The Confucius Institute (CI) at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) will host its annual CI Day on Sept. 25, 2015. This year, a troupe from my university (Shandong Normal University) in China will perform at the event. The performances will include Chinese folk music and dance, and of course, the much anticipated Kungfu shows.
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Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven, is perhaps the most renowned animated feature movie in China. Adapted from Journey to the West, one of the four most famous classic novels in China, it captures the heart of children of several generations. The original one was made between 1960 and 1964. This is a digitally remastered version made in 2012.
Thursday, May 21, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
In collaboration with Shandong Department of Culture and Shandong Museum in China, The Mark Twain House & Museum is bringing a unique and never-before-seen collection of Han Dynasty stone rubbings to Connecticut. The exhibition will be displayed at The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford between May 21 and August 31, 2015. An opening reception to celebrate this exciting exhibition will take place on Thursday, May 21 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Webster Bank Museum Center at The Mark Twain House & Museum. The Han Dynasty (206 BC -- 220 AD) was a formative period in the history of Chinese society and culture. Many of the institutions that continued to shape China all the way up to the early 20th century were established during this period. The stone rubbings are artistically crafted facsimiles of stone engravings found in tombs and on mountainsides in and around what is today Shandong province. They provide detailed and vivid descriptions of everyday, economic, religious, political and cultural life at the time. The collection that will be presented has great historic, cultural and academic value. The complete exhibition consists of a large number of individual rubbings of various sizes, ranging from smaller pieces up to larger ones covering entire walls, all filled with vivid detail. Mark Twain lived and worked on his books in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1871--1891. He and his wife, Livy, raised their family in the Hartford house, and he wrote many of his most famous works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, during the time he lived in the house. While many know Twain as a novelist and satirist, he was also an opinionated social and political commentator and active in many progressive causes. A prolific traveler, he was well informed of and outspoken regarding world issues. Though he never traveled to China, Twain wrote about Chinese immigrants and their treatment in the United States, and was a vocal anti-imperialist. His friendship with American diplomat Anson Burlingame gave him particular insight, interest, and sympathy for the Chinese. Through one of his closest friends, the Reverend Joseph Twichell, Twain became involved in the Chinese Educational Mission, which brought more than 120 male students from China to study in the United States from 1872--1881. The Mark Twain House & Museum is honored to have the opportunity to display this very special collection from Shandong. Viewing of the exhibition is complementary with a tour of The Mark Twain House. Without a tour, this exhibition can be viewed along with the other exhibits in the museum center for a $6.00 charge. The opening reception on May 21 is free and open to the public. Reservations are recommended--please call (860) 280-3130 or click here. Host Benedict Cumberbatch plays table tennis with Laureus World Sports Academy member Yaping Deng during the 2015 Laureus World Sports Awards show at the Shanghai Grand Theater on April 15, 2015 in Shanghai, China.
Former Chinese table tennis world champion Deng plays with Cumberbatch with a spatula. Here's the link of the video clip: http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2015-04-15/21587576352.shtml The Karaoke version: 找呀 找呀 找朋友
找到一个好朋友 敬个礼呀 握握手 你是我的好朋友 zhǎo ya zhǎo ya zhǎo péngyou zhǎodào yígè hǎo péngyou jìng gè lǐ ya wò wò shǒu nǐ shì wǒde hǎo péngyou looking, looking, looking for a friend I find a good friend give a salute shake hands you are my good friend According to this post on the famous news blogging site Quartz, those speaking tonal language like Mandarin Chinese can have their right brain activated, especially in a region important for processing music, via pitch and tone, that has been conventionally seen as largely unrelated to language comprehension. Here is the report: If you speak Mandarin, your brain works differently. That’s according to a recent study published in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences. The report is the first to conclude that those who speak tonal languages like Mandarin exhibit a very different flow of information during speech comprehension, using both hemispheres of the brain rather than just the left, which has long been seen as the primary neurological region for processing language.
