Becoming an Expert: Part 2

Continuing my quest to become an expert, today I read about the profitable smuggling trade of Chinese antiques. According to the Economic Times at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/International__, powered by India Times, Hong Kong "has become the legitimate outlet for ill-gotten treasures of Chinese history, a legal market for legally obtained objects that can and do command large sums."

This event made me remember learning about Napoleon's soldiers invading Egypt and breaking off a Sphinx's nose. While the acts of breaking off a Sphinx's nose and trading valuable artifacts have considerable differences, the latter does seem reminiscent of the former.

While I am solidly against the illegal trade of Chinese artifacts and angry at the smugglers, I think that the Chinese government should take more measures with the policing of artifact smuggling, as well as more effort in programs to find artifacts before smugglers discover them.

Some new questions: What efforts does the Chinese government put into stopping smugglers? What areas in China are the most heavily populated with artifacts? From what dynasty have the most artifacts been found?

See you next time on Experts in China!

Becoming an Expert: Part 1

Today my topic is Ancient Chinese history. As part of my quest to become an expert on Ancient Chinese history, today I looked at http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=.

This website is the History Channel's look at Ancient China. Usually each section (i.e., the T'ang Dynasty) is brief and summarized, but it still gives well-rounded information about different time periods in Chinese history. This is a quote that raised some new questions for me:

"The Han emperors followed the Confucian principle of appointing men on the basis of merit rather than birth. Written examinations were adopted as a means of determining the best qualified people. In the late 2d century BC an imperial university was established, in which prospective bureaucrats were trained in the five classics of the Confucian school." What were the five classics? How long did you have to prepare for the written examinations? Who made the examinations? How long were the examinations, and what was the passing grade? I wish we had an exam for politicians to pass today.

Another interesting website is http://www.bartleby.com/67/138.html. According to Bartleby's article, "there were three principal classes in Shang times: hereditary nobles and their families, commoners, and slaves (often sacrificially buried) who were largely war captives." Sacrificially buried sparked some questions for me--were they buried alive? dead? Either way, it's a little grisly-sounding. It makes me wonder whether China had any limits for its different methods of punishment or law enforcement.

Information on both of these two sites sometimes "overlap," going over the same subjects, but in general, you will find a nuanced choice of facts to showcase. I greatly enjoyed looking at both websites and I hope that readers will be able to leave comments about their own observations. Join me next time for Becoming an Expert: Part 2!

Letter to a Taiwanese Friend

Dear P,

Life is getting on very well, but my days of lazing about at room temperature eating potstickers are over. I am now concentrating on editing Yang in Disguise while the heat in our house seems to drop. I have a cold, although it's getting better. Weekends are hardly breaks, and--well, probably enough complaining. After all you are busy in school with homework and tests. What do you do on weekends? Adrianna has her violin, I do last-minute Chinese homework, we both do Chinese class, and sometimes go biking. (Saturday). Sundays are sleep-in days of boredom. The most exciting thing on Sunday is Sixty Minutes, the TV program. Speaking of TV we watched the Oscars just now. Did you watch the Oscars? The "pre-Oscar" time is extremely boring. They claim the Oscars begin at four, but that's just when everybody's getting seated and obnoxious reporters interview rushing nominees. They drone on and on about spectacular gowns. A typical conversation between the reporters would be--"And the new trend with jewels on so-and-so and bare shoulders, so-and-so's dress is Calvin Klein, so-and-so is taking a note from so-and-so and wearing diamonds, so-and-so's dress is Versace with some great beads, so-and-so is wearing..." And it goes on in that vein for some time. My mom wanted me to watch it anyways. Watching the actual awards was alright, though. Some of the commercials were quite good. Weather has taken a rather nasty turn. It is quite rainy, foggy, and windy. What are you doing in Taiwan? What is your everyday life like? Is school harder, easier, or about the same? What are you studying right now? How did you like the Taiwanese book? Also, forgot to ask you. What did you do for Christmas? Did you celebrate it? What did you do for New Year's? (Chinese or otherwise.) I attatched a photo of our aunts and uncles on Christmas Day. I hope you'll be able to see it. I took the picture with the mini Lumix digital camera I recieved from my mom as a present. I also recieved a Santa hat, a lot of candy canes, a fifty dollar Barnes and Noble gift card, and a porcelain kind of vase shaped-thing for holding pencils, pens, and erasers. It was a pretty great Christmas. We ate a buffet breakfast in Todai, Redmond Town Center. By the way, we made bedding for "The Ontario Club" (also known as the "DAM Club"). My room is covered in soft bedding. So is Adrianna's. I said hi to K for you. Oh, by the way--guess what? We didn't get any homework for the weekend!!!

Please reply soon!

Love,
Dory