Chinese culture is cool and important

Let's learn about 13 things from Chinese culture, including food, music, and kungfu, as taught by Minions.

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HASHTAGS: #china #asia #history

[robotpanda]

As a Chinese person I can tell you that Peking opera is a relic, my grandfather was really into it and enjoyed it, he used to watch/listen to it on TV, yes there were Chinese TV channels that only played that 24/7 even now but now days live performances are pretty empty. These Peking Opera performances as an art form are just not very approachable for new audiences, and was the entertainment of a bygone era, the most historically significant Peking Opera singers all lived before WW2 in that time it was culturally important I heard stories of news papers writing reviews about the Peking Opera like critics reviewing a Broadway play but time have changed a lot have changed.

[dirgo]

The difference between Chinese peppercorn and South American peppers is that Chinese peppercorns are from an ash tree and give the numbing sensation. South American peppers are from the night shade family and give that spicy sensation. The combination of both is called Mala

[Detah_]

That hair is slowly absorbing his head.

[TheSecretPower]

As someone studying Chinese language, culture, politics and history at university, my impression of why Chinese culture has had a hard time cementing itself internationally is a mostly cause of their smaller eastern neighbours, mostly Japan. While Japan was busy exporting its low cost, high quality electronics, technology and everyday objects, making household names of brands like Sony, Nintendo, Panasonic, Toyota, and Mitsubishi, and then later, exporting its culture way more directly via anime and manga. Japan was very much looked at similarly to today's China, being the old "Factory of the World", where companies sent production to cheaply manufacture en masse. Korea was a little later, with its own brands like Samsung, Hyundai, KIA, and LG, and just like Japan begun exporting its own culture more directly with K-pop, particularly its language.

While the smaller eastern neighbours were doing this, China was busy being isolated on the world stage, in this phase, as you mentioned, China was both poor and running a crusade against its own traditional culture. Also worth noting that for most of contemporary history, the pioneers of Chinese culture and media was Taiwan (and Hong Kong, but I'm thinking about Mandarin language media), most big Chinese language movies and music before the 2000s was from Taiwan, and many of the staples of Mando-pop are Taiwanese artists. After Mao's death, China experienced a "opening up period" with economic liberalisation and a growing middle-class. China is very much right now going through the same phase that Japan and Korea went through. From poverty and isolation to a sudden mass industrialisation after opening up, taking advantage of the large labour pool to mass produce goods for other companies until later making their own domestic goods to export and then surpass the companies that originally hired them.

Although Japan has for a long time cemented its place in many industries, like electronics, video games and automobiles. We are now seeing new emerging Chinese brands making their presence known in these industries, like the electronics brands Xiaomi, Huawei, and Oppo. Gaming companies like Tencent, and MiHoYo (who is behind Genshin Impact). Now Chinese auto brands are taking over the roads with BYD, NIO and Xpeng, while many pre established brands like Volvo, Lotus and MG have been bought up by big Chinese companies. To me, it seems like Chinese culture will soon grow in relevance and popularity, similar to Japan and Korea, but there is still a way to go to pass both of them, particularly Japan.

Still, the Japanese cultural dominance can be seen with how Chinese characters are generally called Kanji in the west, which is the Japanese word for them, instead of the Chinese word for it, which Japan's word is based on; "Hanzi". The meaning is still maintained here "The Han (Chinese) people's writing/characters". It has very much resulted in most people assuming most text written like that to be Japanese writing, when a lot of the time, it is really Chinese. The subreddit "r/itsneverjapanese" was born from the trend of people asking for translations on various language subreddits of what they thought was Japanese text, but wasn't. The popularity of the Cherry blossom tree and flowers too, and their common synonym "Sakura" from Japanese. This plant is heavily associated with Japan, even though the exist in the rest of East Asia too, although they are cultivated to a larger extent in Japan. Their popularity also makes other culturally important flowers in Asia like Plum blossoms, Lotuses or the Bauhinia take a back seat to the ever-popular cherry tree. Till this day, a lot of what is originally Chinese is often mistaken or completely attributed to Japan, when Japan in fact borrowed most of these cultural, linguistic, or culinary traits from China.

I know this is very much a long wall of text, and will likely fall on deaf ears, but i just wanna get my thoughts about this out and at most hope that some find it somewhat interesting.

BTW, for future reference; consult Google Translate for better pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese, might be a little robot, but its way better than winging it and as a result buthering the pronunciation. C always makes a ch/ts sound, never a K sound. The vowels in words like "si" and "zi" is more like saying "sit", but cut in half, so the I isn't as pronounced. Shi is closer to saying "shirt" without the "rt".

