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Q: are ancient customs followed any more?
I am sure some Chinese follow ancient customs to a certain degree And sure, it depends how far up in the social class they are in makes a difference right?
There was this thing called the Cultural Revolution...
There was this thing called the Cultural Revolution...
They do in a lot of things like tomb sweeping day ,spring festable ,dragon boat and so on
But they also do little things like eat dumplings before a long jorney and noodles when you arrive
Burning paper at cross roads
There are heaps
Not all make sense and not all will make you smile
All in all
China is like no other place on the planet
sorry
the bloody phone is playing up so got about 5 for the price of 1
Phone playing up
Admin ......clean up on ile 3 please
where can I get 3 for 1 pizza? or at least 2 for 1 ..... my address is, ........... China.
side of thin sliced donkey meat too please.
there are also the totally retarded 'traditions' like the “zuo yue zi” (坐月子) where the new mother is expected to lie around doing nothing for a month after giving birth, not even washing herself, as the MIL takes over.
A doctor friend was horrified at how unhealthy this is as it weakens the body of the new mother, hence she really is dependent on the MIL.
but TBH, most of the normal 'illnesses' or natural physical occurrences that girls i have taught think they have are mostly psychosomatic, as they have been told that they are debilitating whereas in reality they are not.
Don't for a moment believe a Chinese girl who says she doesn't want a child.
She will have one because her family will expect her to have one, and the MIL uses this to exert her control over the husband and wife.
cub:
how can u be so sure ALL MIL do this, and wants/forces her daughter to produce a grandchild? isnt this based on ancient traditions if they are still practiced? Also isnt this custom for poorer rural farmers lower classses of chinese and yes sure wealthy parents do this but surely not all families follow these traditions right?
Yes they do, but many aspects of traditional Chinese culture have been lost during the Cultural Revolution.
You see I have a friend from Taiwan owning a chain of training centers who came over here in Mainland China to give a speech on about the ESL industry. There were a couple of dozen local English teachers in the room and at one moment my friend asked whether or not they go to the temple regularly and honor their ancestors, none of them do while it is common practice in Taiwan or in overseas Chinese communities.
Tells you much on what's remaining of traditional Chinese culture around here. The reason is Mainlanders all come from farming families, while the elites, the educated ones, the guardians of the culture fled during the late-60s or were all slaughtered by angry peasants. Immense knowledge contained in books and historical records was burned without a second thought during this time as well.
cub:
random guy, what are saying, i get posts from earth sorrel spider sotsalan that totaly contradict what u are leading to! so what do u have to say about this? read their posts that they have written to me ALL of them ok? After u are done reading what they say seen heard experienced being they live in china and reply back to me what u think ok? i will be waiting!
All the way from 1949 to mid 2000s, all ancient festivals, including Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn (moon) festival, Ching Ming (tomb sweeping, memorial of ancestors' work), Dragon Boat (memory of a well-known scholar who committed suicide for angering the then emperor), ....all practically forbidden. Only within the last ten years did they 'copy and paste' it back from godknowswhere. Why? I suspect this has something to do with their 'china dream' (face thing, they call themselves chinese), to create a fake china to lure curious western tourists/expats (money, money, money)
You heard of the chinese written character, right? What kind of written character is PRC using? So called simplified version. Ask any Hongkongers, Taiwanese, Singaporean / Malaysian / Thai / Vietnam / American Chinese what are the differences. Ask them about the word LOVE.
After the magical copy & paste, what did these festivals/ancient customs look like these days, in PRC? Opportunity for bribery and show of face (vanity). RMB 2000 for a box of mooncakes (4 fist-size cake stuffed with lotus seed paste), hongbai (bribes) during these festivals to 'smoothen' guanxi. Just two weeks before Chinese New Year 2015 (with all the anti-corruption campaign going on) , 3:30pm Sunday afternoon I was in a local chinese restaurant, 4 health inspectors came in all smiling sheepishly. My local contact who was with me, a western restaurant manager herself, whispered in my ear me that was the time for collecting their chinese new year hongbai. This is what ancient traditions and festivals are in PRC.
