Chinese Traditional Festivals

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Del curso dictado por Nanjing University

Chinese Culture and Contemporary China

106 calificaciones

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Nanjing University

Chinese Culture and Contemporary China

106 calificaciones

This course of Chinese Culture and Contemporary China will explore the foundations of Chinese civilization and the dimensions of Chinese culture. It will pay particular attention to the relationship between Chinese culture and the present-day life of the Chinese people and to the different elements of the culture which are under the present social structures, belief systems, literature, arts, customs, etc. The course aims at providing students with a deeper knowledge of Chinese culture, thus enabling them to better understand China. The course will cover the following main areas of topics: (1) the foundations of Chinese civilization: its geography, language, and history; (2) the core concepts in Chinese philosophies and religions: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; (3), literature and arts, including Chinese calligraphy, painting, Tang poetry, and classical fiction; (4) society and life, including education, the role of women, Chinese food, and traditional holidays; (5) travel and landscapes, including well-known Chinese cities, mountains, ethnic regions and customs; (6) Chinese media, culture and sports, including TV and movies, fashion, Chinese gongfu and taiji. In addition, students will be expected to participate in a buddy program beyond curriculum if they have a chance to come to Nanjing. Ideally they will be paired up: an international student with a Nanjing University student to allow students to learn firsthand about Chinese customs, culture, and language. Students will be required to complete various projects and homework assignments as well, which will encourage them to use Nanjing University and the city of Nanjing as a laboratory to apply what they learn during their stay at Nanjing University.

De la lección

Chinese Traditional Festivals

Festivals are an important part of Chinese culture. A significant number of festivals in folklore are rich in various elements of Chinese traditional culture. Do you know what the most important Chinese holiday is? Do you know what Chinese people eat, what clothes they wear and what other interesting things they do during those holidays? More important do you know the reason why they are doing that? Watch the "Festival Culture" unit to find that out. The unit is rich in contents supplied with exciting media that brings you to the amazing world of Chinese festivals.

Chinese Traditional Festivals5:36

Conoce a los instructores

程爱民

Institute for International Students, Nanjing University
张斌

Institute for International Students, Nanjing University
杨居柳

Institute for International Students, Nanjing University
敖雪岗

Institute for International Students, Nanjing University

[MUSIC]

Good afternoon everybody.

Today, we're going to talk about traditional Chinese festivals.

Traditional festivals of the Chinese people are a great treasure

of our civilization and a valuable part of our cultural heritage.

Some of the festivals express love and hatred of the ancient Chinese people.

Some are summarization of their experience of life and work.

Some have associations with some historical personages and

events, or legends or folklore.

Some have preserved a rich part of the nation's tradition and cultural legacy.

Therefore, Chinese traditional festivals are one of the main

avenues to the understanding of Chinese culture.

In the Mulan, five thousand years history of China,

many festivals have gradually reshaped in the country.

The origins of the Chinese traditional festivals can be traced back

to the Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty.

As it's well-known, China is a country who is predominantly agricultural society.

In older times, a good year meant not only a good life for the people

throughout the year, but also the strengthening of the rule of the emperor.

So every year at the beginning of spring, people would hold a ceremony

in celebration of the beginning of the spring plow.

Which sometimes the emperor would provide the offer in person and

apply several firewalls after the ceremony.

In the following months, these would have be taken to offer

sacrifices to heaven and Earth, and deities of rain, wind etc.

To pray for a good harvest, hence, agriculture and activities surround it,

exerted a great influence upon China's festivals.

In addition, the formation and development of a Chinese traditional

festivals are closely associated with different social customs of the country.

According to their origins and development, China's traditional festivals

fall roughly into three categories: agriculture ritual festivals,

religious ritual festivals, and social festivals.

These three kinds of festivals infiltrated and

influenced one another in the course of history and

gradually planted to form China's festivals today.

According to the contents of the activity, Chinese festivals can be divided

into five types: agricultural, sacrificial,

commemorative, recreational and celebration festivals.

Agricultural festivals such as the beginning of the spring,

the summer solstice and so on are mainly concerned with farming,

forestry, fishing and hunting activity.

Sacrificial festivals such as the Pure Brightness,

The Mid Autum, The Kitchen God are derived from agricultural and

religious sacrificing days of which people offer sacrifices to Gods,

their ancestors or deceased relatives to pray for

protection against evil ghosts and the disasters.

Commemorative festivals are festivals when people commemorated their national heroes.

Recreational festivals are you get to spend this singing, the dancing and

other recreational activities.

Of which song or cult festivals of some minority nationalities are examples.

Celebration festivals are the main festivals of the country.

Typical of which is the spring festival on which people celebrate a bumper harvest.

And to congratulate on each other's fortune, good health, and happiness.

Since China is so big a country with a territory of nine ponds,

six mini square kilometers and 56 nationalities,

some of the festivals in China are national, some are regional, and

some are observed only by a certain nationalities.

At the present, some official festivals such as the New Year's day,

May Day, and the National Day are also observed in China.

But today, I will reintroduce to you China's four most important traditional

festivals namely the Spring festival, the Chin Ning festival,

The Dragon Boat festival and the Mid-autumn festival.

[MUSIC]

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