Iranian New Year (Norooz)

The Persian calendar is different from the Christian calendar. 21st of March is celebrated by Iranians as the New Year’s Day. It marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in the Persian calendar. It is called Nowrooz or norooz which means “New Day” (No= new, rooz= day) and it is the most important holiday in Iran.

Nowrooz which is rooted in the religious tradition of Zoroastrianism is celebrated by people from diverse ethnic communities and religious backgrounds for thousands of years. It is a secular holiday that is enjoyed by people in Iran, Azerbaijan, Kurdish inhabited regions of eastern Turkey and Northern Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Preparations for Nowrooz

Preparations for Nowrooz begin in the month Esfand, the last month of winter with a major-cleaning the house or Khouneh Tekouni (literally means 'shaking the house'). It includes washing every single item in the house (even the walls, the curtains, carpets, etc.) and throwing all of the useless, old or dirty stuff out. People buy new clothes to wear for the New Year and flowers to decorate their houses in Esfand. All of these preparations are symbol of re-birth and throwing out negative habits or feelings.

Haft Sin

On the first day of Nowrooz, family members dress in their new clothes, gather around the table, with the Haft Sin on it, and wait the exact moment of the arrival of the spring. Haft Sin or the seven 'S's is the major traditional table setting of Nowrooz, the traditional Iranian spring celebration. The haft sin table includes seven items starting with the letter 'S' or Sin in the Persian alphabet.

The "Haft sin" items are actually more than 7, but people choose only 7 items from the list:

Sabzeh – wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish – symbolizing rebirth

Samanu – a sweet pudding made from germinated wheat – symbolizing affluence

Senjed – the dried fruit of the oleaster tree – symbolizing love

Sir – garlic – symbolizing medicine

Sib – apple – symbolizing health

Somaq – sumac berries – symbolizing (the colour of) sunrise

Serkeh – vinegar – symbolizing age and patience

Sonbol – Hyacinth (flower) – symbolizing beauty

Sekkeh – Coins – representative of wealth

Other items on the table may include:

Mirror – symbolizing pureness

Gold fish – symbolizing animals

An orange in a bowl of water – symbolizing the earth floating in space

Painted Eggs – symbolizing humans and fertility

A holy book (e.g., the Avesta or Qur'an) and/or a poetry book (almost always either the Shahnameh or the Divan of Hafiz)

At the exact time of the arrival of the New Year (sal tahvil), family members pray and wish for a lucky year and then the gifts are exchanged. Adults especially give money to the children. Then the families start the twelve-day celebrations by visiting the elders of their family, then the rest of their family and finally their friends. It happens in form of short visits and typically, the youth will visit the elders first, and the elders return their visit later.

Sabzi Polo Mahi

The New Year's Day traditional meal is called Sabzi Polo Mahi, which is rice with green herbs served with fish. The traditional seasoning for Sabzi Polo is parsley, coriander, chives, dill and fenugreek. The many green herbs and spices in this dish are said to represent the greenness of spring.

Chaharshanbe suri

The night before the last Wednesday of the year is celebrated by Iranians as Chaharshanbe Suri (Chaharshanbe= Wdnesday, Sur= party or festival). The tradition includes people going into the streets and alleys to make bonfires, and jump over them while singing the traditional song “Zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man”. This literally translates to "My yellowness is yours, your redness is mine," with the figurative message "My paleness (pain, sickness) for you (the fire), your strength (health) for me." The fire is believed to burn out all the fear (yellowness) in their subconscious or their spirit, in preparation for New Year.

Haji Firooz

The traditional herald of the Noe-Rooz season is called Haji Firooz. He symbolizes the rebirth of the Sumerian god of sacrifice, Domuzi, who was killed at the end of each year and reborn at the beginning of the New Year. Wearing black make up and a red costume, Haji Firooz sings and dances through the streets with tambourines and trumpets spreading good cheer and the news of the coming New Year.

Sizdah be-dar

The thirteenth day of the New Year festival is Sizdah Bedar (literally meaning "passing the thirteenth day", figuratively meaning "Passing the bad luck of the thirteenth day"). This is a day of festivity in the open, often accompanied by music and dancing, usually at family picnics.

