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Double Nine
The Double Ninth Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday observed on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar. According to Wu Jun, it dates back to the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 AD). According to the ''I Ching'', ''nine'' is a yang number; the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar (or double nine) has extra ''yang'' (a traditional Chinese spiritual concept) and is thus an auspicious date. Hence, the day is also called "Double Yang Festival" (). It is customary to climb a mountain, drink chrysanthemum liquor, and wear the ''zhuyu'' () plant (''Cornus officinalis''). Both chrysanthemum and ''zhuyu'' are considered to have cleansing qualities and are used on other occasions to air out houses and cure illnesses. On this holiday, some Chinese also visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects. In Hong Kong and Macau, whole extended families head to ancestral graves to clean them, repaint inscriptions and lay out food offerings such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's largest ethnic group, making up about 17.5% of the world population. The Han Chinese represent 91.11% of the population in China and 97% of the population in Taiwan. Han Chinese are also a significant Overseas Chinese, diasporic group in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In Singapore, people of Han Chinese or Chinese descent make up around 75% of the country's population. The Han Chinese have exerted a primary formative influence in the development and growth of Chinese civilization. Originating from Zhongyuan, the Han Chinese trace their ancestry to the Huaxia people, a confederation of agricultural tribes that lived along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the north central plains of Chin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Empress Lü
Lü Zhi (241 BC – 18 August 180 BC), courtesy name E'xu (娥姁) and commonly known as Empress Lü () and formally Empress Gao of Han (), was the empress consort of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Gaozu, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty. They had two known children, Liu Ying (later Emperor Hui of Han) and Princess Yuan of Lu. Lü was the first woman to assume the title List of consorts of rulers of China, Empress of China and paramount power. After Gaozu's death, she was honoured as empress dowager and regent during the short reigns of Emperor Hui and his successors Emperor Qianshao of Han and Liu Hong (Emperor Houshao of Han, Emperor Houshao). She played a role in the rise and foundation of her husband, Emperor Gaozu, and his dynasty, and in some of the laws and customs laid down by him. Empress Lü, even in the absence of her husband from the capital, killed two prominent generals who played an important role in Gaozu's rise to power, namely Han Xin and Peng Yue, as a lesson f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Curse Of The Golden Flower
''Curse of the Golden Flower'' () is a 2006 Chinese epic wuxia drama film written and directed by Zhang Yimou. The Mandarin Chinese title of the movie is taken from the last line of a poem written by the rebel leader Huang Chao, who had revolted against the Tang dynasty. With a budget of US$45 million, it was at the time of its release the most expensive Chinese film to date, surpassing Chen Kaige's '' The Promise''. It was chosen as China's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for the year 2006, but did not receive the nomination. The film was nominated for Costume Design. In 2007, it received fourteen nominations at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards and won Best Actress for Gong Li, Art Direction, Best Costume and Make Up Design and Best Original Film Song for "菊花台" (Chrysanthemum Terrace) by Jay Chou. Hong Kong Film Awards official homepag26th Hong Kong Film Awards winner/nomination list Retrieved 2011-06-15 The plot is based on Cao Yu's 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Qingming Festival
The Qingming Festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day, Ancestors' Day, the Clear Brightness Festival, or the Pure Brightness Festival), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by ethnic Chinese in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. A celebration of spring, it falls on the first day of the fifth solar term (also called Qingming) of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4, 5 or 6 April in a given year. During Qingming, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites and make ritual offerings to their ancestors. Offerings would typically include traditional food dishes and the burning of joss sticks and joss paper. The holiday recognizes the traditional reverence of one's ancestors in Chinese culture. The origins o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Qixi Festival
The Qixi Festival (), also known as the Qiqiao Festival (), is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of Zhinü and Niulang in Chinese mythology... The festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month on the Chinese lunisolar calendar... A celebration of romantic love, the festival is often described as the traditional Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day. The festival is derived from Chinese mythology: people celebrate the romantic legend of two lovers, Zhinü and Niulang, who were the weaver girl and the cowherd, respectively. The tale of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been celebrated in the Qixi Festival since the Han dynasty.. The earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to more than 2,600 years ago, which was told in a poem from the ''Classic of Poetry''.. The festival has variously been called the Double Seventh Festival, the Chinese Valentine's Day, the Night of Sevens, or the Magpie Festival. Origin The po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Mochi
