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…
Top Chinese Songs of 2018 (Part Two) Posted by sasha on Jan 31, 2019
We’re continuing our countdown of the top Chinese songs of 2018 with five more tunes. Go back and check out Part One in case you missed it. Once again, I did my best to find the official music videos, lyrics in simplified Chinese, pinyin, and English, and a KTV-style video for you to sing along…
Saying Goodbye in Chinese Posted by Ayana on Jan 21, 2019
Chinese New Year (春节, chūn jié, literally means “spring festival”) will be celebrated this February 5th. 春节 has many interesting traditions. One of them is the friendly custom of 拜年 (bài nián) – wishing family and friends happy new year. Nowadays, you can easily and quickly congratulate your relatives and acquaintances by mail, phone, or…
Top Chinese Songs of 2018 (Part One) Posted by sasha on Jan 14, 2019
Do you like listening to music? (你喜欢听音乐吗? – nǐ xǐ huān tīng yīn yuè ma). Do you like listening to Chinese songs? (你喜欢听中文歌吗? – nǐ xǐ huān tīng zhōng wén gē ma). Listening to music is a great way to enhance your language studies. Even if you don’t understand all of the lyrics, it’s beneficial. Listening…