The audio is in English so you don’t have to worry about understanding.

10 minutes and you know about China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvEVEIzmYBc

Some of students have plan to study in Shanghai, so I also found a good video introducing Shanghai.

10 minutes and you know about Shanghai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DOPQrVSHiY

This is the place where I had my university. It’s my second hometown– Guangzhou

part 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Q7FcWQ2bA

Part2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms_-3vE7mGM

Chinese Style Love (this audio is Chinese, maybe I will translate it into english in the future)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsa_-AmkbrM

Hope you can enjoy them

We would like to thank all the members and students of Willamette University for making of our International Karaoke Night a huge success with more than 50 people attending! Thank you for coming and singing in French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese and English and sharing our cultures together! We had a great time!

Watch out for our next International event… it’s gonna rock!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Going to KTV is a big thing in China. For birthday celebrations, family get-togethers, weekends hanging out, or even just killing time, KTV is a great place to go.

KTV is the place where we do karaoke. In China, we sing karaoke more privately than in the US.  There are many separate karaoke boxes, and people usually sing in front of their friends instead of strangers. So even if they are not good at singing, they won’t be laughed at by others. Friends always support each other in China, and won’t laugh at you while you sing.

There are several sizes of KTV boxes that vary according to the amount  and type of people you have in your group.  If you have a small group with friends you can get a smaller KTV box, or if you have a group of business people they can get a more luxurious box. Inside of the KTV box, there is a big screen to show lyrics, and a special computer to order songs. There are comfortable couches to  relax and flashing colored lights to create an atmosphere for singing. You can order food or drink  in the box or out at the KTV stores.  There are at least two microphones in the box.  If you order a big box, there could be four microphones and even  more screens. The big box usually has its own restroom, which is more convenient.

In China we love to go to KTV.  It’s a very common entertainment place in every city. As it has become more popular and common, the price has gone down, so even some middle school students can afford to go there when they have holidays. When I was in middle school, the time KTV just started being popular in China, my classmates and I would save our pocket money and would go to KTV when we finished our midterms or finals. It’s really a great way to get together with friends or families.

The price of singing in KTV varies from time to time. If you go on a public holiday or weekends it would be more expensive than weekdays. And each day from 7pm-9pm it is more expensive than at other times. In the daytime on weekdays, the price usually is much cheaper. So if you have time you can go there to practice singing by yourself.  Also, the late night time is also good choice for people who like to spend their whole night there. Young people  like to sing at KTV through midnight until 6 am in the morning. That time is the cheapest period. Some KTV will offer a buffet there. So you don’t have to worry about your energy to sing.

KTV offers a relatively private space to a group of people who want to hang out together. It’s not just a place for singing, people can chat, play cards, order drinks, play board games and play dice there. It’s a very popular place for togetherness and building connections.  If you get the chance to go to China, you should try Chinese KTV!

Hey everybody,

For our latest issue of Willamette World News, Wenwen wrote a really interesting post all about the craziness that goes on when people get married in China. .
You should check it out.

You can read the other entries here.

Enjoy!

WWN Editors
Matt, Jaime, Mary, Lars

Before the wedding, there are countless things to prepare:  the name list for invitation, the wedding invitation cards, the red envelopes, the wedding cake, the wedding pictures, the wedding rings, the preparation of bridal chamber and lots of plannings and arrangements for the wedding. 

Oh, one more important thing , there should be some kids sleep or crawl on the new bed in the bridal chamber, which means may they soon have a baby.

The first step of wedding is “Snatching the Bride”ceremony, which shows the lady’s family won’t let the groom easily get their daughter. So they need to purposely make difficulties for the groom. I think it’s the most interesting part of the wedding. On the wedding day, the bride has to get up at 5:30 in the moring to do the make-up. This process normally takes two hours.

