was a different story.

"Blood and Defiance," the caption beneath the photo read on the newspaper's website, "two women comfort each other after being attacked by police."

"Their action reveals not only moral degeneration," proclaimed China Daily, the state-run, English-language newspaper, "but blatant betrayal of journalistic ethics."

In London, the Standard's managing editor, David Willis, said Wednesday the caption was simply "an interpretation" by a copy editor of information supplied by the Associated Press, which had transmitted the photo. Nevertheless, the news agency had said nothing about who attacked the women.

"If that interpretation was wrong," said Willis, "it was a mistake. In any case, we took it off the site when it was put in doubt." Readers had complained, he said.

This week popular Chinese newspapers such as Beijing-based China Youth Daily lashed out at virtually all Western media, saying riot coverage showed Western prejudice, accusing some of "intentionally" changing facts.

However, the Evening Standard was not the only target. The BBC, Al-Jazeera, The New York Times, the Daily Telegraph and even The Wall Street Journal came under siege.

- Now it is my opinion that all media is biased, and therefore used for the editor’s motives and that most public relations include a lot of spin. However having scanned through several sites for information and not just the English Broadsheets, the information came through rather chaotically and seemed fairly unanimous and this coverage seemed a lot more open than last year’s coverage of the Tibet protests.

This all said the Chinese government has also admitted to killing 12 Uighurs in the recent Urumqi protests, which is highly unusual admission from the government. This also questions the position of some criticism of the Western Press.


News Source:
The Star

Photo Source:
Day Life

Similiar to David Blaine's infamous sit in, in London, an Artist at the Venice Biennale has locked himself in a box in protest of China's one child per family policy. The box is 6 1/2 feet long by 3 feet high and 3 feet wide and Xing Xin is staying there for 49 days. It features special contraptions to allow Xing to be fed and to relieve himself.

To take up his time he has decided to count the characters used in all 150 books used in China's nine year compulsory education system. There are cameras inside the box to track Xing's movements and two waterproof televeisions outside this box, so that passers-by can see Xing's movements.

He plans to redo this protest in a glass box next time, when director of the Spazio Berengo creates a new glass museum that is set to open in the autumn, on the site where Xing's iron box currently stands. With Berengo's continued sponsorship, the artist plans to repeat the demonstration in a second box made of glass.

As for how much this protest will affect China's Decision making, I would say, it's not the biggest protest or the most life changing, I've seen and would have to be repeated by by several hundred within China to make any true political waves.

News Source:
LA Times
Art Info

Picture Source:
http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=367568

A rare admission from the Chinese government sees officals acknowledging having shot dead 12 Uighur protesters in last week in Urumqi, Xinjiang province.

Police shot dead 12 armed Uighurs attacking civilians and ransacking shops after they ignored warning shots fired into the air, said Nuer Baikeli.

More than 100 schoolchildren and their teachers from the UK and US have been quarantined in Beijing after eight children were found to have swine flu.

The students were part of a 1,000-strong group of visitors to China from across the world learning about the country’s language and culture.

More than 500 Britons were understood to be on the trip organised by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the British Council and Chinese organisation Hanban.

"We are quarantined in the hotel and are all currently well as we have daily temperature checks which are all good," they said in an e-mail sent from their hotel room.

One of the boys, Christopher Hicks, said that they had been visiting the Great Wall of China when they were called back, because they had previously shared a bus with a pupil from another school who had tested positive for the virus.

I am Charlie a 21 year old English, university student and am learning Mandarin with the help of Rosetta Stone software complimented with a couple of additional books to give me the grammatical help I found that I needed with the Rosetta stone style of learning. I have been learning for about a week, and thought that I would like to start a blog where my findings about Mandarin, China, and Chinese Culture can be discussed and hopefully form a community of people that are also similarly interested in learning the Chinese Mandarin language.

I have found it hard to find other people where I live that are interested in starting to learn, and especially past just the basic language, I am interested in the history, culture and food of the Chinese people.

I aim to contribute several articles a week through various aspects of Chinese culture and will look into anything brought up by your readers in comments or requests.

I also am aiming to provide regular language updates, as this was my primary motive for setting up the blog, and hopefully providing useful information to others similarly starting to learn the language.

So for now, I hope that you will be interested in delving deeper into my community blog, and will continue to visit and join in my adventure, Discovering Mandarin.


So for now, I hope that you will be interested in delving deeper into my community blog, and will continue to visit and join in my adventure, Discovering Mandarin.

The Resources I am using to help me Learn Mandarin:
Chinese for Dummies
Complete Mandarin Chinese Book/CD Pack
Rosetta Stone: Chinese (Mandarin) Level 1, 2 and 3 Set (Mac/PC CD)


Charlie @ Discovering Mandarin

With the worlds eyes more and more focussing on China, especially with recent troubles in Urumqi, and the Rio Tinto row. The Chinese government has apparently tried to prevent a film about an exiled Uighur leader being shown at Melbournes International film festival.

