xii, 235 pages : 20 cm
Teach Yourself Language, Life, and Culture titles delve into the customs and ways of their featured countries, taking a respectful yet lively point of view. Topics include government, arts, language, work, leisure, education, festivals, and food. Each title explains the role of language in shaping culture and provides practical information for travelers. Find out about traditional Chinese medicine, English fish and chips, the Welsh red dragon, and even Christmas in Japan
Includes index
The Making of China -- The land and climate -- Features of the land -- Wildlife -- Rivers -- The people and their history -- The four most important political figures of the 20th century -- The pattern of Chinese history -- The languages of China -- Early Chinese -- The evolution of characters -- What exactly are Chinese characters? -- Spoken Chinese -- The evolution of standard Chinese -- The main Chinese languages -- Recent advances and the future of modern Chinese -- Non-Chinese languages -- A closer look at Chinese -- First steps in writing Chinese -- First steps in speaking Chinese -- Grammar -- Some tips for learning Chinese -- Creative China -- Chinese religion and philosophy -- Beliefs of the Chinese -- Confucianism -- Daoism -- Buddhism -- The three teachings today -- Traditional beliefs -- Adopted belief systems -- Festivals and folklore -- The solar calendar -- Festivals and the traditional Chinese year -- The Chinese zodiac -- Symbols in Chinese culture -- Lucky charms and talismans
Fortune telling -- Blood type -- Literature -- History writing -- Philosophy -- Poetry -- Calligraphy -- Novels -- Modern literature -- Today's Chinese literature -- Entertainment -- Theatre -- Film -- Television -- Radio -- Opera -- Traditional music -- Pop music -- Art and architecture -- Painting -- Architecture -- Living in china now -- Creativity in other spheres -- Food -- Tea -- Crafts -- Ingenuity -- The basics for living -- Education -- Health -- Work and play -- Industry -- Agriculture -- Leisure -- Qi Gong -- Politics -- The party: peasants in power? -- The state -- The structure of government -- China in the world -- The media -- Sport and politics -- People and society -- Family -- Groups -- Contacts -- Face -- Sexuality and marriage -- Population control -- Women -- Emotion and expression -- Competition -- Ridicule -- Humour and wit -- Foreigners and racism -- The future -- Problems facing the economy -- Ethnic issues -- Ideological contortions -- Greater China -- War -- Society

Kenneth Wilkinson

McGraw-Hill School Education Group

Irwin Professional Publishing

Oracle Press

United States, United States of America

1 edition, July 25, 2002

1, PT, 2002

obscured texts due to sticker inherent from source

2023-06-28