Tom in China

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING Chinatoday 2001-1

A dozen years ago, Panjiayuan was like a homeless child. It came out of nowhere, belonged to no one, and was under nobody’s charge. It simply squatted in the area and brought itself up. The market has been close to being banned a few times, but vendors with a seemingly endless supply of merchandise have persistently used it as their pitch, and so it has survived. Eventually, Panjiayuan was legitimized, and put under a responsible person’s guardianship. After some deliberation, it was named a “second-hand market,” a name that does not really express exactly what it is.

By staff reporter LU RUCAI Chinatoday 2008-11

The 10th Asia-Oceania Conference on Sexology concluded in mid-October 2008 in Beijing. Although homosexuality was not the main topic of the conference, it is a topic of great interest to society in general. In contrast to just a few years ago, an increasing number of ordinary Chinese are now able to better understand and accept gay people.

WU Youjian stirred up a storm of controversy in 2005, when she publicly supported her son Zheng Yuantao’s decision to come out and reveal his homosexuality. Zheng had told his mother he was gay a decade or so ago, while still in high school. When he chose to go public, Wu used her voice within the media, in her capacity as editor of a literary journal, to express her support.

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING Chinatoday 2008-11

IN August 1982, the First Congress of the All-China Philatelic Federation convened in Beijing, and the Chinese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications issued a stamp sheetlet in commemoration. The stamp motif depicts an ancient courier galloping on horseback, while in the background wild geese fly in graceful formation. Wild geese are migratory birds, and every autumn they can be counted on to set off on their thousand-kilometer migration southward to warmer climes. With no better means of communication, ancient Chinese who wished to send messages over great distances took advantage of the birds’ north-south odyssey by attaching tiny scrolls to their feet. The phrase, “hongyan chuan shu” (wild geese deliver messages), has survived the millennia to become one of the oldest idioms in the modern Chinese language.

By PAN YUE Chinatoday 2008-11

Over exploitation of natural resources has created the need for an ecological civilization.

Historical records show that human beings have experienced three stages of civilization. First, the primitive Stone Age, which lasted for millions of years and saw people living in groups and relying on simple labor like fishing and hunting. Next came the agricultural age, which lasted for about 10,000 years. People’s ability to change nature improved dramatically with the invention of iron tools. The third stage was industrial civilization, which started in 18th-century Britain and saw the formation of modern urban lifestyles.

By XIN XIN Chinatoday 2008-11

RENOWNED environmental historian Donald Worster once pointed out that the ecological crisis the world faces today is not attributable to its ecosystem, but to humanity’s ethical systems. To overcome that crisis, he argued, civilization must recognize those exploitative ethical systems for what they are, and apply that recognition to reforming them. While past economic and social models have been prepared to sacrifice the environment in pursuit of development, in transitioning to a more environmentally friendly society modern ecological civilization can draw inspiration from traditional Chinese ecological culture.

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING Chinatoday 2008-9

A few years ago, Beijing’s Summer Palace put together a unique exhibition that featured neither the precious antiques and works of art collected by successive imperial families, nor the sumptuous knick-knacks and everyday utensils used by the emperors and their empresses. On display, rather, were clay figurines usually identified as “folk art” — that is, art made by and for the lower classes. However, these particular clay artifacts were unique in that their collector was none other than Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), the last of China’s absolute imperial rulers (excluding the “Last Emperor,” Pu Yi).

By staff reporters WANG JING & LI YAHONG Chinatoday 2008-8

THERE are many places in Beijing where a visitor can get a glimpse of local culture. Many foreigners, whether they are from Europe, the United States, Africa or Latin America, often enjoy themselves by taking walks in local parks or along side streets, sipping tea in one of the old-style teahouses, watching a local opera, or visiting Panjiayuan, a market full of genuine - and sometimes less-than-genuine - antiques.

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING Chinatoday 2008-7

THE Goddess Nüwa is said to have created human beings by molding men and women out of clay and breathing life into them, making her, in a sense, the first Chinese clay artist. It is a creation myth that can be found in historical manuscripts going back some 2,000 years, and it speaks of Nüwa’s loneliness in a world without people. To ease her solitude, she fashioned the human race out of common clay and became the Mother of Humankind.

By CHEN QINGYING Chinatoday 2008-7

THE “Tibet Issue” was conceived at a time when Western imperialists were determined to invade and carve up China. They wooed and promoted separatist forces in Tibet from among the serf-owning class, which likewise wished to split Tibet from China with the support of imperialists. Between them, the two sides colluded and fabricated the “Tibet Issue.”

The Archive of Tibet Autonomous Region printed Buddhist scriptures and presented them to the Drepung Monastery as gifts.

Today, Western anti-China forces, led principally by sinophobes in the upper circles of the United States, have inherited the legacy of the old imperialists by funding and supporting the Dalai Clique in order to oppose China and hinder its rise. Meanwhile, the Dalai Clique takes every opportunity it can to engage in sabotage in its pursuit of “Tibet independence.” That unrealistic dream is the crucial reason for the prolonged existence of the “Tibet Issue.”

By staff reporter HOU RUILI Chinatoday 2008-6

CHINA’S long-standing one-child policy has meant that an only child’s education has always been a matter of primary importance to Chinese families. But while children under three were in the past encouraged to play freely and develop physically, the growing popularity of early childhood education has meant that infants as young as six months are being enrolled in pre-school classes.