1.
Chinese name
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Chinese personal names are names used by those from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora overseas. Prior to the 20th century, educated Chinese also utilized a courtesy name or style name called zi by which they were known among those outside of their family and closest friends. From at least the time of the Shang dynasty, the Han Chinese observed a number of naming taboos regulating who may or may not use a given name. In general, using the given name connoted the speakers authority, peers and younger relatives were barred from speaking it. Owing to this, many historical Chinese figures – particularly emperors – used a half-dozen or more different names in different contexts and those possessing names identical to the emperors were frequently forced to change them. Although some terms in the ancient Chinese naming system, such as xìng and míng, are used today, they were used in different. Commoners possessed only a name, and the modern concept of a surname or family name did not yet exist at any level of society.3 billion citizens. In fact, just the top three – Wang, Li, and Zhang – cover more than 20% of the population. This homogeneity results from the majority of Han family names having only one character. Chinese surnames arose from two separate traditions, the xìng and the shì. The original xìng were clans of royalty at the Shang court, the shì did not originate from families, but denoted fiefs, states, and titles granted or recognized by the Shang court. Apart from the Jiang and Yao families, the original xìng have nearly disappeared, xìng is now used to describe the shì surnames which replaced them, while shì is used to refer to maiden names. The enormous modern clans sometimes share ancestral halls with one another, nonetheless, however tenuous these bonds sometimes are, it remains a minor taboo to marry someone with the same family name. In modern mainland China, it is the norm that a woman keeps her name unchanged. A child usually inherits his/her fathers surname, though the law explicitly states that a child may use either parents or the grandparents. It is also possible, though far less common, for a child to both parents surnames. In the older generations, it was common for a married woman to prepend her husbands surname to her own. This practice is now almost extinct in mainland China, though there are a few such as the name change of Gu Kailai, but survives in some Hong Kong, Macau
Chinese name
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The signature of
Sun Yat-sen; in English Chinese people usually keep their names in Chinese order unless they live or travel abroad
2.
Chinese surname
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Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames existed, namely xing or lineage names, and shi or clan names, Chinese family names are patrilineal, passed from father to children. Women do not normally change their surnames upon marriage, except in places with more Western influences such as Hong Kong, traditionally Chinese surnames have been exogamous. The colloquial expressions laobaixing and bǎixìng are used in Chinese to mean ordinary folks, prior to the Warring States period, only the ruling families and the aristocratic elite had surnames. Historically there was also a difference between clan names or xing and lineages names or shi, Xing were surnames held by the noble clans. They generally are composed of a nü radical which has taken by some as evidence they originated from matriarchal societies based on maternal lineages. Another hypothesis has been proposed by sinologist Léon Vandermeersch upon observation of the evolution of characters in oracular scripture from the Shang dynasty through the Zhou, the female radical seems to appear at the Zhou period next to Shang sinograms indicating an ethnic group or a tribe. This combination seems to designate specifically a female and could mean lady of such or such clan, prior to the Qin Dynasty China was largely a fengjian society. In this way, a nobleman would hold a shi and a xing, after the states of China were unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC, surnames gradually spread to the lower classes and the difference between xing and shi blurred. Many shi surnames survive to the present day, according to Kiang Kang-Hu, there are 18 sources from which Chinese surnames may be derived, while others suggested at least 24. The following are some of the sources, Xing, These were usually reserved for the central lineage of the royal family. Of these xings, only Jiang and Yao have survived in their form to modern days as frequently occurring surnames. Royal decree by the Emperor, such as Kuang, state name, Many nobles and commoners took the name of their state, either to show their continuing allegiance or as a matter of national and ethnic identity. These are some of the most common Chinese surnames, name of a fief or place of origin, Fiefdoms were often granted to collateral branches of the aristocracy and it was natural as part of the process of sub-surnaming for their names to be used. An example is Di, Marquis of Ouyangting, whose descendants took the surname Ouyang, there are some two hundred examples of this identified, often of two-character surnames, but few have survived to the present. Names of an ancestor, Like the previous example, this was also a common origin with close to 500 or 600 examples,200 of which are two-character surnames, often an ancestors courtesy name would be used. For example, Yuan Taotu took the character of his grandfathers courtesy name Boyuan as his surname. Sometimes titles granted to ancestors could also be taken as surnames, seniority within the family, In ancient usage, the characters of meng, zhong, shu and ji were used to denote the first, second, third and fourth eldest sons in a family
Chinese surname
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Many village names in China are linked to surnames. Pictured is Jiajiayuan (贾家源), i.e. "
Jia Family 's Spring", in Honggang Town,
Tongshan County, Hubei
3.
