China: Facts & Stats

CULTURE

Traditions:

China is an ancient country, with thousands of years of history which lay a rich basis for the lives of its inhabitants today. While some of the ancient Chinese myths and cultural traditions have been forgotten or are no longer observed, many of them are still remembered and incorporated into everyday life. Taking a look into the cultural traditions of China can reveal a lot about the way that the people live.

One of the most interesting bits of Chinese lore can be found in what is known as the Jade Culture. Jade is a stone that was first identified in the first Chinese dictionary, known as Shuo Wen Jie Zi, in around 100 AD. There are two types of jade: soft jade, known as nephrite, which is native to China, and hard jade (jadeite) which was imported from Burma starting in the 1200's. Jade is important in China not only because of its beauty, but also for its virtue and cultural significance. Confucius said that jade had 11 virtues, some of which include the fact that it stands for beauty, purity and grace. The Chinese character for jade, Yu, is often used in names and sayings to connote beauty.

Another of the many Chinese cultural traditions is the bamboo culture. Bamboo is one of four favorite plants seen in China – they are bamboo, Chinese plum, chrysanthemum and orchid. The characters of these plants are highly prized, so much so that Chinese people want to be like the plants in character. Bamboo is grown pretty much everywhere in China, with most people having gardens in which they grow bamboo. Bamboo chopsticks are the most common form of tableware in China, and bamboo is also the material out of which the Chinese flute is made. People often use bamboo paintbrushes, and bamboo culture festivals are even held throughout the year.

A final cultural tradition can be seen in the dragon culture. Dragons are an important part of Chinese tradition, so much so that people from China often consider themselves to be “the descendants of the dragon”. China's emperors believed that they truly were dragons, calling the beds they slept on dragon beds, and even their robes dragon robes. Dragons are also seen all over the imperial palaces, and dragon screens are seen as a symbol of the emperor's power.

Celebrations:

Legal holidays in China are New Year (January 1st), a national one-day holiday; Spring Festival (New Year by the lunar calendar), a national three-day holiday; International Working Women's Day (March 8th); Tree Planting Day (March 12th); International Labor Day (May 1st), a national one-day holiday; Chinese Youth Festival (May 4th); International Children's Day (June 1st); Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) (August 1st); Teacher's Day (September 10th); and National Day (October 1st), a national two-day holiday.

China's major traditional festivals include the Spring Day Festival, the Lantern Festival, Pure Brightness Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Double Ninth Festival. Ethnic minorities have also retained their own traditional festivals, including the Water Sprinkling Festival of the Dai people, the Nadam Fair of the Mongolian people, the Torch Festival of the Yi people, the Danu (Never Forget the Past) Festival of the Yao people, the Third Month Fair of the Bai people, the Antiphonal Singing Day of the Zhuang people, the Tibetan New Year and Onghor (Expecting a Good Harvest) Festival of the Tibetan people, and the Jumping Flower Festival of the Miao people.

Spring festival
Each year, when winter is at its end and spring around the corner, people throughout China enthusiastically celebrate the first traditional holiday of the year, the Spring Festival. In the past, when the Chinese people used the lunar calendar, the Spring Festival was known as the "New Year." It falls on the first day of the first lunar month, the beginning of a new year. After the Revolution of 1911, China adopted the Gregorian calendar.

To distinguish the lunar New Year from the New Year by the Gregorian calendar, the lunar New Year was called the Spring Festival (which generally falls between the last 10-day period of January and mid-February). The evening before the Spring Festival, the lunar New Year's Eve, is an important time for family reunions. The whole family gets together for a sumptuous dinner, followed by an evening of pleasant talk or games. Some families stay up all night, "seeing the year out." The next morning, people pay New Year calls on relatives and friends, wishing each other good luck. During the Spring Festival, various traditional recreation activities are enjoyed in many parts of China, notably lion dances, dragon lantern dances, land-boat rowing and stilt-walking.

