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Eivor

@Eivor_Koy

Aug 19, 2024

After Chinese internet users shared videos of Olympic silver medalist Zhou Yaqin serving customers at her family's little restaurant, the Olympic star went viral again.

Zhou isn't the only Chinese medalist who has risen from humble beginnings to achieve greatness. In Chinese, there is an old proverb called "寒门出贵子，白屋出公卿," which translates as "Humble family produces noble son, poor household resident emerges top officer."

Below is a thread of several Paris Olympic medalists who were reared in humble or poor backgrounds.

One of my favourite things about China is that people from humble backgrounds may achieve great success. I don't deny a wealth disparity in China, but I've always found the DEEP class consciousness of some Western countries disheartening. Compared to the West, the Chinese view class as quaint， something to observe in wonder through TV shows like "The Crown".

Over thousands of years, meritocracy has guided Chinese society. Chen Sheng, the leader of the Dazexiang uprising—the first uprising against the Qin dynasty—the first dynasty of imperial China, made his famous declaration that every Chinese is familiar with:

"𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑡ℎ?"

王侯將相，寧有種乎？

People with talents should be given the opportunity to shine, regardless of their background.

Quan Hongchan, a 17-year-old Chinese diver and gold winner, became China's youngest medalist when she won in Tokyo 2020. Her pleasant nature, honesty, and warm smiles have earned her a place among China's favourite athletes.

Quan was born into a farmer's family in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province. Quan was discovered after a sports academy recruited a group of freshmen to attend a diving summer camp. Her parents were quite supportive of her decision to start competitive diving.

Quan Wenmao, the girl's father, told Chinese media that when Quan was training with the provincial diving team, he could only send her a few dozen RMB every week (less than 20 dollars).

Upon receiving her gold medal, Quan Hongchan expressed her wish to go to the playground and have fun and earn money to cover her mother's medical bills.

Quan Hongchan may be a famous gold medalist now, but his father is still a farmer who tends to his sugarcane and orange orchards.

Source: app.cctv.com/special/cporta…

Li Fabin, a weightlifter from China, won gold at the Olympics twice. Some news sources have labelled his wife as a "vegetable vendor" following his second Olympic gold medal win in Paris. Li said his parents are vegetable vendors, and his wife is constantly there to support them.

"I do not feel ashamed that my family sells vegetables. My wife works, and my parents raised me as an Olympic winner; they are wonderful!"

Source: xhby.net/content/s66be9…

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Eivor

@Eivor_Koy

Jun 4, 2024

You won't understand China if you don't understand Gaokao. In less than three days, China will be immersed in tranquillity, expectation and anxiety, only for the country's most important examination, Gaokao.

The National Unified Examination for Admissions to General Universities and Colleges (Gaokao) is extremely important to the Chinese. The exam papers are classified as "top secret" by the Chinese government, the highest level of state secrecy under China's Law on State Secrets. In 2024, a record-breaking 13.42 million high school students in China will take gaokao, which has the potential to change their life directions dramatically.

China may be changing at mind-blowing speed, but worship of the gaokao remains as immutable as when it was first initiated in 1952. As an ancient Chinese saying goes, scholarship pursuing surmounts all other occupations, and such traditional perception still holds in the new era.

🔵 Gaokao is China's annual undergraduate admission exam. It began in 1952 and ended during the Cultural Revolution. Gaokao was reinstituted in 1977 and continues to this day.

🔵 Gaokao is incredibly competitive. The percentage of first-class admission is roughly 20% (Yiben, 一本, deemed as good universities), whereas fewer than 2% of students can enrol in top universities.

The test result will decide what universities an examinee can attend, and consequently, determine whether he or she will find a well-paid job in the future.

🔵 The examination is practically the only criterion for entrance into tertiary education. Students who hope to enter university will spend most of their waking hours studying for the exam. Most students only have one chance.

🔵 The annual exam is held from June 7th to 8th, though it may be extended by one or two days in certain regions. The exam was previously held in July but has been moved to June due to the negative impact of hot weather on pupils residing in southern China.

🔵 Most Chinese provinces use a unified exam paper, while other regions, such as Beijing and Shanghai, can use their own.

🔵 Gaokao's test subjects have changed throughout time. The three compulsory subjects are Chinese, Mathematics, and a foreign language (any of the following: English, French, Japanese, Russian, German, or Spanish).

Students will subsequently be divided into either Arts or Science tracks. Students who pick the Arts track are tested in history, political science, and geography, whereas those who take the Science track are evaluated in physics, chemistry, and biology.

🔵 Most regions in China are currently testing a new gaokao system to assist pupils in acquiring more comprehensive academic performance. The system is known as "3+1+2".

"3" refers to the mandatory Chinese, mathematics, and foreign language subjects. "1" refers to a selection between Physics and History, while "2" refers to two topics from chemistry, biology, political science, or geography that candidates select based on their interests and specialities.

🔵 Only a few examinees can be excluded if they demonstrate outstanding merit in the quality of their work and comprehension of the academic subject.

🔵 Candidates from China's minority ethnic groups benefit from the exam's favourable policies. Their literary score is made up of a simpler Chinese literature test and an optional subject like Tibetan, Mongolian, Uyghur, or Korean literature.

Candidates from minor ethnic groups in China may be given extra points on their Gaokao to nurture talent from ethnic minorities and ensure educational equity.

[Photo 1: Beijing students take the restored gaokao in 1977.]

[Photo 2: Family members of candidates for the national college entrance exam wait outside the exam site at the capital of southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, on June 7, 2013.]

[Photo 3: Teachers give high-fives to students who will attend the national college entrance exam at Dongyang Middle School in Zhejiang province, June 5, 2023.]

🔵 State secrets are categorized into three categories under China's Law on Guarding State Secrets: "top secret," "highly secret," and "secret". The Gaokao exam papers are classified as "top secret," their disclosure would pose a significant threat to state security and national interest.

The locations of factories that print Gaokao exam papers are secrets. The factories will be closed in May, and all units will be subject to strict surveillance and anti-theft procedures.

Workers in the factory are not permitted to use mobile phones or communicate with the outside world, and they must not leave before Gaokao concludes. To ensure their emotional health, they will receive psychological support.

The exam papers will subsequently be transported in cars guarded by at least three police officers and delivered to the secret chambers in various provinces.

Exam papers will be delivered to exam locations three hours before the exam, and armed police officers will secure them. Surveillance cameras will be installed in the cars that transport the papers, and their routes will be tracked by China’s Beidou system.

Gaokao provides Chinese citizens with generally fair competition. Assuming they are gifted enough, they can attend top colleges regardless of their socioeconomic status, and the government will help cover the costs to make it accessible.

However, the academic ritual has steadily lost its lustre in recent years due to an overemphasis on grades and cramming practices. The public has criticized the system for several issues, including regional discrimination during the admission process due to unevenly distributed educational resources, unfair admission of migrant children because students are required to take exams in the region where their household registration (Hukou) is located, and psychological pressure on teenagers.

The Chinese government has already begun to implement reforms to the gaokao and the enrollment system, aiming to increase access to higher education for students from rural areas and create more vocational schools as alternatives to traditional universities.

[Photo: gaokao banner signed by students.]

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Eivor

@Eivor_Koy

Mar 12, 2024

While working on my new art project, I found an ancient Chinese picture book depicting how foreigners, particularly those from the West, appear to the Chinese. Regardless of how wrong the descriptions are, the book is still interesting.

The book, 皇清职贡图, published about 1769, is an ethnological examination of Chinese tributary states, including Western nations that traded with the Qing Empire. The book made numerous factual mistakes, such as saying that Sweden and England were vassals of Holland and that Portugal and France were the same country.

The book's title is translated as "Collections of Portraits of Subordinate People of the Qing Dynasty," which sounds arrogant and ignorant. Before the Opium War, the Chinese believed that we were the best and did not need to learn anything from the outside world, referring to Westerners as "monster-like people" due to their differences from the Chinese.

