Besides a general cultural preference for subtlety, it plays an important role for etiquette. In particular, it features heavily in communications but also relates to the concept of humility, which is a virtue as deemed by Confucianism. In terms of communications, there are a lot of things left unsaid or implied. Double entendres are aContinue reading “The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (5)- Subtlety”
Category Archives: Chinese Fun Facts
The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (4)- Number of wives
Chinese society is very hierarchical and one of the aspects that evidences this is the number of wives allowed between different social classes. The lowest class or commoners tend to practice monogamy while the wealthy have a wife and various concubines. And depending on the dynasty, sometimes merchants are considered to be a cheap socialContinue reading “The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (4)- Number of wives “
The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (3)- Ceremonial Rites
There used to be more ceremonial rites in ancient China but many have grown out of fashion. For example, the coming of age ceremony for the high born where males aged 20 are capped and given a courtesy name while girls’ hair is styled into a bun and given a hairpin at the age ofContinue reading “The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (3)- Ceremonial Rites “
The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (2)- Left versus Right
There are two aspects to which left versus right is important in Chinese culture. The first is that unlike Western society where right is considered the power position, it’s the reverse in Chinese culture. By the power position, I mean both seating arrangements and whether you walk to the left or right of someone else.Continue reading “The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (2)- Left versus Right “
The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (1)- Titles and Personal Addresses
This topic is actually inspired by my study in translation (I started my graduate certificate in translation in the middle of July) and I thought etiquette does play a very important role in Chinese culture, all the way from ancient times. Before I delve into the topic area of this post, I will just listContinue reading “The Role of Etiquette in Chinese culture (1)- Titles and Personal Addresses “
Nuances of the Chinese language (3)- Sampled Dialect Differences
This is probably the last of this set of serial posts. So I’ve talked about how three different dialects of Chinese sound like to me in the very first post. Today I will provide some concrete examples so you can see for yourself how different each is. Example 1: Different units for a kiss TheContinue reading “Nuances of the Chinese language (3)- Sampled Dialect Differences”
Nuances of the Chinese language (2)- Family Relationships
In direct contrast with English, there are a lot more distinct terms for describing immediate and extended family relationships. There are separate terms of an elder versus younger sibling as well as delineations of whether the relationship originates from the fraternal versus the maternal side. Now before I actually start, note that I’m mostly stickingContinue reading “Nuances of the Chinese language (2)- Family Relationships”
Nuances of the Chinese language (1)- Written versus Spoken
This new serial post is actually inspired by the fact two Internet friends asked me about the Chinese language, separately but with a coincidental timing that was very close to each other. So let’s start with the basics. First, we have to distinguish with the written language and the spoken language. There are only twoContinue reading “Nuances of the Chinese language (1)- Written versus Spoken”
Ancient Chinese naming practice
Today I want to discuss ancient Chinese naming practice since I have a personal fascination with names both in terms of their meaning and how they sound to the ears. This tends to apply to a lesser degree to English than my native language of Chinese but I still tend to grope for the rightContinue reading “Ancient Chinese naming practice”
Chinese Superstition- Physical Oddities and Polycoria
Following on the last post about Chinese number superstition, I decided to do another on a related topic. So ancient Chinese had various fortune telling methods, one of which was looking at people’s facial features. For example, long ears or a long gap between the nose and the upper lip were considered a sign ofContinue reading “Chinese Superstition- Physical Oddities and Polycoria”
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