Sizdah be-dar celebrations stem from the ancient Persians' belief that the twelve constellations in the Zodiac controlled the months of the year, and each ruled the earth for a thousand years at the end of which the sky and earth collapsed in chaos. Hence Nowrooz lasts twelve days and the thirteenth day represents the time of chaos when families put order aside and avoid the bad luck associated with the number thirteen by going outdoors and having picnics and parties.

At the end of the celebrations on this day, the Sabzeh grown for the Haft Sin (which has symbolically collected all sickness and bad luck) is thrown into running water to exorcise the demons (divs) from the household. It is also customary for young single women to tie the leaves of the Sabzeh (or grass in general) before discarding it, so expressing a wish to be married before the next year's Sizdah be-dar. Another tradition associated with this day is Dorugh-e Sizdah, literally meaning "the lie of the thirteenth", which is the process of lying to someone and making them believe it (similar to April Fools Day).

Chinese Cuisine

Chinese cuisine is a rich culture. Its richness has been bred in the vast terrain of China, along with the long history of about five thousand years.  China has various food resources and people in different regions have different eating habits. I can only briefly introduce the culture here, hoping to give you a general idea about Chinese cuisine.

Do Chinese Eat Everything?

It says that Chinese eat everything. I would say that it is nearly a rumor because most people do not eat insects or kinds of animals. But it does reflect an important feature of Chinese cuisine — the richness in its materials. Compared to German cuisine according to my knowledge, Chinese cuisine has a much more variety in the materials it has. Here in Chemnitz, I usually see a few kinds of vegetables with green leaves. But in China, we have many kinds of vegetables with green leaves with their own names. Some of them I can't even tell their names, especially those from remote areas. As for meat, we eat similarly to European people, like pork, beef, chicken, fish, lamb, etc, except the flesh of dogs. Those dogs belong to one particular type and are raised specially for cooking. 

 （Vegetables for hot pot)

However, there are some people who dare to try everything they can. Chinese tradition thinks that some things in the nature contain much nutrition and eating them can provide people more energy than other food. There are four expensive food in China, i.e. bird's nest soup, shark fin, abalone, swim bladder. For example,  traditional Chinese medicine believes that bird's nest soup (a particular type of swallow) can provide people qi and xue (two terms of TCM), and many other good substances. But now the consumption of some of them is controversial, especially shark fin. Their consumption hurts the animals and breaks the balance of nature.

(Bird's nest)

(Bird's nest soup)

Cooking Methods

Chinese cuisine has many methods of cooking: frying, boiling, steaming, braising, etc. Chinese language has much more specific words to differentiate the nuances of those techniques of cooking. Like traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese cuisine is empiricism. The recipes sometimes may not have specific and exact instructions on temperature, time, or the measure of seasoning. These words are vital in recipe because each one of them indicates a method of cooking. I have taken some methods from Wikipedia as examples.

(Some Chinese methods of cooking)

(Stir frying)

 

Main Food

A normal meal is grain with dishes of chocked and cooked food. Most parts of China have rice as main food. We also have kinds of food made from rice, such as vermicelli, a food more thinner than noodles. We often eat noodles, which is made from wheat flour, especially for breakfast. Some north parts of China eat foods made from flour as main food, like Mantou (steamed bread) and pancakes.

(Rice)

 (Noodles)

(Mantou)

(Pancakes)

Chinese Dishes

Chinese cuisine emphasizes on the color, smell, and flavor of food. The color and smell can stimulate people’s appetite. 

(Red-braised pork)

The skill of cutting up the food materials is quite important for the look of food. There are cooks who specialize in cutting. Dishes for formal banquet usually have good look. The finely cut food are usually exquisitely put in the dish.

(Cutting tools)

(Cutting) 

 (A banquet dish of cut Toufu)

Eight Schools of Chinese Cuisine

Chinese food varies with the regions. People in different region like different flavor of the dishes, and have different eating habits. There are mainly eight schools of Chinese cuisine: Lu, Huaiyang, Yue, Chuan, Zhe, Min, Xiang, Hui. 

