THE CULTURE OF

CHINA AND JAPAN

Prepared by: Aries A. Sunga
About 35 percent of China's labor force is in agriculture (compared to
2.5 percent in the U.S.). There are 425 million agricultural workers
(200 million farming households) in China. A little over a decade ago
China was home to 700 million farmers. They made up about 60
percent of the population.
 Hanging scrolls such as these in your home can help bring
harmony and clarity to your surroundings and remind you of
the extraordinary beauty that can be found in the simplest
of settings.
In feng shui, jade has been used
for centuries for its abilities to
create a serene feeling of
harmony and balance. Jade is
also used as a protection
and good luck feng shui stone.
You can find endless good luck
feng shui charms with jade
employed for various purposes -
from creating wealth to
attracting more friends.
Temple roofs were curve
d because Buddhists
believed that
a curved shape could
ward off evil spirits,
which were thought to
only move in straight
lines. The tiles, usually
shaped to represent
bamboo, create their
own curved surface,
further confusing the evil
spirits.
The official dialect of China
is Mandarin, also call
"Putonghua". More than 70%
of the Chinese population
speaks Mandarin, but there
are also several other major
dialects in use in China: Yue
(Cantonese), Xiang
(Hunanese), Min dialect, Gan
dialect, Wu dialect, and
Kejia or Hakka dialect.
 Child cannibalism

Controversy was sparked when the

performance artist Zhu Yu claimed
that he prepared, cooked and ate
real human bodies, including
fetuses, as an
artistic performance, The
performance was called Eating
People he claimed it was to protest
against cannibalism,It was
intended as "shock art The Chinese
Ministry of Culture cited a menace
to social order and the spiritual
health of the Chinese people,
banned exhibitions involving
culture, animal abuse, corpses,
and overt violence and
sexuality and Zhu Yu was
prosecuted for his deeds
Ghost Marriage.
 
If a son died before marriage, his parents
arranged a ghost marriage in order to provide
him with progeny to continue the lineage and
give him his own descendants. "A man in China
does not marry so much for his own benefit as
for that of the family: to continue the family
name; to provide descendants to keep up the
ancestral worship; and to give a daughter-in-
law to his mother to wait on her and be, in
general, a daughter to her". Occasionally a live
girl is taken as a wife for a dead man but this is
rare. The ceremony itself took on
characteristics of both a marriage and a
funeral, with the spirit of the deceased bride
being “led” by a medium or priest, while her
body is transferred from her grave to be laid
next to her husband.
THE GREAT RACE (CHINA)
HOW THE CHINESE ZODIAC
CAME TO BE!
The Jade Emperor decided to celebrate his
birthday with a Great Race for his favorite
animals. The first twelve animals to cross
the finish line, he declared, would earn a
place of honor in the heavens and become
a symbol of the lunar calendar for all
eternity.
THE STORY OF THE CHINESE
ZODIAC
 For those of you who do not know what the
Chinese Zodiac is or how it came to be, I
have put together the following to give you
all a history lesson. One of many legends say
that a race was organized to decide the
animals that would report to the Jade
Emperor, who would then honour each by
using them to represent the 12 phases of the
Zodiac. 
*The route taken by the animals went through a forest, over
ranges of plains and grasslands and along a stream, before finally
crossing a lake to the destination town.

*So although the cat and the rat being the worst swimmers in
the animal kingdom, they were both intelligent. They decided
that the best and fastest way to cross the river was to hop on
the back of the ox. 

The ox, being a naïve and good-natured animal, agreed to

carry them across. 
However, overcome with a fierce competitiveness, the rat decided
that in order to win, it must do something and promptly pushed the
cat into the river. 

Because of this, the cat has never forgiven the rat, and hates the
water as well.

