China Culture
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Originally a form of local theatre, it spread all over the country and has become the national opera of China. About 200 years ago, the Qing Emperor Qianlong toured in southern China and developed an interest in the local operas. On his 80th birthday, he had local opera troupes to come
 to Beijing to perform for him. Some remained in Beijing after the celebration. The ones from Anhui and Hubei were incorporated the palace opera -Kunqu Opera- and became the Peking Opera. Peking Opera combines stylized acting with singing, dancing, musical dialogue, martial arts, colorful facial make up and fantastic costumes. Female roles are called dan, male roles are sheng, clowns are chou. Each role, according to their sex, age and disposition, is characterized by different designs of facial make-up, such as jing representing a rough, frank character and hua lian representing a cruel or sinister character. So the audience can easily tell what kind of characters the actors are portraying. Facial make-up, costumes and head - dresses are wonderful works of traditional art.
What are most fascinating about the modernized Beijing are not the skyscrapers or broad streets, but the winding, secluded hutong,
 where there are beautiful siheyuan. It is therefore fitting and proper to call the culture of the ancient capital ‘hutong culture’ or ‘siheyuan culture’. Beijing used to comprise tens of thousandsof siheyuan of different sizes orderly arranged in rows. The passages between the rows were hutong. In the Yuan Dynasty, each hutong was as wide as a large three-courtyard quadrangle. It was later divided into many nameless narrower lanes by houses built in it. Hence the saying that goes, ‘there are 3,600 hutong with names, while nameless ones are as many as the hairs on a cow’. By 1949, there were 6,074 streets and lanes with names, among which were 1,330 hutong, 172 avenues, 111 lanes, 85 streets, 71 alleys, and 37 roads. Streets, lanes and alleys were customarily lumped together as hutong.
Beijing used to have more decorated archways (pailou) than any other city in the world. Apart from hutong and siheyuan, omnipresent
 pailou was the most characteristic structure of Old Beijing. But they have almost disappeared without a trace. Such famous downtown areas as Dongdan, Xidan, Dongsi and Xisi were all named after the pailou that used to be there, which few people know nowadays. In fact, their original names were respectively Dongdan Pailou, Dongxi Pailou, Xidan Pailou and Xisi Pailou. When the pailou were demolished, the word pailou was omitted. Also demolished were many pailou so familiar to old Beijing dwellers, such as the one on Zhengyangmen Avenue, the one on Eastern Chang’an Avenue, and the one on Western Chang’an Avenue. The pailou has a long history, and came in a great variety of forms. Through ages it became a cultural phenomenon unique to China. Researchers found that its first appearance dates far back to the Zhou Dynasty. It was mentioned as hengmen in Book of Songs, which was compiled in the Spring and Autumn Period. The poem
Siheyuan is the traditional residential compound of Beijing. Taking shape in the Liao Dynasty, it matured through the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties to become the most characteristic residence of Beijing.
 The name siheyuan means a courtyard surrounded by houses on all the four sides. Over hundreds of years, the Beijing siheyuan formed a style unique to the capital city in layout, inner structure, furnishing and decoration. A regular siheyuan is built in a lane (hutong) running from east to west, and faces south. The four houses, with the principal one in the north, are enclosed with high walls. The main gate is opened in the southeast corner, the position of xun in the Taoist Eight Diagrams, signifying the wind. The northern house usually has three main chambers and two flanking ones; the eastern and western houses, three chambers respectively; the southern house, four chambers. There are altogether seventeen bays if the main gate and the festooned gate are included. Assuming 11 to 12 sq. m for each bay, the total area amounts to about 200 sq. m. The courtyard is
Kongfu is also called national skill or feat, it is a kind of Chinese traditional sport item. It contains series of actions and many single action to
 fit kick, strike, tumble, hold, fall, cleave…together in some certain rules. It has wide foundation during the mass, it is an precious and varied culture bequest which Chinese accumulate during the long social practice.The beginning of Kongfu may come back to primitive society. At that time, men began to fight against the beasts with the primitive tools like sticks as weapons in order to protect themselves and get living things. Later they made weapons with more execution for getting others’ fortune. So more weapons were made and the skills of fight were also improved during the war. In Yin and Shang Dynasty, some coppery weapons like spears, daggers, halberds, axes, swords broadswords had come out. Meanwhile how to use these weapons appeared, too. In Chunqiu and War Periods, with the development of ironware and the rising of footmen and cavalrymen, weapons’ handles were changed into short |
In Eastern Han Dynasty , Liu xiu hunted down by Wang mang, he helplessly hid himself in the wheat stalks ,and the wheat stalks magically changed themselves to protect Liu Xiu. Wheat-stalk picture is full of folk characteristic, symbolized auspiciousness and nobleness. It exerts the folk artists' utmost efforts, although it's from the folk area, but appreciated and collected as unique art works around royal and noble area.
Clay Sculpture is an ancient common folk art. There is an old legend, Seng Yao has two students one is Wudaozi, who is the greatest painter in Chinese history, and the other one Yanghuizhi, who is the greatest sculptor. Finally, Wudaozi surpassed his teacher Seng Yao with his painting and the same to Yang huizhi with his sculpture. Clay Sculpture is classified into toy series and folk-custom series. Toy series include the sit tiger, the stand tiger, the five poisonous creatures, lying down OX, the Chinese Zodiac, golden melon and so on. Folk-custom series include Eight Immortals of Chinese Mythology, the Romance of The Three Kingdoms, pilgrimage to the West and so on.
Black pottery is known as "the sprite of Hua Xia",and it is the symbol of Ancient China Civilizations. It appeared at Dawenkou civilization, longshan civilization, Qujialing civilization and other ruins in later neolith, and the best pottery species after Yangshao civilization. Black Pottery is praised as "the art of soil and frame", "the work of power and esthetics", with the reputation of "black as painted", "paper-thin".
The Characters of Xi'an shadow puppets are classified into carving and engraving according to Yuan drama after Yuan dynasty. The characters are made up of the Mo role, the costar role and other numerous categories.
Nestled in the Himalayan foothills in the northwest of Yunnan province is a piece of undisturbed land, Lijiang, with beautiful landscapes, a highly developed culture, and sprase urban development. The inhabitants, whose number is approximately 200?000? belong to the Naxi tribe?known as“Mo” in ancient times?It has produced large numbers of intellectuals and scholars. The Naxi people are committed to preserving some of the world’s most precious cultural heritages