by Chuanming Zhu 清明节qīng míng jié, also known as the Tomb-sweeping Day, is one of the 24 solar terms and also a traditional Chinese festival for sweeping tombs and offering sacrifice to ancestors. It typically falls on 4th, 5th or 6th in April. Its Chinese name 清明qīng míng literally means “clear and bright,” hinting at […]
Semester 2 Course Timetable
Popular Spring Activities in China
by Ping Zhang Spring is finally here, and the weather is getting warmer across China. Flowers are in bloom, including the famous cherry blossom in some parts of the country. There are a trio of Chinese holidays that happen in spring – Tomb Sweeping Festival/Qing Ming Festival (清明节 – qīng míng jié), Labor Day (劳动节 – láo dòng jié) and Dragon Boat […]
Chinese New Year and Lunar Festival for Heriot Watt Campus Students
As part of the city wide celebrations to welcome the Year of the Ox the Scottish Confucius Institute for Business and Communication gave away some homemade dumplings and fortune cookies to all the students who are resident on campus. There was a choice of dumplings available, meat and vegetarian, all neatly packaged in takeaway boxes […]
More Chinese New Year insights – history and icy wonderland
We have found a couple more videos to share which feature aspects of the New Year celebrations. The first (from the History Channel) provides a little more on the background history, and the second comes from our Deputy Director’s home location in Harbin looking at the ice wonderland. Enjoy!
Traditional Chinese Bookmarks
We have specially commissioned Professor Gang Wang, the Director from the Art School at our partner institution Tianjin University of Finance & Economics to create three beautiful bookmarks for us to celebrate Chinese New Year which you can download for free. All you need to do is click on the links and print of one […]
Chinese New Year Concert – Year of the OX
We are delighted to welcome the Orchestra of Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (TUFE) to perform for us to welcome the Year of the Ox. You will be able to watch the concert on our YouTube channel from Saturday 13th February which can be found by clicking this link SCIBC YouTube The orchestra are […]
Three Interesting Things about 春节 (chūn jié)—Chinese New Year
by Ping Zhang 2021 Chinese New Year is coming! Happy New Year! This year is the Year of the Ox in China. The celebrations of Chinese New Year can last for 15 days which is from Chinese New Year’s Eve to the Lantern Festival. What does Chinese New Year in China look like? Is there […]
Traditional Food in Preparation for 春节 (chūn jié)—Chinese New Year
by Chuanming Zhu Being one of the most traditional Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year is the grandest and the most important festival for Chinese people. Therefore, preparations for the New Year starts a month before the New Year Eve. According to Chinese lunar calendar, people have different food and things to prepare on certain days. […]
Different ways of asking “How old are you?”
by Wei Gu In China, age is a topic often brought up in daily conversation. As the Chinese language is rich in content and has a flexible structure, there are different ways to ask about the age of different people. Based on different age groups, I would like to introduce three basic ways of expressing […]
Idioms and Proverbs about Niu (Ox or Cow)
We thought it would be interesting to hear some of the traditional proverbs connected with the Ox. 牛 Niú In Chinese, we could just use the word 牛 as an adjective to describe someone or something as awesome. 初生牛犊不怕虎 Chū shēng niú dú bú pà hǔ New-born calves are not afraid of tigers. This idiom […]