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Shen Zhu
Shen Zhu or God Pig, sometimes known as Holy pig (Traditional Chinese: 神豬, Simplified Chinese: 神猪; Mandarin Pinyin: shénzhū, Wade–Giles: shen-chu, Hokkien POJ: sîn-tu), are pigs that have been chronically fattened for use in Hakka religious and cultural ceremonies, such as the Yimin Festival and the Lunar New Year celebration in Sanxia, northern Taiwan. Pigs are fattened in a process similar to gavage to make them as large as possible in preparation for contests and awards at the festival. The heaviest pig is declared the winner and the owner may receive a prize. The winning pig and other pigs entered into the contest are ritually killed as a sacrifice to the City God or a local deity, one popular temple that continues this tradition is Changfu Temple The Changfu Temple () is a Taoist temple along Sanxia Old Street in Sanxia District, New Taipei, Taiwan. Qingshui (monk), Master Qingshui, known locally as ''Zushi-Gong'' (), is the principal Deity worshiped at C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Festival Ritual
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a '' séance''. Other terms associated with it are apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul. The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakka Language
Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around the world. Due to its primary usage in scattered isolated regions where communication is limited to the local area, Hakka has developed numerous varieties or dialects, spoken in different provinces, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi and Guizhou, as well as in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Hakka is not mutually intelligible with Yue, Wu, Southern Min, Mandarin or other branches of Chinese, and itself contains a few mutually unintelligible varieties. It is most closely related to Gan and is sometimes classified as a variety of Gan, with a few northern Hakka varieties even being partially mutually intelligible with southern Gan. There is also a possibility that the similarities are just ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakka People
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhejiang, Hainan, Guizhou in China, as well as in Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Pingtung County, and Kaohsiung City in Taiwan. The Chinese characters for ''Hakka'' () literally mean "guest families". Unlike other Han Chinese subgroups, the Hakkas are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city, in China. The word ''Hakka'' or "guest families" is Cantonese in origin and originally refers to the Northern Chinese refugees fleeing social unrest, upheaval and invasions in northern parts of China (such as Gansu and Henan) during the Qin dynasty who then seek refuge in the Cantonese provinces such as Guangdong and Guangxi, thus the original meaning of the word implies that they are guests living in the C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year is the beginning of a calendar year whose months are moon cycles, based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. The Lunar New Year as a celebration is observed by numerous cultures. It is also named " Chinese New Year" because it is a traditional festival in China. It is featured in East Asian cultural sphere countries, the Hindu-Buddhist calendars of South and Southeast Asia, the Islamic calendar and the Jewish calendar in the Middle East, and is also celebrated by the indigenous Nisga'a people of Canada. Celebrations East Asia * Chinese New Year ( or ) * Korean New Year ( * Japanese New Year ''(正月 Shōgatsu)'' (prior to 1873) * Ryukyu New Year * Vietnamese New Year ( vi, Tết Nguyên Đán; Hán-Nôm: 節元旦) China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, and South Korea celebrate the lunar new year in addition to the solar new year. Mongols and Tibetans celebrate New Year in February or early March, based on the closely related Mongolian and Tibetan luni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanxia District
Sanxia District () is a District (Taiwan), district in the southwestern part of New Taipei, Taiwan. It is the second largest district in New Taipei City by area after Wulai District. Name The old name of Sanxia, ''Sa-kak-eng'' () refers to the meeting of the Dahan River, Sanxia River, and . In 1920, Taiwan under Japanese rule, Taiwan's Japanese government administratively designated the town as , Kaizan District, Taihoku Prefecture. History After the first coffee plants on Taiwan were imported by the British to Tainan in 1884, the first significant small-scale cultivation took place in Sanxia District. On December 25, 2010, Sanxia Township was upgraded to Sanxia District after the upgrade of New Taipei City#History, Taipei County. Geography It has an area of 191.45 km2 and a population of 101,839 (May 2010). Government institutions * National Academy for Educational Research Education University * National Taipei University Sanxia Main Campus (國立臺北大學三 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavage
Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose ( nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into the stomach. Of humans In psychiatric settings Within some countries, in extreme cases, patients with anorexia nervosa who continually refuse significant dietary intake and weight restoration interventions may be involuntarily fed by force via nasogastric tube under restraint within specialist psychiatric hospitals. Such a practice may be highly distressing for both anorexia patients and healthcare staff. In prisons Some countries force-feed prisoners when they go on hunger strike. It has been prohibited since 1975 by the Declaration of Tokyo of the World Medical Association, provided that the prisoner is "capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment." The violation of this prohibition may be carried out in a manne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City God (China)
