Talk:Culture of China

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject China, a project to improve all China-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other China-related articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale. (see comments)
More information about this article...
Culture of China was the collaboration of the week for the week starting on February 6, 2005.

For details on improvements made to the article, see history of past collaborations.

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Culture of China article.
Article policies
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007)

Contents

[edit] 5000 years?

Requesting source of citation. If I remembered correctly, 3000 would be a more appropriate length.

This "5000 years" is simply part of conventional knowledge among Chinese, much like "Catholics are not really Christians, only Protestants are", another "fact" which almost every Chinese I have met "knows". Saying how old a culture is or isn't is really pretty meaningless: the cave paintings at places such as Lascaux are around 20,000 years old, so does that mean that "European culture" is 20,000 years old? it's simply a matter of what is conventional knowledge. What is more of a problem is that many Chinese, even serious academics, assert that Chinese history is 5,000 years old; if we understand "history" as something which must have contemporaneous written records --- whether they be carved on stone, clay tablets, animal hides, whatever --- then the earliest indisputable source of written records in China is about 1,350 b.c., of about the same age as the earliest records in Greek. But in the popular mind, "culture" and "history" are about the same. Jakob37 12:37, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Is a the topic "Culture of China" a bit like "Culture of Europe" or "Culture of Africa". I would imagine that there are a number of different cultures in such a large area.

I agree. The culture of China is too broad. This topics needs to be broken out to each province and discussion of the ethnic minorities is worthwhile. Phreakster 1998 22:08, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

It would be nice if someone could say something about what the common "culture of china" is, and a bit about the regional cultures and differences. -- Chris Q 10:28 Dec 12, 2002 (UTC)

Okay, I know this move (Culture of China to Chinese culture) might be controversial. However, the passive voice (e.g., "the son of John") is generally considered very weak English, while the active voice (e.g., John's son) is considered strong and correct. If an aspect of China is in the encyclopedia, let the word China start the entry. Culture of is a weak and sad beginning usually. (Or such is the opinion of one person. I won't engage in an edit war about this, but if I had a print encyclopedia, I would not look up CULTURE if I wanted to know about CHINA. Arthur

Your point is a valid one. Nevertheless, in the template agreed upon in Wikipedia:WikiProject Countries, you will see that the culture article for all countries in the 'pedia is in the form of "Culture of X". The Chinese one should not be an exception, in my opinion. I am going to move the article back to Culture of China. Thanks to your change, "Chinese culture" will now be a redirect to the article, which at least addresses your point regarding the search for the article. olivier 02:59 Jan 14, 2003 (UTC)
Got it. Never read Wikipedia:WikiProject Countries. Hate the convention but what can you do? :) I wish they'd rethink this. People don't look up culture to find out about Afghanistan. Thank you, though, for informing me. I won't make any other non-conventional changes like that. (Or at least I'll try to be aware. I don't know all Wikipedia conventions.)
Arthur Jan, 03:05 UTC
Dont worry, usually pages such as "X culture" redirect to "Culture of X" as is the case with this article so people who search out this page starting with the word China will find it.

-CunningLinguist 03:26, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Cinema of Hong Kong

The main part of the materials related to cinema of Hong Kong should be moved to the article culture of Hong Kong, as the cinema of China article is about cinema of mainland China. The description here in this article should be referred to China in general. — Instantnood 15:54, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Photos/illustrations

I don't know how much I could contribute to the writing, but maybe I could add some photos. I recently visited China on holiday (Beijing, Chongqing, Dazu, Yangtze River, Wuhan, Changsha, Guilin) and if anyone has any requests for photos I could check to see if I have anything appropriate. --Calton 02:04, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

With the rise of Western economic and military power at the turn of the last century, however, non-Chinese systems of social and political organization gained adherents in China. Some of these would-be reformers totally rejected China's cultural legacy, while others sought to combine the strengths of Chinese and Western cultures. This sounds interesting. I read about Hu Shih's 全盤西化派 westernization faction debating with Confucian conservative. Don't know where to add it though. May Fourth MOvement? Wareware 21:45, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

my response to jakob27- WRONG, they have found artifacts from over 5,000 years ago in china, uncovered a palace complex from the xia dynasty, and numerous other things would have been found if it were not for qin shi huang's book burning..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.84.131.194 (talk) 03:01, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Useless note removed

I removed:

:''This article is about culture of China in general. See also [[Culture of mainland China]], [[Culture of Taiwan]], [[Culture of Hong Kong]] and [[Culture of Macau]].<!-- NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS: Materials for Chinese culture development differently after [[Chinese civil war|1949]] should mainly be covered by the articles [[Culture of mainland China]] and [[Culture of Taiwan]]. [[Culture of Hong Kong]] and [[Culture of Macau]] also have separate articles.-->

The first part of this note is not informative--the content is self-explainatory so the note serves absolutely no purpose. It is not a disambiguation. It is just pointless.