Say, the American government wiped Christmas, Easter, Halloween, New Year...etc. off for about 60+ years, saying they are feudalistic, superstitious, defunct, unscientific garbage. Burnt all books related to them including the bible, and all books written by American philosophers, thinkers in American history. Then after 60+ years, suddenly start celebrating them again in a society filled to the brim with corruption (like what I saw in the restaurant). What do you think the scene is going to look like? How would you describe the 'modern America' to a Malaysian, say?
The two youtube video live footage links in this thread on cultural 'revolution' is a good way to see what happened. answers.echinacities.com/question/late-60s-1970s?type=alatest#lastcomment
Your curiosity about the 'mysterious east' is not uncommon among those who have never been in the Asia Pacific region. There is nothing wrong about being curious. You seem the kind who can separate facts/reality from fantasy/wishful thinking. You have far, far better chance with getting the real, authentic, 'East' in places like Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong. Heck, even talking to senior chinese folks (if you can find them) living in the same block! Good luck.
I am curious as the the other sources of information that the OP is using to find out about 'chinese culture' and 'traditions'
surely ECC can't be the only place he looks........
If someone is not based in China, there are many more sources that can be referenced or researched, yet i see no evidence of that from the questions.
cub:
thats right sorrel there are 1000s of other sources i get my info from! Now, with millions of single chinese ladies in china 1000s of different personalities characteristics income levels and classes and levels of following customs or not at all, how can u lump all chinese women into what u hear based on rumors assumptions 2nd hand info stereotypes and generalizing? Yes, what u say can could be they way u see and hear and experience to a certain amount but not at 100% So unless u have personally interview millions of chinese singles fromm ALL walks of lives in china there is no way u can know everything there is to know how they live believe follow traditions or not and thier parents ok?
MissA:
I think you're missing one vital thing here, mate, Sorrel LIVES in China, so I'd say she's probably come into contact with a Chinese person or two in her time. She hardly needs second hand rumours when she comes into a daily contact with a large number of locals! I've never seen her make ridiculous generalisations, but what she and many other posters understand and you do not appear to is the relentless pressure to belong and conform that there is in China.
OK, you are either a complete moron*, or a troll.
*I am leaning towards pathetic moronic loser.
cub:
really spider, i could and care less what your idiotic thoughts are ok? put a plastic bag around your head tie it tight and do the world a favor and quit breathing! society will be much safer and better off without u, your opinions means jack squat!!!!!!!!!!!
Of all the weird and wonderful posters we get here, this is an example of the type that confuses me the most:the guy (normally) who gets a romanticised view of China, then comes on here asking questions basically for the purpose of having that view validated and then accuses long term expats of knowing less than he does. We've had a few of these and they just baffle me.
Cub, the regular posters here have decades worth of on-the-ground experience of living in China. They're a little cynical sometimes, but that's largely because China throws an unbelievable amount of BS your way. Listen to them.
cub:
miss A a little cynical? if what im gettitng here is a ''little'' cynical then i dont want to get a lot of it! Come on spider u talk and call names and insul people like u do here and u wont live very long without someone decking u ok? no, this isnt ''tough talk'' or a ''threat'' its a daily fact! so can the name calling here and keep your childish name calling and insults to yourself!
Shining_brow:
Hugs - Miss A.
Mr Moron-Troll can't even read yet. .hence why he keeps posting his version of the world, without considering the other people who actually live in it. Cos he seems incapable of reading what we write... (or is it just that he can't understand anything we write?)
And why he has just abused you, and yet you didn't actually do any 'name-calling"...
Sad, isn't it?
MissA:
Thanks Shining, I think he was actually aiming that at spiderboenz more than me but, whatever, some people just won't be told. What can you do?
@cub You are arguing like a kid using 'in theory there must be exceptions here, there, people are different, in theory you can find a rose in the middle of the Sahara...."
If I keep asking you 'Do the hamburgers in USA use beef?" Everytime you said yes, I keep arguing "but there must be other kind of hamburgers, because there are all kinds of meat, mutton, rat, dog, cat...etc.". Can anyone blame you for being frustrated after the nth round?