After analyzing brain imaging data from Mandarin and English speakers listening their respective languages, researchers from Peking University and other universities found that native Mandarin speakers and native English speakers both showed evidence of activity in the brain’s left hemisphere. But Mandarin speakers also saw activation in the right hemisphere, specifically in a region important for processing music, via pitch and tone, that has long been seen as largely unrelated to language comprehension. Since at least the 1950s, researchers in the field of neurolinguistics have been questioning how languages influence perception, and physiological behavior. This latest study supports one emerging theory, connectionism, that maintains that some languages require interactions across the entire brain. The findings are important for better protecting language-related regions during brain surgery as well as understanding the “constitution of knowledge of language, as well as how it is acquired,” according to the study. “Pitch processing is crucial for music, but also crucial for tone processing of a tone language. Based on our current results, it is reasonable to hypothesize that all tone languages use both hemispheres,” Gang Peng, deputy director of the Joint Research Centre for Language and Human Complexity at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and one of the study’s co-authors, told Quartz. Other tonal languages include Vietnamese, Cantonese, and Thai. Specifically, Chinese and English speakers both show activity in three regions in the left hemisphere: the inferior frontal gyrus, the anterior superior temporal gyrus, and the posterior middle gyrus, labeled F, A, and P, respectively (picture A in the image below). But Chinese speakers exhibit activity in an extra area in addition to those three: the superior temporal gyrus (figure R, picture B). And for those who are learning Mandarin--including Mark Zuckerberg and Prince William—they may notice that their brains are working just a little bit harder to crack the code of a notoriously difficult-to-learn language. Because of the frequent snowfalls here in Avon, I decide to teach the kids some Chinese words related to the weather conditions. Last week, they learned a riddle about snowflakes and how to write the Chinese characters meaning rain, water, snow and flower (雨、水、雪、花). This week, some of the classes have watched a 20-minute Chinese animated movie called Snow Kid(雪孩子). Here's the synopsis of the movie on Wikipedia:
In a cold winter, mother rabbit was going to look for some carrots outside the house. In case her child would feel lonely, she made a snowman for him, which was fabulous. The snowman started to move the moment she left. He had a great time with the little rabbit. But it was getting colder and colder, thus forcing the baby rabbit to go home and make a fire so as to get warm. Unfortunately, he fell asleep and his quilt fell on the floor, leaving the house in fire. The snowman saw this and rushed into the room without hesitation. Finally, he rescued his friend—the little rabbit at the cost of his own life. When the mother rabbit returned, she was relieved to find that her child was safe and sound, but the lovely Snow Kid disappeared forever. Original site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Kid However, it is not at all a tragic story, as described in Wikipedia. The ending shows that the melted hero evaporated and turns into a cloud which looks like the Snow Kid, and mother rabbit told her son that "he'll be with us forever." A touching movie made in the 1980s, the golden age of China's animated films. Vocabulary: 雪孩子 Snow Kid Xuě háizi 雪人 snowman xuěrén 雪花 snowflake Xuěhuā 小兔 little rabbit xiǎo tù 妈妈 mom māmā 眼睛 eye yǎnjīng 鼻子 nose bízi 松鼠 squirrel sōngshǔ How Does Acupuncture Work? Find out Jan. 29 at Simsbury LibraryDr. Chun-Ze Zhu will explain Chinese medicine theories and introduce you to the ancient practice of acupuncture. Have you ever wondered how the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture works? Dr. Chun-Ze Zhu will explain Chinese medicine theories like Qi (energy), Yin and Yang, the five elements, and meridians and introduce you to acupuncture practice.
Chun-Ze Zhu is a fourth generation Chinese medicine doctor with a specialty in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Acupuncture. He was trained in Acupuncture and herbal medicine in China and has practiced acupuncture for over 40 years. He has been practicing in the United States since 1984, including 19 years in the Hartford area. His office is in West Hartford. He is a licensed acupuncturist in CT and MA. “Chinese medical approaches are successful in many situations, while Western medicine is essential for others. I like to offer that additional choice,” explains Dr. Zhu. In addition to his health-related skills, he is an accomplished opera singer, performing as a member of the Beijing Opera Company before coming to the U.S. This program will be held at the Simsbury Public Library, 725 Hopmeadow Street on Thursday, January 29, 2015 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Registration is requested at 860-658-7663 or www.simsburylibrary.info. Free and open to all. Original URL: http://patch.com/connecticut/simsbury/how-does-acupuncture-work-0 My elementary students watched part of an episode of Ni Hao Kai-lan called Ladybug Festival. The kids learned how to say "birds" (小鸟, xiǎo niǎo) and "listen" (听, tīng) from the video. There is a game on the website of Nick Jr. with the same theme and here's the link: http://www.nickjr.com/games/ladybug-festival-adventure.jhtml. The game contains some elements we've covered in class, but there are certainly things that are new and challenging. Try to follow Kai-lan and her friends!
Have fun with the game and happy holidays! |
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九月 2016
About MeI currently teach Mandarin Chinese at Avon Public Schools, Connecticut. I am also Associate Professor of English in the School of Foreign Languages at Shandong Normal University. Categories
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