Chinese Symbolism

 Chinese Poetry

• China Institute USA Lunch & Learn includes poetry and qin music

Chinese Language

Literature and Sayings

• China Knowledge, a personal encyclopaedia of Chinese history and culture.
• I also like Dragon Carvings, another personal website, with translations of ancient Chinese literature.
• Chinese Literature Podcast by Lee Moore and Rob Moore (no relation!)
• I enjoy the  Chinese Sayings Podcast by Lazlo Montgomery, an exploration of multiple chengyu and their historical backgrounds
• The Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast
• Chinese Lore Podcast – Classic Chinese Stories, retold in English
• Books on Chinese Symbolism

Gardens

People and Practices

• I enjoy Peter Hessler‘s accounts of his life in China
• Blog about the Hui people
• Some of China’s many ethnic minorities.
• The ancient Chinese 24 solar terms, officially listed as human intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, are the basis for The Seasons documentary series.  Attractive trailer for Spring.
• More on Chinese Culture.

Music

Philosophy

• Introduction
• BBC In Our Time described the introduction and impact of Chinese legalism, Daoism; Confucianism, the Han Synthesis
• 100 Schools of Thought
• When a white horse is not a horse
• 3 Character Classic

History

• Contemporary China: SACU Magazine

Nature

• BBC’s Wild China series is available on DVD.  Clips available from BBC
  Channel 4’s  Between Clouds and Dreams, & Beyond the Clouds
• Birds of Beijing.  Bird guide books by  Birders, Princeton,  Vetbooks; birds of Japan and north China.  Lists of Chinese birds, with links to photos: Wikipedia, Shanghai birding

Artefacts

• Chinese porcelain.
• Huangshan Publishing House publishes the Chinese Red series of compact books on different aspects of Chinese culture, artefacts, architecture etc – not expensive, colour pictures and dual English & Chinese text.   There are lots of different subjects, from poetry to lanterns, bridges to pagodas, clothing to scholar objects.  They are available online from  Purple Culture, Cypress Books & Amazon.
• Handling old books – definitely no gloves!

Science

Food

• A Bite of China, from CCTV, so perhaps take with a pinch of C₅H₈NO₄Na.

Tai Chi

• My friend Anita teaches Tai Chi in Surrey, and my friend Sylvia teaches Tai Chi in Kent.
• I enjoy the Five Animals Game and Eight Pieces of Brocade qigong exercises.