;)
Insights into China 'Take a Cultural Journey'
Insights into China's
Society & Culture
The Culture of Face
Wives, mistresses fight back
Liu Zhixian relives her sadness and heartbreak every time she learns that another man has cheated on his wife.
"I ended my 16-year marriage three years ago because I was tired of arguing with my husband about his affair," she said. "Now I want to help more women who have similar experiences so they can start a new life."
Liu is the key organizer of a group that offers solace and advice in Xiamen, Fujian province. It provides an online platform for women with unfaithful husbands and it aims to help them save their families or, at least, to talk about their experiences.
E. China commemorates 2562th anniversary of Confucius' birth
Actors perform during a dancing opera about Confucius (551-497BC), a Chinese thinker, educationist and philosopher, in Qufu, Confucius' hometown in east China's Shandong Province.
When women rule the roost
In the old days, when a Mosuo girl turned 13, her family provided her with a windowed room on the second floor of the house, called the "flowering room".
When night fell a suitor would sing under her window, in order to win her heart.
When permitted, the young man would quietly climb through the window and spend the night there.
He would leave in the morning and work for his mother's family in the daytime, but return to his lover at night.
Today, a "walking marriage" usually happens when a girl reaches the age of 20. The relationship is based on mutual affection and ends when one of the couple wishes to separate.
Mosuo men have responsibility for their sisters' children.
An end to matriarchy?
The traditional way of life in Yongning township's only remaining traditional Mosuo village faces a fight for survival. Zhou Wa investigates.
It is the women who do the heavy farm work among the Mosuo. Geiru Yongqing's mother harvests wheat at her family's plot in Yongning, Yunnan province.
Author uses history to detail women's plight
When Chinese-American author Lisa See sat down to watch the recently released film adaptation of her 2005 best-selling book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, it wasn't quite as she'd imagined. With her agreement, film producers had added a modern storyline following the parallel friendship of two present-day Shanghai girls. The result was a beautiful film, but to call it a true adaptation might not be accurate, she said in an interview with China Daily.
More than just a game
Mahjong is a deep-rooted cultural tradition that touches every level of society
Four old ladies are playing mahjong in a courtyard when suddenly the water pipes burst and the place is flooded. After plumbers are called the women go back to the table and continue playing. When the workmen arrive the players and those watching the game are knee-deep in water, their eyes fixed on the mahjong tiles. Then one player looks up and nonchalantly asks: "What took you so long?"
Chen Lu of Chengdu, the capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, recalls this story with a smile.
For Chen the game is a tonic for the mind and soul, something that promotes an optimistic outlook, love and the union of family and friends.
In laid-back Chengdu it has been said that if you take a nap you are likely to be awoken by the crisp sound of shuffling mahjong tiles. In the city's streets a common sight is four people playing the game at a small table, surrounded by an animated and vociferous crowd of onlookers.
Wu Xiuqiong, 103, who lives in Guizhou, plays mahjong every day. She believes the game has kept her mind sharp and has contributed to her longevity.
The life of a 13-year-old in rural China
Those who live in flourishing cities may find it hard to imagine the life in a remote mountain village.
Wang Leimei, 13, lives with her parents and six-year-old brother in a rundown cottage in Xialao village in Xundian Hui and Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Yunnan province, where life is much different to the hustle and bustle of the city.
There is no traffic to be seen or heard near their small cottage which has no furniture except for a small table.
Every morning during summer vacation, Wang Leimei gets up early to study for an hour before helping her mother prepare the breakfast.
After eating, she helps with farm work in the mountains where the family plant potatoes for a living. "My best childhood memory is that mom and dad had bought me a Miao skirt after selling potatoes," Leimei said.
For most adults that would be a grueling day, but Leimei and her mother then cross over two mountains to start their next task of mowing the grass for horses.
In the evening after they return home she learns needlework from her mother and feeds the pigs after supper.
Leimei recently graduated from primary school and will go to middle school 20 kilometers away from her home when her summer vacation ends. She hopes to pay back her parents by diligent learning.
Marriage knots unraveling
Extramarital affairs a major factor behind rising divorce rate amid changing social scene, reports He Na in Beijing.
Wang Xiuquan, a senior matrimonial lawyer with Beijing Chang An Law Firm, spends most weekends at the office, thanks to the soaring divorce rate. His wife has complained many times, but now she spends weekends with him - at his office.
"Divorce lawyers became the busiest lawyers in our firm in 2005," he said. "Our team handled about 110 divorce cases last year."
NYT - Exhibitions in Rotterdam and Milan highlight China's emergence as a force in international design.
Looking at China as a Creator, Not Manufacturer
More than a hundred new design schools have either opened in China in recent years, or are currently under construction there.
Architecture Review
NYT - Chinese Gem That Elevates Its Setting
GUANGZHOU, China — Designed by Zaha Hadid, the new Guangzhou Opera House is a magnificent example of how a building can redeem a moribund urban environment.
Guangzhou Opera House Designed by Zaha Hadid, the complex integrates a main hall and smaller stage with a park by a business district. More Photos »
NYT - A Reunified Painting Stirs Big Thoughts in China and Taiwan
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Wu Hongyu, a wealthy Ming Dynasty art collector, was evidently not fond of sharing, given his deathbed command to burn his most beloved painting, “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.” Fortunately, a nephew snatched the scroll from the funeral pyre that day in 1650, but not before flames split the work in two.
During the three and a half centuries since then, the two sections were kept apart by greed, civil war and the vicissitudes of geopolitical gamesmanship.
Animated Qingming scroll exhibited in Taipei
Visitors watch the animated version of ancient painting Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, June 30, 2011. The animated version of the Qingming scroll, a highly renowned piece of Chinese painting dating back some 900 years ago, started to be exhibited in Taipei on Thursday. The painting will be projected onto a six-meter-high and 110-meter-wide screen, magnified by 10 times of the scroll's original size.
Share Article 