Sure, people are different. That's what you have been taught in the West, right? You say, but this is what I see, right? Do you know you are in USA? To use your own logic, sure people are different. PRC mainlanders ARE different from Americans who has a large variety, mainlanders are zombified. Can you live with that?
Do you know people can be changed? Have you heard of a cult, brainwashing? Have you experienced one? No? I have, as a tourist in PRC years ago, before I started working here.
Real learning ONLY takes place with experiencing. Without first hand experiences most debates are mere intellectual masturbation arising out of the ego.
Best case, in your case is DO prc, as well as the asia pacific region to be time and cost effective. If cost is an issue then backpack, no big deal, great fun too. What fun is there wasting your time and frustrating those who have done that, some decades ago, and are still around, working in this region?
Winning an arguement here with any of us doesn't turn your girlfriend from a tramp to a lady, or vice versa. If she is a tramp she is. If she is a lady she is. What's the point of this 'but this but that, argueing without a shred of real life experiences? Let go of the fear. Time for action, DO PRC. YES YOU CAN! YES MIRACLES DO HAPPEN. 
cub:
yes earthizen, i do plan on going to china in the future and i take all info, input with a grain of salt ok? Any info is better than no info right? name calling and insults from the likes of spider anyone can do without
earthizen:
From what I see you have done your homework, due diligence. I am never against doing homework on a place I plan to visit, I do it all the time. In business, you call that intelligence gathering. Nothing wrong, unless you pay spies, bribes, use threats...etc. which is what you can taste easily working in PRC.
None of us are god around here, none of us are omnipresent, with 'omni-knowledge'. That's what a human life is about. That's what an explorer's life is about. We are all explorers. You can even say the zombies are exploring what is like to be a zombie, through first hand experience, haha. And we do our homework NOT to be shreded to pieces by zombies, because we don't want to experience that. :)
Shining_brow:
I don't think you've read many of his posts, earthizen.
Cub isn't doing 'due diligence', and his homework amounts to - 6+4=10... "BUT I WANT IT TO BE ELEVEN!!!!!! I don't like 10. 11 is much better! You must all tell me it's 11, and I'll believe you and be happy!"
If he comes here, it's going to be: "Hey, you were right! There are scammers in BJ... I went to the Forbidden City, girls came up to me and were really interested in me, and we went for tea, and I ended up paying 3000RMB for it!"
earthizen:
Haha, shining, love your humor, -6+4=10. I read the part about he chatted with girls on wechat, met a real diamond.
What I think is he is aware of the stench of china, but when you found a diamond in the garbage dump, you start doubting. He is a skeptic (see his response to me....I listen to advice with a grain of salt). Skeptics doubt their own judgment too, not just others'. On one hand he wants to believe he found a real diamond, on the other he is aware he found one in a garbage dump field.
The only way he is going to find out is to 'taste' the diamond. Remember the poor Canadian guy who showed up in Shenzhen with a sign hanging on his neck, to find his 'true love'? I thought of finding that article for him but gave up. So what? He would just argue, "That's him. I maybe more lucky".
This is why I said to him, "Eat the cake, stop asking everybody if it is poisoned, that's the surest way to find out. This cake is the kind that no one else can taste for you". C'est la vie. Bon appetit. 
[Ahem, ok, for the skeptic, have an ambulance on standby. :)]
cub:
first of all earthizen where and when did i ever say i chatted with her on wechat? assuptions and disinformation u are very good at! u are basing your story chat with shining on a lie stating i chated with her on wechat! When i never told anyone here i used wechat! Stop your gosipping spreading lies already! Hey shining and earthizen, yes go ahead feel comfortable u knowing each other being buddies on this site go ahead assume make up things jump to conclusions u are gods now right? u know everything there is to know right?
earthizen:
@cub Where did I read it? Here, of course. Didn't you write you chat with your girlfriend, she already told her parents about you....etc.? You are overreacting. All you have to do is to correct the information. Do you know people here are giving you free advice, and it is YOU who are asking for information?
