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Generally speaking, picking a gift is an acquired skill. This is especially true in Chinese culture. As a country carrying a long heritage of courtesy (礼lǐ), gift-giving in China is certainly a gesture of art. Presents, 礼物（lǐwù） in Chinese, literally means “a courtesy item”. While courtesy is a cultural construction, if one does not know…
Coincidentally this year’s Valentine’s Day is also the Chinese Lantern Festival. In Chinese we call it “yuán xiāo jié”(元宵节). It is on the fifteenth of the first month in the lunar calendar. “yuán” stands for the first month of the year, and “xiāo” means “night”, thus it is “The Night of the First Month”. Why is this night so…
For an average Westerner, Chinese cuisine appears to be something shrouded in mystery. Many new tastes (often very odd). Vegetables and fruit you’ve never seen before (and can’t even begin to guess what they might be). Unbelievable kinds of meat. All of that makes eating in China a real adventure which, however thrilling, can also be…
Have you seen any Chinese costume/historical movie? If you go to Zhouzhuang it will make you feel as if you just found yourself in one. Don’t misunderstand – there are no cosplayers. There is something else – a town with a few hundred years of history. Walking down very narrow streets between wooden houses (some…
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