In China Entry Pack 3.0, we will lead you to discover the mysterious culture of China. But before everything is explained, you need to know a truth: Not every Chinese is an expert of Kungfu. Aren't you a bit surprised? If not, it's okay. The followings will sure capture your attention. CHOPSTICKS TABOO‘Never get your chopsticks stuck vertically into a bowl of rice.’ It is the first thing you need to notice once you learn how to use chopsticks. But why is that? “Similar to the saying of 'May God Be With You', actually in China, it is believed that spirits never die. By offering sacrifices to ancestors’ spirits, Chinese hold memorial ceremonies for the ancestors in order to pray for the bless from the spirits and the peacefulness of their lives. However, for sacrifices like rice, they consider the spirits are not capable of holding the chopsticks like the living; therefore they stick the chopsticks vertically onto the sacrifices in order to serve the spirits. Thus, if you follow the same process while you are enjoying meals…well, just don't. FORBIDDEN DRESSING CODESimilarly, several decades ago, when someone passed away in China, people attending the funeral were all supposed to dress in pure white: white headband, white clothes and white hat. However, nowadays, following the international trend, Chinese starts to wear black during funerals. But tradition still remains. Therefore it would still be weird if you wear pure white headband or hat (the ones with logos, words or other colorful decorations like the one below are totally fine). ” GHOST DAY vs. HALLOWEEN“Is there anything else that you need to be aware of? Yes. In China, we have a Ghost Day that is similar to Halloween. However, on that day, you never want to go out to celebrate or hold a basket and offer candies on the street; because you might not know who, or to be specific, what you would meet. It is believed that ghosts from hell would be led out on the night of Lunar July 15th, which is the Ghost Day. But those are just stories. As it turns out, the festival is not that scary; it is actually the Thanksgiving in China. Around the festival, harvest begins. Therefore the livings believe that the harvest is a gift from the ancestors. As being grateful to the spirits, Chinese usually make floating lanterns and sacrifices in order to thank and 'welcome' the ancestors’ spirit, which is commonly known as the ‘Ghost’. 12 VALENTINE'S DAYSBesides Ghost Day, there are other festivals that are quite interesting in China: for example, Valentine’s Day. We all know that Chinese Valentine’s Day is on Lunar July 7th. But after the Western Valentine’s Day was known, Chinese has invented 11 more Valentine’s Days to celebrate --- the 14th of each month of a year. I can’t name them all because it is really hard to remember each name specifically but some of the names are super creative and you should BAIDU to check them all out. ” NOV. 11th － NOT REMEMBRANCE DAYEveryone in the US knows about Remembrance Day. In China, November 11th is also a meaningful date but with a complete different meaning. November 11th can be written as ’11.11’. Does it look familiar? Because the number ‘1’ represents single and loneliness, we define ‘1111’ to be the loneliest day of the year because there are four of them! Therefore, the ‘Singles’ Day’ was invented. ”“Moreover, as a comfort to the singles (well, it is actually a saying made up by the merchants), Taobao, the biggest online shopping center in China, will hold a huge discount event on almost every goods selling on the website in that particular day. Thus, it is said that November 11th in China is a combination of Black Friday and Singles’ Day, which is totally awesome! “APPLE FOR CHRISTMAS”I know that I already trigued your interest so let me tell you more. In Christmas, Chinese treat apples as a symbol of ‘peace and happiness’ because the pronunciation of apple in Chinese ‘Ping An’ Fruit is similar to ‘Ping An’ Night (Christmas Eve), and ‘Ping An’ is the meaning of peace and harmony. Therefore in Christmas Eve, it has become a tradition for Chinese to eat apples. THE RUMOR OF GREEN HAT There is one other thing that I suppose you might be interested: wearing green hat in China means someone has been betrayed in his/her love relationship. And I guess that is why celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day is never a popular thing to do in China. ”There are tons of things that you can discover from the ways that Chinese celebrate their festivals. Cultures may vary but what people are pursuing is always the same around the world: to be happy and peaceful. Nobody can say for sure that he/she knows enough about a culture of a country, because as the time goes on, everything changes. What stays remained is the passion of the love by its people that live here. Language TipsChina.中国（Zhong Guo） Culture.文化（Wen Hua） Merry Christmas.圣诞节快乐（Sheng Dan Jie Kuai Le） Happy Valentine‘s Day 情人节快乐（Qing Ren Jie Kuai Le） Rose玫瑰（Mei Gui） a bunch of rose一束玫瑰（Yi Shu Mei Gui） Don't be sad.不要伤心（Bu Yao Shang Xin） I am very scared.我很害怕（Wo Hen Hai Pa） Are you Single?你单身吗？（Ni Dan Shen Ma ?）“WE HUNT;WE RECRUIT!” Suzhou Boren HR Consulting Co., Ltd. is a company located in Suzhou New High-tech District. The company develops its own human resources at home and abroad. Its main service is to find qualified foreign teachers for schools (Kindergarten to College), and to offer positions to foreign teachers and specialists. For many years, the company has been cooperating with many schools in foreign teacher management and has built up trust between cooperation schools in Provinces such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangxi, Hunan., etc. If you have trouble in work visa or foreign teacher experts, please feel free to contact Suzhou Boren. 若有外教招聘需求、政策咨询，请电话咨询： +86-512-65570136—801 苏州博人咨询 外教招聘 管理培训 充足的外教资源 资深的政策咨询团队 全面的管理培训服务 博人为学校提供全程外教招聘、咨询、管理 博人为学校提升国际课程品质联系方式： www.borenhr.com.cn suzhouboren@163.com wechat:suzhouboren Phone: 15162408020/13915536094 How to Follow Us?① Press and hold the wechat code, click "Extract QR code" and follow us. or... ② Click the“+”on the upper right corner，search ”suzhouboren"，then you can find us.伦华教育苏州博人