(Map of Chinese Food)

Cuisine of different regions can have quite different styles. In southwest part of China, people eat very spicy hot food.  The southwest regions of China are usually thought to be Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou. Chuan cuisine is the cuisine of Sichuan and is a representative of southwest cuisine.  It is famous for its hot flavor which makes your tongue feel tingly. 

(Chuan)

Yue cuisine may be the most famous one overseas. It has been developed in Canton area, including Guangdong and Hongkong. Yue cuisine is famous for that it is good for people’s health. It emphasizes on reserving the original flavor of food material, so it adds the least seasoning in the food compared to other school. You can feel the delicious taste of the food material that is given by nature. Having such food won't give much burden to human body. 

(Yue)

The Cantonese like to make soup taking vegetables, fruits, meat, and sometimes Chinese herbs as ingredients. This may mostly be due to the wet and hot climate in Canton area. People usually let the soup boiled for a long time so that the soup contains much essence of the ingredients. They will feel better in the wet and hot weather if they have such soup.

Canton cuisine is also famous for its dim sum, which is food prepared in small size or for individual portions.  Canton people have the tradition of having tea and desserts in the morning. This tradition is called Yum Cha, as "having tea" in English. Old people can do it everyday and young people will join their family on weekends. Yum Cha is not just having tea, but also different kinds of Dim Sum. People often chat while having tea for a whole morning.

(Dim sum)

Chinese cuisine is really rich and complicated since Chinese people have always been regarding food as a very important thing since ancient times. There is a saying that "hunger breeds discontentment". I can only introduce a little part of it here. If you want to know more about Chinese food, I trongly recommend you to watch this series of documentary film. It will stimulate your appetite by showing foods in different regions of China, and you will see the history of those foods and the living conditions and customs of people in China.

Videos:

A Bite of China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06gvRlOfUv0&list=PLYOTfstAG_IPjyEeT472GEJzafYmBiA3w

Transportation in China

Transportation in China

    This is a big title in which I will first introduce something about trains in this page. 

Train

    Chinese trains are divided according to their speed into various classes, identified with different letters and numbers. The letters refer to different classes:

G – High-Speed Electric Multiple Units (EMU) Train 

    This is the fastest running for long distance in China, the top speed of which could reach 350km/h. Currently, the G-train could finish the 1,068-kilometers Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway in 3 hours, the 301-kilometers Shanghai-Nanjing High-Speed Railway in 73 minutes and the 458-kilometers Zhengzhou-Xian High-Speed Railway in 2 hours.

C – Intercity EMU

    This is also the fastest kind, but runs for short travel distance between two nearby cities, such as the 120-kilomter's Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway.

D – Electric Multiple Units (EMU)

    This type is also called Hexiehao (和谐号, Harmony) or bullet trains in China. The designed top speed is 250km/h. They have been widely used for serving fast and frequent transport between main cities, such as Beijing-Shanghai, Shanghai-Suzhou and Shenzhen-Guangzhou.

Z – Direct Express

    This type with a top speed of 160km/h is also an efficient transport for long-distance travel. Generally, they run directly to the destination or with some stops on the way. On the other hand, some are equipped with only soft-sleepers and soft-seats.

T – Express

    This kind has limited stops on the routes, mainly in these major cities. The highest speed is 140km/h. Almost every T-series is equipped with soft-sleeper, soft-seat, hard-sleeper and hard-seat.

 

K – Fast

    This series with a top speed of 120km/h has more stops than the T ones. They are equipped with air-condition and the four classes of berths.

Accommodation Fast

    The numbers are identified with four digits and usually start with 1, 2, 4 or 5. Its highest speed is 120km/h but runs slower than the K-series as a result of more stops on the way. Currently, most of this kind are equipped with air-condition.

Accommodation

    With 100km/h's highest speed, this should be the slowest type, having as many stops as possible. They are also numbered with four digits and start with 6, 7, 8 or 9. Most of them are green trains without air-condition.
 

