chinese culture Archives - ET Speaks From Home

Supernatural Games that Open a Gateway

Do you know any supernatural games that open the gateway to a dark, hostile and incomprehensible world? Have you played them before or heard anything about it? Read on and let me tell you more about it.

Some of you might have read that in some of my true ghost stories and Chinese superstitions, I have often referred to examples in Mr Zhou’s Ghost stories. If you are not familiar with Mr Zhou’s Ghost stories, it is a radio segment hosted by Singaporean actor/DJ Dennis Zhou and DJ Nana/Chen Lina, every Friday from 11 pm to 12 midnight (except during Chinese New Year periods and holiday season), at Singapore Love 97.2fm. You can also listen to their podcasts from November 2017 till present with MeListen and Spotify apps.

Take A Look At Chinese Funeral Mourning Clothing

Today, we are going to take a look at Chinese Funeral mourning clothing from the past, which is dangerously disappearing fast. These photos were shared with me by my uncle, which took place in 1989 during my grandfather’s funeral.

Exhuming Your Loved Ones: Family Views

This year Qing Ming Festival/Tomb Sweeping fell on the 4^th April 2024. It saddens me that yet again, I have not been able to pay my respects to my dad and my grandparents on this festival. There are a couple of reasons for this: my family are in Singapore so it takes some preparation to plan a long haul trip from Britain. Also, it is not easy to fly over due to school term and travel costs.

Chinese Culture: Pregnancy Taboos

On Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories live radio last Friday, guest speaker Genesis (Top 3 Finalists for Be A Podcaster) talked about her relatives’ pregnancy. This story triggered me to ask my mum about pregnancy taboos when she was young. These pregnancy taboos are mainly old wives’ tales. You can decide whether to believe them or not, it’s your choice! The references are just for entertainment purposes.

Chinese Table Manners To Observe

Once a month, I go out with a group of Chinese friends who come from different countries. We are Chinese people from the PRC, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore of course.

One of their habits that annoys me the most is that they place/poke their chopsticks vertically into their food or rice bowl. For me, it is a No-No. Let me tell you why! My mum and most elderly folks would say if you do that, it means the rice is an offering to the ghosts. The chopsticks are positioned like joss sticks used for a funeral. If you eat the rice, it will bring you bad luck. Besides Singapore, places like China, Japan and Korea also believe this. Therefore, it is best to avoid placing chopsticks vertically into the food or rice. Now let me tell you more about other Chinese table manners you should observe.

Why you should never hang clothing out overnight?

I hadn’t heard of this taboo of never hanging clothing out overnight until I heard from Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories podcast. Some people believe that hanging clothing at night will attract wandering spirits to get attached to the clothing. It will cause us to have bad luck. I will list a few examples later in the post.

Chinese Four Colour Cards

Four colour cards or 四色牌 was my grandmother’s favourite game to play when she was still around. Every Saturday afternoon, her sisters and her children, like my mum and aunties, will gather around her house to play. It was a regular thing even on Chinese New Year. There was always a big group of at least six to eight of them sitting around the big round table to play with at least two sets of Four Colour cards (224 cards) mixed.

Over The Moon is on Netflix & Cinema

Netflix’s highly anticipated Chinese animation, Over The Moon, has arrived on its platform since 23rd October 2020, just in time to watch with your children this half term! To celebrate the release of the brand-new animated film, Netflix has been working alongside Chinatown districts to display a series of magical lanterns illuminating in Gerrard St and Newport Place, London, and The Arcadia, Birmingham until 15^th November 2020.

Build Your Own Dragon Boat Race Game #ad

Would you like to learn how to build your own dragon boat race game? This is a very fun racing game that everyone will love. Thanks to Bostik for giving us this opportunity to make this video.

The Surprising Differences Between Chinese & Typical Western Weddings

I’m willing to bet a lot of you have been to plenty of western weddings in your time. I’m talking about your traditional American or British-style wedding; the ones usually shown on TV shows and in movies, etc.

As a result, I bet you’ve noticed that these weddings all tend to be quite similar. They follow the same customs, have pretty similar themes, and so on. Today, I want to take a little trip into Chinese culture to explain some of the key differences between a typical Chinese wedding and one from Western culture. It’s just a bit of fun, and a chance to show how two things can vary so much, even though they’re essentially the same thing!

Make your own Chrysanthemum Tea

Drinking chrysanthemum tea has been a part of my life since young, especially whenever we are ill or eating at dim sum restaurants in Singapore. Drinking chrysanthemum tea in the UK is not common practice at all and not even in Chinatown Chinese restaurants. It is one of my favourite teas that I missed when I moved to the UK.

Celebrating Chinese Festivals

Celebrating Chinese Festivals Book takes us into the most important and celebrated festivals of China, and explains the traditions, the delicious foods, the exciting activities and special customs that go with them!

Chinese Zodiac Animals

As some of you might know, I am bilingual and I am always on the lookout for educational books that teaches Chinese culture and language. It is very important for me to teach both of my children about their heritage.

This Chinese Zodiac Animals is written in simple plain English which is easy to understand and suitable for younger children to follow. It doesn’t contain too many big or difficult words. There are also plenty of colour and adorable illustrations that will appeal to all ages.

Dumpling Craft for Dragon Boat Festival

Making Dumpling Craft for Dragon Boat Festival. It was the Dragon Boat Festival again, which is also known as the Duanwu Festival. This year it fell on the 18th June 2018 which is the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar.

As some of you may remember, I help run Lichfield Mandarin Club which started six years ago and we often do arts and crafts with the children, especially with themes based on Chinese festivals. So this school term, one of the mummies Ailin organized some party games for the children.

The 100 Days Of Chinese Baby-Naming

Every culture does little things differently. From the way we eat, to the way we greet each other, our traditions largely dictate our actions. From the moment we’re born, we‘re taught how things are. Babies from different cultures, for instance, are named in a whole host of ways. Here in the UK, most people choose names before babies are born. A naming ceremony will then traditionally consist of a church christening. Yet, as can be seen from sites like https://www.babycentre.co.uk, few other countries follow that lead.

Supernatural Games that Open a Gateway

Take A Look At Chinese Funeral Mourning Clothing

Exhuming Your Loved Ones: Family Views

Chinese Culture: Pregnancy Taboos

Chinese Table Manners To Observe

Why you should never hang clothing out overnight?

Chinese Four Colour Cards

Over The Moon is on Netflix & Cinema

Build Your Own Dragon Boat Race Game #ad

The Surprising Differences Between Chinese & Typical Western Weddings

Make your own Chrysanthemum Tea

Celebrating Chinese Festivals

Chinese Zodiac Animals

Dumpling Craft for Dragon Boat Festival

The 100 Days Of Chinese Baby-Naming

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