Chinese Culture J-Term 2018

Day Eight of our Chinese Culture J-Term had us participating in a martial arts workshop with American Shaolin Kung Fu. To begin class, we were put through a series of physical exercises, including the standard range of laps around the room, sit ups, and different footwork exercises. Following this, we went into physical exercises such as front rolls and then learned punching form for straight punches, hooks, and uppercuts, working on chaining them together into a six-punch combo. After the practice of these punches, we moved to another room of American Shaolin Kung Fu's dojo, where we had a discussion about the mindset and methods behind learning and practicing martial arts, including respect for those around you and humility in your abilities, providing not only tenets to practice martial arts by but a way to live one's life.

Today we visited the Chung Mei Buddhist Temple in Stafford, TX. We were introduced to the basics of a Buddhist lifestyle and the principles they follow. We were treated to a delicious vegetarian meal and learned that Buddhists do not advocate pain or suffering for any being, and therefore do not believe in the killing of animals for human consumption; animals are beings equal to human in life and vitality and should not be harmed, while plants and other natural sources were given to us by the earth to sustain ourselves. Following lunch we were given an introductory presentation to Buddhism. The story begins in India with Siddhartha Gautama, a prince who was born into a life of constant abundance in wealth, food, and luxury items. However, he abandoned this lifestyle and moved to the opposite side of the spectrum and became an ascetic, meaning he lived as minimally as possible. Both experiences, one of endless abundance and one of complete minimalism, allowed him to discover that the ...

Today all of us watched a few episodes of  A Bite of China . The shows covers many different styles and cuisines of Asian food. My personal episode was talking about "Yellow Steamed Buns" and "Char kway teow". After watching are episodes we then moved on to the next activity, which was was going to the Asia Society. There we look at many culture pieces, which included Chinese culture pieces as well as some Islamic, African and Indian culture pieces. The thing that was interesting was when there was connections made between the cultures. As an example there was trade amongst many different cultures in the silk road. At the end of the tour of the Asia Society we got to play with modeling magic and create pots and bowl or whatever we wanted to create. I think everyone enjoyed are day at the Asia Society and thought it was a fun day of J Term! Written By Brooks Farish

Thursday, 1/11 Today was fantastic! I’m really enjoying this J-Term and all of our activities and plans. We began the day by discussing and seminaring about our first field trip yesterday to Chinatown. We really stood out when we were visiting there as we were a large group of loud teenagers who don’t all speak Mandarin. We talked about how Chinatowns, or areas for other ethnic groups served as a way for an immigrant to live their whole life in another country even if they didn’t speak the language or understand the culture. Continuing with our discussion, we each created a slideshow presentation about Chinatowns in major cities such as Houston, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Vancouver. We also had a presentation on Guan Di, a military general from the Qing Dynasty as after lunch we would visit one of his temples. But more of that later. For lunch we visited Chinatown again, and I think we fit in a bit more. Because we had gone the day before and gotten t...

Today we visited China Town to go on a scavenger hunt. Some of the items we needed to find for the scavenger hunt were a specific brand of Chinese instant noodles, pig ears, and Chinese characters that we could recognize and give the meaning of. We also had to do certain activities such as eating the strangest duck platter we could find. This was a lot of fun, and it gave us the opportunity to see what the average Chinese grocery store was like and to try to practice our Chinese speaking skills. After we finished the scavenger hunt, we went to a Sichuan (四川) restaurant to eat lunch. We ordered a combo platter for the table to share. As they brought out the dishes, they were placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table where we spun the wheel around so that each person could try each dish. This is how meals are usually shared in China. Overall, the day was very fun and we look forward to going back to China Town. Written by Jadyn Cleary

Today was the first day of our Chinese culture themed J-Term and I was super excited to see what Mr. Zhou had in store for us throughout the next three weeks. We started out by going over the schedule for the upcoming week; stopping briefly to discuss particulars for our Chinatown scavenger hunt or where we were going to eat for our Chinese lunch on Wednesday. After my suggestion for Kam's was brutally shut down, we switched topics and were split into groups based on our Mandarin ability. I, having no Mandarin ability of any sort, was given two handouts to read on the basic layout of the language of most of China. One of the handouts covered Pinyin, the romanization system for Mandarin characters, and briefly explained the history of the form of Mandarin and why it existed at all. The other handout talked about the composition of Mandarin characters, their history, and why they came to be. After reading both handouts all of the groups met up again and had a combined Chinese lesson ...