Chinese Wonder Cutlery

WHEN I think of ev-eryday life in Chi-na, the first thingthat comes to mindis a pair of chop-sticks, those unobtrusive, functionaleating implements that you so quicklyget used to. During my last visit to myhome city of Minsk, a friend invited mealong to a popular cafe whose specialtywas dumplings. The dumplings were re-ally tasty, but I felt that something wasnot right, and soon realized it was be-cause we were eating with forks insteadof chopsticks.Chopsticks are known as kuaizi inChinese,…     

Is Peking Opera to Be Seen Or Heard？

IF, one evening at the theater, you are seated at a table, rather than in a row of seats, and sipping tea and eating peanuts as your neighbors stamp their feet and shout their approval, the chances are you are watching a Peking Opera performance. Nowadays several Beijing theaters show a daily pastiche of extracts from famous operas, featuring acrobatics and martial arts (but not too much singing) that cater to the tastes of Western tourists. Chinese Opera lovers disdain such performances because they lack artistic authenticity. They regard the Westerners that so enjoy such "military" operas as slow-witted children ignorant of the degree of artistry with which Peking Opera is imbued. Theatergoers with a true appreciation of this extraordi-     

Enjoying Seniority

THE Chinese attitude to age and aging is quite different from that in the West. The age of 60 in China marks the start of a brand new life, a belief based on the Chinese "horoscope," which encompasses five astrological cycles of twelve years each. New sexagenerians expect to devote the remainder of their lives to its simple pleasures. My most pro- found impressions of the Middle Kingdom are indeed bound up in images of its senior citizens. Rise early in the morning for a stroll through any…     

Bells, Drums and Time Keepers

THE vital nature of Time, the fundamental principle upon which everyday life is ordered has been a ho- listic philosophical con- cept in China since the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th centuries B.C.). Ancient Chi- nese calendarists grouped the basic unit of time - the day - into 60-day cycles, calculated on progressive combinations of the ten "heavenly stems" (tiangan) and the twelve "earthly branches" (di- zhi). that were further subdivided into six ten-day weeks. Lunar months are 29 or 30 days …     

In the Mood for Mahjong

MID-SPRING till the end of autumn is the mahjong (or majiang as it is pronounced) season in China. Courtyards in modern high-rises resound to the clacking of tiles being shuffled and arranged, and the occa-     

New Life for the Old Industrial Bases

IT was at the beginning of the1950s that Chairman Mao Ze-dong decided to develop heavyindustry in China's northeasternprovinces of Jilin, Heilongjiangand Liaoning. Soon, with the guidanceand supervision of experts from theSoviet Union, a host of automobile,heavy-duty machinery, petrochemicaland other industrial giants were up andrunning in China. The next few decadessaw a prosperous Northeast, as state-owned enterprises provided millions ofjobs, as well as housing for employeesand schoolin…     

Pity the Poor “Little Emperors”

AS more young people born in the 1980s begin to marry, the formerly widespread belief in duozi - duofu (more children - more happiness) diminishes. To today's urban youth, establishing a career is a far more pressing priority than having children. "I don't have time," is 27-year-old Jing Du's answer to her husband's repeated suggestion that they have a child. She is not alone. Many married couples prefer to wait     

The Supreme China Rooster

WHEN looking at the map of China, its shape appears uncannily similar to that of a rooster. Its head is in the Northeastern provinces, its magnificent tail includes Xinjiang and Tibet and its wings spread over the resource-rich basins of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. The belly of this cockerel is in the southeast, and Hainan and Taiwan islands are its feet. The tour guide on the Yangtze River cruise who pointed out this similarity to me explained: "This shows that Taiwan is definitely an inalienable part of China; a rooster     

Bats for Happiness,Peaches for Longevity

CHINESE buildings, windows, bowls and dishes often bear a motif that might seem strange to the Western eye - that of the bat. The Chinese perception of this flying mammal contrasts sharply with its sinister Western associations of darkness and vampires.     

The five Elements of the Chinese Universe

THE Chinese principle bestknown to Westerners isthat of yin and yang, aconcept applicable to lifethroughout the universe.Linguistically, yin and yang respectivelymean shady and sunny mountain slopes.In a philosophical sense they constitutethe dynamic between a wide range ofopposing pairs, for example, dark andlight, wet and dry, male and female, weakand strong, dead and alive.By the 3rd century BC the ethos ofyinlyang was perceived as extending toall aspects of being, and as propagatingthe c…