History of the PRC – Part Thirteen Posted by sasha on Jan 12, 2011
When we last left off, the CCP and KMT had ceased fighting with each other, albeit temporarily, to fight together against Japan. For years now, a civil war had been raging within China’s borders and little attention had been paid to its neighbor to the East, thanks to a policy of “first internal pacification before…
Mr. Hu Goes to Washington, pt. 2: Deng Xiao Ping’s Legacy Posted by Stephen on Jan 7, 2011
Now that we’ve gone over Nixon’s visit to Beijing, lets fast forward through history to the late 1970s and focus upon Deng Xiao Ping’s or 邓小平 (dèng xiǎo píng) visit to the United States. In what has been dubbed “ping-pong diplomacy” (due to the back and forth nature of travel), the lessons learned are…
Great Wall at Mutianyu (慕田峪长城) Posted by sasha on Jan 7, 2011
About 100 km outside of Beijing lies the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Representing just one of the many sections of the 6,000+ km long wall, this area is easily accessible from China’s capital city, is not quite as full of tourists as other sites and is restored enough to make the climb up…
History of the PRC – Part Twelve Posted by sasha on Jan 3, 2011
At the end of Part Eleven, we found Mao Zedong and the Communist forces battered, bruised, yet still intact after the Long March. While enduring the hardships and struggles of their historical march across the country, Mao’s troops obeyed his Three Rules of Discipline: Obey orders in all your actions. Do not take a single…
Understanding Measure Words (量词) Posted by Stephen on Jan 1, 2011
When I taught English in China, one of the easiest lectures was on English articles, i.e. the, a and an. However, when discussing the use of “this” 这 and “that” 那， some problems would arise. Some students would say things like: “this the ball is red” or “that a school is where I study”. At…
2010 Greatest Hits Posted by sasha on Dec 31, 2010
It’s been a great year, and as much as it pains me to do so, it is time to say goodbye to 2010. For the last post of the year, I have compiled a sort of “Greatest Hits” from the past 6 months of video posts that I have been doing for Transparent Chinese. For…
Christmas in China Posted by sasha on Dec 27, 2010
While I realize that we’ve had two Christmas posts already, and that the holiday is passed us, I decided to write my last post of 2010 about Christmas time in China. Having now spent the holiday season in Beijing twice (2008 and 2010), I have noticed a much greater presence of Christmas here through the…