66th Venice International Film Festival
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The 66th annual Venice Film Festival held in Venice, Italy, was opened on 2 September 2009 by Baarìa - La porta del vento. International competition jury, led by Ang Lee, awarded Leone dOro to Lebanon, the festival was closed on 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festivals hostess. The following 25 films competed for the Leone doro, official website 66th Venice Film Festival 2009
66th Venice International Film Festival
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Festival poster
66th Venice International Film Festival
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66th Venice International Film Festival
4.
Chaochou, Pingtung
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Chaozhou Township is an urban township in western Pingtung County, Taiwan. Chaozhou is named after Chaozhou, a city in eastern Guangdong, according to some historians, settlers from that city landed here in 1724, and thus named this area after their hometown. The township is located in the side of Pingtung County at the Pingtung Plain. It has an area of 42.43 square kilometres and a population of 54,738 people as of 2014, all inhabitants speak the Taiwanese Hokkien language. The original Chaozhou language spoken by the inhabitants has now completely forgotten due to assimilation.3 Provincial Highway No.88 Zhutian System Interchange
Chaochou, Pingtung
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Yanping Road, Chaozhou
Chaochou, Pingtung
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Chaozhou Township in Pingtung County
Chaochou, Pingtung
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Old Chaozhou Town Hall now the Museum of Traditional Theater
Chaochou, Pingtung
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Chaozhou Station
5.
Pingtung County
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Pingtung County is a county in Southern Taiwan known for its agriculture and tourism. In recent years, it promotes specialties such as tuna and wax apples, Pingtung is where Kenting National Park, the oldest and the largest national park in Taiwan established in 1984, is located. The capital of the county is Pingtung City, the name Pingtung refers to a former nearby mountain known as Half-Screen Mountain. Pingtung means East of Half-Screen Mountain, modern-day Pingtung County and Kaohsiung City were part of Banlian-chiu during the Kingdom of Tungning and Fongshan Prefecture during Qing dynasty rule. Pingtung County is a recently developed county and its largest city is Pingtung City. Until the seventeenth century this area of Taiwan was a place of exile for Chinese criminals, only the settlements near present-day Checheng Township existed. In 1664, the Hakka settlers arrived from mainland China and farmed under a system introduced by Zheng Jing. Pingtung City, the biggest city in Pingtung County, also known as A-Kau, was the home of Taiwanese Plains Aborigines, in their language, A-kau means the forest. The first settlements by Han Chinese people were not established until 1684 with the creation of villages near Pingtung by people from Chinas southern Fujian region, by 1734 most of the Pingtung Plain was cultivated and in 1764 Pingtung was expanded. In 1836 the government and locals worked together to build the four walls of the city, under Japanese rule, Hōzan Subprefecture was initially under Tainan Ken, but political divisions changed frequently between 1895 and 1901. In 1901, Akō Chō was established, in 1909, the name was modified to Akō Chō. In 1920, the name was changed to Heitō City and was administered under Takao Prefecture, after the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the Republic of China on 25 October 1945, the area of present-day Pingtung County was incorporated to Kaohsiung County on 25 December 1945. On 16 August 1950, Pingtung County was established after being separated from Kaohsiung County, on 1 December 1951, Pingtung City was downgraded from provincial city to county-controlled city and county seat of Pingtung County. Pingtung was the site of an 7.1 magnitude earthquake on 26 December 2006, in 2009, Pingtung received rainfall in excess of 2,500 millimetres, breaking all rainfall records of any single place in Taiwan induced by a single typhoon. With a land area of over 2775 km², Pingtung is the 5th largest county in Taiwan, geographically it borders Kaohsiung City to the north, Taitung County to the east, the Taiwan Strait to the west and the Bashi Channel to the south. Due to being located at the southernmost part of Taiwan, Pingtung County is well known of having one of the warmest climate within the country. The whole county experiences a wet and dry climate, but due to being such a large county with various geographical differences. Pingtung County is divided into 1 city,3 urban townships,21 rural townships and 8 mountain indigenous townships, Pingtung County has the most number of rural townships and mountain indigenous townships among other counties in Taiwan
Pingtung County
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Pingtung County 屏東縣
Pingtung County
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Pingtung County Government
Pingtung County
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Pingtung City, the county seat of Pingtung County
Pingtung County
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Taiwan Pingtung
District Court
6.
Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
Taiwan
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A young
Tsou man
Taiwan
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Flag
Taiwan
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Overview of
Fort Zeelandia, painted around 1635
Taiwan
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Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the
Tapani Incident from the
Tainan jail to court, 1915.
