All About China

This presentation is created for the SES/EPIC Class by Kate.

This presentation contains Picture Communication Symbols © Mayer-Johnson

used with permission.

• China is a country.• China is Asia.• China has more people than any other country.• They speak many languages in China, but most

common is the Mandarin kind of Chinese.

Asia

In China we speakChinese.

• The rectangular flag has a red field with five golden-yellow stars (each with five points) in the upper left corner.

• The star on the left is larger than the other four.• The red color of the flag symbolizes revolution.• The large star symbolizes the Communist Party

(which rules China) and the smaller stars represent the people of China.

A Few Chinese Holidays

• The Ching Ming Festival is in the springtime and the Chung Yeung Festival takes place on the ninth day of the ninth moon. They are occasions for visiting ancestral graves.

• Dragonboat festival This is a festival which also combines into a big sporting event that takes place every year in either May or June in Hong Kong. Qu Yuan was a national hero who drowned himself 2,300 years ago in protest against a corrupt government. Legend says that as townspeople attempted to rescue him, they beat drums to scare fish away and threw dumplings into the sea to keep the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body. To symbloze the attempted rescue of Qu Yuan, they race narrow long boats made of wood (the front of the boats are carved into a dragon's head, therefore the name) to the beating of a drum.

• Mid-Autumn Festival This takes place on the 15th day of the eighth moon. All people, family and friends, come together under the full moon, usually at beaches, carrying bright and beautiful lanterns. They exchange presents, mooncakes, fruit and wine.

• Chinese New Year is a very important holiday• It is celebrated in late January to early

February (depending on the year)• Chinese New Year starts on a New Moon and

ends with the lantern festival on the full moon 15 days later

• The Chinese year 4706 begins on Feb. 7, 2008• 4706 is the year of the rat

• The Chinese language does not have letters• Instead it has characters like those above• Characters can stand for a whole word or

bunch of words• When experts write in Chinese they use

special brushes and ink and paint the characters

• These are called calligraphy and can be art

Love 7

A Chinese meal in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, with bowls of white rice, shrimp, eggplant, fermented tofu, vegetable stir-fries, vegetarian duck, and a central dish with meat and bamboo. There are 6 bowls of rice, one for each person.

• They eat many different kinds of food in China. • Chinese people like fresh food and prefer to shop almost daily. • When both parents work, bought or pre-cooked foods are the norm, especially for

breakfast. • Lunch is usually eaten in work or school canteens, where cooked food is always

available. • Dinner is the main family meal, in which people share several dishes at a round

table.• In general, the Chinese eat lots of different meats and vegetables. • The Chinese diet has no milk or milk products. Instead, soybean products provide

protein and calcium.• Different parts of the country eat different things. • In the north, the delicate foods developed by the imperial court are balanced by

the robust local cuisine, which uses strong flavours, such as onions and garlic, and prefers wheat noodles and bread to rice. The popularity of lamb reveals the influence of the Muslim population; pork is preferred elsewhere in China.

Adapted from http://www.cp-pc.ca/english/china/eating.html

Main Courses / Starters

• The Great Wall of China is a very big wall built to keep the Chinese people safe from attack

• It was built 2,000 years ago under orders from the Emperor (King).

• The Great Wall of China can be seen from space.

• It is one of the largest building projects ever.

•Tiananmen Square is in Beijing, China•In 1989 some college students decided to protest against the Chinese Government because China is not a free country.•The Chinese Government sent in the army, with tanks.•Somewhere between 400-3,000 demonstrators were killed•Thousands of others were injured or jailed

• In the cities children work very hard at school– Their days are much longer than ours, 8-12 hours– They must study very hard– They memorize everything and take many tests– Children are allowed to play a few hours a week and

often do not have friends• In the country some schools are not very good

– some schools do not have good teachers or things like books and computers

– Many girls don’t go to school after third grade

Chinese school children in the 2000s all wear uniforms. The uniforms are seasonal, depending on where the school is located in China. The summer uniforms usually consist of short pants and a shirt in the same style, sometimes in quite bright colors. Sailor collars are frequent for girls. One favourite style is a colored suit with piping in white or a contrasting color. Children used to wear their school uniforms with red Young Pioneer scarves, but this is now less common.

• Chinese Knots• Paper Cutting• Silk Embroidery• Painted Fans• Tie Dye and Batik