Chinese Culture

'Foreign Trash' and China's Soft Power

Julian Baird Gewirtz | Posted 05.29.2012

Read More: China Foreign Policy, Hu Jintao, Chinese Culture, China Nationalism, China Soft Power, World News
Julian Baird Gewirtz

China's soft power agenda has become a dangerous fault line. It will be an extraordinary challenge for China's new leadership to strengthen the country's cultural sphere while also maintaining the kind of global engagement that will make greater soft power useful.

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What Chinese Consumers Want

Tom Doctoroff | Posted 05.27.2012

Read More: Chinese Brands, Chinese Culture, Chinese Society, Chinese Consumerism, China Materialism, Apple China, China Business Culture, Business News
Tom Doctoroff

Understanding China's consumer culture is a good starting point for understanding the nation itself, as it races toward superpower status. Material similarities between Chinese and Americans mask fundamentally different emotional impulses.

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Happy Birthday, Ai Weiwei!

Posted 05.18.2012

Read More: Slideadbigshot, Ai Weiwei Twitter, Video, Happy Birthday Ai Weiwei, Twitter, Chinese Culture, Internet Activism, Chinese Government, Art and Activism, Ai Weiwei, Arts News

Today is the (disputed) birthday of Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei. The successful sculptor, architect and open critic of the Chinese governme...

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Americanese: In Between the Gaps

Rui Dai | Posted 05.14.2012

Read More: Immigrants, Immigration, Chinese Students, Chinese Culture, China, College News
Rui Dai

As more and more international students from all over the world come to the U.S. and become immersed in American culture, perhaps a term like Americanized Chinese or Americanese can also emerge to indicate an identity that is not completely Chinese or quite Chinese-American.

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Found Sound -- This Is China

Tamsin Smith | Posted 05.01.2012

Read More: Music, Poetry, Chinese Culture, China, Sound, Mark Degli Antoni, Culture News
Tamsin Smith

Underneath the clatter of bicycle chains and the clomp of boots marching, I find the ping of coins tossed at a Buddhist temple, the jangle of tea cups, whistling, a burst of thunder, wind, laughter, rain upon stones, silence. Becoming attuned to sound changes the focus of approach.

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A Pritzker Prize With Chinese Characteristics

Julian Baird Gewirtz | Posted 05.12.2012

Read More: Hu Jintao, Chinese Culture, Architecture, Chinese Government, Wang Shu, China Economy, China, Pritzker Prize, Arts News
Julian Baird Gewirtz

Wang Shu's work stands for, and the Pritzker jury statement sides with, one set of possibilities for China's future -- bold, forward-thinking development that is tempered by awareness of China's remarkable and distinctive past.

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Linsanity: The Point God of Sports Memes

Chi Tung | Posted 04.10.2012

Read More: Linsanity, Blogosphere, Los Angeles Clippers, Yao Ming, Grantland, Internet Memes, Roger Ebert, Chinese Culture, Tebowmania, Asian Americans, Globalization, Deadspin, Jeremy Lin, Tim Tebow, New York Knicks, Culture News
Chi Tung

For every one of us eager to claim Lin in our racial draft, there's Lin himself, shrugging off the portentous hype because he's too busy making love to pressure to tangle with Asian American identity politics.

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PHOTOS: Colorful Lantern Festival Celebrates End Of Chinese Lunar New Year

Posted 02.07.2012

Read More: Photos, Photography, Chinese New Year, Chinese Culture, Exposure, Lunar New Year, China, World News

The Lantern Festival in China, also known as the Yuan-Xiao Festival, takes place on the 15th day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. The...

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Modern China's Spiritual Crisis: Does it Exist?

Tom Doctoroff | Posted 03.23.2012

Read More: Confucianism, Chinese Culture, Deng Xiaoping, Buddhism, China Materialism, China Modernism, China Spirituality, China Middle Class, World News
Tom Doctoroff

To the Chinese, materialism is not superficial. It is meaningful, tantamount to advancement within society and faith in the future. Run amok, however, it corrupts ambition and threatens the country's social fabric.

