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Of all the traditional Chinese festivals, the new Year was perhaps the most elaborate, colorful, and important. This was a time for the Chinese to congratulate each other and themselves on having passed through another year, a time to finish out the old, and to welcome in the new year. Common expressions heard at this time are: GUONIAN to have made it through the old year, and BAINIAN to congratulate the new year.
Turning Over a New Leaf
The Chinese New year is celebrated on the first day of the First Moon of the lunar calendar. The corresponding date in the solar calendar varies from as early as January 21st to as late as February 19th. Chinese New Year, as the Western new Year, signified turning over a new leaf. Socially, it was a time for family reunions, and for visiting friends and relatives. This holiday, more than any other Chinese holiday, stressed the importance of family ties. The Chinese New year's Eve dinner gathering was among the most important family occasions of the year.
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Tomorrow belongs to China”, and “Chinese is the language of the future.” These are statements we hear from people returning after business visits to China. Be ready for tomorrow; don’t get left behind. Heeding these recommendations, I decided to go in for lessons in Chinese.
My first shock came when I heard that Chinese is a tonal language. The same word spoken in different tones can have different meanings. The classic example is the common word “ma”, which has four meanings when uttered with a high tone, a rising tone, a falling-rising tone and a falling tone. The pitfalls are many. I intend to say, “Your mother is a wonderful lady,” and end up saying “Your horse is a wonderful lady.”
In course of time, however, I found that my fears were misplaced. In continuous speech, the tone variations get merged in the flow of speech. When uttering single words, the tones become prominent.
The several names given to the country and to the language were confusing. In English literature, the country was known as Cathay, a name that survives in Cathay-Pacific. The Chinese name for the country is Zhongguo (sounds like Chung Kuo), and means “middle...
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On this occasion of celebrating Martin Luther King's life and mission, it's interesting to note that there is a Chinese connection to a memorial currently being planned for the slain civil rights leader on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
The project coordinators selected Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin in 2007 to be the Sculptor of Record for the memorial that would stand between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials on the Mall. The groundbreaking for the MLK Memorial is expected in early 2009 and it is expected to be completed by 2010.
But almost immediately after he was selected, Lei caught heat for not being African-American, or even American. The U.S. Commission on the Arts later criticized models of the sculpture, which show Dr. King with his arms folded, for looking too Socialist. To read more about this check out my article on this issue.
In response to this, the sculpture of King was softened and the Commission gave its go-ahead last fall. But to the project organizers' credit, they defended the choice of Lei, who was picked for his expertise in working with large-scale sculptures around the world.
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