Commuter Train

    These are specially taken by railway staffs, so they are not opened to public passengers.

L – Temporary

    This series is in operation only during the peak travel time, such Chinese Spring Festival and the National Holiday. They will not be listed in the official fixed schedule. It is not advised to take this type if you have other options as they are routinely subject to delays.

Y – Tourist 

    This type is for the convenience of tourist and their destinations are the popular tourism cities. For example, there are Y-trains departing between Beijing and Qinhuangdao. Its speed is the same as the accommodation type.

S – Suburban 

    Running at 100km/h as the highest speed, this type is used for communicating city center and the suburban areas. It has no soft seats and sleeper berths as it only travels within short distance in day times. Currently, the S2 series travel between Beijing North Railway Station and the Yanqing County in the northern suburb of the city with stops at Qinghuayuan, Nankou, and Badaling Great Wall.

    As to train tickets, there are mianly two kinds now, one is in red colour and the other is in blue colour. The difference maybe that when we take trains like D, G and C, we will more often get blue ones. And Chinese train tickets are issued in Chinese characters, they should be double checked. Every journey needs one ticket, so if you travel from Guangzhou to Shanghai and then form Shanghai to Beijing, you need to buy two tickets. On the tickets, you can see your name now, because we think it is safe to have names on tickets, then other people can not use your tickets even if they get them.

    And there are four classes of Chinese trains: Soft seat, soft sleeper, hard seat and hard sleeper. The tickets of Soft Seat & Hard Seat of China Trains are normally available on daytime inter-city trains. The price of Soft seat tickets is more expensive than that of Hard seat ones.

Hard Seat

 Soft Seat

And Hard sleeper of China trains are in bays of 6 bunks (upper, middle and lower) on one side of the aisle, with pairs of seats on the other side of the aisle for daytime use. 

 

While Soft sleeper of China trains are 4-berth compartments with full bedding provided.  Soft sleeper is more expensive than hard sleeper. 

 4-berth sleeper compartment

 

Trains with the C, D, G head do not have soft or hard sleeper because they are extremely fast, so they just have seats like First Class seat and Second Class seat. 

First Class seat

Second Class seat

On some of the trains, there are 2-berth deluxe sleeper compartments available with upper & lower berths on one side of the compartment, and a wardrobe and armchair on the other side. It also has a private toilet & 

washroom. 

 

  2-berth deluxe sleeper compartment

 Most overnight long-distance China trains have a restaurant car serving full meals. Generally there is one toilet (either western or Chinese squatting style) available on one car, but it is necessary to take your own tissue. Because China is a very big country, it will take a long time to take a train if you travel from one place to another. But it is very cheap and actually maybe an unforgettable experience for you.

 Washroom of China train

 Restaurant car of China train

 Bar area of restaurant car

 Western toilet of China train

More information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_China

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/

http://www.chinahighlights.com/china-trains/

Living in Korea as a Foreigner #1

Let's say you live in a rather secluded part of Germany - in a community with some 300 odd people. To you, a town like Chemnitz will seem pretty big already. And then, you fly 8000km around the globe and life in Incheon, South Korea, a city with some two million inhabitants that is directly connected to Seoul, a city with ten million inhabitants. The difference is night and day.
It seems a little bit surreal when you think about it like that, but it's not all that bad. I recently spent four months in Korea on a semester abroad, where I did some research for my upcoming Masters degree. In this post, I wanna share some of my experiences with you.

As a German, there are a few things that will raise a brow when you first arrive. Everything is extremely modern and almost clinically clean. A lot of it has to do with Korean history. After the Korean War and the Miracle on the Han River, Korea turned from a poor, rural society into an economic powerhouse. Korea is a young country, which certainly shows in the architecture and general look of the cities. It has a certain charm to it: you go from hilly country side right into a metropolitan area full of skyscrapers and infrastructure.

Life seems more hectic in Korea. There are people all over at any given time of day. The whole of Korea is about the size of Bavaria, and given the fact that Korea has a population of 74 million, you will get a lot of people and relatively little space. For someone from the country, this can sometimes be hard to get used to, but you just have to deal with it. It took me about 3 weeks to settle in and feel more comfortable in the large crowds.

