Silent Tao » Chinese Society & Culture

Chinese Rice Cake Recipe

Shawn Cartwright — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:18:26 +0000

Real Chinese food is excellent. Here is a recipe for sweet Chinese rice cakes from TCCII friend Monica Yu. Monica is an excellent chef who uses organic ingredients to create delicious Chinese and western dishes. She even used food to cure her cat of diabetes! Enjoy her rice cake recipe.

Ingredients
4 eggs
2 Tsp of olive oil
5 Tsp of sugar
2 1/2 Cup of milk (1 or 2% milk fat)
1 tsp baking powder (optional)
1 box of Sweet Rice flour (1 lb) (I use the Blue Star brand – Mochiko)
1.5 cup of red bean paste (homemade is the best: boil the red bean with equal part of water till tender and partially broken, add sugar, aliquot and freeze)

Method

- Grease a 13″x9″ Pyrex glass pan with oil, sprinkle 1 Tsp of regular flour. Shake to evenly spread. Discard excess.

- Except the red bean paste, put all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well with a hand held electric mixer for 3-4 min, use a spatula to run around the side and bottom.

- Pour the contents into the 13″x9″ pan, use spatula to spread half of the batter over the pan. Reserve the rest.

- Prepare the red bean paste: Add ~1 tsp of olive oil, ~2 Tsp of the batter (from above), you may mash the red beans if desired, and mix well.

- Use a spoon to drop a small ball of red bean paste to the batter, six in a row, for a total of 4 rows. When finished, carefully scope the remaining batter and drop on the top of the visible red beans (be sure to cover the red bean paste without disturbing it).

- Place a total of 24 pecans or walnuts evenly (6×4) on the top of the ‘submerged’ red bean paste.

- Bake at 325 C for 50-60 min, until it is light golden brown. (Temperature and time may vary by oven). Check after 50 min.

- Remove from oven. Let cool, cut into 24 pieces, each will house a yummy red bean paste

Note: you can replace the red bean paste with chestnut paste, coconut….etc.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Shawn Cartwright — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:34:37 +0000

Xin Nian Kuai Le (新年快乐) or Happy New Year in Chinese.

Today is Chinese New Year, a celebration of the re-emergence of Yang energy, known as “Spring” in the West. This year is the year of the Rabbit. Even if rabbits aren’t your thing, you can still benefit from the changing of the seasons. Now is the ideal time to start new ventures.

May you have a prosperous New Year!

Happy New Year

Shawn Cartwright — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:52:17 +0000

Happy New Year! May you find this year filled with prosperity and joy.

Fashion, Music and Poverty: Is China a Third World Nation?

Shawn Cartwright — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:05:29 +0000

Recently we had the opportunity to see a performance by a visiting Chinese culture troupe at the Bullis School in Potomac Maryland. The Bullis School is an elite private preparatory school for boys and girls from 3^rd grade to high school.

The Chinese troupe featured performing artists from all over China who presented short acts displaying Chinese music, ethnic minority fashion, and dance. One interesting fact about this troupe was that it was not soley a professional group. The performers also included university students who were selected as cultural ambassadors. Some of them were only a few years older than the oldest students at Bullis.

One of the acts was put together by students from Xian Engineering College in Xian, China. They are fashion designers and models. Yes, models in China often have university degrees! These students also learned fashion design so that once their modeling career is finished they still have a viable means of employment. Another act consisted of musicians from the Beijing Traditional and Folk Music Conservatory. They played the Pipa, Guzheng, and Erhu. The Erhu player was a professor, but the other two were students.

After the performance, the artists met with students to answer questions about China and its ethnic minorities. One 9^th grade class was taking a course on the third world. They asked a very interesting question, “How do you feel when people call China a third world country; and is China still a part of the third world.”

One of the members of the delegation said “China has made great progress in the last 30 years. Although we are a country having the same land mass as the US, we have 4 to 5 times the number of people. If you look around our country there are many who are still very poor, whose living conditions are not good. When you look honestly at this, you must conclude that China is still a part of the third world. We are still a developing nation.”

It is easy to forget this when studying China. The Chinese culture has reached very high levels, perhaps some of the highest. The central government is strong enough to provide a reasonable level of social order – you don’t have to worry daily about armed bandits and warlords, like in much of Africa. The major Chinese cities are huge – marvels of engineering and design with state of the art public transportation and infrastructure.

But the story is different in the rural areas. Many of its people are very, very poor. If you have never been outside the United States, it is difficult to understand what ‘poor’ really means. In the US, some of our worst housing conditions, for example, the projects or tenements associated with our poor, would already be considered luxury in many of the third world countries.