A mochi ( ; Japanese ) is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain Japonica rice, japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The steamed rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan, it is traditionally made in a ceremony called . While eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year, and is commonly sold and eaten during that time. Mochi is made up of polysaccharides, Clofibrate, lipids, protein, and water. Mochi has a varied structure of amylopectin gel, starch grains, and air bubbles. In terms of starch content, the rice used for mochi is very low in amylose and has a high amylopectin level, producing a gel-like consistency. The protein content of the japonica rice used to make mochi is higher than that of standard short-grain rice. Mochi is similar to , which is made with rice flour instead of pounded rice grains. History Red rice was the original variant used in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Takikomi Gohan
is a Japanese rice dish seasoned with dashi and soy sauce and mixed with mushrooms, vegetables, meat, or fish. The ingredients are cooked together with the rice. The dish is consumed by people in Japan around the fall season since many root vegetables and mushrooms are harvested during this season in Japan. Ingredients will vary based on the seasonal vegetables and fish. Since the dish has nutritional value, and uses a small amount of rice with vegetables and proteins, some Japanese people eat it for dieting purposes. History was created during the Nara period. Rice was scarce then, so people conserved rice by adding millet or other cereals, wild vegetables, yam or Japanese radish, creating an early form of called . During the Muromachi period, became popular, turned into a dish called using ingredients such as barley, beans, and vegetables. Over time, people became creative and made a variety of dishes with seasonal ingredients. Difference from is prepared by adding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Sake
Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asian rice wine (such as huangjiu and cheongju), is produced by a brewing process more akin to that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars that ferment into alcohol, whereas in wine, alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes. The brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, where the conversion from starch to sugar and then from sugar to alcohol occurs in two distinct steps. Like other rice wines, when sake is brewed, these conversions occur simultaneously. The alcohol content differs between sake, wine, and beer; while most beer contains 3–9% ABV, wine generally contains 9–16% ABV, and undiluted sake contains 18–20% ABV (although this is often lowered to abou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Gregorian Calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years slightly differently to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long rather than the Julian calendar's 365.25 days, thus more closely approximating the 365.2422-day tropical year, "tropical" or "solar" year that is determined by the Earth's revolution around the Sun. The rule for leap years is that every year divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are divisible by 100, except in turn for years also divisible by 400. For example 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was. There were two reasons to establish the Gregorian calendar. First, the Julian calendar was based on the estimate that the average solar year is exactly 365.25 days long, an overestimate of a li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Free Dictionary
''The Free Dictionary'' is an American online dictionary and encyclopedia that aggregates information from various sources. It is accessible in fourteen languages. History The Free Dictionary was launched in 2005 by Farlex. In the same year, it was included in '' PCMag'' Make Your Browser Better list. Content The site cross-references the contents of dictionaries such as ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', the ''Collins English Dictionary''; encyclopedias such as the '' Columbia Encyclopedia'', the ''Computer Desktop Encyclopedia'', the '' Hutchinson Encyclopedia'' (subscription), and Wikipedia; book publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, HarperCollins, as well as the Acronym Finder database, several financial dictionaries, legal dictionaries, and other content. It has a feature that allows a user to preview an article while positioning the mouse cursor over a link. One can also click on any word to look it up in the dictionary. The we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival (see also #Names, § Names), is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture, and has been added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists#Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Humanity list by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2024. Marking the end of winter and the beginning of Spring (season), spring, this festival takes place from Chinese New Year's Eve (the evening preceding the first day of the year) to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of the Chinese New Year falls on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February. The Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
