Gateway to China

By: T. Setyo Handayani (081214147)

What comes in your mind if we talk about China? When you see lion dance or barongsai, receive red pockets or angpao, wacth kungfu or shaolin movies, eat mantao or kue ranjang, will you think about China? Lion dance is a famous dance from mainland China since thousand years ago. Red pocket and mantau are features of Chinese New Year, kungfu and shaolin movies are mainstay of Chinese movies that dominate action movie on the world.
China is a fourth largest country on the word by area. It becomes the biggest country by population. It is one of the East Asia countries and it is considered as a developing country. To know about China further, let’s see it from different sides.

Chinese History
China has a long history; it has been recorded since 221 BC. Chinese ancients have had good civilizations since that time. It is proven by the people having recorded about their history in a stone, and the inheritance that we can see now.
Ancient Chinese history is divided in two eras, which are The Early Empire and The Second Empire. The Early Empire starts from 221 BC where the Qin Shihuagdi reigns as first emperor of China from the Qin Dynasty. During this era, many things are found, such as iron and paper. Administrative model starts to be applied in Han Dynasty (in 25 AD). It manages bureaucracy system between common people and the emperor and his staff. The Early Empire ends in 589.
Second Empire starts from 589 under the reign of Sui Dynasty. During this era, a big invention is found. Printing press is a big invention that influences not only China but also the whole world. During Tang Dynasty, China is expanded, the northern part reaches Vietnam and the eastern side reaches Korea. In this dynasty, first empress reigns China.

Chinese Religions History
China is known as a non-religious country. It is because Chinese practice their folk beliefs more than practicing foreign religions such as Buddhism, Christian and Islam. Confucianism and Daoism are famous native beliefs that are practiced by the majority of Chinese and they bring influences in daily or social life in China. This belief is created by Kong Zi, who lives in 551 to 479 BC. His teaching can unify the folk beliefs and culture. During Song Dynasty, Confucianism developed well. Daoism is a native religious that develop as a rival of Confucianism in the fifth century BC. The influences of Daoism are also strong in social life in China. The main teaching of Daoism is meditation aimed at reaching material immortality. When Buddhism came in to China, Daoism adopted some Buddhist practices. Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are considered as strange religions. Buddhism entered China in second century AD and could be accepted widely by Chinese. It became influential religious in Tang Dynasty. Nowadays, Buddhism takes important force in some areas in China, Modern temple and monasteries are built in some places to train young monks and nuns. Islam came to China in seventh century during Tang dynasty by Arab traders. They married to Chinese girls to strengthen the relationship between China and Muslim countries. It is estimated that there are 15 million Muslim in China now. In the same century, Christianity entered to China overland. The development of Catholic Rome and Nestorian flourish during Mongol Dynasties. The churches were established to serve The Mongol, not China. Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit missionary, brought significant Catholic group of Chinese. Today around 10 million Christian are living in China.

Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisines are very famous in the world because of the taste, cleanliness, health and freshness. Chinese Cuisine history is as old as the Chinese history itself. It is because every Dynasty brings its own characteristic of the food. Diversity of the cuisine is caused by different geography, climates and products that were produced in certain parts of China. Many methods of cooking are known in China such as steaming, boiling stewing, frying, braising, grilling and roasting. Every method of cooking has specific characteristic that bring special taste and appearance of the dishes. The dominant characteristics to Chinese cuisines are elegant look, pure taste, fragrant, fresh, tender, sweet and sour. These characteristics raise the people’s appetite that looks at the dishes. And the dominant ingredients of the dishes are meat (pork and beef), fish and seafood, chickens, ducks, tofu, beans, carrots, kale, Chinese cabbage and choy sum. These ingredients will create great flavors if they are cooked in correct way.

Chinese Architecture
Ancient Chinese are also famous with the architecture. Their works are temple, pagodas, city walls, mausoleum and imperial palace. They had known how to make strong and gorgeous buildings well. Some of the building can still be seen until now such as The Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Ming tombs and Forbidden City. The buildings were made because the emperor’s order who reign in that time. The dominant characteristics of the ancient buildings were magnificent, rich in colors and ornaments. In the ancient architecture, colors and ornaments are big parts of the buildings. In the modern architecture, Chinese architecture is influenced by Western architectures.

Chinese Culture
The difference of climates, areas and habits of life makes china rich in culture. Native religions and strange religions blend with daily habit in ancient time creating new culture. The most important moment of Chinese culture is Chinese New Year.
It is time for Chinese to have family gathering, all family members will come home to celebrate it. Colorful decoration will decorate their home. The main decoration is couplet; it is a red scroll that is hanged on the door. There are wishing words or wise words written on it. Foods are taking part during the party. Some foods such as fish, chicken, noodle and Chinese vegetable must be served on the dinner. Those foods are symbol of good luck, prosperity, wealthy and long life. Chinese believe of some superstitions or taboos when celebrate it, such as avoid saying “sei” (death), no sweeping, no dusting and no cutting. They must consult almanac before leaving home or want to do some business. In the big cities, Chinese New Year is celebrated luxuriously; they blend traditional way with modernism way. The attractions of the Chinese New Year become special attraction for tourists.
After reading the article, we have homework to answer, can we respect our country? Maintaining our culture? What can we do to make our country be considered more among the others?

References

Frankenstein, Paul. Condensed China. Retrieved May 20,2010, from Paul’s home page, website:http://condensedchina.com/index.html

Whyte, Bob. (2001). Religion in China. Retrieved May 20, 2010, from SACU website http://www.sacu.org/religion.html

Ancient Chinese Architecture. Retrieved May 20, from China highlights, websitehttp://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/architecture/ancient-chinese-architecture.htm

Chinese Cuisine. Retrieved May 20, 2010, from Professional China Tour service web site: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/cuisine_drink/cuisine/


Chinese New Year. Retrieved May 20, 2010 from
http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html