[Shurong Tu]

China highlights

https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/

Have you heard Chinese Kungfu?

Do you like eating Chinese food? 

Are you a teacher who needs culture and history materials for your class?

Are you planning to make a visit  to China or even Asia?

Please check this Chinahighlight website above, you proablay can find all the information you need. This website is very organized and has lots of authetic information here. 

[Shurong Tu]

Yesterday I showed some Chinatown pictures to my students. I was starting to show Chinatown picture in our state, then Chinatown in Los Angeles , New york, africa, Italy etc,. Suddenly , one student asked me : " Is there a Chinatown in China?Is there a Chinatown in forest ？".  The student definitly asked great questions. I remember professor specially talked about the word-Chinatown . I am so curious how our brain process language info? Like today, I asked my students start to draw a blueprint after watch a video on how to build a house,  a boy student right away said: I will use blue marker and blue paper because it is BLUE print. 

[Shurong Tu]

 

 

wabi-sabi is a new word for me and I like its sound. I am learning it and know more about it . I have applied this wabi-sabi philosophy to handle my personal trials and tribulations, I am also trying to use this philosophy to persuade myself to understand and accept others more. 

[Shurong Tu]

European architecture in Tianjin

Tianjin, I went to visit  this city in 2016.There are many beautiful European architectures there. Through history, they were built there with differnt reasons. Now they are a heritage and made this city so special. If there is an opportunity, I will go to visit again. 

[Shurong Tu]

Before I dont how fengshui works and dont believe fengshui technique very much even I saw use the tool-Bagua.  I found some tips how to improve fengshui at your entry way. We moved to a new house several months ago.  It will be good time for me to learn and change or improve some fengshui with my house. 

[Shurong Tu]

 

Zen garden has eight main elements-bridges, islands, flowers or plants, sand, stones, trees ,water and waterfalls. and each element has its meaning. For example, rock stands for buddha.  I found this info on website. I have a japanese garden in my city , I should go to check it out and i wonder if I can find all the eight elements ! We feel so freshing ,peaceful and theraputic when we in a zen garden. how the nature power brings energy to our human beings! 

 

[Shurong Tu]

pushing hands/推手

Pushing hands, directed by Ang Lee, is a movie about culture conflicts between a Chinese father-in-law and an American daughter-in-law.  I watched this movie long time before I came to America. Today, I still like it and I think this movie is a wonderful material to address the culture conflicts between China and America to culture related classes.

[Shurong Tu]

people use different materials to build house and architecture. The building material can be from  simple grass to fancy marble. We have so many exquisite architecture in the world. howevery, this leads me to think about simple buildings- only several walls. This minimalism in architecture is not well accepted by people, but should we adopt this to our busy and heavly-loaded life? Personally, I am thinking to adapt this mind to my fast paced life to reduce burden and stress. 

[Shurong Tu]

I have been drinking coffee for several years now. It helps me wake up to be ready for a new day. But before this, I was always drinking tea. Coffee and tea are two important drinks to most of us. It is very interesting and fun to learn about how people drink tea and coffee differently in different countries and their different culture towards these two drinks. 

[Shurong Tu]

Pictures

The part I like most in this seminar is seeing all the pictures in the videos. They give me some direct impressions to those countries I have never been there, and I can make a simple comparison of those living houses among Asian countries.  I still remember the house with thick hay on the roof for cold winter in Japan the person collects the bottles and can for his/her life.

Materials

The major building materials nowadays used for construction is concrete. However, there are still some living places made of naturally occurring substances such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, even twigs and leaves, the igloo houses are made of snow, for example. My attitude is more likely choose the natural substances either save our planet or follow the rule-we take it from nature, and it returns to the nature.

Application to my students

 For my students towards the house unit, I will introduce different types houses with adding Asian houses ; I will expand  building materials choices and why people choose certain materials for; what type of houses do they live currently and encourage building any kind of houses they would like to.

Attitude – open mind

My two years old son sometimes put his feet in my shoes. They do not fit for him, but he still enjoys doing that. I learned a lesson that no matter how big or small house the other people living in, no matter how the other people do things  and think are completely different than ours-We should not be biased just from the  shoes we wear, should  have an open mind towards differences instead.

[Shurong Tu]

15 Museums Famous For Their Unconventional Architecture

The world is so big. I was looking for some architecture website and I found the one above. Please check it out for your students. I will 100 percent for sure to use it to show my 5 years old students in order to open their mind and shift the traditional thinking. 

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[Shurong Tu]

After watched the last video, a word came to my mind- flowing water. It made me thinking about my hometown- Nanchang. I did not realized how my hometown is so beautifuly and unique until now. Because there are many lakes or rivers no matter in the city or outside of city. The first link are some good places in the city area you should go to visit and of course there are so many great places to go outside of city limit, and the second link is a song to describe beautiful hometown by Na Li.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g297446-Activities-Nanchang_Jiangxi.html

我热恋的故乡

 

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[Shurong Tu]

To compare or not to compare, is it a problem?

Do you always compare?

I came to America to study about 8 years ago. My family started asking me how education was there, easy, or difficult? We always compared the education in China and in America, which one was better and what big difference between these two countries. We compared the food- rice and bread, tea and coffee, stir fry and BBQ etc.

I found a job after graduation. My family started asking me what kind of job I could look for and how much salaries I could expect compare to the job I had before in China. My family and I compared the teacher profession between in China and America. Teaching job is a decent job most for women and can make some good money, but not very much in America (this is just my opinion).

After I married with an American guy later, my family started asking me what he would usually do at home and always compared the difference between the Chinese husband type and American husband type.

Until today, I am still always comparing each of my students, especially before parent teacher conference time.

No matter what material the house is made of or what shape the architecture is, do not spend too much comparing what are good or bad, just embrace the beauty exactly what they are.

 

[Shurong Tu]

Luo is a tool that Chinese use it to find good site and Fengshui,which looks way more complex on the surface than compass.  When I was young , I saw some old people to use the Luo to pick the good spot for building a house or tomb,etc.  I dont see people use it nowadays. 

Nuo is an old folk dance in China, which once was used to exorcise evil,now is entertainment and even was invited to perform in other countries. The Nuo dance has different forms. Different forms designed for different purposes, such as to ward off evil and plague, to entertain and thank deities, to pray good luck and fortune, etc. All these represent the wide range of Chinese cultural norms. 

The Nuo dancers all wear wooden masks with different coloring expressions, some of which are powerfu and bold, some ferocious , some amiable and kind, some naive and simple, and some similing and lovely.  The dancers also use a lot of martial arts and opera postures in their performances. 

Question: I still not sure Nuo dance in China  and Japan are the same or different type?

[Shurong Tu]

This morning, I was late a half hour for work because my cellphone alarm did not ring somehow. Then I rushed to drive to work without drinking my coffee and taking shower. During the day, I was thinking why my cellphone did not on and I remembered that I checked last night, why I depend on technology so much. Anyway, I did not feel good most of day because of being late.

 I am not a  perfectionist, but I knew some small incidents like happened today always bother me. I do not know how other people get over with these bothering thoughts in life. Maybe I should start learning how to manage thoughts like Zen calligraph/ art and embrace Wabi-Sabi philosophy.

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