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Classical Culture
Traditionally, Chinese culture was dominated by a Confucianist literati, who praised love of learning and moral fortitude. Exercise was looked down upon, apart from archery, which was considered one of the essential skills of a gentleman by Confucius. The novel was looked down upon, and instead short summaries of people's lives, brief essays and so on where praised. However, several classic novels were written, including The Dream of the Red Chamber and Journey to the West. A person's skills in poetry and calligraphy were praised, and were they keys to getting a job in the government, through the civil service examinations.
Chinese painting was also highly rated, and is different from Western painting by the fact that single shapes are made by single brush strokes. There are orthodox subjects, including bamboo, flowers, birds, a hermit's retreat and so on. In contrast, Beijing opera came from the peasant classes, and was looked down by those further up the social scale.
Modern Culture
Traditional Chinese culture was looked down upon by the Communists and actively destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Today, though traditional arts are regaining their former importance most Chinese spend their free time quite differently. What has survived is a love of eating and drinking, and the Chinese devote a large amount of time to these activities.
The Chinese spend a large amount of time watching TV, which is an unusual mix of minority festival displays, soap operas and patriotic singing contests. The popularity of Hong Kong action movies has resulted in a resurgence of interest in the martial arts, though only old people tend to practise taichi. Taichi is done in parks in the early morning, and also practised in the early morning as are various types of dance, which include fan-dancing, ballroom dancing and, incongruously, line dancing. The classes can also be seen in the evenings on pavements and under motorways. Male retirees have a particular fondness for keeping birds, and an old man with a trolley full of birdcages, taking his pets out for a walk, is a common site.
The Language
The standard language, putonghua, is what we would call Mandarin, and is based on the Beijing dialect. In Guangdong province, in the south, and in Hong Kong, Cantonese (guangdonghua) is spoken, which is completely different - although the script (Chinese characters) is the same. (Written Chinese is very difficult to learn, because of the pictograms (known as'characters' in Chinese). You have to know between 2,000 and 3,000 of them just to read a newspaper, and each character can comprise up to 25 different'strokes'.)
Chinese, the language, is often referred to as being the single most difficult aspect of doing business in and with China. The language sounds impenetrable and the written language seemingly impossible. But, like any foreign language, Chinese can be learnt and learnt quite quickly. It is probably fair to say, however, that it would take a lifetime to master it. Really only those who have spent years and years in China have a chance to become completely fluent.
Chinese, at first hearing, seems impenetrable and impossible to master. But invest some time in learning to speak - and even read - it, and your investment will be amply rewarded. It is fun to learn, as well as being challenging, and your status will shoot up in the eyes of your Chinese partners. Chinese people believe that anyone who makes an effort to speak Chinese is showing admiration and respect for their country. And why not? Over and above that, it can be enormous fun learning the language and even more fun to put it into practice on the streets.
It is also worth noting that it is not quite as impossible as you might think. Chinese grammar is practically non-existent. There are no plurals, prepositions, no verb conjugations, no masculine, no feminine, no "the", no "a", no past or future tenses. The only rules are those of word order - which, however, can be very complicated. You always have to put the time first, unlike in English where we tend to put the time last in the sentence e.g. I went shopping yesterday.
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