CHN 101 (Introduction to Chinese Language & Culture)

Assignment

Submitted To
Submitted By
Zhou Mingdong (ZMg)

Director Mohammed Mahib Ullah

Confucius Institute of NSU
073-267-030

Sec - 1
Submission Date: 05.04.2011
Q1. Briefly introduce Chinese Tradition.

Answer:

Chinese culture is one of the oldest cultures of the world. The Chinese traditions and culture
vary between the different towns, and provinces. But festivals are common in a year,
including Spring Festival/ Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon
Boat Festival, Moon Festival, May Day and National Day. Features of 3 Chinese Festivals are
given below.

Festivals Date Pinyin Chinese Tradition

Spring Festival/ The most important festival
Chinese New Year among the traditional
festivals in China. It occurs
at the end of winter thus it
1st day of 1st
Chūn jié 春節 also called Spring festival. In
lunar month
this occasion people meet
their families and celebrate
new year with fireworks
after midnight
Lantern Festival People eat a food called
Yuán xiāo which means
Corn Night. Foods made
from corn are generally
eaten with the hope that
15th day of 1st
Yuán xiāo jié 元宵節 their children will return to
lunar month
them in the following year.
People enjoy Lantern
parade and lion dance
celebrating the first full
moon.
Moon Festival/ Also called as moon cake
Mid- Autumn Day festival / moon day /
autumn day. Everyone
make moon cake for their
15th day of 8th
Yuè bǐng jié 月餅節 family. If someone could
lunar month
not go home s/he make
his/her own moon cake and
tell their parents that they
are having the moon cake.
Qingming Festival 104 days after Qīngmíng jié 清明節 People visit, clean, and
 make offerings at ancestral
winter solstice
gravesites, spring outing
As the gun is fired, people
Dragon Boat Festival will see racers in dragon-
shaped canoes pulling the
oars harmoniously and
hurriedly, accompanied by
5th day of 5th rapid drums, speeding
Duānwǔ jié 端午節
lunar month toward their destination.
Zongzi is an essential food
of the Dragon Boat Festival.
Parents also need to dress
their children up with a
perfume pouch.
According to legend, the
Double Seventh goddess "Zhi Nü" (the star
Festival Vega) fell in love with the
farmer boy "Niu Lang" (the
star Altair), but was
7th day of 7th disapproved by the her
Qīxì jié 七夕節
lunar month mother goddess.
In recent years, in
particular, urban youths
have celebrated it as
Valentine's Day in China.

Double Ninth Autumn outing and

Festival mountain climbing. Some
9th day of 9th Chóngyáng
重陽節 Chinese also visit the graves
lunar month jié
of their ancestors to pay
their respects.
Also named "Chinese
Winter Solstice Thanksgiving".
Festival Rice dumplings could be
used as sacrifices to
ancestors, or gifts for
21th or 22th of
Dōngzhì 冬至 friends and relatives.
December
People of the same
surname or family clan
gather at their ancestral
temples to worship their
ancestors in age order.
Q2. What do you think of traditional Chinese costumes, including Han Chinese as well as
other major/minor ethnic groups?

Answer:
Traditional clothing is a part of the Chinese culture. There are evidences that show that a
Chinese culture, Shantingtung, which flourished 18,000 years ago, used sewing needles
made of bones. There are also evidences that prove the existence of the concept of sewing
and ornamentation in the early Chinese culture. However, importance of designing the
clothes was recognized during the era of the Yellow Emperor and also during the reign of
the Emperors Yao and Shaun. It was during the Shang dynasty, 16th to 11th century BC, that
refined and sophisticated clothes were worn. The evidences show that silk was woven
during this period.

The Pien-fu, the Ch’ang-p’ao and the

Shen-i are the three types of Chinese
traditional clothing. Pien-fu is a two-piece
costume, which includes a tunic-like top
that reaches the knee and an ankle-length
skirt. The Ch’ang-p’ao is a long robe while
the Shen-I is a combination of pien-fu and Ch’ang-p’ao. It is a tunic and a skirt sewn together
to form a long robe. All the traditional Chinese garments have minimum stitches.
Embroidered edgings, draped silks, decorative bands and embellishments on shoulders and
wide sashes are used as ornamentation. As a part of the Chinese culture all traditional
Chinese clothes are dark in color. Dark colors are preferred to the light ones. The common
people for everyday-use, prefer light colors.

Han Chinese Costumes:

Han Chinese clothing, or Hanfu, refers to the clothing worn by the Han ethnic people from
the ruling periods of the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns to the Ming Dynasty. It was
the traditional costume of the nation worn for millennia and representative of the
characteristics of the Han nationality. Over thousands of years, the Han people created
brilliant Hanfu culture with their wisdom.  Han Chinese Clothing or Hanfu also known as
Hanzhuang or Chinese Silk Robe.

