ShangDi – China’s God of Creation

August 30, 2010

China is the oldest, continuous civilization on the earth. Ancient records date back to about  2500 B.C. and coincides with the Biblical timeline, which shows that the great flood took place around 2344 B.C. Source: Bible Study – Flood

Ancient Chinese myth has their first king, Fu-hi or Fohi (Chinese Noah) making his appearance on the Mountain of Chin surrounded by a rainbow after the world had been covered with water.  Myth says this Chinese Noah also sacrificed animals to God.

The Miao tribe of Southwest China has a similar myth. According to the Miao, God destroyed the world by flood because of the wickedness of man. The myth also says Nuah (Noah) had three sons: Lo Han (Ham), Lo Shen (Shem), and Jah-hu (Japheth). Source: Silvia Videler

“ShangDi, the Creator-God of the Chinese, surely appears to be one and the same as the Creator-God of the Hebrews.” Source: Answer in Genesis

“One of the earliest accounts of the Border Sacrifice is found in the Shu Jing (Book of History), compiled by Confucius (551 to 479 B.C.), where it is recorded that Emperor Shun (2256 to 2205 B.C.) sacrificed to ShangDi.” Source: Answer in Genesis

ShangDi is the High God of the ancient Chinese.  He was worshiped as the Creator God for thousands of years. ShangDi was known as the Heavenly Ruler and the Chinese emperors were known as the Sons of Heaven.  No other god was higher or more powerful.

Evidence says that the ancient Chinese understood the nature of God as the ancient Hebrews did after Abraham (1812 B.C. to 1637 B.C.), who is considered the father of the Jews (about 3,000 years old), Christians (about 2,000 years old) and Muslims (about 1,400 years old).

While the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans worshiped many gods, the Chinese worshiped one God above all others, ShangDi. If true, that would mean the Chinese might have believed in God longer than the Jews, Christians or Muslims.

In fact, it appears that the Chinese believed in God (ShangDi) without an organized religion for more than four thousand years.

Discover The Question of Religion

_______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. 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.

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

About iLook China

29 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Chinese minorities, Christianity, Islam, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Changing Face – Farmers’ Friend the Organic Way – Part 1/3

August 29, 2010

China uses more pesticides than any other country. 

To prove a point, Greenpeace conducted an experiment and sent 45 samples of fruits and vegetables from rural Chinese peasant farmers to an independent laboratory to find out how serious the problem was.

Five of the samples had no pesticides on them. The other 40 samples had 50 different kinds of pesticide on them.  Source: Greenpeace

This video is about a group called “Farmers’ Friend”, professional urbanites from Liuzhou City in Guangxi Province, who wanted to have healthier food to eat that was pesticide free. 

To achieve this, these Chinese professionals connected with peasants in rural China with goals to encourage organic farming that would offer higher incomes to the peasants and healthier food to urban people.

“Farmers’ Friend” wanted to work with the poorest peasants in the poorest rural areas.

Since 1980, hundreds of millions of rural people had moved to urban China to work in factories. This resulted in demands on peasant farmers to grow more food to feed the country, which results in heavy pesticide and chemical fertilizer use.

In 2006, the central government announced a policy of urban support for rural development. However, by then, “Farmers’ Friend” had already taken its first step in 2005 to encourage organic farming in rural areas.

See Women in Science & Business

_______________

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. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

Leave a Comment » | business, capitalism, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese food, economy, education, environment, food | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The “What If” Housing Bubble in China

August 29, 2010

Charles Hugh Smith writes for the Daily Finance and claims that China’s Housing Bubble Will End Badly.

That’s not going to happen for several reasons. The first reason is that China’s economy does not depend on the housing market to survive. Most people in China still don’t own their homes even in the cities.

In the US, housing loans to GDP were 79% but in China, that number is about 15%, which means real estate in China doesn’t prop up the economy.

Let’s look at one fictional individual who loses his job in China and can’t make his mortgage payment.

If he always lived in the city and has family (even distant relations), he will move in with them and rent his home to make the payments. The family may even pitch in so he doesn’t lose the home.

If that fictional Chinese man came to the city to work from a village, he returns home.  The peasants in rural China don’t have to worry about losing those homes.  In fact, it’s as if China had two economies: rural and urban.

If the government needs to develop the land the peasant’s home sits on, a new home is provided. More than seven hundred million Chinese live in villages owned by collectives and the central government. Those peasants don’t have a mortgage payment, pay rent or property tax.

Even in urban China, people only pay property tax once when they buy the home they live in.  Property tax for your home isn’t an annual burden as in the US.

Another factor is that the average savings rate in China is 40% and the wealthiest Chinese own about 40% of urban real estate.

See Betting Against China’s Housing Market

______________

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.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese middle class, cultural differences, economy, family values | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Got Talent Too

August 28, 2010

There is America’s Got Talent and most of us know who Susan Boyle is from Britain’s Got Talent.

Now, from China comes an inspiration. Liu Wei lost both his arms when he was 10 after touching a high-voltage wire during a game of hide-and-seek.

At 23, on China’s Got Talent, he stunned people across China and brought tears to some when he played piano with his toes.

Many in the West may not be aware of how much China has changed.

China’s Got Talent is a British-owned Chinese reality show screened by Dragon TV in Shanghai.  It features performers of all types and ages competing for a performing contract with Fremantle Media and Sony Music Entertainment. Source: Cultural China

See Impressions of Liu Sanjie

______________

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.

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

About iLook China

 

1 Comment | capitalism, China, Chinese arts and music, Chinese Culture | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Growing Private Education in China

August 28, 2010

Here is another sign that China is evolving. During the Tiananmen Square incident, it was reported that Deng Xiaoping said that China wanted to become a democracy but the people were not ready and education was the key—not just for a handful of elites but also for as many people as possible.

If you still want proof that China is moving toward change without a bloody rebellion, read the East Asia Forum about the growth of private universities in China and India.

The East Asia Forum says, “First, both countries are used to seeing the public sector as the sole provider of education services. Their higher education architecture has evolved consistently with such a monopoly.”

However, in September 2003, China invited foreign universities to set up shop in China.  India made a similar invitation in 2010.

It isn’t easy for foreign universities to open campuses in China since the culture is different from the US or Europe. The East Asia Forum advises that foreign providers for higher education must be patient and persuasive.  They point out early successes like the University of Nottingham in Ningbo, China and the Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University.

If a successful transition takes place, one day there may by a Stanford Shanghai University or a Beijing Harvard campus. Someone must open the door to a better understanding between cultures.

Learn more about China Investing BIG in Education

_______________

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. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

Leave a Comment » | business, China, Chinese Culture, cultural differences, education | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »