Here comes our second workshop this semester! Let's begin our exploration of 56 minorities in China!
This Friday we will talk about Hui. This minority is descended from the Arabic and Persian merchants who came to China during the 7th century. With a population of 643,238, the majority of the group lives in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. However, there are some living in almost all the provinces and cities of China. Islamism has played a vital role in the development of this ethnic minority, and the living customs differ from the other ethnic groups. For example, marrying people is not encouraged. In the event a Hui wants to marry a girl from Han or other ethnic minorities, the girl must understand and respect the Hui culture as well as convert to Islamism, or the marriage will be denied. We will introduce different series of traditional Chinese costumes in the following weeks. If you have further interest or questions, feel free to contact us or leave comments. First is traditional Chinese wedding customs.
Traditional Chinese wedding customs are considered as the foundation of rites in traditional Chinese culture. A wedding is usually a grand occasion with overly-elaborate formalities. There are eight major procedures of a wedding, including proposal making, birthday matching, marriage divination, betrothal gifts presenting, wedding date fixing, dowry urging, welcome the bride to the wedding and performing the formal wedding ceremony. Traditional Chinese wedding customs have been around for thousands of years. They may vary from place to place and time to time, but have been holding an important position in the lives of Chinese people, causing a far-reaching impact on the way the Chinese lead their lives. he third minority we will present is Man (also called Manchu).
Quick Facts: The Man ethnic minority (also called Manchu) has a profound and brilliant history of nearly 1,400 years, tracing back to the Sui (581 - 618) and Tang (618 - 907) Dynasties. Arising from the Jurchen tribes and establishing the Jin (1115 - 1234) and Qing (1644 - 1911) Dynasties, the Man people have greatly influenced Chinese history. Until 1911, the Man ethnic minority had the name of Baqi, synonymous with a distinctive fabric of the Man people. Culture: Man people have considerable contributions to Chinese literacy. Many emperors of Qing were themselves painters, calligraphers, poets and masters of other literary arts. The Man encouraged education and many sat for the imperial examinations required of those who would serve the emperor in the highly-sought-after positions of scholars, literati and high-ranking civil servants. Cao Xueqin, the creator of one of the four Chinese classics, Hong Lou Meng (Dream of Red Mansions), reflecting many facets of feudal society during the Qing Dynasty, was of Man ethnicity. The fourth minority we will present is Zhuang. Quick Facts: Zhuang has the largest population (almost 18 million) among all the 55 ethnic groups in China. Most of them inhabit in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province. In Guangdong, Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces of South China, there is also some distribution of Zhuang People. The Zhuang ethnic group has its own language, which is generally divided into northern and southern dialects. In 1953, the Chinese Government launched a new language system of Zhuang characters based on Latin alphabet, but it was not widely used. Most people use Han-Chinese characters. History: As early as Paleolithic period, first men of Zhuang had settled in Lingnan areas (whole of Guangxi and Guangdong Provinces, parts of Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces). They lived and labored together, and were able to use stone tools. The fifth minority we will present is Miao.
Quick Facts: The Miao ethnic minority group population has grown extensively in South China (including Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, and Hainan provinces) and surrounding SE Asian countries like Thailand and Vietnam. The majority of the Miao people living in China are located in Guizhou province. There are over four million Miao people living in Guizhou. Culture: The Miao people are great observers of etiquette. They are also very hospitable and pay respect to their guests. When people visit their homes, families will often kill a chicken to provide poultry for their guests to eat. They also try their best to entertain guests. Those who have come from far-off places are given a special drink called horn spirit. This is an alcoholic drink served to pay respect to guests. Recently, it rains a lot, and Chinese people know that is because Tomb-sweeping Day is coming. Traditionally, it is the day people visit their family and friends who passed away, and this tradition continues till present days. Moreover, people start to play outside with their families since spring cons back to the ground!
Don't you guys want to have a spring travel in IU campus with some friends? This week's theme is Tomb-sweeping Day. Out mentor Kate will tell you the story about this festival, and teach you how to write water stand. Hope everyone had a great time in HuaZhao Festival with Chinese Calligraphy Club on last Friday!
Every time you look at the moon, what Chinese traditional food jumps into your head? Yes! It's moon cake! The ancients miss their families when they look at the moon, and we only have a few weeks left before we can go home, isn't it exciting? For this week's workshop, our mentor Wen Wang will introduce you what is Mid-Autumn Festival, and explain how to write the "He stand". Do you want to enjoy different culture with us? Come and join us on this Friday! In order to welcome the beautiful Spring, Chinese Calligraphy Club will hold a big exhibition about Chinese traditional festival "Huazhao Festival" in Mathers Museum of World Cultures!
"Huazhao Festival" is an old traditional festival celebrating the birthday of flowers. People will hang out with their friends to appreciate different kinds of flowers, and it is called "Taqing". Girls will go to temple where consecrate the Flora, praying for luckiness and blessing that flowers and trees will flourish in the next year. In this exhibition, 3C offers diverse activities, including practice of Chinese Calligraphy and Chinese Painting, blowing painting, guessing riddles about flowers, matching the names of flowers with pictures, traditional instrument show, foretaste of flower cake and tea, and many other surprises waiting for you to explore! The new section this year is that you can collect the points while playing the games, and you can exchange the points into special gifts! Come and join us to celebrate the coming of Spring! Welcome to he "Huazhao Festival" exhibition held by Chinese Calligraphy Club on April 3rd, this coming Friday! |
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