The main characters of the clothing include "Y" shaped cross collar with the left one upon
the right, no buttons, and string or belt fastening, giving a free and elegant feel. There are
ceremonial wear and informal wear in Hanfu clothing.  
In terms of the forms of a dress, it can be an "upper-yi-and-lower-shang" style (a loose
lapelled coat as an upper garment and a shang (a skirt) as a lower garment); or a "shenyi"
style (the upper coat and the skirt sewed together) or a "ruqun" style (top garment with a
separate lower garment or skirt) etc.

Among them, the ceremonial dress in "upper-yi-and-lower-shang" style used to be the most
formal costume for emperors and officials; the paofu (another name of  "shenyi") was an
informal dress for officials and scholars; the ruqun was women's favorite; and a short coat
and long pants made a general outfit for ordinary laboring people.

Accessories and hair ornaments are also important components of hanfu. In ancient times,
boys and girls of the Han nationality would wear their hair in a coil and hold it in place with a
hairpin after the coming-of-age ceremony. Men traditionally wore coronets, scarves and
caps etc. Women would comb their hair in various styles of coils or buns and wear all kinds
of hair ornaments such as pearls, flowers and buyaos (a kind of hairpin) etc.

Costumes of Huayao, Yi Nationality

Huayao costumes consist of turban, big front

robe, collar ornament, waistband, bellyband and
embroidered satin shoes, etc. The patterns
include the moon, stars and clouds in the sky and
mountains, water, plants and animals on the
ground, giving a back-to-nature feeling of
plainness, boldness and implicating graceful
cultural deposits.

The Bai Ethnic Clothing

The color white is favored by both men and

women of the Bai ethnic group when it comes
to clothing. The dresses, with strongly
contrasted yet perfectly matched colors, are
adorned with elaborate cross-stitch
embroidery. Most dresses are edged with
lace. They may be intricately decorated, yet looking quite orderly. In addition, the Bai
women wear exquisite head ornaments that contrast nicely with their dresses. The head
ornaments worn by women in different areas have different features.

Pulu Costumes of Menba Nationality

Men in Menyu area like to wear a kind of hat called Balaga. Balaga has blue or black pulu
crown, red pulu lower part, orange flannel-bordered brim, and a nick to be right over the
right eye. Orange paint is made from a local grass root. Men in Menyu area usually wear
ochre cotton or pulu robes that are shorter and smaller than Tibetan gowns. As the roads
are narrow and of big slope, people favor soft-sole high boots made of red and black pulu.

Women in Menyu area wear robes with a

white pulu apron. Women in Lebu and
Bangjin area usually drape a sheepskin or
calf skin over the back. It is said that the
custom was handed down from the time
when Princess Wencheng came to
Shannan, Tibet. Women all wear neck
ornaments of torquoise, red coral and
agate, etc. The undergarment they wear is
called Bubure. It has diverse colors, no front
opening, collar or button, just a round neck opening. The outer clothing, Donggu, made of
red and black pulu has longer and shorter versions. Both men and women wear a 6m long
and 2m wide red-pulu waistband.

Costumes of Hani Nationality

In the traditional cultures of the Hani nationality,

costume culture is one of the most distinctive
elements. Hani costumes are not only of
extraordinary splendour, but also with rich
connotations, reflecting their own natural
environment, ethnic history, farming activities, totemism, and social etiquettes and
customs, etc.  

Clothing of the Yao Nationality

The scarf of the Yao nationalityis popular in Jinxiu, Guangxi province, was prevalent during
the rein of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty. The rectangular 77cm*56cm scarf is made of
hand-stitched brocade, covered with hand-stitched patterns against the background of black
cloth, and decorated with 5cm-long tassels of black threads at two ends and 20cm-long
tassels at four corners. The scarf mostly takes natural sceneries as the pattern. The
framework consists of straight lines that form double-connected patterns and make a
square. Centering on the big tree flower, the pine flowers separate the double-connected
patterns of small tree flowers, the main flowers. At both ends of the scarf lie diamond
patterns of hands of the Goddess of Mercy asymmetrically.

There are varied stitches in embroidering

the scarf, such as cross stitch, plain stitch
and single-needle stitch. As to application
of colors, there are two kinds. One
employs white and khaki, and the color
tones are harmonious, simple and
unsophisticated; the other uses sharply
contrasting colors, such as white, vermeil,
bright pink, pastel green, grass green and
ultramarine blue, which are lively and rich.
When a girl is getting married, she will put a scarf over the small bamboo shelf on her head
and put on the multi-colored wedding dress, which make her look more beautiful.

References:

www.cultural-china.com

www.wikipedia.org

www.buzzle.com
www.china.org.cn

nsu.chinese.cn