The film, Ten Conditions of Love, by Melbourne film-maker Jeff Daniels, tells of Rebiya Kadeer's (the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress.) relationship with her activist husband Sidik Rouzi and the impact her campaigning had on her 11 children. Three of her children have been jailed.

China accuses the group of inciting recent ethnic unrest in Xinjiang, which has caused mass criticism from around the world, whilst China have called for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to retract his accusation that Beijing practised genocide against ethnic Uighurs.

Beijing and Canberra are also already locked in a row over an Australian mining executive who has been arrested for spying in China. This minor aggrivation can only be furthering tensions between the Chinese and Australians.

News Source:
BBC
BBC

Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network has taken up the cause of China’s Muslim Uighur minority with a pledge to attack Chinese workers in North-Western Africa in retaliation for mistreatment by Beijing of its largest Muslim minority in Urumqi. The Algerian based Al-Qaeda offshoot, the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has threatened to target the 50,000 Chinese nationals in North-Western Africa.

It is the first time that any al-Qaeda group has threatened China or its interests and illustrates the high price that Beijing may pay for the riots in Urumqi, in which at least 136 Han Chinese and 46 Uighurs died last week. Though an expert assessment does not suggest there is any direct link between Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province and al-Qaida. It also suggests it is unlikely that al-Qaida's central leadership has decided to stage attacks within China.

Security remains tight in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, after two Uighurs were shot dead by police yesterday and a third wounded in a street fight, the details of which remain unclear. Everyone in the city must now carry their identity card or driving licence or they will be taken away for interrogation.

AQIM, which wants to impose an Islamic state in Algeria, was founded in the mid-1990s and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden in 2003. The huge oil and gas reserves in Xinjiang, as well as the web of pipelines that run through the province, funnelling energy from Kazakhstan and Russia all the way to Beijing and Shanghai, make the province vital to China's interests.
However, China's policy of total control has upset Islamic states, especially in the past week. Protesting Muslims in Indonesia called for a jihad against China on Monday, clashing with police outside the Chinese embassy in Jakarta.


News Source:
Telegraph
Times Online
Guardian

Shootings follow inter-ethnic clashes in Urumqi in which government says 184 people died Chinese police shot dead two men and injured a third as the trio attacked a fellow Uighur in the riot-hit capital of north-western Xinjiang province today, officials have announced.

The violence follows last week's inter-ethnic clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi, in which the government says that 184 people were killed and 1,680 wounded. It has warned that the death toll could rise.

Police fired warning shots today when they saw three Uighurs with long knives chasing an injured Uighur man, but the men then turned on the officers, officials said.

They shot dead two Uighurs with knives and injured another one, who is now in hospital receiving treatment. Around 20,000 security personnel are stationed in the city, but officials said the officers involved were regular police rather than paramilitaries. They were on patrol in the Tianshan district, close to a Uighur area, when the incident happened shortly before 3pm.

It is rare for the authorities to publish details of this kind of case so quickly.


News Source:

Telegraph

Guardian

A Chinese-language daily newspaper is being published in Botswana. Chinese entrepreneur Miles Nan recently launched The Oriental Post - Africa's first paper in Chinese - to serve the 5,000-plus Chinese inhabitants living in Botswana, few of whom are able to read English.

"In launching the paper I wanted to improve relations between the Chinese and Botswanas. The Chinese could learn a lot about the culture and diversity in Africa. We also want to publish a few pages in English so that the Botswanans can find out about us too. Concerning Chinese politics, We shouldn't, and we don't, publish anything and everything. It's just like that."
Miles Nan

Nan, who has lived in Botswana for 10 years and is ceo of a construction company in the Botswana capital, Gaborone, is also secretary general of the Chinese chamber of commerce.

The Observers

Guardian

Photo Source:

Photo originally from Mmegi newspaper

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

Armed riot police, armoured personnel carriers and guard dogs patrolled the capital of China’s only Muslim majority region yesterday after scores died in the bloodiest clashes in the country since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

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****

**Further Update Here**

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:

Independant

Times Online

LA Times

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

China Daily
Shanghai Daily
CCTV
Telegraph
Guardian
BBC

Charlie @ Discovering Mandarin's Social Media
Facebook Page
Twitter Profile
InterPals Profile

Useful Blog Listings
Digg
Reddit
Delicious
ChinaLyst
Asia - China
DirectoryShock
Dmegs Web Directory
Directory, direct links
Globe of Blogs

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.

Please do feel free to drop me a comment here, or email me at;

discoveringmandarin@gmail.com

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.