 An imprint of an Eastern Han Dynasty brick depicting two mythical creators of the world, Fuxi, and his sister Nuwa. The figures have snake-shaped bodies and are holding geometrical instruments, with the sun and moon on their heads. |
 Dragons and lions had already developed during the Warring States period. During the Han Dynasty they became a very popular motif. These two examples are playing with a jade disk, a symbol of heavenly contact with the owner of the disk. |
 Another picture that shows mythical tradition is this rubbing of a brick from the Eastern Han Dynasty. These two birds with a man’s head symbolize the moon and the sun. On the moon lives a toad, on the sun a crow. |
 This rubbing of an Eastern Han Dynasty stone has a special religious background. Especially during the Han dynasty, the veneration of the so-called Mother Queen of the West was very popular among many social groups, peasantry as well as upper class. In this picture, we see the mythical animals toad, crow and hare and people making chariot wheels.
（Source: chinaculture.org） |
Archive for March 16th, 2010
Chinese Culture – Brick and stone reliefs: Chinese paintings in 3-D(4)
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010Learn Chinese Podcast – Fish Steak with Sesame
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010|
|
Taste: Crispy outside and tender inside.
Features: The fillets are golden in color.
Ingredients:
250 grams (0.55lb) fish meat (freshwater fish without small bones such as grass carp recommended)
50 grams (0.11lb) white sesame
2 eggs
10 grams (2 tsp) cooking wine
3 grams (1/2 tsp) salt
0.5 gram (1/4 tsp) curry
10 gram (0.35 oz) finely cut scallions
10 gram (0.35 oz) finely cut ginger
1 gram (1/4 tsp) MSG
200 grams (4/5 cup) cooking oil (only 50 grams or 4 tbsp to be actually consumed)
50 grams (8 tbsp) dry cornstarch
1 small plate chilly soy sauce
Directions:
1. Remove the head, tail, bones and skin of the fish and cut into slices of 1 cm (0.39 in) thick, then cut along the grain into fillets 4 cm (1.6 in) long and 1 cm wide. Put the fillets into the mix of salt, MSG, curry, scallions and ginger and let them marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Beat the eggs while adding in dry cornstarch to make a paste. Coat the prepared fish fillets with the paste. Spread sesame seeds on both sides of the fillets, shake off the those that do not stick to the fillets.
3. Heat the wok with a hot fire, pour in oil until it is around 135-170 Celsius degrees (175-340℉). Turn the fire to low and one by one deep-fry the fillets until they are fully cooked. Place them on a plate and serve together with the small plate of chilly oil.
(Source: culture.chinese.cn)
Chinese Character – China Post
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Introduction:
Green is the color of the postal service. Mailing a letter (weighting within 100 grams) to a local address will cost you eight Jiao RMB, and 12 Jiao RMB is needed if you mail a letter to people in other cities or towns in China. You will be charged five to seven Yuan RMB if you mail a letter (weighting within 20 grams) to foreign countries. Sending time varies due to the distance. A local letter needs two days to arrive and a letter to other cities or towns needs one day longer than the local one. However, with the popularity of email and the acceleration of artificial speed, the postal service inevitably faces challenges in terms of price and speed. From August, 2008, a city express mail service was initiated in Beijing, which guaranteed same-day delivery for the same price as before, thus making life much easier for locals.
Text:
Pinyin：
zhōngguó yóuzhèng（běnbù wàibù）
中 国 邮 政 （ 外埠 本埠）
Zhong guo you zheng (ben bu, wai bu)
yóuzhèng xìntǒng
邮政 信筒
You zheng xin xiang (mailbox)
Grammar：
邮政：“邮政局”的简称。百姓通常把邮政局成为“邮局”。
邮政[yóuzhèng](post): abbreviation for “post office”. People always call the post office “post”.
Wǒ qù yóujú jìxìn。
我 去 邮局 寄信。
(I’m going to the post office to mail a letter)
Wǒ děi qù yítàng yóujú，gěi péngyǒu jì shū。
我 得 去 一趟 邮局， 给 朋 友 寄书。
( I must go to the post office to mail books to my friend).
yóu zhèng xìn tǒng
邮 政 信 筒：简称“邮筒”。
(mailbox), or, simply, you xiang (mailbox)
Nǐ kě yǐ bǎ xìn zhí jiē tóu jìn yóu tǒng。
你 可以把 信 直 接 投 进 邮 筒。
(You can put letters directly into the mailbox).
Characters: 中 国 邮
(Source: resource.chinese.cn)
