China’s Middle Class Expanding

April 20, 2010

“Present estimates of “middle class” in China range from 100 million to 247 million… Estimates of the size and growth rate of China’s middle class vary. Roughly half of China’s projected urban population will be middle class in 2025.

“Unlike the United States, where income typically peaks between the ages of 45 to 54, it is predicted that the wealthiest consumers in China will be between 25 to 44 years old because the younger generation will be more highly educated.” Source:  Rise of China’s Middle Class

Buying Cars:
“In the first quarter of 2010, Chinese bought 4.61m units, up 71.78 percent year on year, according to the CAAM.” Source: The Truth About Cars

Buying Houses:
“…demand is still strong. A recent survey by the Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA found that 56 percent of China’s middle-class families are considering buying a new home.” Source: Sinocism

“Furthermore, homebuyers in China put down at least 20 percent as a down payment (30 percent for a first-time buyer and 40 percent for a second-home buyer to damp down speculation). These buyers rarely fall behind on their mortgage payments.” Source: No Housing Bubble in China

Food:
“China’s mass grocery retail is booming and the turnover of both Chinese and foreign supermarket chains are growing.  The middle class’ new consumption patterns and increasing income has been a catalyst for growth and creates new export opportunities for Danish food companies.” Source: Renmin Shimbun

Discover The Reasons Why China is Studying Singapore

_______________

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


The Four Stringed Liuqin

April 19, 2010

The liuqin is a smaller version of the pipa but with four strings and the sound of a soprano range lute. There are two sound holes on each side of the body. By pressing slightly above any of the frets on the instrument, one can vary the pitch.

Liuqin

The liuqin is commonly played using a plectrum like in the guitar. The liuqin is often used to accompany other instruments for folk songs and local opera. It’s translation into English from Chinese means willow-shaped instrument, and it may come with two to five strings. The earliest four-stringed liuqin was popular during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD). The modern liuqin has four steel strings. 

If you enjoyed hearing the liuqin, see The Yangqin

_________________________

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 


The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China – Part 2/9

April 18, 2010

Months after becoming king at thirteen, Shi Huangdi overcomes his mother’s desire to rule in his name and leads his nation to war. He is the youngest king to wage war and soon proves he is also the greatest warrior—he becomes known as the Tiger of Qin.  Shi Huangdi wages war against his enemies for ten years. There are seven countries besides Qin. The seven countries in what we know as China today were Zhao, Yen, Wei, Han, Chi, Chu and Qin.

During the war to conquer Zhao, Shi Huangdi’s army takes ten thousand prisoners. The rules of war say these prisoners must be fed and sheltered. However, Shi Huangdi changes the rules.  He shows his troops what to do by beheading an enemy troop and calls on his army to do the same.

He says, “There is only one way to treat weakness and that is to exploit it. There is only one way for Qin to survive, and that is to conquer.”  All 10,000 Zhao prisoners are beheaded.

Go to Part 3 of The Man Who Made China or return to Part 1

View as Single Page

_________________________

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. 

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.


The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China – Part 1/9

April 18, 2010

Professor Jeffrey Riegel, from the University of California, Berkeley traveled to China to unlock the truth behind one of the earth’s greatest legends, a man larger than life, the first emperor of China, Shi Huangdi. This nine part series on YouTube (each part runs about 10 minutes) is the documentary film about that emperor.

First Emperor’s Warriers

Shi Huangdi was barely thirteen when his father died (246 BC) after being king of Qin for three years. The legends say Shi Huangdi was a tyrant driven mad by power.

He built a tomb the likes of which humanity has never seen. When the first emperor was buried, he was the most powerful man on earth. He unified an empire that outlasted Rome by a thousand years, and he ruled ten times the population of ancient Egypt.

Go to Part 2 of The Man Who Made China or discover Gold from Dead Tibetan Caterpillars

View as Single Page

_______________

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


Huangmei Opera

April 17, 2010

Anqing, in Anhui Province, is regarded as the ‘hometown’ of Huangmei Opera and Hui Opera. Anqing was first built in 1217 and is almost eight-hundred years old, but Huangmei Opera first appeared about two centuries ago as a simple drama of song and dance.

Huangmei opera did not involve the traditional opera gestures which often-used sleeves and step movements. The music is performed with a pitch that hits high and stays high and does not sound like the typical rhythmic Chinese opera.

Huangmei Opera Troupe

Chinese opera together with Greek tragic-comedy and Indian Sanskrit Opera are the three oldest dramatic art forms in the world.  For an example of Huangmei Opera, watch Cowherd and Weaver Girl.

To learn more about Chinese opera, see “Peking Opera” http://wp.me/pN4pY-lf

Sign up for an RSS Feed for  iLook China