And we paid a heavy price for our arrogance. Less than seven decades later after the publication of the book, the First Opium War started, and China gradually became a Western semi-colony, and the "century of humiliation" started.

Arrogance causes misunderstandings of other cultures and geopolitical miscalculations, whereas ignorance leads to one's doom. The Chinese learned the hard way.

The modern Western world reminds me of pre-opium war China. Both are the dominant economic power of their period, yet they have similar flaws: their leaders are arrogant and self-centred, and their citizens have little exposure to the wider world.

Picture 1: Polish man in the book;

Picture 2: Russian woman in the book;

Picture 3: Swedish woman in the book.

Japanese man and woman in the book.

French man and woman in the book.

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Eivor

@Eivor_Koy

Mar 6, 2024

As someone who enjoys playing Tomb Raider video games, I can't help but think that the myths and legends surrounding China's Famen Temple (法门寺)—a Buddhist temple that has survived for over 1,700 years and has a hidden palace below ground that holds incalculable, undisturbed treasures—could be a wellspring of inspiration for many creative types.

The eaves-ties and bricks found around the Temple and historical records suggest that the Temple was constructed during the Han dynasty, which lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD.

An underground palace was then constructed beneath the Temple's pagoda during the Tang dynasty (618-907), which contained numerous valuable artefacts, such as a finger bone of the Gautama Buddha kept in a five-layered sacred box, the silk dress of China's only empress, tea ceremonial artefacts that prove the Japanese tea ceremony originated in China, coloured glaze wares from the Sassanid and Byzantine empires that symbolize the cultural exchanges along the Silk Road, and ceramics that answered a long-standing mystery in China: " What does secret-colour ceramics look like?"

During the Tang Dynasty, seven emperors and one empress offered gifts to the Buddha's finger bone, constructing gold and silver coffins for the sacred relic and concealing a great store of treasure in its hidden underground palace.

In January 874, Tang dynasty Emperor Xizong (唐僖宗) sealed the underground palace with innumerable treasures. Until Chinese archaeologists unearthed it in 1987, the secret treasure hoard stayed undisturbed for 1,113 years.

Over the last 1,113 years, the underground palace has been nearly discovered and destroyed several times. Here are a few instances:

🔴 The Tang dynasty's Emperor Wuzong (唐武宗) launched a campaign to persecute Buddhism to redistribute war revenues and eradicate foreign influences from Tang China. The temple was extensively damaged, and former gifts from the Tang emperor and empress were taken. However, the Buddha's finger bone survived, as the monks fabricated false ones to trick the emperor. The underground palace remained untouched.

🔴 The collapse of the pagoda during the Ming Dynasty. The Tang pagoda collapsed in 1569 during the Ming dynasty when an earthquake struck the temple. For generations, only the monks in the temple knew that there was an underground palace beneath the pagoda. When workers went to restore the pagoda, they saw the underground palace but did not open it, maybe out of respect for the Buddha. The underground palace remained intact.

🔴 Damage caused by the Cultural Revolution. In 1966, a campaign was launched to eliminate the Four Old Things. During the campaign, Buddhist sites and temples were targeted, with the Famen temple being a particular target for demolition.

The abbot of the temple, Liangqing (良卿), decided to self-immolate to save the underground palace from the Red Guards dispatched to demolish it. The True Relic Pagoda and its underground palace were spared destruction, even if the temple's contents were smashed.

The Red Guards' destruction location was only 1 meter above the underground palace's ceiling, discovered twenty years later by archaeologists cleaning up the pagoda.

Famen Temple, with its Buddha relic and exquisite underground palace, is now one of China's most recognized Buddhist sacred sites.

Here are some of the treasures discovered in the underground palace: (see posts below)

Video: The Famen Temple is now restored to its former glory.

Picture 1: The seventh layer of the eight-tiered box, adorned with two turquoise mandarin ducks, pearls and rubies. The box contains a duplicate relic, or a false Buddha's finger bone.

