Archive for February, 2019
China’s Social Media Crackdown Targets Twitter Posted by Ayana on Feb 25, 2019
Most western social media (社交媒体shè jiāo méi tǐ) in China is blocked, including Twitter (推特tuī tè). The Chinese government tries to control the internet, but Chinese users gain access to the blocked websites. They use circumvention tools, such as a special software called VPN (virtual private networks), to visit the websites. Most of them do…
A Guide to the Chinese Lantern Festival Posted by sasha on Feb 19, 2019
Today marks the fifteenth and final day of the Spring Festival. Known as the Lantern Festival (元宵节 – yuán xiāo jié), the Chinese name can be broken down as such – the character 元 refers to the first lunar month, and 宵 means “night.” A full moon shines brightly on this night, but that’s not the only light you’ll…
The Year of the Pig Posted by sasha on Feb 5, 2019
Today is the most important holiday in China – the Spring Festival (春节 – chūn jié). Otherwise known as the Chinese New Year, it’s the start of a 15-day holiday full of interesting customs and traditions. According to the Chinese zodiac (生肖 – shēng xiào), we are now in the Year of the Pig (猪年 –…
Chinese Folk Art: New Year Paintings Posted by Ayana on Feb 4, 2019
Chinese New Year will be celebrated this year on February 5th. Chinese New Year (春节, chūn jié, literally means “spring festival”) has a lot of customs: New Year dinner, firecrackers, spring festival couplets, dumplings, and red envelopes, just to name a few. Among them is also the custom of hanging New Year paintings 年画 (nián…