7.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, also known as U of I, University of Illinois, UIUC, or simply Illinois, is a public research-intensive university in the U. S. state of Illinois. Founded in 1867 as a land-grant institution in the cities of Champaign and Urbana, it is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system. In fiscal year 2015, total research expedentures at Illinois totaled $640 million, the campus library system possesses the second-largest university library in the United States after Harvard University. The university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is home to the fastest supercomputer on a university campus, the university comprises 17 colleges that offer more than 150 programs of study. Additionally, the university operates an extension that offers programs to more than 1.5 million registrants per year around the state of Illinois. The university holds 647 buildings on 4,552 acres and its operating budget in 2016 was over $2 billion. Even though Illinois is a university, only about 12% of the budget comes from the state. Between several cities, Urbana was selected in 1867 as the site for the new school, the University opened for classes on March 2,1868, and had two faculty members and 77 students. Gregory is largely credited with establishing the University as it is today, Gregorys grave is on the Urbana campus, between Altgeld Hall and the Henry Administration Building. His headstone reads, If you seek his monument, look about you, the Library, which opened with the school in 1868, started with 1,039 volumes. Subsequently, President Edmund J. James, in a speech to the Board of Trustees in 1912 and it is now one of the worlds largest public academic collections. In 1870, the Mumford House was constructed as a farmhouse for the schools experimental farm. The Mumford House remains the oldest structure on campus, the original University Hall was the fourth building built, it stood where the Illini Union stands today. During the Presidency of Edmund J. James, James is credited for building the foundation of the large Chinese international student population on campus, on June 11,1929, the Alma Mater statue was unveiled. The Alma Mater was established by donations by the Alumni Fund, the University replaced the original university hall with Gregory Hall and the Illini Union. After World War II, the university experienced rapid growth, the enrollment doubled and the academic standing improved. This period was marked by large growth in the Graduate College and increased federal support of scientific. During the 1950s and ’60s the university experienced the turmoil common on many American campuses, among these were the water fights of the fifties and sixties
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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The original University Hall, which stood until 1938, when it when it was replaced by Gregory hall and the
Illini Union. Pieces were used in the erection of Hallene Gateway dedicated in 1998
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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John Milton Gregory, the university's first president
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Statue on campus titled "
Alma Mater " by
Lorado Taft
8.
Tisch School of the Arts
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The New York University Tisch School of the Arts is a center of study in the performing and media arts. Founded on August 17,1965, Tisch is a ground for artists, scholars of the arts, filmmakers. The school merges the technical training of a school with the academic resources of a major research university to immerse students in their intended artistic disciplines. It is located at 721 Broadway in Manhattan, New York City, NYU has the most alumni working at Broadway theatre. Tisch School of the Arts was founded in order to provide training in theatre and film. The school created additional departments such as dance, theatre design, in recognition of the generosity of the Tisch family, the school was renamed Tisch School of the Arts. Tisch also offers a selection of classes to NYU students not enrolled in any of its programs through the Open Arts curriculum, the Graduate Acting Program offers a three-year MFA that equips acting students with the skills of a working career in theatre and/or film. The Department of the Dance offers training on the graduate and undergraduate level to students preparing for careers as dancers or choreographers, while taking full advantage of the liberal arts resources of the New York University and the cultural resources of the New York City. The Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program is an MFA program specially designed for the major collaborators in the creation of new theater and opera, composers, lyricists. NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program has gained a reputation for its selectivity. Zelda Fichandler became chair of the program in 1984 and stepped down in 2008, in May 2008, Mark Wing-Davey became chair. Graduate Acting alumni have gone on to achieve many acting accolades, faison Edi Gathegi Jordan Gelber,2000 Enver Gjokaj Matthew Gray Gubler Logan Marshall Green Christopher Guest,1971 Danai Gurira Michael C. Many of the faculty have their own independent of the dance department. The program strives to prepare students for the life of a dancer, preparing them by treating their third year students as a company. Students graduate in three years, hence the schedule which is accelerated in order for dancers to graduate earlier than their peers in other college dance programs. Because of brevity of the program, students attend a six-week summer course following their first. During these summer intensives, six different companies come in a week each and teach students their style of movement and this is an excellent way for students to be introduced to companies and have the chance to get noticed and get to know the different companies in an intimate setting. This is unique to the Tisch Dance Program, and is conducive to introducing dancers into the world of auditions
Tisch School of the Arts
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Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
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Undergraduate students perform in a main stage production of
Dancing at Lughnasa.
Tisch School of the Arts
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Post-production center on the 11th floor of the Tisch building at 721 Broadway in New York
9.