Picture 2: When the underground Palace was opened 1,113 years later in 1987, this was the original shape of one of the vaults.

𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐡𝐚'𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐬

Four relics claiming to be directly related to Buddha were discovered after the underground palace was opened in 1987, but only one is the "true relic". Two "duplicate relics" are made of white jade, while one came from a monk.

The authentic relic is yellow in hue and contains bone-like secretory granules. It is kept in the innermost box of a set of five. The outermost is an iron box; the second is a silver box adorned with 45 Buddha carvings. The third box is sandalwood, the fourth is a crystal outer coffin with topaz and sapphire, and the final is a white jade coffin containing the real Buddha's relic.

The first "Buddha's relic" discovered by archaeologists is a duplicate, found on the Buddha's birthday and preserved in the innermost box of a set of eight boxes, each of which encloses the next-smallest box wrapped in a layer of thin silk. The outermost box was sandalwood and had rotted away, but the smaller boxes were gold, silver, and jade and were well preserved. Each box has a silver lock and is finely carved.

The second "Buddha's relic" discovered by archaeologists is also a duplicate, hidden in a silver casket and an iron box.

The fourth "Buddha's relic," a replica, was placed in a silver coffin hidden inside a bronze house in a marble tower.

Famen Temple became a Buddhist place of pilgrimage due to the discovery of what is claimed as a true relic of Buddha.

𝐂𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫

Chinese celadon were highly regarded by connoisseurs, and sometimes made more or less exclusively for the court. Of particular note was an earlier type such as the mi se (秘色瓷 "secret colour" or "mystic colour") wares.

Speculation arose concerning whether mi se referred to the secret craft of the glazing colour or if it referred to a specific colour. For centuries, the Chinese could only guess the beauty of mi se wares based on a poem written by Tang dynasty poet Lu Guimeng in which he said: "九秋风露越窑开，夺得千峰翠色来" (The workshop of Yue wares open in the deep September amid the morning wind and drew, and the mi se ware colour is better than the greenery of thousands of mountains).

The ceramic type was finally identified when the underground palace at the Famen Temple was opened, revealing a description on the accounting tablet in the underground palace, and by the unearthing of thirteen precious pieces of mi se ceramics.

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Eivor

@Eivor_Koy

Jan 1, 2024

There are two New Year's celebrations for the Chinese people. We celebrate January 1st, like everyone else, but our most big new year celebration is Spring Festival, commonly known as Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. It is the most important celebration in China and several other Asian countries, including Malaysia and Singapore. Over the course of the two weeks-long festival, which often culminates on the eve of the Spring Festival, various cultural components, celebrations, and rituals are introduced daily.

This year’s Spring Festival falls on February 10. According to the Chinese zodiac, which features a 12-year cycle with each year represented by a specific animal, 2024 is the Year of the Loong!

For most Chinese people, the five-character term “衣食住行乐”, which means “clothing, food, residence, movement and entertainment”, fully represents their basic needs and hopes in their future life. Here are some interesting facts that you probably don’t know about this grand festival!

🧧衣(yī)-春节新衣 (Spring Festival New Clothing)

Wearing new clothes is a historical tradition for Spring Festival. According to 东京梦华录 (Literally: Dreams of Splendor of the Eastern capital), a memoir featuring authoritative pictures of affluent Chinese culture written by Meng Yuanlao (c. 1090-1150), Chinese people would wear new clothes on the first day of Spring Festival, as the tradition was considered to bring a fresh new start and good luck for the new year.

In the old days, noble families would wear silk dresses and robes, while poor families would use homespun fabric to make new clothes. Most of the clothes were red in color, as people believed red could expel evil spirits and protect them. For children, tiger-shaped decorations on hats and shoes were also used to protect their spirit, allowing them to grow up stronger and healthier.

