Paper cuts are most popular in northern china where they are often put on windows, doors, ceilings, and bridal chambers. Paper cuts are originally consider a woman's art, in many Chinese rural village, girls have a learn paper cut at a young ages, some say that a girl's paper cut ability is a embodiment of her intelligence. Paper cut designs are often derived from figures found on ancient pottery and rock paintings. Paper cuts often resemble frogs, snakes, fish, birds, dragons and gods of the ancients. Paper cut tigers implicate longevity in Chinese culture. Tree and deer’s heads symbolize continuity. To express wishes for children, paper cuts are made to resemble fish, lotus flowers, gourds, dragons and phoenixes.
translate English to Chinese:
剪纸在中国北方特别盛行，窗户上、门上、屋顶上、新房里随处可见。 原先人们认为剪纸是女性的艺术，农村的许多地方，女孩子从小就要学习剪纸了。有人说女孩子剪纸的水平就是智慧的体现。剪纸的图样取材于古代陶器和岩画中的人物形象。有的像青蛙、蛇、鱼、龙，还有古代的神仙。剪纸通常具有象征性，老虎图案的剪纸暗含中国文化中的长寿；树和鹿头代表恒久；鱼荷花葫芦龙凤代表对孩子的美好祝愿。
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the significant traditional holidays in China. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first. The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs to attempt to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating rice dumplings.
English Chinese translation:
端午节是中国的一个很重要的传统节日之一。人们会以赛龙舟的比赛活动来庆祝端午节，参赛小组划着龙舟朝着鼓声前进，最终达到终点。在端午节赛龙舟的传统习俗是为了试图搭救爱国诗人屈原。他在公元前农历五月初五投河自尽。中国人如今把裹着竹叶的熟糯米丢入江中平息江中的蛟龙，希望他们不要将屈原吃掉。这后来演变成中国人在端午节吃粽子的习俗。
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Waking of Insects
The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms. Jīngzhé (pīnyīn) is the 3rd solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 345° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 360°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 345°. In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around March 5 and ends around March 20.
The word 惊蛰 has the meaning of awakening of hibernated insects. 惊 is startling, and 蛰 is hibernated (insects). The traditional Chinese farming culture said that during Jingzhe, thunderstorms will wake up the hibernated insects, which also means the weather is getting warm.
It's also referred to as Longtaitou Festival or Dragon-Head-Raising Festival. In the tradition of Chinese culture, the dragon is believed to be the king of all insects and at same time, it is also believed to be in charge of bringing rains, and both of these are important factors in ancient agricultural society.
Today, Longtaitou Festival is celebrated in various ways, most of which are still identical to those practiced in the ancient times, including eating Chinese pancakes and noodles. Perfume bags filled with the powder of ground fragrant herbs are made to be carried by women and children for good fortune, though they are no longer used as insect repellent as in ancient times.
农历中将一年分为24个节气，惊蛰是第三个，通常指太阳位于黄经345度时的那一天，也即差不多在阳历
“惊蛰”意为“惊醒冬眠的昆虫”。惊蛰期间，雷雨增多，因此冬眠的虫类会被惊起，这也意味着天气会越来越暖。
惊蛰又被称作“龙抬头”，因为龙一抬头，就会下雨嘛。在农业社会，人们相当看重一年的降雨。
今天惊蛰日的庆祝方式多种多样，但是人们仍然保存着像吃春饼和面条这样的传统。妇女和小孩会佩戴香囊，以求好运，虽然今天的香囊已经不再像过去那样，主要是起驱虫的作用。
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Zero-Pascal Clan
The term, zero-Pascal clan, was coined by Internet users referring to those people who are always optimistic and enjoy themselves in spite of work and life pressure. The word “Pascal” is the unit of measurement for pressure in physics, zero Pascal means there is no pressure; in this sense, zero-Pascal clan can also be called pressure-free clan.
Most people in this clan are 20 to 35-year old white-collar workers and college students. Since it is impossible to live in a pressure-free society, knowing how to deal with pressure and understanding the real meaning of life are what really matters. They work hard, but not eager for a quick success; they are the master of their own life, refusing to be card slave, mortgage slave or car slave; they may advance slower in their career, but they surely have a broader view about life.
“零帕族（zero-Pascal clan）”一词来源于网络，是指面对来自生活及工作中的各种压力、仍能保持积极乐观心态的人群。“帕”（即“帕斯卡”）是物理学中压力的衡量单位，“零帕”就是没有压力的意思，因此，“零帕族”的英文也可以写作pressure-free clan。
“零帕族”的年龄集中在20－35岁之间，多由年轻白领和大学生组成。现代社会没有压力是不可能的，因此懂得如何化解压力，明白生活真正的意义才是最重要的。“零帕族”会努力工作，但不急功近利；他们是自己的主人，拒绝做卡奴、房奴或车奴。他们在事业上可能进步比别人慢，但他们对生活的理解一定比别人宽广。
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Social Chameleon
I've heard that an animal is called the chameleon years ago. Their body color can change with the environment to make it difficult for their enemies to find out. In our daily life, such kind of person also exists. They say different words when meeting different people. And it seems like a duck in water on any occasion. Such a man is called the "social chameleon".
A social chameleon is an individual who has the ability to enter social situations and blend in by adopting or mimicking the social norms displayed by the other participants in the situation.
A social chameleon will adopt and reflect the mood and sentiment of the situation and suppress their own. A chameleon will synthesise an opinion or position from observing those displayed by others in the situation, and forget that position when the social situation is left. The ultimate objective of the social chameleon is to blend into the social situation without disturbing that situation.
“社交变色龙”指在某个社会环境中能够通过吸收或模仿其他参与者所遵循的社会准则而进入并融入该环境的人。
“社交变色龙”会吸纳并反应所处环境的情绪和状态，而压抑自己本身的情绪。他们会观察该环境中的其他人的态度和意见然后综合表达出一个合适的看法，而在他们离开那个社交环境时这个看法便被抛诸脑后。他们的最终目标是在不知不觉的情况下融入这个社交环境。
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Overburdened IPOD Generation
How can a man listening to IPOD bear heavy burden? If you think so, you are wrong. The IPOD we referred here is not the Apple IPOD music palyer. You will understanding the meaning after reading this article.
The IPOD generation stands for Insecure, Pressured, Over-taxed, and Debt-ridden.
Due to diminishing returns for higher education, high-levels of taxation, and a demographic shift in welfare arrangements, people under 35 are facing serious long-term issues which many governments are ignoring. Affordability of housing in many countries has dropped in the past few years, pricing many young people out of the market. All of this has meant people under 35 now face future tax burdens and standards of living which may be inferior to their potential.
Click here to view the English Chinese translation of this article.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Milk Brain
Milk brain can refer to feelings of disorientation and mental sluggishness reported by some mothers of newborn babies or total involvement in the care of a newborn baby, to the exclusion of almost everything else.
“牛奶大脑”可以指新生儿母亲表现出的情绪错乱和大脑反应迟钝的状态，也可以指这些妈妈们全身心投入到孩子的身上，其他事物一概不予理会的情况。
It's a casual, common slur. Even women use it to describe how disorganized they feel in the first frantic days after giving birth. Yet milk brain is just a temporary effect, brought on by sleep deprivation, plus the need to learn (or relearn) the details of child care.
其实这是一种普遍的误读。就算有女性用“牛奶大脑”这个词来形容自己产后几天慌乱无序的状态，但这也只是一个暂时现象，多数是因为睡眠不足，以及需要花时间学习育婴知识等因素导致的。
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