Lantern festival
The Lantern Festival falls on the15th day of the first lunar month, the night of the first full moon after the Spring Festival. Traditionally, people eat sweet dumplings during this festival. Sweet dumplings, round balls of glutinous rice flour with sugar filling, symbolize reunion. During the festival people display multicolored lanterns on the street and courtyards, and stroll around admiring them at night, hence the name "Lantern Festival." Some places also hold evening parties for people to guess riddles written on lanterns.

Pure Brightness Day
Pure Brightness Day falls around April 5th every year. Traditionally, this is an occasion for people to offer sacrifices to their ancestors. In recent years, many people have also been going to the tombs of the revolutionary martyrs to pay their respects. At this time of year the weather has begun to turn warm, and the earth is once again covered with green. People live to go to the outskirts of cities to walk on the grass, fly kites and appreciate the beauty of spring. That is why Pure Brightness Day is sometimes also called "Walking amid Greenery Day."

Dragon Boat festival
It is generally believed that this festival originated to honor the memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, who lived in the State of Chu during the Warring States Period. In despair at not being able to halt the decline of his country, he drowned himself in the Miluo River in modern Hunan Province on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month after the capital of Chu fell to the State of Qin. Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death people living on the banks of the river went out in their boats to try to find the corpse.

Every year thereafter, on this day people would row their boats out onto their local river, throwing sections of bamboo filled with rice into the water as an offering to him. Today, the memory of Qu Yuan lives on, zongzi (pyramid-shaped dumplings made by wrapping glutinous rice in bamboo leaves) remains the traditional food and dragon-boat races are held.

Mid-Autumn festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eight lunar month, which comes right in the middle of autumn, hence its name. In ancient times, people would offer elaborate cakes as sacrifices to the Moon Goddess on this day. After the ceremony, the family would enjoy sitting together to eat the pastries.

The festival came to symbolize family reunion, and the custom has been passed down to today. On this mid-autumn night the full moon is especially bright. The whole family sit together eating moon cakes while admiring the moon in its perfect splendor.

The Double Ninth festival
This festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. According to Chinese tradition, the ninth day is an auspicious day; and the ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the most auspicious day. On this day, the Chinese people customarily ascend a hill, eat cakes, drink wine and admire chrysanthemums. Since the lake 1980s, the Double Ninth Festival has become a festival for old people. Various kinds of activities to show respect and concern for the elderly are held throughout the country; old people are also invited to attend celebration meetings and watch theatrical performances.

Alcohol:

Alcohol is part of Chinese folklore. In modern China, alcohol remains its important role in folklore despite many social vicissitudes. It still appears in almost all social activities, and the most common circumstances are birthday party for seniors, wedding feast and sacrifice ceremony in which liquor must be the main drink to show happiness or respect.

In ancient China, since alcohol was regarded as sacred liquid only when people made sacrificial offerings to the Heaven and the Earth or ancestors was it used. After the Zhou dynasty, alcohol was deemed as one of the Nine Rites and every dynasty put much emphasis on alcohol administration to set up special ministries to manage alcohol producing and banqueting. Later, along with the development of zymotechnics and brewery, alcohol became ordinary drink. Thus, many customs concerning alcohol formed and evolved which had and have various relationships with our daily life.

China did not have a drinking age until January 2006. The age limit is 18, although many places do not strictly enforce it.

Sports and Hobbies:

Many historians believe that association football originated in China, where a form of the sport may have appeared around 1000 AD. Other popular sports include martial arts, table tennis, badminton, and more recently, golf. Basketball is now popular among young people in urban centers.

There are also many traditional sports. Chinese dragon boat racing occurs during the Duan Wu festival. In Inner Mongolia, Mongolian-style wrestling and horse racing are popular. In Tibet, archery and equestrian sports are part of traditional festivals.

Physical fitness is highly regarded. It is common for the elderly to practice Tai Chi Chuan and qigong in parks.

Board games such as International Chess, Go (Weiqi), and Xiangqi (Chinese chess) are also common and have organized formal competitions.

The capital city of the People's Republic of China, Beijing, hosted the 2008 Olympic Games, a major international sporting event.

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