Wearing new clothes for the Spring Festival used to be a very important festival ritual. In ancient times, impoverished Chinese people didn’t have enough money to buy new clothes regularly like we do today. Spring Festival provided them a chance to enjoy themselves and fulfil their wish to pursue beauty. Although people in modern times can easily get new clothes whenever they want, wearing new clothes remains an important Spring Festival tradition and represents a new beginning of a happy year.

🧧食(shí)-春节聚餐 (Spring Festival Reunion Dinner)

The family reunion dinner is very culturally significant. Served on Spring Festival eve, it is a 4,000-year-old tradition passed down through generations in China. Usually involving a hearty feast, the dinner is also a historical record of Chinese traditions and culture, with every dish containing its own auspicious symbolism.

According to the 荆楚岁时记 (Records of Jinchu), China’s encyclopedia of folk customs during the 6th and 7th centuries, the reunion dinner is usually held in or near the home of the most senior member of the family, while all family members work together to prepare a feast.

For every Chinese family, fish is an indispensable part of the reunion dinner. In Chinese, fish has the same pronunciation as 余 (yu), which means ‘surplus’. For Chinese people, it is always good to have saved something by the end of the year, so that more good fortune will follow.

The typical blessing that comes with the fish dish is 年年有余, an idiom wishing people a surplus of food and money in the new year. It is also very important to choose the right type of fish. The Crucian carp and Chinese mud carp are most often used for reunion dinners, as the first character of crucian carp (鲫鱼, jìyú) sounds like the Chinese word 吉 (jí, good luck), while the Chinese word for mud carp has a similar pronunciation to the word for ‘gift’.

With people’s living standards improving significantly in recent years, more and more Chinese prefer to eat out for New Year rather than cook at home. More advanced Internet technologies have also made it possible for people to order half-finished dishes online, or even invite a chef to help out at home. The form of the reunion dinner may have changed a lot, but the essence of family love still warms the heart of every Chinese person.

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Eivor

@Eivor_Koy

Nov 10, 2023

Some readers have asked me to elaborate on the history of "Chinese names." This post sheds light on the historical and cultural significance of "Chinese names."

In Chinese culture, a person's name consists of both their family name (姓) and their given name (名). Once a standard part of our names, the courtesy name (字) is now rarely used.

We honour our ancestors by maintaining the tradition of putting the family name before the given name.

🇨🇳 Family Name (姓)

Family names have been used in China for over five thousand years, making it the first country in the world to do so. From totemic signs of the late Primitive Period to the standardized Chinese characters of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese system of surnames has come a long way.

The Chinese use family names to denote family origins and blood links, allowing them to trace back to their roots and ancestors. Zhang Shu (张澍), a Qing Dynasty scholar, stated in his book "The Origins of Chinese Names" (姓氏寻源): "怀山之水，必有兮源；参天之木，必有兮根；人之有祖，亦犹是焉 (A river that runs around mountains must have its origin, a tree tall enough to reach the sky must have its roots, and people must have their ancestral history)."

The Hundred Family Surnames (百家姓) is an ancient Chinese book listing the most popular surnames in China. An unidentified author compiled the book during the Song dynasty (960-1279). There are 507 family names in the book, including 441 surnames with only one character and 66 with two.

The initial character of the titles of the Three Character Classic (三字经, compiled in the 13th century), the Hundred Family Surnames (百家姓, compiled in the 6th century), and the Thousand Character Classic (千字文, compiled in the 6th century) were shortened to 三百千 (Three, Hundred, Thousand). They were used as textbooks in ancient Chinese schools and eventually became required reading for kids from all socioeconomic classes, even some common folk.

When a kid masters all three, his Chinese character repertoire will be nearly two thousand, since there is no alphabet in Chinese, this method of teaching character recognition was a necessary first step before moving on to reading and writing.

According to the "Chinese Surname Dictionary," up to 24,000 family names are recorded in Chinese characters by different ethnic groups from ancient times to the present. Some of these family names have been lost throughout history, while others have been passed down from generation to generation, giving rise to the more than 6,000 surnames in use today.