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PHOTOS: 8 Things You Must Do Before (And During) Chinese New Year

Grant Thatcher | Posted 03.21.2012

Read More: Chinese New Year, Travel, New Year, Hong Kong, Chinese Culture, Chinese Food, Celebrations, Asia, Year of the Dragon, Local Food, Food, Slidepollajax, Food Travel, Travel Blogs, Travel News
Grant Thatcher

While Chinese New Year is always a special time, this particular cycle is the most special of all. Chinese New Year traditionally brings frenetic prayer and wishes for health, wealth, happiness and yet more wealth -- but 2012 has an added bonus.

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A Chinese Century? Not Quite

Tom Doctoroff | Posted 01.28.2012

Read More: Michael Jackson, Die Welt, American Values, 21st Century Superpower, What Chinese Want, Angelina Jolie, American Military, Chinese Values, Self-Actuallization, Military Power, Coca-Cola, Nike, Chinese Culture, Individualism, Chinese Assimilation, Soft Power, Johnny Depp, Chinese Diplomacy, Lady GaGa, World News
Tom Doctoroff

China will not easily capture hearts and minds. They will be an economic superpower only. The Chinese are ethnocentric and in large ways and small, an instinct to narrowly defend interests can be off putting.

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Looking For Chinese Solutions, Finding None

Mitch Moxley | Posted 01.16.2012

Read More: Chinese, Beijing, Tall Rice, China Travel, Mitch Moxley, Chinese Culture, China, Travel Blogs, Travel News
Mitch Moxley

We shrug our shoulders and say one of the most important and infuriating phrases in the Chinese language: mei banfa.

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A Foreigner By Any Other Name

Mitch Moxley | Posted 01.02.2012

Read More: Beijing, Chinese Culture, Chinese Names, Chinese, Tall Rice, Mitch Moxley, China Travel, China, Travel News
Mitch Moxley

As Tall Rice, I've appeared in a movie, a humiliating music video, a commercial, a Peking Opera television special and, soon, a Chinese dating show. At home, I would have said no to all of it.

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Why Doesn't Asia Have Religion?

Thomas David DuBois | Posted 12.28.2011

Read More: Hinduism, Chinese Culture, Religious Freedom, Daoism, Religion and Politics, Buddhism, Asia, Religious Tolerance, China Human Rights, Religion in Asia, Asian Religions, Eastern Religions, Michele Bachmann, Religion News
Thomas David DuBois

Having spent the past 10 years writing and teaching on Asian religions, I now have something to confess: Asia does not have religion.

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China's Communist Party: Not Losing Control

Tom Doctoroff | Posted 12.03.2011

Read More: Cultural Revolution, Weibo, Bo Xilai, Eminent Domain, Chinese Politics, Mao Zesong, Mercantilism, Singapore, Arab Spring, Chinese Culture, Ministry of State Security, Chinese Middle Class, Prosperity Covenant, Deng Xiaoping, Micro-Blogs, Democracy in China, Chinese Pragmatism, World News
Tom Doctoroff

The future of China's political system will not be made in America or Europe.

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Chinese Government Enlists Top US Orchestra

AP | By JOANN LOVIGLIO | Posted 11.22.2011

Read More: China Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra China, Art, Chinese Art, China Music, Philadelphia, Music, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chinese Culture, Arts News

PHILADELPHIA -- Nearly four decades after becoming the first American symphony to tour Communist China, the Philadelphia Orchestra announced it will e...

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China's Cultural Revolution Brings Surge in Art Collecting

nytimes.com | ROBIN POGREBIN | Posted 11.07.2011

Read More: Art Collecting, Cultural Revolution, Art Sales, Chinese Culture, Art in Asia, World Art, Art Collection, Chinese Art Collecting, International Art, China Cultural Revolution, Chinese Art, China, Arts News

As auction houses prepare for their fall sales, Chinese collectors are expected to be a major boost for the market, raising their paddles for big-tick...