New York University
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New York University is a private nonprofit research university based in New York City. Founded in 1831, NYU is considered one of the worlds most influential research universities, University rankings compiled by Times Higher Education, U. S. News & World Report, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities all rank NYU amongst the top 32 universities in the world. NYU is a part of the creativity, energy and vibrancy that is Manhattan, located with its core in Greenwich Village. Among its faculty and alumni are 37 Nobel Laureates, over 30 Pulitzer Prize winners, over 30 Academy Award winners, alumni include heads of state, royalty, eminent mathematicians, inventors, media figures, Olympic medalists, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and astronauts. NYU alumni are among the wealthiest in the world, according to The Princeton Review, NYU is consistently considered by students and parents as a Top Dream College. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, declared his intention to establish in this immense, a system of rational and practical education fitting and graciously opened to all. A three-day-long literary and scientific convention held in City Hall in 1830 and these New Yorkers believed the city needed a university designed for young men who would be admitted based upon merit rather than birthright or social class. On April 18,1831, an institution was established, with the support of a group of prominent New York City residents from the merchants, bankers. Albert Gallatin was elected as the institutions first president, the university has been popularly known as New York University since its inception and was officially renamed New York University in 1896. In 1832, NYU held its first classes in rented rooms of four-story Clinton Hall, in 1835, the School of Law, NYUs first professional school, was established. American Chemical Society was founded in 1876 at NYU and it became one of the nations largest universities, with an enrollment of 9,300 in 1917. NYU had its Washington Square campus since its founding, the university purchased a campus at University Heights in the Bronx because of overcrowding on the old campus. NYU also had a desire to follow New York Citys development further uptown, NYUs move to the Bronx occurred in 1894, spearheaded by the efforts of Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken. The University Heights campus was far more spacious than its predecessor was, as a result, most of the universitys operations along with the undergraduate College of Arts and Science and School of Engineering were housed there. NYUs administrative operations were moved to the new campus, but the schools of the university remained at Washington Square. In 1914, Washington Square College was founded as the undergraduate college of NYU. In 1935, NYU opened the Nassau College-Hofstra Memorial of New York University at Hempstead and this extension would later become a fully independent Hofstra University. In 1950, NYU was elected to the Association of American Universities, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, financial crisis gripped the New York City government and the troubles spread to the citys institutions, including NYU
New York University
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Albert Gallatin
New York University
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New York University
New York University
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The University Heights campus, now home to
Bronx Community College
New York University
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The
Silver Center c. 1900
10.
Pushing Hands (film)
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Pushing Hands is a film directed by Ang Lee. Released in 1992, it was his first feature film, the film was first released in Taiwan. After The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman became successful in the United States, the story is about an elderly Chinese Taiji Quan teacher and grandfather who emigrates from Beijing to live with his son, American daughter-in-law, and grandson in a New York City suburb. The grandfather is increasingly distanced from the family as an out of water in Western culture. The film shows the contrast between traditional Chinese ideas of Confucian relationships within a family and the more informal Western emphasis on the individual. The title of the film refers to the pushing hands training that is part of the tai chi routine. Pushing hands is a training which teaches Taiji students to yield in the face of brute force. Taiji Quan teachers were persecuted in China during the Cultural Revolution, Pushing Hands thereby alludes to the process of adaptation to culture shock felt by a traditional teacher in moving to the United States. Donald Lyons wrote that in the film the director Ang Lee a mastery of the dynamics of interior spaces. Alex Chu - Bo Z. Wang Alex acts as an interpreter between Mr. Chu and Martha, but he deliberately mis-translates to reduce tensions between the two parties, when his father runs away from home, he trashes his house kitchen. Mr. Chu - Sihung Lung Mr. Chu is a Tai chi chuan master who travels to the United States, during the Cultural Revolution a group attacked his family instead of him because he was a Tai chi chuan master and they feared challenging him. Mr. Chu protected Alex but his wife was fatally injured, Martha Chu - Deb Snyder Martha is Alexs European American wife. Martha, who does not speak or understand Chinese, has conflicts with Mr. Chu being in the household since she cannot participate within her own family when he speaks Chinese. Martha asks Alex to borrow money from her mother so he could buy a house that could accommodate his Chinese aspects separately. Alex refuses to do so, frustrating Martha, jeremy Chu - Haan Lee Linda - Fanny De Luz Mrs. Chen - Wang Lai Mrs. Chen is a widow who is a cooking instructor at the area Chinese Community Center. Mr. Chu befriends her and goes on a picnic with her family and Alex, but without Martha. Wei Ming Dariotis and Eileen Fung, authors of Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar, Diaspora and Displacement in the Films of Ang Lee, wrote that it seems like, with the absence of Martha, the groups go hiking, but the elderly lag behind. Mrs. Chen then has a breakdown and admits to the elder Mr. Chu that her daughter does not want her to be around anymore, Pushing Hands at the Internet Movie Database Dariotis, Wei Ming and Eileen Fung
Pushing Hands (film)
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Movie poster
11.
