A Hopeful Study Abroad

Assuming that everything goes the way I perceive them to go, I plan on studying in China for one semester during Fall of 2011. I think this would be a great idea to further my Chinese skills, because by that time, I will have taken 4 semesters of Chinese, and should therefore be skilled enough to communicate on basic levels...hopefully.

What I find invaluable about studying abroad is the amount of cultural and lingual experience that students acquire in their interest. I personally think that studying abroad is more helpful than a personal trip to the preferred country after graduation in terms of academic study, since students are generally younger, allowing them to adequately learn the language when their environment forces them to learn.

I have yet to look into the study aboard program here at CCSU, so if anyone has any suggestions or advice on anything in relation to studying abroad in China, please let me know!

"Damn Good Wu Shu Fight"

This is a good example of contemporay wu shu in tournaments. It is obviously choreographed, but dodging a spear multiple times per second must mean you're probably in decent shape, at the very least.

Lesson Practice Sheets 16-21

Jeet Kune Do Bruce Lee Video

I'd rather be hit by a car then one of his kicks. Here's a short technical video on Lǐ Xiăolóng.

Bo Staff Trick Video

Here's a short tricking video with a straight staff. You wouldn't do this in a real fight but it's awesome to watch!

Martial Arts

Something that has really interested me personally has always been the Arts, and in China specifically, martial arts. I've taken martial arts since I was 11, and the wide variety of styles and intense disciplinary training that exists in China is basically overwhelming.

Chinese martial arts is commonly known as kung fu, or gōngfu (功夫). A more accurate term is wǔshù (武术) which is defined as both martial arts as an art, and martial arts as a sport. In the latter sense, there are many teams worldwide that work to compete in tournaments held in China-- these teams focus on forms that include performance of one's body as well as weapons.

There are many, many styles of wushu. These are some of the more notable styles:

• Bāguàzhǎng - "Eight Trigrams Palm" which focuses on smooth movement and flow
  
• Wu3Xing2 (五形) - "Five Animals" Southern martial arts composed of a series of techniques and styles based off of the following animals: tiger, crane, leopard, snake and dragon.
• Jeet Kune Do (截拳道) - The style/philosophy set by Bruce Lee (Lǐ Xiăolóng) which incorporates very straightforward and direct fighting techniques, sacrificing the natural flow and fanciness observed in many other styles.
  
• Tai Chi Chuan (太极拳) - This style focuses almost entirely on one's inner energy, or qi. The concept results in this slow-paced, graceful form takes patience and control to perform correctly, letalone master.

Personally, I've taken Tai Chi for a number of years, and really wanted to learn Bagua or any form of contemporary wushu, which is generally taught for show, and is commonly used in tournaments.

February 14th, 2010

This past Valentine's Day, I had the opportunity to spend the morning with my friend's Mandarin class attending a service at a Chinese Protestant church in Chinatown, Boston. Why?

First, as we all [should] know, Valentine's Day is February 14th, but this year, it happened to fall on the same day as the Chinese New Year, this year being the year of the Tiger. Incidentally, both of these happened to fall on Sunday. The likeliness of all three happening at once is something that happens once per lifetime. Pretty cool.

What is interesting is that the two holiday both focus primarily on relationships; however, Valentine's Day is generally geared towards romantic ones, while the latter is usually celebrated with the family. Needless to say, when the Mandarin class I was with were waiting in line at a Dim Sum restaurant, the rooms were packed with families and relatives sitting at tables of eight or more.

Not to digress too much, but some of the food at the restaurant was...interesting. Sometime you just shouldn't ask what it is before you eat it, because I found out that the mysterious bowl of prickly matter was in fact the stomach lining of some fortunate animal. Also, there's not much meat in chicken feet.

Hope you all had a memorable Chinese New Year's/Valentine's Day!


From left to right: chicken foot, something that felt like a bone, stomach lining, and skin-textured thing.

Lesson Practice Sheets 12-15

Taiwan Memories

Something I don't speak about on a regular basis is that I was born and raised somewhat in Miaoli, Taiwan. It's pretty difficult to recall the earlier years, since I moved here when I was seven years old. But several distinct memories will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I was raised speaking Chinese, and I was probably fluent...clearly, I don't remember. But I do know that the dialect I spoke was not Mandarin; in fact, the region of Miaoli stretching up to Jhongli spoke a dialect called Hakka. Unfortunately I remember absolutely nothing regarding differences in the dialect.

At an early age, I remembered making a variety of delicacies (at least, delicacies by American standards) which include:

• 较子 (jiao3zi) - dumplings with various vegetables and meats on the inside. I vaguely remember rolling out dough to make them in a kindergarten class.

• 粽子 (zong4zi) - I have sweet, sweet memories of my grandparents giving me steamed rice wrapped in what I thought was corn husk. Evidently zongzi is a sweet rice-ball wrapped with bamboo leaves, and is treated as a delicacy popular in festivals.

A Little Shaky

I haven't taken Chinese since Fall of 2009, so my knowledge of the language is definitely shaky. However, it's still somewhere embedded in my brain, since I grew up speaking a dialect common to northern Taiwan, so at least I have some idea. At least I can pronounce it so far.