A survey of Chinese family names in 2020 found that Wang (王), Li (李), Zhang (张), Liu (刘), and Chen (陈) were among the top five by the number of registered newborns in the ranks of the "2020 Hundred Family Surnames" (nearly identical to the records of The Hundred of Family Surnames thousands of years ago). These five surnames account for 30.8% of the total registered population in China.

Surnames are usually made up of one character. Those with two or more Chinese characters are a particular branch of Chinese surnames, and their ancestors are typically ancient nomadic tribes. With 1.112% of the population, Ouyang (欧阳) has surpassed all other compound surnames. Compound last names such as Shangguan (上官), Huangfu (皇甫), Linghu (令狐), Zhuge (诸葛), Situ (司徒), Sima (司马), etc. are common in China. Although compound surnames are less than the one-character family names, they are frequently "preferred" in martial arts literature and television shows.

The practice of a son inheriting his father's surname is deeply rooted in Chinese culture and has developed throughout thousands of years. There has been an increase in the number of children taking their mother's surname due to societal shifts and the introduction of the two-child policy in China in 2016. The ratio of taking the mother's surname to the father's surname is 1:12 in 2020.

🇨🇳 Given name (名)

It is said that a Chinese person's name is like a time capsule, carrying with it the values, beliefs, and history of their family for centuries to come.

The most popular names change, yet some remain popular throughout history. Names like Jianguo (建国, male name, which means the founding of the country) and Xiuying (秀英, female name, which means pretty yet strong) from the 1950s and and Haoyu (浩宇, male name, which means the greatness of the universe) and Xinyi (欣怡, female name, common female name in Chinese TV dramas) from the 2010s show how China's society has evolved as its economy and lifestyle have improved.

Names were often associated with political events in the 1950s. Jianguo(建国, the founding of the country), Jianhua (建华, the establishment of China), Yuanchao (援朝, aid for the Koreans), etc. arose during the PRC's founding, while many women opted for Ying (英, hero), Lan (兰), etc.; in the 1960s and 1970s, names such as Jun (军, military), Yong (勇, bravery), etc. became more popular.

After the 1980s reform and opening up, names began representing personal feelings. There has been a shift toward gender-specific names like Wei (伟, greatness) and Li (丽, beauty), which is thought to express a growing appreciation for the simple lifestyle such terms convey.

More sophisticated cultural components were incorporated into the names in the 1990s, with the increased use of characters like Jie (杰, outstanding), Hao (浩, vast), and Xue (雪, snow).

After China's Reform and Opening Up, Chinese people preferred short and easy-to-remember names, and there was a spike in two-character names. Since the 21st century, with the rapid growth of population and increasingly frequent migrations, the phenomenon of duplicate names has increased. Three-character names have gained in popularity to prevent having the same names.

Over 90% of names are at least three characters long, while only 6.3% are at most two nowadays. Although the number of people who use four-character is small, it has been steadily expanding, rising from 0.3% and 0.4% in the 1950s to 1.6% and 1.7%.

Yichen (奕辰) and Yinuo (一诺) have become the most commonly used names among male and female newborns born in 2020, with over 14,000 and 24,000 persons, respectively.

🇨🇳 Courtesy Name (字)

A courtesy name, also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name.

A courtesy name is a name traditionally given to Chinese men at the age of 20, marking their coming of age. It was sometimes given to women, usually upon marriage. The practice is no longer common in modern Chinese society. According to the Book of Rites (礼记), after a man reached adulthood, it was disrespectful for others of the same generation to address him by his given name. Thus, the given name was reserved for oneself and one's elders, whereas the courtesy name would be used by adults of the same generation to refer to one another on formal occasions or in writing.

Reflecting a general cultural tendency to regard names as significant, the choice of what name to bestow upon one's children was considered very important in traditional China. Yan Zhitui (颜之推) of the Northern Qi dynasty (550 to 577) asserted that whereas the purpose of a given name was to distinguish one person from another, a courtesy name should express the bearer's moral integrity.

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