The Wedding Banquet
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The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 film about a gay Taiwanese immigrant man who marries a mainland Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card. His plan backfires when his parents arrive in the United States to plan his wedding banquet, the film was directed by Ang Lee and stars Winston Chao, May Chin, Gua Ah-leh, Sihung Lung, and Mitchell Lichtenstein. The Wedding Banquet is the first of three movies that Ang Lee made featuring gay characters, the second is Brokeback Mountain and the third is Taking Woodstock, the film is a co-production between Taiwan and the United States. Wai-Tung Gao and Simon are a gay couple living in Manhattan. Wai-Tung is in his late 20s, so his parents are eager to see him get married and have a child in order to continue the family line. When Wai-Tungs parents hire a dating service, he and Simon stall for time by inventing impossible demands and they demand an opera singer and add that she must be 59, have two PhDs, and speak five languages. The service actually locates a 58 Chinese woman who sings Western opera and she is very gracious when Wai-Tung explains his dilemma, as she, too, is hiding a relationship. At Simons insistence, Wai-Tung decides to one of his tenants, Wei-Wei. Besides helping Wei-Wei, Simon and Wai-Tung hope that this will placate Wai-Tungs parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gao announce they will visit from Taiwan, bringing gifts and US$30,000 to hold an extravagant wedding for their son. Wai-Tung dares not tell his parents the truth, because his father, as a part of the lie, Wai-Tung introduces Simon as his landlord. A day after Wai-Tungs parents arrive, he announces that Wei-Wei, however, the heartbreak his mother experiences at the courthouse wedding prepares the story for a shift to drama. The only way to atone for the wedding is a magnificent wedding banquet, offered by Mr. Gaos former driver in the army who now owns a restaurant. After the banquet, Wei-Wei has sex with a drunken Wai-Tung, Simon is extremely upset when he finds out, and his relationship with Wai-Tung begins to deteriorate. Shortly after, Mr. Gao has another stroke, and in a moment of anger, after a fight with both Simon and Wei-Wei, Wai-Tung admits the truth to his mother and she is shocked and insists that he not tell his father. However, the perceptive Mr. Simon accepts the Hongbao from Wai-Tungs father, Mr. Gao seeks and receives Simons promise not to tell his secret for, as he points out, without the sham marriage, hed never have a grandchild. While en route to an appointment for an abortion, Wei-Wei decides to keep the baby, in the final parting scene, as Wai-Tungs parents prepare to fly home, Mrs. Gao has forged an emotional bond to daughter-in-law Wei-Wei. Mr. Gao accepts Simon and warmly shakes his hand, in the end, both derive some happiness from the situation, and they walk off to board the aircraft, leaving the unconventional family to sort itself out. Winston Chao as Wai-Tung Gao May Chin as Wei-Wei Gu Gua Ah-leh as Mrs. Gao Sihung Lung as Mr. Gao Mitchell Lichtenstein as Simon Simon is a tall American with blue eyes and he speaks broken Mandarin Chinese but is proficient in cooking Asian dishes
The Wedding Banquet
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Theatrical release poster
12.
Eat Drink Man Woman
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Eat Drink Man Woman is a 1994 Taiwanese film directed by Ang Lee and starring Sihung Lung, Yu-wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu, and Kuei-mei Yang. The film was released on August 3,1994, the first of Lees films to be both a critical and box office success. In 1994, the received the Asia Pacific Film Festival Award for Best Film. The title is a quote from the Book of Rites, one of the Confucian classics, referring to the human desires. The beginning of the quote reads as follows, “The things which men greatly desire are comprehended in meat and drink and sexual pleasure, ”, Chinese, many of the cast members had appeared in Ang Lees previous films. Sihung Lung and Ah Lei Gua played central elderly figures dealing with the transition from tradition to modernity in The Wedding Banquet, Sihung Lung played an immigrant father in Pushing Hands. These three films show the tensions between the generations of a Confucian family, between East and West, and between tradition and modernity and they form what has been called Lees Father Knows Best trilogy. The setting is 1990s contemporary Taipei, Taiwan, Mr. Chu Jia-Chien, the middle one, is a fiercely independent airline executive who carries her fathers culinary legacy, but never got to pursue that passion. Chu Jia-Ning, the youngest one, is a student who meets her friends on-again off-again ex-boyfriend. Other characters include, Uncle Wen, chef friend of Mr. Chu Liang Jin-Rong, when these new relationships blossom, their roles are broken and the living situation within the family changes. The father eventually brings the greatest surprise to the audience at the end of the story, Ang Lee, James Schamus, and Hui-Ling Wang wrote the script. Later in film it is revealed that Jia-Jen fabricated the story, in order to create a barrier against intimacy—even with her according to Dariotis. Ultimately she marries a new boyfriend after being abstinent for nine years and her family members seem puzzled when they realize he is not a Christian but Jia-Jen says He will be. Wei Ming Dariotis and Eileen Fung, authors of Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar, Diaspora and Displacement in the Films of Ang Lee and they wrote that her Christianity was there perhaps to match her role as a mother-figure. She suspects Jia-Chien of disapproving of her moral system, desson Howe of the Washington Post wrote that of the actresses, Yang was the most memorable. Dariotis and Fung argue that Jia-Jens story, along with Jia-Nings, is not only flat, Chien-lien Wu as Jia-Chien Jia-Chien is sexually liberated. She suspects Jia-Jen of disapproving of her moral system, Dariotis and Fung wrote that the films main focus is on the relationship between Jia-Chien and her father. Chien-lien Wu, who plays Jia-Chien, also portrays Mr. Chus dead wife, lizzie Francke wrote that Jia-Chien taking the role of the cook makes manifest the various needs that bind a family by setting a mother back at the heart of it
Eat Drink Man Woman
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DVD cover
13.
