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Chinese Festivals
Intercontinental Pub English Intercontinental Press. the book Chinese festival. The festival is an important carrier of Chinese national spirit and emotion. Festival culture is deeply rooted in the people. has a strong ...
141 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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December 17, 2013
This is a non-fiction book on the Chinese festivals that are celebrated in China and the Chinese all over the world.
I found it really easy to read but it was also incredibly informative as well because it gave all the essential details such as background and history, traditions, costumes, food, decorations and celebratory events as well as dates and how it is celebrated in different areas.
The language used was really concise and easy to follow which made the reading much more enjoyable, like a story book rather than a boring fact sheet. There were also complimentary photographs and pictures as well which helped give a better understanding, or at least it should to a foreigner but obviously as a Chinese descendant, I am quite familiar with the concepts and objects that were being spoken about.
I learnt a lot about the festivals and I think that the most prominent thing in Chinese festivals is offering sacrifices and praying for good fortunes, good harvest, good luck, wealth and longevity. Almost every festival concerned itself with most of these attributes which I found interesting because even though not a particularly religious culture, I wouldn't say, they are very superstitious especially when it comes to festivals such as Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), Tomb-Sweeping Festival (also known as Pure Brightness Day [literal name]) and etc.
The author also dabbled into the traditional festivals celebrated by Korean-Chinese and Mongolian-Chinese people and Islamic celebrations as well which was really interesting to read because many of them reside in mainland China and their culture is widely accepted there.
However, what I didn't like was the fact that some of the pictures were just put there but had no connection to the text. For instance, after talking about the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, there was a picture of children flying kites which was a new year poster. Also, there was this one shot of some girls posing at Tiananmen Square for National Day but this one girl had such an embarrassing top on which reads: "I'm so gay I shit rainbows". Why would you choose that as the picture to represent such a important day for the Chinese, seriously.
Overall, if you want to know more about Chinese festivals, this is definitely a good source of information. It doesn't really go in depth so I would recommend this as a first point of source only, just to gather some basic information before going more in depth.
I found it really easy to read but it was also incredibly informative as well because it gave all the essential details such as background and history, traditions, costumes, food, decorations and celebratory events as well as dates and how it is celebrated in different areas.
The language used was really concise and easy to follow which made the reading much more enjoyable, like a story book rather than a boring fact sheet. There were also complimentary photographs and pictures as well which helped give a better understanding, or at least it should to a foreigner but obviously as a Chinese descendant, I am quite familiar with the concepts and objects that were being spoken about.
I learnt a lot about the festivals and I think that the most prominent thing in Chinese festivals is offering sacrifices and praying for good fortunes, good harvest, good luck, wealth and longevity. Almost every festival concerned itself with most of these attributes which I found interesting because even though not a particularly religious culture, I wouldn't say, they are very superstitious especially when it comes to festivals such as Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), Tomb-Sweeping Festival (also known as Pure Brightness Day [literal name]) and etc.
The author also dabbled into the traditional festivals celebrated by Korean-Chinese and Mongolian-Chinese people and Islamic celebrations as well which was really interesting to read because many of them reside in mainland China and their culture is widely accepted there.
However, what I didn't like was the fact that some of the pictures were just put there but had no connection to the text. For instance, after talking about the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, there was a picture of children flying kites which was a new year poster. Also, there was this one shot of some girls posing at Tiananmen Square for National Day but this one girl had such an embarrassing top on which reads: "I'm so gay I shit rainbows". Why would you choose that as the picture to represent such a important day for the Chinese, seriously.
Overall, if you want to know more about Chinese festivals, this is definitely a good source of information. It doesn't really go in depth so I would recommend this as a first point of source only, just to gather some basic information before going more in depth.
Displaying 1 of 1 review