Chinese Symbolism

 Chinese Poetry

• China Institute USA Lunch & Learn

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,  available on YouTube.  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.