My living quarters were in the University dormitory, a somewhat cheap and comfortable alternative for a poor university student. The room had all you would expect from a Western room - a regular bed, desk and bathroom. I shared my room with a French guy who luckily had a similar sleep schedule and interests to me, so we got along well. Space was very limited though: Two people on 12m² is not much if you can believe it. This seems to be in the vein of Korean space saving: get as many people into as small of a space as possible.

To round things of for my first post, here's a picture of some dudes doing Korean things, credit goes to the photographer.

Chinese Names

As is often the case, Chinese names usually consist of three or two Chinese characters. Family name, which usually has one Chinese character, comes first and then first name, which has one or two Chinese characters, follows.

It is true that we can not change our family name which is inherited from our ancestors. But first name can be created with different purposes in many ways. Firstly, as for first name, parents like to give their children names with good meanings, such as Jixiang(auspicious) and Meiyu(Beautiful jade). And my name is Yile (to live a happy life).Secondly, especially in our fathers’ generation, from their first names you can know which year and when they were born. Here are some examples. Jianguo(the foundation of the country) shows that he was born in 1949, which is the foundation of People’s Republic of China. If someone is called Wenge(the cultural revolution), we can also know that he was born in 1966, which is the start of the Cultural Revolution. From Chunnian(spring and the eve of spring festival), we can know this person was born in December. To be honest, this kind of first names is a little bit out of date and seldom exists in 21^st century. Thirdly, some parents will also pay much attention to Wuxing or Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) in ancient Chinese philosophy and fortune-telling. In ancient Chinese philosophy, all phenomena in the universe are the products of the movement and mutation of five qualities: wood, metal, water, fire and earth, which will engender or restrain each other (picture1: how five elements interact with each other). According to the accurate date and moment of birth, people can know which element is lack in his life. In order to keep a balance, this element will appear in Chinese characters of his first name. For example, if someone is lack of Water, his name may be related with“waterish things”, such as river, flood, coldness, water and ocean. 

(picture 1)

Since how to give a first name is mentioned above, how to address a Chinese will follow. In China, if you are not familiar with each other, we won’t call his first name directly. In this situation, family name is preferred. Here is an example. If you have a male client whose name is Wang Liwei(Here Chinese name system is adopted. First name is behind family name.), you usually call him Wang Xiansheng (Xiansheng means Mr. in English. Nvshi means Ms.). But if you are peers, friends or classmates, first name is preferred to decrease the distance between you. Examples are as follows. Our four Chinese girls’ names are Yang Hongya, Yang Xi, Guo Ya and Liu Yile. You can call us Hongya, Yile, Xi and Ya.

Then the pronunciation of names will be involved. Different from intonation language, say, English, Chinese is a kind of tone language. There are mainly four tones (chart1) in Chinese pronunciation system.(http://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/17)

Tone(symbol)	Description
1st(-)	High and level.
2nd(/)	Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top.
3rd(∨)	Starts low, dips to the bottom, and then rises toward the top.
4th(\)	Starts at the top, and then falls sharp and strong to the bottom.

(chart 1)

Here is a diagram(diagram1)helping visualize the pitches of the four tones.

And generally speaking, there are many homophonic words, namely, words with the same sound expressing different meanings.

(diagram 1)

For instance, if tones are added to my name, my family name will be Líu, which is the second tone. But the same sound Líu can have many different meanings which usually have no relationship with each other, say, 流(flow) and留(stay). Take the family name of Jenifer and Shirley for example. Their family name is Yáng. From the pronunciation, it can be 阳(sunshine),羊(sheep),洋(ocean) and佯(pretend). Let’s add four tones to Guo Ya’s first name. From the first tone to the fourth tone, it can be Yā(meanings can be duck and press), Yá(teeth and sprout), Yǎ(elegance and mute), Yà(second). Since there are so many meanings for one sound, how can people understand each other? To distinguish which meaning it is, people frequently put the word into the current situation.

I hope from this blog you can have a better understanding of Chinese names.