Sense and Sensibility (film)
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Sense and Sensibility is a 1995 British-American period drama film directed by Ang Lee and based on Jane Austens 1811 novel of the same name. Actress Emma Thompson wrote the script and stars as Elinor Dashwood, the story follows the Dashwood sisters, members of a wealthy English family of landed gentry, as they must deal with circumstances of sudden destitution. They are forced to seek security through marriage. Actors Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman play their respective suitors, the film was released on 13 December 1995 in the United States and on 23 February 1996 in the United Kingdom. Producer Lindsay Doran, an admirer of Austens novel, hired Thompson to write the screenplay. The actress spent five years drafting numerous revisions, continually working on the script between other films as well as production of the film itself. Studios were nervous that Thompson – a first-time screenwriter – was the credited writer, though initially intending to have another actress portray Elinor, Thompson was persuaded to take the role. Thompsons screenplay exaggerated the Dashwood familys wealth to make their later scenes of poverty more apparent to modern audiences and it also altered the traits of the male leads to make them more appealing to contemporary viewers. Elinor and Mariannes different characteristics were emphasised through imagery and invented scenes, Ang Lee was selected as director, both due to his work in the 1993 film The Wedding Banquet and because Doran believed he would help the film appeal to a wider audience. Lee was given a budget of $16 million and it earned seven Academy Awards nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Actress. Thompson received the Best Adapted Screenplay, becoming the person to have won Academy Awards for both acting and screenwriting. Sense and Sensibility contributed to a resurgence in popularity for Austens works and it persists in being recognised as one of the best Austen adaptations of all time. On his deathbed, Mr. Dashwood tells his son from his first marriage, John, to care of his second wife. Fanny invites her brother Edward Ferrars to stay with them, Elinor and Edward soon form a close friendship, but Fanny haughtily tells Mrs. Dashwood that Edward would be disinherited if he married someone of no importance with no money. Mrs. Dashwood understands her meaning completely, sir John Middleton, a cousin of the widowed Mrs. Dashwood, offers her a small cottage house on his estate, Barton Park in Devonshire. She and her daughters move in, and are frequent guests at Barton Park, the Dashwoods meet the older Colonel Brandon, who falls in love with Marianne at first sight. However, Marianne considers him an old bachelor, incapable of feeling love or inspiring it in another, one afternoon, Marianne takes a walk with Margaret and slips and falls in the rain. She is carried home by the dashing John Willoughby, with whom Marianne falls in love and they spend a great deal of time together, but on the morning she expects him to propose marriage to her, he instead leaves hurriedly for London
Sense and Sensibility (film)
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Theatrical release poster
Sense and Sensibility (film)
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Emma Thompson worked on the Sense and Sensibility screenplay for five years.
Sense and Sensibility (film)
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Hugh Grant, who had worked with Thompson in several films, was her first choice to play Edward Ferrars.
Sense and Sensibility (film)
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Sense and Sensibility was
Ang Lee 's first feature film outside of Asia.
14.
