Prosperous "Year of Birth"

It was a scientific way for ancient Chinese to use "tiangan dizhi" (the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches) to count the years. However, at that time and even in the long historical process, only quite a few people could read and write. In order to make it easier for people to remember and calculate the years, twelve animals in accordance with the twelve earthly branches (dizhi)...

Wedding Customs of Minorities in China

Marriage doesn’t always come easy. The following wedding customs from five ethnic minorities demonstrate its difficulty. It will be easy to understand why there are so many singles as well as dating shows in China after reading this article. Buyi women wear "Kariya" when they get married. According to the traditional customs of Zhengning, Guizhou province, when children are still in...

Types of Facial Makeup in Peking Opera

Types of facial makeup are a special method of makeup in Chinese traditional operas. Since every historical character or characters of a certain type are provided with a particular facial type, similar to music scores for singing and playing music, such a method of makeup is named "Types of facial makeup". Among all Chinese traditional operas, types of facial makeup in Peking Opera have d...

The Tujia Hand-Swinging Dance

Originated from the primitive sacrificial dance, the Tujia hand-swinging dance of western Hu'nan is a folk dance most characteristic of the Tujia nationality and best representative of the age-old Tujia traditions. The dance is mainly popular in areas like Longshan, Baojing and Youngshun etc of western Hu'nan. Stemming from the old ancestor-worshipping rituals of the Tujia nationality, the han...

The Tujia Hand-Swinging Dance

Originated from the primitive sacrificial dance, the Tujia hand-swinging dance of western Hu'nan is a folk dance most characteristic of the Tujia nationality and best representative of the age-old Tujia traditions. The dance is mainly popular in areas like Longshan, Baojing and Youngshun etc of western Hu'nan. Stemming from the old ancestor-worshipping rituals of the Tujia nationality, the h...

Cold Food and Warm Heart

Hot food and a warm hearth are always considered basic to happiness, but in ancient China people were willing to relinquish these comforts on a special day to memorialize a man who was filial to his parents and loyal to his country. The Hanshi Festival, literally the Cold Food Festival, was traditionally celebrated on the 105th day after the Winter Solstice, but now it is often celebrated o...

The Chic Headwear of the Tu Ethnic Minority

The Tu ethnic minority, mainly distributed in the east of Qinghai Province and some parts of Gansu Province of China, is a minority with a long historic standing. At first, they were engaged in animal husbandry, and later began to develop agriculture. Farming on mountainous farmland has become a typical character of the economy of the Tu ethnic minority. Chic and Artistic Headwear The Tu women...

Wedding of the Nu ethnic group

Nu Ethnic Minority Group, which has a long history and mainly inhabits Yunnan Province, Southwest China, has some distinctive marriage customs. Just like the ballad goes, "the auntie's daughter doesn't yield to others", the mother's brother has an extremely high social status, so the marriage between cousins has special priority over that of others. There are some different marriage customs in N...

Luoyang Peony Fair in 2013

Luoyang Peony Festival is very popular among Chinese tourists and among peony enthusiasts the world over. Each year from mid-April to mid-May, the peonies are in full bloom, generally reaching their peak during the period April 15th-25th, which is the date set for the annual festival. During the peonu fair, gardens are awash with colorful flowers mostly reds mixed with whites, yellows and pur...

Qingming Festival

Qingming is a traditional Chinese festival. It falls on a certain day in early April. The exact date varies from year to year in the Gregorian calendar because Qingming follows the lunar Chinese calendar.This year, it falls on April 4. Literally, the two Chinese characters of the name Qingming mean “clear” (QING) and “bright” (MING). Probably the two words find their origins in the weather of t...