After this sobering reminder of the realities of a day to day life that is very different from our privileged existence, we turned to the musicians. Music has a way of elevating the spirit and lightening the burdens of life. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Chinese ethnic minorities, many of which are still very poor, produce some of the best music and dance in the country.

The Pipa and Guzheng artists played requests from the Bullis school music faculty – Chinese musicians don’t need music, they memorize everything! The final act was an impromptu duo with a nationally ranked pianist from the US and the Erhu professor that was nothing short of amazing.

East met West in Washington DC, learned something and made beautiful music!

Ignorant Peasants

Shawn Cartwright — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:54:50 +0000

One phrase you might occasionally hear in China is “Wu Zhi Nong Min” or “Ignorant Peasants”. This phrase has two meanings. The first and older one is used to refer those people, usually farmers, who have very little formal education and lack the inclination to view things in a larger perspective. They do not understand things outside their narrow world view.

I recall coming across this phrase when talking to one of my Feng Shui teachers, a highly educated professor of psychology who also happens to be a 22^th generation family lineage Feng Shui and Yi Jing master. This school of Feng Shui uses the Chinese Lo Pan, or geomantic compass and the Yi Jing to determine the Feng Shui of a location. The Lo Pan is itself extremely complex, requiring considerable training and education to use.

I asked him about the differences between his school of Feng Shui and another more popular one that is much less complicated. For example, instead of calculating the direction of the front door and then deriving the Yi Jing directional correspondences, the popular school simply says, “open your front door, that is South.”

He said “That is ignorant peasant Feng Shui. They don’t have the proper education to use the complete method, so there is a simplified one for them to use.” His comment, though said humorously was not a put-down, but a statement of fact. He used “ignorant” in the sense of its original meaning.

The second way of using “ignorant peasants” is decidedly pejorative. In 1956, when schools and universities where closed on the mainland, leadership positions in government and industry where given to loyalists. These people no doubt fought bravely and supported the new government, but they were often former revolutionary farmers ill-trained for managing enterprises, that is, the poster children for “ignorant peasants.” Because their positions gave them power, they were feared, but they were not respected. People called them “ignorant peasants” behind their back. Eventually the term developed an extended usage as a put down, regardless of the actual competence of the individual.

I came across the use of the term as a put down when talking to a moderately famous (in China) Xing Yi practitioner. The question I asked him was “Why do some Xing Yi schools practice their five element fists in different orders?” His answer was “The fists should only be practiced in the generating cycle of the Wu Xing like we do it in our school. We have the original style of Xing Yi. Probably the other schools that do it differently were founded by ignorant peasants who didn’t understand the five elements.”

When I meet another teacher of an art I already study, sometimes I will ask simple questions about well known differences between the various schools to gauge the person’s point of view and personality. In this case, although the teacher was a very nice person and very good at his style of Xing Yi, his views were pretty narrow minded.

There are valid reasons from both martial and Qigong perspectives to practice the five element fists in different orders (for example, you can practice them in the controlling cycle). If this teacher did not know of these other reasons, then he is ignorant. If he knew of them but disagreed, there really was no good reason to put the other schools down. Rather, he seemed to relish the opportunity to “Bian Di Bie Ren Tai Gao Zi Ji” to put others down in order to build his school up.

It is hard to keep a straight face when the person you are talking to tells you everyone else is wrong and he is the best because they are ignorant peasants. He was acting like an “ignorant peasant” in the original sense of the term.

However, we should resist the temptation to judge him too harshly. He may not even be even aware of what he’s doing. Instead we should learn from him – learn what not to do! What not to do is sometimes the best lesson we can learn from some people.

Learn not to be an “ignorant peasant.”

Visiting the World Expo in Shanghai

Shawn Cartwright — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:51:10 +0000

Our contacts in Shanghai secured a pair of tickets to the opening day at the Expo. The Expo was pretty impressive. The Chinese do things big, in part because big is better – an international event is a way to gain “face”. But they also build public things on a grand scale because they have so many people. Everything has to be huge in order to accommodate them!

Shanghai’s Temple Market

Shawn Cartwright — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:46:48 +0000

Today we did a little sightseeing. We visited Science and Technology Museum and then relaxed by drinking some excellent tea. Then we made our way across the river to the Temple Market area.