The groom has to decorate the main wedding car and the other cars. So the bride and groom stayed different place before the wedding day, normally they stayed at their each own parents house. The groom will bring his team to the bride place. The bride family will set several different obstacle to stop the groom. For example they arrange the kid in the yard to ask forcandies, also in the downstairs some relatives stop the groom team using wines. Only after drinking 3 bowls of wines can go upstairs to meet the bride.

Just in front of the room of bride, there also an obstacle for giving red envelops of money through the crack between the door and the floor. Until  the bride team satisfy the groom team, they will open the door for them.

Do you think the groom has got the bride? No, the groom has to looking for the shoes of bride, which were hidden by the bride team. The groom has to bribe the relatives who know where the shoes are, until he find the shoes.

Then he can propose in front all the relatives on bride side and carry the bride on his back to the wedding car.

After the groom carrying the bride to the wedding car, the whole wedding cars team will go around the city to show everyone their happiness and let the whole city to be their wedding witness. Then the wedding car will drive to the groom’s place. This time the groom has to hold the bride with his arms to his place.

Then the new couple will meet the parents of the groom, the bride will serve tea to the parents. And the parents will give money to their son and daughter-in-law, and give them best wishes. Some places the parents will also give them a box of jewelry.

After meeting the groom’s parents, it’s the time for heading to the hotel. Normally the main wedding ceremony is held in the hotel hall. As I presented the first two pictures above. In China, the hotels usually have big halls and seperate rooms  for dining. The big hall is normally rent for holding ceremony, of course new couple have to treat their relatives and friends there for a great meal.

The bride and groom have to stand at the gate of the hall to welcome the relatives and friends. And usually the guests will give the new couple a red envelope of money. The money is much more than before as the time and price of goods changed. Now if you go to a friend’s wedding, at least you have to give him/her 300RMB red envelope.

When the guests almost arrived, the main wedding ceremony would begin around 12:30pm.

First accompany the wedding music, the new couple would be walking through the guests  from outside to the front stage. 

The wedding host will introduce the new couple. Then one of the relatives (normally the groom’s brother) will say some wishes to the bride and groom, and thank all the guests for coming. The third step is the witness of wedding will read their marriage certificate and show it to all of the guests.

Then the parents of bride and groom would come to the front stage. The new couple will do part of the very traditional formats, which we called “three bows”: The first bow is for the sky and the ground, which means showing the respect to the whole world; the second bow is for the parents to thank them for the gratitude for the love and care; the third bow is for the bride and groom themselves, which shows their respect and love for each other.

After the “three bows”, the bride and groom will exchange the wedding ring, and help each other to put on the ring. Then they together will drink “cross-cupped wine”.

The new couple have to serve the tea for their parents on the stage, and make some promise for the other’s parents about loving the bride/groom  in the future and will take care of each other. Then the parents will say their wishes to the new couple and thank all of the guests.

Now the young couple also add some western element into the wedding. So some of the weddings will have a wedding cake and pouring champagne. As to the modern western element, I guess my readers has already noticed that the dressings of bride and groom is very western style. I think from 1990s, people like to wear the western wedding dress, which give the bride a feeling of princess. The traditional wedding color should be red, but now it changed a lot.

In the following time, the guests could enjoy the sumptuous feast treated by the new couple and their families. The new couple hasn’t finished their job yet, they still cannot enjoy the food. Poor couple~ The bride have to change her wedding dress to a red traditional Qipao for toasting. They have to toast all the guests one table after another. To the leaders in their company or the old generations, they even have to toast person to person. Normally a wedding will have at least 20 tables of people, ten people will be seated around one table. So in total, they have to toast at least 200 people. That is not an easy job.

After toasting 20 tables of people and the guests finishing  their meal, the new couple could finally take a break and have some food. So far the main ceremony has already come to the end. The last step of the wedding is teasing the bride and the groom on wedding night.

It’s kind of public adults’ games to make fun of the bride and groom. So there shouldn’t be any old generations or kids there. Until all friends got tired of teasing the couple, it comes to the real end of the wedding. It’s really a long wedding day!