The Ice Storm (film)
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The Ice Storm is a 1997 American drama film directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Rick Moody. The film features an ensemble cast of Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes, Glenn Fitzgerald, Jamey Sheridan, the film opened in the United States on September 26,1997. Its release was limited and it ultimately grossed US$8 million on a budget of US$18 million, a special two-disc DVD set was released as part of the Criterion Collection on March 18,2008. Set over Thanksgiving weekend,1973, the film centers around two families, the Hoods and their neighbors, the Carvers, Ben, dissatisfied in his marriage and with the futility of his career, is having an affair with Janey. Elena is bored with her life and is looking to expand her thinking but is unsure of how to do so, Wendy enjoys sexual games with her school peers, as well as both Carver boys. Paul has fallen for a classmate, Libbets, at the school he attends. As the party progresses, Ben becomes drunk, when Janey chooses the keys of a handsome young man, Ben attempts to protest but trips and knocks his head on the coffee table, leading Jim to realize that his wife and Ben are having an affair. Ben, in his embarrassment, retreats to the bathroom where he remains for the rest of the evening, the remaining key party participants are paired off and leave together with only Jim and Elena remaining. She retrieves Jims keys from the bowl and returns them to him, after debating the issue, Jim and Elena leave together, engaging in a quick, clumsy sexual encounter in the front seat of Jims car. Jim, regretting the line he and Elena have just crossed, Wendy decides to make her way to the Carvers to see Mikey, but he has decided to go out into the ice storm, so she and Sandy climb into bed together and remove their clothes. They drink from a bottle of vodka and Wendy tries to him, however. Paul is invited to Libbets apartment in Manhattan, though upon arriving, is disappointed to learn that Francis was also invited. The three drink beer and listen to music, Francis and Libbets also take prescription pills found in Libbets mothers medicine cabinet, Paul decides to leave, just narrowly making the train about to leave for New Canaan. Meanwhile, Mikey, out walking in the storm, is enchanted by the beauty of the trees and he slides down an icy hill then sits on a guardrail to rest. A moment later a line, broken by a fallen tree, connects with the guardrail. Jim and Elena become stuck, due to a downed tree, Elena walks in on her daughter in bed with Sandy and orders her to get dressed. Janey had also returned home earlier and curled up on her bed in the position without bothering to take off her party clothes. Although it is not revealed what transpired between Janey and her key partner, she is exhausted and sad
The Ice Storm (film)
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Theatrical release poster
15.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an internationally co-produced wuxia film. Production funding came from investors in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, directed by Ang Lee and featuring an international cast of Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen, the film was released in 2000. It was based on the novel, of the same name, in the wuxia book series Crane Iron Pentalogy. The martial arts and fighting action sequences were choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, made on a US$17 million budget, with dialogue in Mandarin, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became a surprise international success, grossing $213.5 million. It grossed US$128 million in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing foreign-language film in American history and it has won over 40 awards. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film also won four BAFTAs and two Golden Globe Awards, one for Best Foreign Film. Along with its awards success, Crouching Tiger continues to be hailed as one of the greatest and most influential foreign language films in the United States and it has been praised for its martial arts sequences, story, direction, musical score, and cinematography. The film is set in the Qing Dynasty during the 43rd year of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, Li Mu Bai is an accomplished Wudang swordsman and Yu Shu Lien is a female warrior and professional body guard. The death of Mu Bais closest friend and fiancée to Shu Lien complicate these characters feelings for one another and they are reconnected when Mu Bai, after choosing to relinquish the warrior lifestyle, asks Shu Lien to gift his sword Green Destiny to their friend Sir Te in Beijing. Long ago, Mu Bais master was murdered by Jade Fox, Shu Lien meets with and stays in the compound of Sir Te where she also makes the acquaintance of Jen Yu who is the daughter of a rich and powerful Governor Yu and is about to get married. One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Tes estate, Mu Bai and Shu Lien trace the theft to Governor Yus compound and learn that Jade Fox has been posing as Jens governess for many years. Mu Bai makes the acquaintance of Inspector Tsai, an investigator from the provinces, and his daughter May. Fox challenges the pair and Sir Tes servant Master Bo to a showdown that night, following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Fox. Before Mu Bai can kill Fox, the masked thief reappears and partners with Fox to fight, Fox resumes the fight and kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief. After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Fox realizes Jen had been studying the Wudang manual and has surpassed her in combative skills. At night, a bandit named Lo breaks into Jens bedroom. A flashback reveals that in the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the deserts, Lo and his bandits had raided Jens caravan. She chased after him, following him to his desert cave seemingly in a quest to get her comb back, however, the pair soon fell passionately in love
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
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Theatrical release poster
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
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Actor Chow Yun-Fat who portrayed Li Mu Bai
16.