[MilkyWayWasTaken]

New jj hairstyle👀
Possible new culture video idea: South Asian cultures with their own videos (Like Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, etc.. and all the cultures in these countries that make them unique)

[bobjones]

9:07 - Responding from the perspective of a diaspora member, I can say that my grandfather (who along with most of my family, still live in the PRC) is very into Peking Opera. When I went back to visit, it was playing on TV at dinner every day and he'd watch it with my grandma. Don't think anyone else was really into it though. Among my parents' generation there's a general idea that it's important and good as a cultural artifact, but they don't seem genuinely interested in it for its own sake, moreso it's about its value as a specifically Chinese thing. An interesting thing to note is that the opera form apparently received a slight bump in interest among the youth after the game Genshin Impact featured a modernized(-ish) form of it in a story cutscene.

With regard to Go, I can't really say either since I can't play it, but I have read that it's "computationally" more complex than chess because there are usually a larger number of unique moves a player can make on any given turn, which might be why it took a bit longer to develop a computational algorithm that could beat a champion-level player. Or at least some combination of that along with the fact that Go is way less prolific than chess so work on the program likely began a lot later than with the chessbot.

Back to Genshin impact though, the fact that the developers chose to release it overseas by its Japanese name rather than its Chinese name, coupled with its very strong anime influences and the fact that a lot of casual folks likely assume it's Japanese at a glance is kind of telling of something else here - I think there is a severe deficit of Chinese cultural "clout" on the world stage, especially considering its size and the far more culturally relevant countries right next to it. I'm not sure how far awareness of this fact goes within China, but at the very least I know that there are certain companies in China which masquerade their products as "Japanese-made" because they know the connotation of "made in China" is anything but positive. This overall awareness of this cultural "deficit" and the desire to overcome it is, I think also an ever-present aspect of the culture. Or maybe I'm projecting my own insecurities onto a cultural that isn't exactly "mine." Who's to say? (I do love the sound of the dizi though, as well as other Chinese instruments like the erhu).

[porcelaincrown]

As a Chinese person from Australia there are parts where this doesnt feel accurate ngl but hey we all have our different opinions.

Just for reference however the cultural revolution really didnt destroy as much as we're lead to believe. Chinese culture is well and alive and rich in China. The government contrary to before does go to extremes to preserve it, and the cultural revolution is widely and even officially accepted as a mistake. Its a shame that weve been poor for so long that we really havent had a chance to export it but hey.

[kribstek]

Hello JJ. A Chinese Language teacher (of non-native students) from Hong Kong. Long-time viewer & enjoyer.
Your videos have been much insightful in offering me perspectives in learning about cultures of the world, as well as the standing of my native culture among them.🙏

The following are some cultural knowledge common among Chinese people (I'm no expert in many of them):

6:24
秦始皇 Qin-shi-huang (the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty, r. 221-210 BC) founded the first “great unified” Chinese empire by conquering the other 6 Warring States.
He is credited for UNIFYING (among other things) the various Chinese scripts into the first standardized form “小篆 Small Script”.
However, we were taught to credit its origins otherwise:
1️⃣ Folk mythology credited the creation to 倉頡 Canjie, an ancient sage who worked for the 黃帝 Yellow Emperor (r. 27th-century BC?).
2️⃣ According to modern archeology, the oldest surviving scripts are in the 甲骨文 Oracle Bone Scripts from the Shang dynasty (13th-11th century BC).
(“Nobles carved words on ‘turtle shells’ 🐢 &  heated them 🕯️ to crack for divination i.e. to ‘talk’ to the gods” -- a TLDR explanation for my students)

6:58
楷書 Kaishu (“regular script”) is the standard way of WRITING Chinese (esp. when using a brush🖌️) & is also commonly used in printing (esp. in textbooks).
The red text on the left is in a “non-serif font (黑體)”, most common in modern printing esp. in most digital platforms -- what you would mostly see in any website or mobile apps.

12:05
The Terracotta Warriors were originally not brownish, but painted in COLOR, as studies found the residues of the paint on them.
(kind of like the idea that dinosaurs might actually be feathered)
The paint might have evaporated because of the excavation, and thus further excavation of the 1st Emperor's gigantic Mausoleum was stopped to prevent unexpected damage to the relics.


19:40
{TLDR, FYI: Each Chinese character is made up of different components. Most characters contain a “radical (部首)”, which is TYPICALLY semantical (that SUPPOSEDLY indicates the character’s ORIGINAL “elemental character”). For example, [日☀️ ] [月🌙 ] [火/灬🔥 ] [水/氵💦 ] [木🌲] [人🚶‍♂️(person)] [女💃(female)]...}

Most interestingly to me (a geeky teacher) is that “竹🎍 (bamboo)” (𕫗 in reduced form) is a VERY common radical (element) by its own. Examples include:
- 笛 flute
- 管 tube; manage
- 筆 pen
- 籃 basket
- 箭 arrow
- 算 calculate
- 等 rank; equal; wait (in line)
- 節 section; festival
The etymology of the above characters tell us their “bamboo-related” history in China: some were instruments made in bamboo; some were functions performed with the said instruments (imagine the use of bamboo sticks to calculate算 or to rank等); some were features of the bamboo (a bamboo is in sections節).