Thanks for reading~

I’m Wenwen and I come from China. My last name is Zhang, and I have an English name Victoria. But most of the people I met here  think Wenwen is better than Victoria, because it‘s easy to pronounce. When I introduce myself to others, I always tell them”Wen’s pronunciation is similar to When in English. Like when did you have your breakfast, that When.” Usually people can pronounce it easily and correctly.

I am a graduate student at Jinan University in Guangzhou, in the Southeast part of China.

My major is teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and I have already studied it for 6 years. I really love teaching Chinese, and I am really happy that there are some people who are  interested in my language and culture.

I am very happy to be here at Willamette. Salem is a great place to live and Willamette is a good university. Lots of students here think Salem is too small and there isn’t much entertainment. To me Salem is a nice peaceful place to enjoy life, especially right now with the clear warm weather. The sky is blue, and the trees and grass are light green. There are not too many noisy cars on the street. The whole scenery makes my mind calm down, helping me enjoy every moment in a day. I love it.

Salem is quite different from the city where I lived in China. The city I studied in for 6 years is Guangzhou, which is the third largest international modern city in China.

See, this is Guangzhou! So many skyscrapers and so many automobiles. It is quite different from Salem.

Oh~ Even though the traffic is crazy in Guangzhou, the food there is really superb!

Are you hungry? The cuisine in China is fantastic! I wish you all can have a trip to China to taste authentic Chinese Cuisine~

So in order to have a more convenient communication with local people in China, come on and learn Chinese here in Willamette! I will always be here for you for free tutoring! Come on!

All students are welcome to attend!!

WLS stands for World Languages Studio, the new home of the Language Learning Center in Ford Hall, first floor 101.  More than just a computer lab, the WLS is a place to study language while immersing yourself in a multi-cultural atmosphere.  The student staff at the WLS are trained to help you find the language assistance you need, whether it be language tutoring, access to programs like Rosetta Stone or Wordchamp, or simply a boardgame in a foreign language.  We look forward to your visit!!!

For the first month I was in China I was working on a research project funded by the Center for Asian Studies. My project involved interviewing college students who haven’t practiced any traditional Chinese martial arts and various practitioners of Chinese schools of martial arts to determine what people in China understand about this important cultural element in their history. The questions I asked focused on what perceptions they had of concepts like Kung Fu and Wushu, as well as what perceptions they thought the rest of the world might have about these topics.

Kung Fu is the combination of two characters “功” and  “夫”, which mean “merit” and “man” respectively. When combined they imply the gaining of merit through hard work. This merit does not necessarily involve martial arts, in fact Kung Fu can refer to many different pursuits. Wushu on the other hand is composed of “武” and “术”, literally meaning martial art. It is clear that in the West Kung Fu has become the dominant term for Chinese martial arts, owing largely to the influx of movies from Hong Kong in the 70’s.

I expected that in China many people would make a larger distinction between the two words. However, not only did the majority of non-practitioners I interviewed associate the word Kung Fu primarily with martial arts, but they also associated it strongly with the depictions of it in movies. The practitioners on the other hand made a clear distinction between the two words. To them martial arts (武术) is a form of Kung Fu, a way of achieving merit through hard work.

The first question I asked my interviewees was “What do you think of when I say the word ‘Kung Fu’?”. The the non-practitioners would instantly reply with names like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Practitioners on the other hand gave me philosophical explanations of the nature of Kung Fu. For instance, a Tai Chi master I met one day discussed how yin and yang play into the practice of Tai Chi.

All in all it was an extremely interesting and enlightening project and I made many friends in the process. I advice anyone to give Chinese martial arts a try so that they can experience it from a practitioners perspective, instead of only seeing it through media. After all, if no one continues to practice Kung Fu it will become a thing of the past.

The grandmaster of my style of Praying Mantis (over 80 years old):