| Below is a list of all articles with the most recent ones listed first. |
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Celebrating Western Valentine’s Day in China |
| Western Valentine’s Day has become a hugely popular festival in China over the past few years since the Middle Kingdom has opened to the West... |
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Auspicious Undulations: Chinese New Year Dragon Dances |
| Dragons are one of the most powerful symbols in all of Chinese culture... |
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The Secrets of Chinese Empresses |
| Though an often overlooked aspect of Chinese history, empresses played important roles in the past and were often very influential in the politics of their time... |
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China’s Luckiest Flowers |
| Just like most major cultural groups in the world, the Chinese have strong associations with flowers. Flowers are an important gift-giving tradition and there are many special rules about which flowers to give and when to give them... |
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Lucky Cat and Fortune Bat - Auspicious Chinese Animals |
| Since the dawn of time, animals have played important symbolic roles throughout China. Both real natural animals and mythical beasts have taken on lucky, auspicious or generally superstitious meanings that still hold up today... |
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Shi Poems: Keepsake of the Tang Dynasty |
| The Tang Dynasty is known as a ‘golden age’ of many things in Chinese history: architecture, art, music and intellectual searching... |
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Lions and Stilts: China’s Rich Dancing Tradition |
| Chinese folk dancing is a long, rich tradition that is not easily classified. There are literally hundreds of different styles of folk dances, which vary greatly from region to region across China... |
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Creation of the Gods: China’s Epic |
| Creation of the Gods, or Fengshen Yanyi in Mandarin, is a historic Chinese novel about the fall of the Shang Dynasty and rise of the Zhou Dynasty... |
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The Buzz About Dizi Flutes |
| The Chinese dizi is a delicate instrument known for its whimsical, light tones. The dizi is a transverse flute, usually made of bamboo... |
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The Red Badges of China |
| During China’s Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, one of the most beloved national symbols was born: the Chairman Mao badge... |
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Confucius Temples: Houses of Worship in Ancient China |
| Undoubtedly, the most famous and influential thinker and philosopher in Chinese history was Confucius... |
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The Moon Reflected in Erquan |
| The most famous of all the Chinese instruments is the erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument with a box resonator. And the most famous of all erhu pieces is undoubtedly ‘The Moon Reflected in Second Spring’, or erquan yingyue in Chinese... |
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Four Professions of Ancient China |
| As far back as the Zhou Dynasty (1045-256 BC), Chinese professional classes were divided into four major groups. These were shi, or scholars, nong, or farmers, gong, or artisans and shang, or merchants... |
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An Octave of Education: Eight Legged Essays |
| Confucianism is a central component of Chinese and has always played a crucial role in the development of the nation. One area where Confucianism has undoubtedly been pivotal is education... |
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Imperial Exams: The World’s First Standardized Tests |
| Few people realize that the first standardized tests ever given in the world were taken in China... |
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Forbidden delights in the Imperial Palace |
| China’s Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City, is the oldest and grandest imperial structure in the Middle Kingdom. It was once the stately home of 24 different emperors and their attendants and families during the Ming and Qing Dynasties... |
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Solace and Contemplation in a Chinese Garden |
| Classical Chinese gardens were popular early in Chinese history, but the design and structure of the gardens we know today was not established until the Ming Dynasty... |
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Shanghai Ladies: Poster ads of the 1930s |
| In the early decades of the 20th century, advertising came to China. Beginning mostly with foreign companies that wished to sell their products more effectively in China, advertising posters became a fad among many corporations... |
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Poems of love and loss: Song Dynasty Ci |
| China has a long and rich literary tradition, not the least of which includes many forms of poetry and verse. Among them, perhaps some of the most beautiful, sorrowful and tangible are the ci... |
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Spear and Dagger: China’s Ancient Weapons |
| With a long military history and rich martial arts tradition, China has its share of interesting and unique weapons, each with its own particular use and set of etiquette... |
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The Secret Remedy of Snuff Bottles |
| Chinese snuff bottles were extremely popular during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), when tobacco was thought to be an important medical remedy... |
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Eastern Porcelain is Delicate China |
| Porcelain is a type of ceramicware that is created with hot-fired clay... |
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Chinese Paper Cutting: A Refined Art |
| Paper cutting, known in Mandarin as jian zhi, goes almost as far back in Chinese history as paper itself... |
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Peaceful Pandas are a Chinese Treasure |
| The Giant Panda is China’s most famous animal and its most beloved symbol... |
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Sweet Mid-Autumn Snacks: Mooncakes |
| Mooncakes are a special pastry eaten in celebration of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival, the second most important festival in the Middle Kingdom after Chinese New Year... |
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A Miniature World: Chinese Penjing |
| Although we often refer to bonsai by its Japanese name, the art of creating miniature landscapes actually originated in China and was probably exported to Japan sometime around the 13th century... |
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China’s Luckiest Numbers |
| As in many cultures, there are certain numbers that are luckier than others in China. Where in the West, 7 might be considered an extremely lucky number, while 13 is bad luck, China has its own version of auspicious digits... |
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Chinese Kites Soar Above the Rest |
| The Chinese have always had an affinity for kites. For nearly 2,800 years, since the first kite was invented in Weifang in Shangdong Province, kites have held sway over the popular Chinese imagination, both young and old... |
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The Goddess of Mercy - Guan Yin |
| Guan Yin (or kwan-yin) is the Chinese goddess of compassion and mercy. Believed to have originally derived from the Sanskrit Avalokiteśvara, popular depictions of Guan Yin come from Chinese Taoist religion... |
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Ghost Money Buys a Good Afterlife |
| The Chinese have always held strong beliefs about spirituality, ancestors and the afterlife... |
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