The second part is suggesting something that should take place. Material after 1949 is relevant here. I dont see why not... --Jiang 12:12, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Jiang. But please don't use POV labels such as "useless". — Instantnood 12:26, Feb (UTC)
I would say that tag looks quite useful and might even put it back up in the future. ;) --Dpr 08:05, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Improvement drive

This page is almost more of a collection of links than an article. POOPyJanuary 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Great article

How the hell are we supposed to fit all these elements of diverse Chinese culture in one aricle? Colipon+(T) 05:27, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Penzai/Penjing

Penzai is a Chinese gardening art which is still common in China. I want to add a small section about it. Any thought? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gomeying (talk • contribs) 14:47, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Source

Useful source to includ: http://www.mti.gov.sg/public/NWS/frm_NWS_Default.asp?sid=39&cid=223 --Dpr 07:15, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

China is not the birth place of eastern martial arts and therefor it should not be said that

there is mutch controversy from where it stared but most agree that it was invented when the buddist traveled from india to china and back

[edit] 17 Other, to be inserted above?

does this mean these links need to be moved somewhere else?

[edit] Collaboration

The failure of this so-called "collaboration" (among others, like Tangshan earthquake) is a very clear testament to the amount of wikipedia articles that need improvement that get ignored. I've posted many things on "Pages needing attention", none of which actually got attention. You can't expect simply because there's a formalized procedure that some of these articles will actually get written, not to mention written well. Colipon+(T) 05:29, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Template Box

POOPYAustinZ 00:06, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Filthiness, Shoving

Should these be included as aspects of Chinese culture? Little emphasis on not littering, spitting, children defecating on the sidewalk, etc. Possibly related to lack of emphasis on environment until VERY recently (deforestation since the Ming). Customary to not wait in line and to shove those in one's way. I'll likely be insulted for these comments, but no one who has been to both developed countries and China would not see a marked contrast in these arenas. I'd write it, but I think I'd be too tactless. --Easytoremember 03:22, 24 May 2006 (UTC)


No, don't write that, then I'd have to write an article on every other country listing their faults as well. Besta07 05:36, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

China now in 2007 in the most economically as well as technologically developed country in the world,all those images conjured of increased population controll and filthy streets is all but a thing of the past,most of the world's biggest business firms and industries have all moved to China.China at its' current rate of progression and industrialisation will soon overtake the USA as the richest contry in the world,complemented by their natural resources of coal,iron and various other minerals,their trade with other nations and their tourism industry. user:Wongdai` 12.30 1 April 2007 (UTC)

What does Chinese alleged superior economical power have to do with the streets being filthy? I believe that's a digression, albeit one I predicted. While I'm not sure it has a place in an article like this, it is without doubt true. Southsailor (talk) 04:31, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

That you would even consider to place filthiness as an aspect of Chinese Culture disgust me. All those things you mentioned aren't part of Chinese Culture, but the result of poverty and lack of education. This is not culture bound, it exist in every society where people are uneducated and poor. In Chinese cities where the level of education and wealth is the same as european cities there is no sign of the symptoms you mentioned. You mentioned deforestation since the Ming, but do I need to remind you that the western world only gave a crap for the enviroment only after W2. Only hunter-gatherers treated nature with respect. Agricultural societies has exploited the nature like a product. Which includes Europe and China. Europeans cared no less than the Chinese about the enviroment. How much of Europe's forest are still natural anyway?

What you need to realize is that the symptoms you mentioned aren't cultural, but social-econamical. If you want to adress this issue, you need to put it under "Demography of China". I won't call you ignorant, but you need to place yourself in their situation to see why these people behave in such a way.