The Chenghuangshen (), is a tutelary deity or deities in Chinese folk religion who is believed to protect the people and the affairs of the particular village, town or city of great dimension, and the corresponding afterlife location. Beginning over 2000 years ago, the cult of the Chenghuangshen originally involved worship of a protective deity of a town's walls and moats. Later, the term came to be applied to deified leaders from the town, who serve in authority over the souls of the deceased from that town, and intervene in the affairs of the living, in conjunction with other officials of the hierarchy of divine beings. Name In the name ''Chenghuangshen'' (), the first character ''cheng'' () means "city wall" (a "defensive rampart"; or, by extension, "walled city") and the second character, ''huang'' (), literally means "moat". '' Shen'' () means a god. Put together, Chenghuangshen was originally the name of a deity or type of deity believed to be able to provide divine prote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Changfu Temple
The Changfu Temple () is a Taoist temple along Sanxia Old Street in Sanxia District, New Taipei, Taiwan. Qingshui (monk), Master Qingshui, known locally as ''Zushi-Gong'' (), is the principal Deity worshiped at Changfu Temple. History Changfu Temple was first built during the Qing Dynasty in 1767 by Hokkien immigrants from Anxi County, Quanzhou Municipality, Fujian Province in China. It has been reconstructed three times. Its last reconstruction, started in 1947, is best known for being the masterpiece of renowned Taiwanese artist, Li Meishu. Festivals Every sixth day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar on Zushi-Gong's birthday, Changfu Temple holds a sacred pig (神豬; ) contest. Farmers would compete by raising the largest pig, which during the competition day, the pig is decorated with ornaments. The largest pig will then be sacrificed to the mountain deities, then the meat will be distributed among the devotees. In the past few years, this tradition has been me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qingshui (monk)
Qingshui (; 1047-1101), also known as Chó͘-su-kong (), born Chen Zhaoying () was a Chan Buddhist monk during the Northern Song from Anxi County, Quanzhou. He was said to have gained supernatural powers through his skill in learning and preaching the Dharma and meditation. Through this, he is said to have saved the town of Anxi during a period of drought, bringing rain as he went from place to place. In reverence, the villagers built shrines to him and hence became a Deity in Chinese folk religion. Qingshui is also known by the following nicknames: *Dropping Nose Ancestor (), known for the prominent nose featured in Qingshui's effigies *Black Faced Ancestor () Worship of Qingshui Zushi (清水祖师) is especially popular in Taiwan, where he is worshiped by local villagers for protection and in overseas Hokkien-speaking communities. His birthday is celebrated on the sixth day of the first lunar month. Life Qingshui Zushi was born in 1047. He became a monk when he was young, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pigs
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus scrofa'' (the wild boar or Eurasian boar) or a distinct species. The pig's head-plus-body length ranges from , and adult pigs typically weigh between , with well-fed individuals even exceeding this range. The size and weight of hogs largely depends on their breed. Compared to other artiodactyls, a pig's head is relatively long and pointed. Most even-toed ungulates are herbivorous, but pigs are omnivores, like their wild relative. Pigs grunt and make snorting sounds. When used as livestock, pigs are farmed primarily for the production of meat, called pork. A group of pigs is called a ''passel'', a ''team'', or a ''sounder''. The animal's bones, hide, and bristles are also used in products. Pigs, especially miniature breeds, are kept as pets ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal Welfare
Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity, disease, immunosuppression, behavior, physiology, and reproduction, although there is debate about which of these best indicate animal welfare. Respect for animal welfare is often based on the belief that nonhuman animals are sentient and that consideration should be given to their well-being or suffering, especially when they are under the care of humans. These concerns can include how animals are slaughtered for food, how they are used in scientific research, how they are kept (as pets, in zoos, farms, circuses, etc.), and how human activities affect the welfare and survival of wild species. There are two forms of criticism of the concept of animal welfare, coming from diametrically opposite positions. One view, held by some think ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Words And Phrases
Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of various ethnicities in contemporary China ** Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the world and the majority ethnic group in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore ** Ethnic minorities in China, people of non-Han Chinese ethnicities in modern China ** Ethnic groups in Chinese history, people of various ethnicities in historical China ** Nationals of the People's Republic of China ** Nationals of the Republic of China ** Overseas Chinese, Chinese people residing outside the territories of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan * Sinitic languages, the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family ** Chinese language, a group of related languages spoken predominantly in China, sharing a written script (Chinese c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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