After the ox had crossed the river, the rat jumped ahead and
reached the shore first, and it claimed first place in the
competition.
Following closely behind was the strong
ox, and it was named the 2nd animal in
the zodiac. After the ox, came the tiger,
panting, while explaining to the Emperor
just how difficult it was to cross the river
with the heavy currents pushing it
downstream all the time. But with
powerful strength, it made it to shore and
was named the 3rd animal in the cycle
Suddenly, from a distance came a
thumping sound, and the rabbit arrived. It
explained how it crossed the river: by
jumping from one stone to another in a
nimble fashion. Halfway through, it almost
lost the race but the rabbit was lucky
enough to grab hold of a floating log that
later washed him to shore. For that, it
became the 4th animal in the zodiac
cycle.
Coming in 5th place was the dragon,
flying and belching fire into the air.
Of course, the Emperor was deeply
curious as to why a strong and flying
creature such as the dragon should
fail to reach first. The mighty dragon
explained that he had to stop and
make rain to help all the people and
creatures of the earth, and therefore
he was held back a little. 
Then, on his way to the finish line, he saw a little helpless
rabbit clinging on to a log so he did a good deed and gave a
puff of breath to the poor creature so that it could land on the
shore.

The Emperor was very pleased with the actions of the

dragon, and he was added into the zodiac cycle. 
As soon as he had done so, a galloping
sound was heard, and the horse
appeared. Hidden on the horse's hoof
is the snake, whose sudden
appearance gave the horse a fright,
thus making it fall back and gave the
snake 6th spot while the horse took
the 7th.
Not long after that, a little distance
away, the sheep, monkey and rooster
came to the shore. These three creatures
helped each other to get to where they
are. The rooster spotted a raft, and took
the other two animals with it. Together,
the sheep and the monkey cleared the
weeds, tugged and pulled and finally got
the raft to the shore. Because of their
combined efforts, the Emperor was very
pleased and promptly named the sheep
as the 8th creature, the monkey as the
9th, and the rooster the 10th. 
The 11th animal is the dog. His explanation
for being late although he was supposed to
be the best swimmer amongst the rest was
that he needed a good bath after a long
spell, and the fresh water from the river
was too big a temptation. For that, he
almost didn't make it to finish line.
Just as the Emperor was about to call it a
day, an oink and squeal was heard from a
little pig. The pig got hungry during the
race, promptly stopped for a feast and
then fell asleep. After the nap, the pig
continued the race and was named the
12th and last animal of the zodiac cycle.
The cat finished too late (thirteenth) to
win any place in the calendar, and
vowed to be the enemy of the rat
forevermore. This is one of the most
popular legends but there are many
others. 
Another legend says that the 12 animals
of the Chinese Zodiac were chosen by
Buddha. When Buddha was near death
he invited all the animals to visit him.
Only 12 came including the rat, ox,
tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse,
sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
For visiting him, Buddha named the 12
phases of the Zodiac after the animals
in the order they arrived to see him.
Author: Dawn Casey

Illustrator: Anne Wilson 

Publisher: Barefoot Books

Genre: Folklore
Summary: This is an explanation for how the animals of
the Chinese Zodiac came to be. The Jade emperor
need to make a calendar and decided that each year
will be named after a different animal. He decided
to hold a race and reward the animals by naming the
years after the winners. Cat and rat are friends and
enter the race together.. In addition to cat and rat,
there was dragon, tiger, monkey, sheep, snake, ox,
pig, hare, dog, rooster, horse. The river was the last
crossing point in the race and all the animals were
looking for ways to cross it Rat got ox to carry him
and cat and together they crossed the river with the
other animals. Just as they neared the other side,
Rat pushed cat off and jumped on land, making
himself the first animal. All the other animals
followed after rat but cat did not make it in time to
be rewarded a position in the calendar.
This is just a FUN test.

No Claim is made that it is 100% accurate.

You yourself are responsible for your character and actions eventually.
Your destiny lies in your own hands.

Mind is the forerunner of all things.

If any of the traits or points mentioned about you are, to your mind,
true, your Attitude or Action should be this:

* For any point of Strength, keep developing it.

* For any point of Weakness, strive to lessen or remove it. HAVE SOME
CLEAN FUN!
 “Many moons ago, the people of China had no
calendar. With no way to measure time, nobody
could tell one year from the next.”

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.

GOD BLESS US ALL