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Western Opera Singers Head To China For Jobs

www.npr.org | Posted 11.06.2011

Read More: Art, China Theater, Chinese Culture, Opera, Employment, Cultural Shift, China Opera, Jobs, Cultural Shift China, China, China Arts, Culture, Arts News

Lesson No. 1: saying "thank you" in Chinese. "Xie xie. Xie xie. Xie xie," repeats American soprano Maria McDaniel, as she struggles to pin down the...

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The Principles Of Marketing Food In China

Tom Doctoroff | Posted 10.31.2011

Read More: Chinese Culture, Chinese Cuisine, Shanghai Food, China Culture, Food in China, Chinese Food Brands, Chinese Food, China, China Economy, World News
Tom Doctoroff

China's relationship with food is a window into basic instincts. The country's cuisine is a manifestation of a civilization that has never taken survival for granted.

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WATCH: This Black California Teen's Unusual Special Talent

AP | TERENCE CHEA | Posted 09.26.2011

Read More: Cross Culture Education, California, Chinese Culture, Chinese Opera, California Schools, California Arts Education, Arts Education, Chinese Education, Cultural Education, Teenagers, Video, Education News

OAKLAND, Calif. — Tyler Thompson is an unlikely star in the world of Chinese opera. The 15-year-old from Oakland has captivated audiences in th...

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Lucas Kavner

'Snow Flower' Author Talks Friendship, Adapting Her Novel To Film

HuffingtonPost.com | Lucas Kavner | Posted 09.11.2011

Read More: Friendship, Chinatown, Lisa See, Shanghai Girls, Snow Flower, Wayne Wang, Chinese Culture, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Los Angeles, Culture News

The complex bond of female friendship and intimacy is something author Lisa See has explored extensively with her past two novels. In her recent "Shan...

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Shanghai or Bust

Frits van Paasschen | Posted 08.07.2011

Read More: Tourism, Beijing, Chinese Culture, Shanghai, China, Starwood Hotels, Travel News
Frits van Paasschen

Having lived and worked in different countries, I believe you can't truly understand a culture until you buy groceries there. It was this notion that served as the genesis for moving our entire Senior Leadership Team to China for a month.

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Birth Certificate Reveals Obama's Secret

Dr. Philip Neches | Posted 06.24.2011

Read More: Birthers, Obama Birth Certificate, Astrology, Chinese Culture, Zodiac Signs, Barack Obama, Wisdom, Healthy Living Spirit, Healthy Living News
Dr. Philip Neches

The subject of President Obama's birth certificate occasioned spilling far too much ink, both real and virtual. So what have we learned? I leave the ...

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The Yellow Peril

Sat Hon | Posted 07.18.2011

Read More: Asain American, Chinese Culture, Asian American Struggles, Asian American Beliefs, Asian American Culture, Chinese American Culture, Politics News
Sat Hon

Asian-Americans, as a group, are transplants: trunks from one culture grafted onto roots belonging to another. Their immigrant parents tried to retain and transmit a memory of Asian heritage, but those values and practices are long gone.

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What Foreigners Can Learn at the Shanghai Zoo

Tom Doctoroff | Posted 07.06.2011

Read More: Beijing Olympics, Shanghai, Shanghai Zoo, Expatriates in China, Chinese Economy, Kids in China, Education in China, Alligators, Rising China, Chinese Face, Chinese Culture, Corruption in China, Civil Society in China, Chinese Crowds, Chinese Bureaucracy, Giraffes, Parenting in China, Apes, Harmonious Society, Falling China, Travel News
Tom Doctoroff

There are two Chinas, one falling and one rising. At the Shanghai Zoo, both are on display. Pessimists will shake their heads at stultifying bureaucracy. Optimists are reassured by the unquantifiable, relentless energy of the people.

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