See China

On March 27, an (almost perpetual) interesting topic was brought up by the Paper Republic on the reception of Chinese literature, or the lack of it, among “Western readers”.

How do the Chinese see, hear, smell, taste,touch,feel and fantasize about their world? What are the shared memories underlying Chinese culture and arts? Jiang Xun (蒋勋), a celebrated aesthetics scholar and essayist from Taiwan, talks about the exquisite world of sensibilities and shared memories of the Chinese.

《变形记》Bian Xing Ji
at the SARS Stage at Chaoyang 9 Theater
Reviewed by Elyse Ribbons
Sitting in the cheerfully decorated small theater on the 4th floor of the Chaoyang 9 Theater compound, the atmosphere was full of expectations.  The second part in an ongoing series by Director and Playwright Wu Ran, Bian Xing Ji was a delightfully corny [...]

Launched in 1904, the Eastern Miscellany (东方杂志) is an encyclopedic witness to, and active player in the history of China in the first half of the 20th century. Now going online at http://em.refbook.com.cn, it provides full access to 30,000 articles, 12,000 pictures and 14,000 advertisements in original copies. A true treasurehouse for historically minded people to explore!

How many mother tongues do the Chinese speak? Since Feb. 21 was proclaimed by UNESCO as the Intenational Mother Language Day, it is befitting to introduce the 80+ dialects and spoken languages now used by the 1.3 billion Chinese population across this vast land.

A review of the 2010 Spring Festival Gala.

The popularity of Chinese language classes is at an all-time high, as more and more people sign up to xuexi putonghua (study Mandarin). However, China’s 400 million Internet users have some phrases that new students won’t find in any dictionary or language textbook.
Just as the development and increasing use of the Internet put words only [...]