Chinese New Year/ Spring Festival Teaching Resources

This is a list of websites with background and teaching material. Please add new ones in your comments:

• Well organized group of links; lessons and worksheets; other links http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/chinesenewyear.php

• Teacher vision: extensive links to Chinese culture sites and activities http://www.teachervision.fen.com/chinese-new-year/china/6603.html

• Extensive and well organized crafts and activities for elementary aged children http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/

• Unit Plan: "Chinese Inventions and the Chinese New Year” http://content.scholastic.com/browse/unitplan.jsp?id=20

• Extensive listing of links to teacher resources for Chinese Culture and New Year (Utah Education Network) http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=5279#teacher

• A-Z Teacher Stuff http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Chinese_New_Year/index.shtml

•  http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4324

• Sites and Links http://www.thecanadianteacher.com/archives/318

Names and Dates In English and Chinese

Names and Dates In English and Chinese:
I recently discovered Beijing Time Machine, run by Jared Hall. His recent piece Time over Place: Naming Historical Events in Chinese (ironically, it is not dated), is a striking and useful observation:

In English, we generally recall important turning points in terms of where they unfolded. Simple place names conjure up entire historical epochs. “Pearl Harbor” marks the American entrance into the Second World War and the global struggle against fascism. “Bandung,” the conference in of newly independent African and Asian nations that pledged to stand together in 1955 against imperialism and Cold War division. And then, of course, there is “Tian’anmen.” It is doubtful that mention of the square here in China would, by itself, raise any eyebrows. But try “6-4″ (六四) and you are can expect quite a different reaction.

There is also a useful chart of name years in the sixty year cycle, which you can download to put on your desk calendar or refrigerator door.

Chinese Characters and Japanese Kanji

Chinese characters are known in Chinese as Hanzi -- "Han" as in Han dynasty, "zi" means "written character. And in Japanese "Hanzi" is pronounced "Kanji."

You can find links to websites which I have come across on my Delicious listing: Chayford Chinese.characters. Unfortunately the links appear in the order in which I added them, so it's hard to tell which are useful for you.

As is often the frustrating case, the Wikipedia article "Chinese Character" is too long and wooly, but full of detailed information and good illustrations.

But there is a recent series of three posting on the blog "Seeing Red in China" by "Tom" -- whoever he is, he's good at explaining things clearly in an informal way, with good visuals:

• "It's Easy to Learn Chinese -- Really" Explains some of the basic principles of Chinese language.
• "Why 10,000 Characters is Easier Than It Seems" Shows how characters are not random strokes but built up from known elements.
• "Compound Words, More of a Puzzle Than a Problem." Most words in modern Chinese are formed by putting two or more characters together.

From time to time I'll add some more -- maybe you have suggestions.

All Look Same?

The edgy blog, All Look Same: The Difference is in the Eye of the Beholder, runs commentary on cultural and current issues.

One of its intriguing features is The Exam Room, a test for the ability to tell if something is Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. There are pictures from New York street scenes, traditional architecture, travel photos, food, and some others, asking you to say which is which.

Try it!

Happy Tiger!

All around Asia it is "Chinese" New Year -- well, lunar new year. By the workings of the lunar calendar, 2010 has a double whammy: Chinese New Year on Saturday the 13th, then Valentine's Day on Sunday!

The US-China Institute of the University of Southern California puts out Talking Points, which pulls together background informati0n on breaking news, as well as information on art shows, talks, and other events in LA and around the country.

The Feb 10-24 issue has a great collection of New Year's postage stamps from all over the world, mostly, Asia which is colorful and also shows different styles.

If you're already nostalgic for last year, there is also a link to Year of the Ox stamps.

Browsing through earlier posts on this blog, I found a Scholastic Instructor page on Chinese New Year. There are pdf "reproducibles for calligraphy and other activities.

East vs. West: A Chinese Student in Germany

Yang Liu , a Beijing artist trained in Germany, comments on the differences between Chinese and German culture. The German characteristic is in blue, on the left, the Chinese in red, on the right.

To view the show slide by slide, click the icon between the left and right arrows.

Ms. Yang's Website is here: http://www.yangliudesign.com/

You can also go to the album to see or download individual slides by double clicking the image.

All Look Same

http://www.alllooksame.com
A fun look at Korean, Japanese and Chinese culture.
Click on ENTER and take tests in these categories:
--The people, architecture, landmarks, decorations, food....

They seem to all look the same, but look a bit deeper -- in fact, they're not.

A bit stereotyped, but take it loosely, it's quite fun.