Visiting Xian

February 19, 2010

I’m taking a quick trip to Xian (in pictures that is). Xian was China’s ancient capital for more than a thousand years before being moved to what is called Beijing.

Xian’s City wall is centuries old

After landing in Xian in 2008 (our third trip to the city since 1999), we found a great driver. He was honest and knowledgeable. Here’s the cell phone number he had at the time (136-0916-251). If you visit Xian, I recommend you book him for the entire stay. He also introduced us to some experiences we’d never had on previous trips.

Traffic in downtown Xian

The Famous Terra Cotta warriors were created to guard China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (221-204 B.C.). Qin Shi Huangdi made Xian China’s first capital until Kublai Khan moved the capital to Beijing where he ruled his Khanbalik Empire, from 1264 to 1267.

These warriors were created to guard China’s first emperor after death.

Discover The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China

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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.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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Gambling for “Face” – Part 4/4

February 18, 2010

For the Chinese, taking risks is no stranger. It’s probably the reason the Chinese invented paper, the printing press, gunpowder, built multi-stage rockets centuries before anyone in the West did, and the cross bow—China’s list of revolutionary inventions is long so I’ll stop here. Many eventually appeared in the West where Westerners took credit for them. Now you know the truth.

In “What the Chinese Want even More than Oil or Gold”, the focus was on Chinese gambling and about illegal lotteries going legal and national. Since I married into a Chinese family, I understand what the author of this piece is saying, but the topic is more complex than that.

To learn more, I suggest you read the Investoralist, “Where Curious Minds Meet”. The Investorilist piece says that gambling is China’s Achilles heel.

I disagree.

I believe it is risk taking that brought China to greatness in the past.  It’s when most Chinese stopped taking risks that China lost its spot as a regional superpower. It’s all about Face.  Take a risk and win but make a mistake and get caught, you lose ‘Face’ and maybe your life too. Countries like China, Japan and Korea have a high suicide rate.

Return to Part 1 or discover Where Are the Parents

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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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Men’s “Face” – Part 3/4

February 18, 2010

Face is why the Chinese businessman will take great risks or take only a few risks and if given a chance may steal another person blind—that is if they believe they can get away with it.  If they are caught and it is against the law, that is a loss of face—one reason for suicide. Most Chinese men will wait until they are successful before they let others know. If they fail, it’s possible no one will hear about it beyond the family unit.

Face is why Chinese men often work twelve to sixteen hour days, seven days a week earning small but saving big. The Chinese will do without luxuries and save to pay for their child’s university education. Chinese women will work just as hard.

Regaining face may be one reason why Mao reoccupied Tibet for China in 1950. The other reason may have been tactical—to control the high ground like Israel controls the Golan Heights.  Having control over that plateau was one of the tactical reasons Britain convinced the Dalai Lama to declare freedom from China in 1912.

Some of China's Seventy Million Leaders

Face may be why China’s leaders get so angry over Taiwan. As long as Taiwan is out there and not ruled by the mainland, it may be seen as a loss of face. It’s why the Chinese want to walk on the moon and reach the other planets before anyone else. In China, “face” is universal to the entire population and different for each person.

Continued at Gambling for “Face” – Part 4 or discover The Power of Public Debate in China

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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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Mother’s “Face” – Part 2/4

February 18, 2010

Do not stereotype. The meaning of face may vary between the Chinese.  It depends on the balance between Confucianism and Daoism along with factors like Buddhism or belief in the Christian, Islamic or Jewish God.

Face is why most Chinese mothers ride their children hard to earn good grades in school while telling everyone they know that their kid is stupid and lazy and has no chance to succeed. Chinese mothers may often tell their children the same thing. However, if the child is accepted to a prestigious university, that Chinese mother has now earned bragging rights and gained much face for the great job she did as a mother.

mothers with children

To get a better idea, I recommend reading Amy Tan‘s “Joy Luck Club” or watching the movie.

We had a house full of my wife’s Chinese friends over for dinner. After eating, the children gathered in our downstairs TV room to watch a movie.  They picked “The Joy Luck Club”, and during one scene, when the Chinese mother was acting very Chinese, all the children looked at each other, nodded a ‘yes’ and laughed ironically. Since my wife is Chinese, I knew why they reacted that way. They all had Chinese mothers.

Continued at Men’s “Face” – Part 3 or learn about International Women’s Day

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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. 

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.

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Chinese “Face” – Part 1/4

February 17, 2010

No, this is not about looks or Botox or face lifting creams or hairstyles, or the desire to have a rounder, paler moon face—the standard of beauty to the Chinese.

What I am writing about is the meaning of “face”.

Dr. Martha Lee wrote, “Nobody ever said what you do with those who have ‘disgraced’ the family name by getting divorced.”

In China, if you do something that is considered a disgrace, like getting divorced, that may be considered a loss of face for everyone in the family.

When our daughter was a pre-teen, we went on weekend hikes in the hills behind our home. The end of the hike was a large park across the street from the La Puente Mall. On one fateful day, when she was nine or ten, she was the first to discover a dead man. She came running back with a shocked look on her face.

It turned out that the dead man was an architect from Taiwan and his company had gone broke.  His loss of face for failing had driven him to take an extension cord from his mother’s house, find a suitable tree in an isolated portion of that park, and hang himself.  He was dead when we reached him.

Continued at Mothers “Face” – Part 2 or learn of Human Rights – East versus West

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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. 

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.

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