See China

If you take Beijing’s line one subway often enough, you probably have heard of a station called Gong Zhu Fen, or Princess’ tomb. When I first heard it four years ago, my curiosity was hooked immediately.

An original photographic exhibition composed of 62 pictures is open for bid for international tour. The theme of the exhibition: portrait of a Chinese for 62 years, faithfully records the life of a Chinese businessman named Ye Jinglv (叶景吕) from 1907 to 1968, spanning three historical eras (Qing Dynasty, Republic of China, the People’s Republic of China) and two World Wars.

The National Library of China, the world’s largest archive of Chinese books and manuscripts, is now soliciting old pictures about the life and history of global Chinese descendents. Donars of pictures eligible to be permanently collected by NLC will be conferred with an official certificate. Please contact nlcoldphoto@yahoo.cn for details.

For many English readers, the spelling of a Chinese name often brings a lot of headache, but a list of humorously romanticized Chinese names created by the notoriously mischieveous “netizens” of China, seem to have paved out a shinning way for this brave new global village. For example: Johnny for Confucius, Angel for Ma Ying-jeou, and Louis Bond for Liu Bang, founder of Han Dynasty who lived about 2000 years ago.

A book written by Lu Shi’e (陆士谔) in 1910 fortold the event of Shanghai World Expo in a very fasinating way. Lu, a Qing dynasty novelist and doctor, wrote a fictional book entitled New China (新中国) when he was 32 years old, in which the protagonist “dreamed” of Shanghai’s bustling business, subway, Pudong Bridge and above all, the opening of Shanghai World Expo exactly a hundred years later.

This article presents 11 short stories that explain various ideas of Chinese mythology and philosophy. Shenlong（the divine dragons) 神龙 1 when Nuwa woke up, the sun was already high in the sky; though she covered her face with some leaves and branches, the bright light still shone though she turned her body towards the forest [...]

1. Magic Numbers – 7 swans and 360 days of xmas We all know that 7 is a special number in western culture; the Old Testament already had the concept of the 7 day week, and the number also occurs in various other biblical contexts, as well as in witchcraft and mythology. The Chinese did [...]

The Chinese names for the powers of ten numbering system are in multiples of ten thousand. And the Book of Supreme Principles Governing the World (皇极经世书) in the Song Dynasty calculated the “end of universe” using such a system.

The late Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin (813-858) wrote some of the most lyrical verses known in Chinese poetry, in particular poems about unconsummated love. Are the love poems just about love, or do they have philosophical or political overtones? Professor Yuen from Singapore seeks to find an answer in this article in series.

The Discovery Channel has a pseudo-science show called “Mythbusters,” in which the two hosts, through a series of experiments, sometimes prove or disprove that something often believed by a large number of people is not true. As such, China seems to have many myths surrounding it, and so doing some mythbusting, or in some cases myth-proving, may be a good idea.