Emperor Wu of Zhou Dynasty – Part 1/4

September 6, 2010

Wu of the Western Zhou Dynasty was named Jifa. He was the second son of King Wen, and the founder of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Zhou Dynasty would last almost 900 years. Source: Cultural China

The Zhou people lived along the western part of the Yellow River and were one of the first nations to develop agriculture. To the Northwest of Zhou were barbarian tribes.


Video: Chinese with English subtitles

The Zhou capital was near today’s modern city of Xian in Shanxi Province, and the Zhou, a vassal state, were given the job of protecting the Shang Dynasty’s western frontier.

However, while the brutal last king of the Shang Dynasty waged endless wars with surrounding tribes, the Zhou ruler placed more importance on developing agriculture and his small kingdom grew wealthy.

Zhou’s prosperity bothered the Shang king so he threw King Wen in prison.  After his release, Wen recruited a talented general to lead his army to wage war on the Shang Dynasty.

The Zhou king died during the war and his son Wu became king and defeated the Shang. To achieve this victory King Wu forged an alliance with other Shang vassal states.

According to historical records, the Shang Dynasty fell in the first month of 1027 B.C.

Continued with Emperor Wu of Zhou Dynasty – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, history | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Stand-Up Comedy

September 5, 2010

People laugh in China. There’s even humor, jokes and comedy. However, I often don’t see the humor in a Chinese joke while a Chinese audience roars with laughter.

Part of the joy of humor in America is when you discover the shocking meaning behind the punch line.

John Pasden, who has lived in China for more than 10 years, writes Sinosplice. John has been interested in Chinese humor for a while.

He points out that Chinese stand-up comedians follow the punch line with an explanation of why the joke is funny.

  • Zhou LiBo’s Chinese stand-up comedy “war story” with English subtitles

A popular stand-up comic in Shanghai, Zhou Libo, provides an example.  He jokes about China’s massive purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds, “I am really confused about why a poor guy lends money to the rich. We should just divide the money amongst ourselves,” he says. “But on a second thought, each of us would only get a couple of dollars!”

Then Zhou LiBo adds the explanation, “Because the population is so big.”

Although Zhou LiBo is a stand-up comedian in China, his reputation reached the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the government in Beijing can’t understand him while his fan base continues to grow.

The Times says, “Zhou is Shanghai’s homegrown rock star. Born and raised there, he began his career with a local comedy troupe before taking the stage on his own. His routines are filled with local humor and performed mainly in ‘Shanghainese’ — a local dialect with only a passing resemblance to Mandarin.”

In fact, China has more than 56 spoken languages and a flock of dialects while having one written language.

See Four Equals One China—Minority China – Part 5 and Part 6

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Middle Kingdom on Fashion Fast Track

September 4, 2010

Three decades ago, blue, black, gray and green clothing dominated Chinese streets. Today, individuality is the rule.

Since China is the hub of worldwide manufacturing, it is no surprise that fashion is alive and well there too. In fact, urban Chinese consumers are highly brand conscious. Even luxury brands like Christian Dior are in demand.

Fashion in China is more than a 40 billion (in US) dollar growing industry.

Forbes’ China Tracker, Avery Booker, writes about the fashion competition in China and points out that foreign retailers like H&M are wading into the Chinese market and doing well.

Meanwhile, Chinese retailers find innovative ways to compete with foreign companies by going into Chinese markets that foreign companies have not reached.

Attitudes to domestic brands have changed because state owned companies have been privatized and are producing better quality products. 

What’s interesting are the foreign faces Chinese retailers are using to sell their fashions—like Wentworth Miller of “Prison Break” as well as actor Orlando Bloom and model Agyness Dyn.

In order to promote the development of China’s fashion industry, super-model beauty contests have also blossomed.

See Disneyland Chinese Style

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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China’s Fighting Singing Crickets

September 4, 2010

The first time I read about China’s singing crickets was in “Empress Orchid” by Anchee Min.  Retired concubines spent time carving gourds where these crickets lived to entertain empresses, emperors and princes.

I learned about China’s fighting critics from a comment on this Blog and there was a link included.  

While writing this post, I Googled the subject. In Gardening4us.com, Catherine Dougherty tells us, “cricket culture in China dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD).” 

She says, “It was during this time the crickets first became respected for their powerful ability to ‘sing’ and a cult formed to capture and cage them. And in the Sung Dynasty (960 – 1276 AD)… cricket fighting became popular.”

In TrueUp.net, Kim says, “The Chinese consider the cricket to be a metaphor for summer and courage…”

We learn from Pacific Pest Inc. that, “Crickets are popular pets and are considered good luck in some countries; in China, crickets are sometimes kept in cages, and various species of crickets are a part of people’s diets … and are considered delicacies of high cuisine in places like Mexico and China.”

From Home Made in China, we learn in a comment from Gogovivi, who is based in Qingdao, North China that, “Summer used to mean picking berries in the yard and making jam, canning green beans, going to the farmer’s market, BBQs, lawn mowing, hiking, swimming. Now my whole family looks forward to the arrival of singing crickets.”

See A Stylish Assault Against Pornography

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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2 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, cultural differences, history | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
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Chinese Brush Painting – Gongbi Style (flower and bird painting)

September 3, 2010

Chinese brush painting developed over a period of more than six thousand years.

Figure Painting developed beyond religious themes during the Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), and landscape painting was established by the 4th century.

Another style is flower-and-bird painting, which became independent of other Chinese brush art around the 9th century then gradually developed into two different styles. Source: Asia Art.net

One famous 20th century Chinese brush-painting artist was Chen Zhifo (1895 – 1963)

Chen was born into an educated family.  At 23, he went to Japan to learn patterns that later influenced his painting style.

Chen would become a renowned painter in the early 20th century.

His artistic career started in design, patterns and other arts. When he started Gongbi style flower-and-bird painting, he was nearly 40, and he revived the declining tradition of Gongbi style Chinese brush painting.

When he started painting, he usually sketched his subjects then went through many drafts modifying them before applying colors.

Chen focused on the design of branches, leaves and birds to portray his subjects.

See Caressing Nature with Chinese Calligraphy

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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