The Temple Market was destroyed in WWII and rebuilt as a tourist attraction. But tonight the crowd was mostly Chinese. Prices are very high compared to Yunnan. It is no secret that no matter what you buy in China, you have to negotiate the price. However, there is big difference between the city and the countryside. In Shanghai’s Temple Market, the prices are inflated to point that is ridiculous. Then the merchants will negotiate down until they are merely crazy. In Lijiang, for example, they simply priced high and then you negotiate them down to something that is fair.

That evening we watched the opening ceremony for the Expo. It was worth noting that China had hundreds of people in their performances. The acts from other countries were much smaller.

R&R in Shanghai’s Pudong District

Shawn Cartwright — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:38:02 +0000

Today was a day to rest and relax after the leading the healing journey. We truly enjoyed the company of our students during this trip. It was a great honor to introduce them to Qigong, Tai Chi and Chinese culture in China!

We were invited to visit and tour a brand new hospital in the Pudong area by the director of the hospital. The hospital offers a full array of both western and traditional Chinese medical services at very reasonable prices. All western style hospitals in China now have to offer traditional Chinese medicine services.

In the evening we enjoyed a Shanghai roasted duck, which is second only to real Peking roasted duck, and relaxed with a TCM foot massage.

Black Dragon Pool and Dongba Priest in Lijiang

Shawn Cartwright — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:25:23 +0000

Our group began the day with our final Tai Chi and Qigong class. We closed with a lecture on Nature and Man as One. We covered a great deal of material in this journey: body opening Nei Gong, Eight Pieces of Silk Brocade, Qi Gathering and Replenishing Techniques, External Qi Healing, and medical Qigong. All our students on this trip will receive a certificate for their training which counts toward Qigong certification.

The Black Dragon pool was our next stop. The Black Dragon pool was built as the meditation garden for the Dongba priests. The well preserved site features an amazing view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

Part of our group was fortunate enough to meet one of the few remaining Dongba priests. He seemed to really like our group and performed a special blessing ceremony. He also gave everyone a piece of calligraphy written by him and his father, the head priest, on the rare Dongba paper. The paper is made with the root of local tree and can last over 700 years. The calligraphy is written in the Dongba script, which is the oldest living hieroglyphic language in the world. Very few people can still use it.

Afterwards we walked in Old town Lijiang, a UNESCO world heritage site. Lunch featured yak meat, a local specialty. We also bought strawberries from the locals. When you do this you have to make certain the fruit is in good condition. Then had the restaurant wash them in water that has been boiled and salted.

While shopping, we stopped at a local tea wholesaler. She prepared a variety of teas for us to taste, using the Kung Fu tea style. We negotiated a very good price for the teas for our group.

We had our farewell dinner at a famous local fish restaurant where we enjoyed fresh fish from the pristine mountain streams.

That night we strolled through the old town one last time. We bought several bought several silver bracelets and a Dongba bell. The Naxi ethnic group is distantly related to the Tibetans. The bells they make bells are very similar to the Tibetan singing bowls in sound, but hang suspended like a normal bell.

Lijiang and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Shawn Cartwright — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:11:17 +0000

This morning we said goodbye to our hosts at the center. It was wonderful to stay and study Qigong and meditation in such a beautiful and peaceful setting.

Every Yin has its Yang, and that took the form of a crazy bus ride to Lijiang located in Yunnan, China. The bus driver was a very good, but the road was a narrow two lane path through the mountain. The only guard rail was a set of low stone posts placed periodically along the sides of the sheer cliff. He had some serious bus driving Kung Fu.

Lijiang is a scenic city nestled in the foothills of famous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and its range. It is considered one of the most beautiful places in China with its pristine mountain scenery and well preserved old city – a UNESCO world heritage site.

Lijiang is inhabited by the Naxi ethnic group. The Naxi are a matriarchal society which they call a men’s paradise! They symbol for women in this group is the tiger, meaning power. The symbol for men is the ox, meaning wealth. The women worry about how to run things and the men enjoy the wealth and prosperity which the women produce.

Marriage is interesting in this society. The man moves into the woman’s house. The children are considered the property of the woman’s family, along with the worldly possessions and land. The men can come and go as they please. Only the men may be priests.

Compared to conventional notions of marriage, this arrangement seems quite unusual. You might think it would lead to a libertine lifestyle, but the reality is that the marriages are very stable and domestic violence is very low. The people genuinely seemed to be some of the happiest we’ve met anywhere.

Our hotel was built on the model of the traditional Naxi courtyard home. It had a beautiful garden in the center and opened up next to an old part of town which had amazing shopping and dining. The goods were not the typical China tourist trinkets, but traditional Naxi and Dongba crafts. They were of very high quality and reasonably priced.