And who else besides the English still stand in a line for a bus anyway in Europe? In the Netherlands there is no waiting line and I even get cut in line by grandma's. At least people still respect the waiting line in Hong Kong. --Leegte (talk) 14:48, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Question about reckoning one's age in China

I read or heard once, somewhere, that it was customary in China to say that a newborn baby is one year old, and to increment the age at the start of the lunar new year (instead of on the person's birthday). Is this true? And if it is true, can anyone help me find a quotable source for it? I've mentioned this point in one of the footnotes of the article United States v. Wong Kim Ark, but I really ought to include a citation if possible. Richwales 04:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to Kusunose for telling me about the article on East Asian age reckoning after I reposted my question in Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities. Richwales 14:28, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edits by user:Huaiwei

Re " Earlier revert was not overdone, since all edits were rejected. " [1] - Could user:Huaiwei please kindly explain (if there were any reasons) why other edits have to be rejected (as demonstrated by [2])? Thanks in advance. — Instantnood 18:36, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

User:Huaiwei has responded with " I simply didnt bother opening up this page when I note the last editor was by the name of instantnood. As stated in the summary, an "over-revert" dosent exist when ALL edits are rejected. End of discussion.--Huaiwei 15:56, 18 July 2006 (UTC) " [3]. — Instantnood 17:59, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Do not quote my comments out of context. I told you not to bring content discussions about specific issues to my talkpage, but you persist in doing so. My edit summary comment says exactly as what I intend to say. You reverted me purely for the reason that is was an "over-revert". I explained it wasent an over-revert because non of those edits were acceptable to me. If you have nothing further to say except to revert everyday, than yes, the discussion ends there.--Huaiwei 03:38, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
I've provided the links. Over-revert is behavioural problem, not editorial problem related to this article. If it's not over-revert as you've claimed, you've yet to explain why everything was not accepted. — Instantnood 15:49, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sikhism

Im gonna add Sikhism to the list, during my visit to China I saw a a big population of Sikhs in Hong Kong. --Elven6 01:56, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

No matter how big (or visible) that HK population is, it's still just a drop in the bucket for China. It really shouldn't be added unless it has a significant cultural impact on CHINA. Add it to the culture of Hong Kong page. -Easytoremember 03:12, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] China bans Anime

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=9354

"China has banned anime from prime time television. Starting September 1, animation produced outside of China will be barred from TV from 5 to 8 p.m., freeing the space for struggling Chinese studios."

Where should this infomation be put? dposse 23:20, 13 August 2006 (UTC)


Does this really concern culture.....

Uh, yeah. It does. dposse 18:17, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Chinese culture has nothing to do with foreign anime.

I put up a section about Chinese Animation earlier and it got deleted from this page. I think this shows people still have a high preference for Japanese anime instead. But still, you shouldn't deny your own culture. Benjwong 13:49, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Where does this go?

I think the section "Culture in the early Republican era" doesn't belong in this article, but I have no idea where it should go. --Ideogram 20:54, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

I think this page should not split by actual historical eras. It should be split by ancient and contemporary. To have a communist section that mentions mao suit is something that belongs in a fashion page to begin with. Benjwong 21:37, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What a mess.

I vote for a lot of these headings to be moved as sub-headings: Cinema, Architecture, Cuisine, Martial Arts, Clothing and Mass Media into Arts. Marriage, Religion, Tourism and Government into Society. Somehow merge Games, Hobbies, and Science and Technology (maybe). Somehow merge History and Modern China.

This would leave about 5 or 6 headings. Any agreement? Kansaikiwi May 28 2007

I have an idea of how to fix this page. It is going to take alot of moving around and alot of time. Benjwong 15:03, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, this article is a disaster. I tried to clean it up a while ago and ended up with this which you can look at for ideas. Unfortunately someone else came along with different ideas and put most of it back the way it was and I was too tired to fight about it. --Ideogram 12:11, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Family Structure

I looked the article Social structure of China but it didn't contain information about family structures. From what I understand, in Chinese culture here is a hierarchy within families with the oldest male being the "boss", then proceeding down with women usually subordinate to men and younger siblings subordinate to older siblings. A section on this and other aspects of family behavior in Chinese culture would be a useful addition to Wikipedia. Anyone have the knowledge/background/sources to write it? Readin (talk) 17:38, 25 April 2008 (UTC)