[itsdachief]

As China continues to get richer and more influential, there are even more examples of cross-cultural exchange. Temu, Shein, TikTok, and Genshin impact are all becoming household names

[ewantaylor]

I think that politics is probably the main reason China doesn't have as much influence on the west as other Asian countries. But I think another reason might be that orientalism isn't fashionable anymore. In the past people loved Chinese culture but specifically while viewing it as something ancient, magical and mysterious, but looking at Asia that way today is seen as either racist or at least disrespectful. And other Asian countries have developed more rapidly over the past century China has had a more complicated time, so more of Chinese culture is still the more ancient and traditional things. and since having a mythologized orientalist view of China is rarer now and looked down upon, it's harder to appreciate those ancient things than it is to appreciate more modern things, where other countries have an edge.

[JungleRice]

Hey, Jay Jay. I'm half chinese/Puerto Rican and white born and living in Texas, went to uni at 川大。In regards to chinese opera, I have some old tapes from my 爷爷 that have recordings of chinese opera that I like to listen to. Its very festive and happy sounding to me. I also would go and see opera in person when I lived there. Loved seeing the face changers.

[antonycao]

I think Chinese culture is extremely rich and expansive. It is so widespread and engrained in different cultures and historical events that people don't even realize it originated from China. Think about all the important things about human civilization: agriculture, architecture, costume, clothing, philosophy, governance, art and literature, language, medicine, cuisine, entertainment, technology... Chinese culture is just among the oldest and influential cultures. As a matter of fact, Chinese culture had a profound influence on most East Asian cultures. If you deep dive into one vertical, let's say 'tea drinking', then you have hundreds and thousands of varieties, countless rituals, stories, literatures, and tea cups and utensils. The first and most famous book about tea was written around 1400 years ago (the Classic of Tea), and tea drinking was spread out around the world and popularized around 400 years ago. As a matter of fact, most languages around the world name the drink a variation of 'tea' or 'chai' because the Chinese character 茶 in southern dialect is 'Teh' and in northern dialect it's called "Cha". All the modern varietals or forms, including Assam, Cylon, Matcha, all originated from China. And who would've thought this ancient Chinese caffeinated drink could play an important role in the American revolution (Boston Tea Party)?

[jack.h]

The Chinese flute is pretty iconic but music played with the erhu just hits different. Look it up and you'll know what I mean.

[shanelocsin]

As a Filipino, I can say that we do have some amount of Chinese influence in our culture. We even have the oldest Chinatown in the world here in Manila.
We have people here who believe in Chinese superstitions(myself included), have Chinese bloodlines and we also somehow celebrate the Lunar New Year and it has became a special holiday in the country.
I am guessing that the reason why some people here in our country didn't like Chinese culture was because of the politics. Given that we are having some territorial issues with China, some Filipinos would have negative impression of the country.
It is also worth noting that Chinese culture has been very influential and has been the structure for other East Asian countries like Japan and Korea.
I think that we should have some sort of appreciation still towards other countries' cultures if we really are interested in learning so at least we can understand their past and present.

[hellokitchen]

The Peking Opera that appears in the video is a segment from "The Locking of the Unicorn Bag (Suo Lin Nang 锁麟囊), " which is actually not an ancient folk tale but very new (first performed in 1940). The core of this play is very modern and very touching; it is a story about girl helps girl in unpredictable life, rescuing others from suffering property and flood disaters, and ultimately reaping the rewards of good deeds. This is also a representative work of the Peking Opera master Cheng Yanqiu, and it should available be on YouTube (probably w/o English subtitle, unfortunately). Interestingly, another play that appears is "Duan Mi Jian 断密涧, " which is about a rebel general who surrenders and kills his princess wife, but he ends up dying as well.

[Cassandra]

Slightly tempted to send this to my Chinese sister in law to verify its accuracy.

[MrCMPUTR]

Came for the Chinese culture; stayed for the pronunciation

[Conaman]

You have quite a knack for explaining the essentials of a culture, I learned a lot. I can't speak for Chinese opera's general popularity, but "biàn liǎn" (face changing) is a common sight in Chinese malls, where a brightly dressed opera performer shows up in restaurants and quickly changes his mask as a magic trick. Everyone seems to enjoy that.

You hit the nail right on the head by choosing Minions as the vehicle for culture - China is completely obsessed with these guys. You see them plastered over phone ads, wall art, and even government propaganda (all of dubious authenticity and legality). I would also say China is obsessed with Lotso from Toy Story 3, a bear you can find all over backpacks and bumper stickers and toys. They might be villains in the West, but they're just full of cute appeal here. Cheers from Sichuan!

[stickjohnny]

JJ you are getting closer to that big 1M!!!

I couldn't be happier, you deserve it!

[yuio]

In the age of cold steel arms, each Chou ( 10:52 ) weighed 25kg, and the way to attack the enemy was also very simple: hit the enemy's body hard. Even if the enemy was wearing armor, he would be seriously injured or die due to ruptured internal organs.