Hulk (film)
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Hulk is a 2003 American superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character of the same name. Ang Lee directed the film, which stars Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner, as well as Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Josh Lucas, development for the film started as far back as 1990. The film was at one point to be directed by Joe Johnston, Hulk was shot mostly in California, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hulk grossed over $245 million worldwide, higher than its $137 million budget, many praised the writing, acting, character development, the action sequences and the musical score by Danny Elfman, while some criticized its outdated CGI, editing and dark story elements. A reboot, titled The Incredible Hulk, was released on June 13,2008 as the film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Banner subsequently conducts the experiments on himself, after the birth of his son Bruce, he finds that his son may have inherited the effects and seeks a cure, but is stopped in the process. Bruce remembers nothing of the incident after an event, and has been raised by the Krenzlers. Years later, Bruce is a geneticist working with his girlfriend Betty Ross, the pair hope to achieve instantaneous cell repair by using low level Gamma radiation exposure to activate the nanomeds once they are introduced into a living organism. During routine maintenance of their appropriated Gammaspectrometer, a circuit shorts, unable to prevent the machine from firing, Bruce throws himself in front of his colleague to shield him and is exposed to incredibly toxic levels of Gamma Radiation. Betty visits Bruce in the hospital and remarks that he should be dead, a new janitor at the lab claims that he is Bruces biological father, of whom Bruce has no recollection. When under extreme stress, Bruce transforms into the Hulk, a huge humanoid green-skinned monstrous being who destroys the laboratory, General Ross suspects Bruce of collaborating with his father but then deduces Bruce has repressed memories. He orders Bruce to be put under house arrest, the Hulk seriously injures Talbot before leaping to save Betty from the dogs. The Hulk fights and kills Davids dogs and changes back into Bruce before being captured by the military the next morning, kept at a secret desert base, Bruce is kept under observation while Talbot intends to weaponize the Hulks powers. Bruce has a nightmare about the event which leads to a powerful transformation of the Hulk. Talbot is killed in a created by his own when he attempted to use a special syringe to gain a sample of the creature. The Hulk escapes the base and rampages his way across the desert to San Francisco, when Betty calms him into his human form, General Ross realizes that the Hulk cannot be controlled and that Bruce should be executed. At their mutual execution, David tries to taunt his son into transforming into Hulk and he then decides to go first and bites an electrical cable absorbing all the electricity in San Francisco. The electricity hits Bruce, triggering his own transformation, a brutal fight ensues between David and the Hulk, with David absorbing Hulks energy during the fight
Hulk (film)
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Theatrical release poster
Hulk (film)
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Concept art for Jonathan Hensleigh's script
17.
Brokeback Mountain
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Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American neo-western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the name by Annie Proulx. The film received acclaim and commercial success. In 1963, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are hired by Joe Aguirre to herd his sheep through the summer in the Wyoming mountains, after a night of heavy drinking, Jack makes a pass at Ennis, who is initially hesitant but eventually responds to Jacks advances. Despite Ennis informing Jack that it was an incident, they develop a passionate sexual and emotional relationship. Shortly after discovering their summer together is being cut short, they briefly fight, after Jack and Ennis part ways, Ennis marries his longtime fiancé Alma Beers and has two daughters with her. Jack returns the next summer seeking work, but Aguirre, who observed Jack and Ennis on the mountain, Jack moves to Texas, where he meets, marries, and has a son with rodeo rider Lureen Newsome. After four years, Jack visits Ennis, upon meeting, the two kiss passionately, which Alma observes. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together on a small ranch and he is also unwilling to abandon his family. Ennis and Jack continue to meet for infrequent fishing trips, the marriages of both men deteriorate. Lureen abandons the rodeo, going into business with her father, Alma and Ennis eventually divorce in 1975. Hearing about Ennis divorce, Jack drives to Wyoming and he suggests again that they should live together, but Ennis refuses to move away from his children. Jack finds solace with male prostitutes in Mexico, Ennis sees his family regularly until Alma finally confronts him about her knowing the true nature of his relationship with Jack. This results in a violent argument, causing Ennis to abandon his connections with Alma, Ennis meets and has a brief romantic relationship with Cassie Cartwright, a waitress. Jack and Lureen meet and befriend another couple, Randall and Lashawn Malone and it is implied that Jack begins an affair with Randall, although he later tells Ennis he had a relationship with a woman, who is assumed to be Lashawn. At the end of a fishing trip with Jack, Ennis tries to delay their next meeting. Jacks frustration erupts into argument, and Ennis blames Jack for being the cause of his own conflicted actions, Jack tries to hold him and there is a brief struggle, but they end up locked in an embrace. Jack watches as Ennis drives away, some time later, Ennis receives a postcard he had sent to Jack, stamped Deceased
Brokeback Mountain
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Theatrical release poster
Brokeback Mountain
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Miller speaking to protesters at the
University of Utah regarding his decision.
18.
Life of Pi (film)
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Life of Pi is a 2012 American survival drama film based on Yann Martels 2001 novel of the same name. Directed by Ang Lee, the adapted screenplay was written by David Magee, and it stars Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rafe Spall, Tabu, Adil Hussain. The film had its premiere as the opening film of the 51st New York Film Festival at both the Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall in New York City on September 28,2012. Life of Pi emerged as a critical and commercial success, earning over US$609 million worldwide and it was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards which included the Best Picture – Drama and the Best Director and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. At the 85th Academy Awards it had eleven nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, in Canada, novelist Yann Martel meets Pi Patel, who has been told that Pis life story would be a good subject for a book. Pi tells his story to Yann, Pis father names him Piscine Molitor after the pool in France. In secondary school in Pondicherry, he adopts the name Pi to avoid the sound-alike nickname Pissing Patel and his mother supports his desire to grow, but his father, a rationalist, tries to convert him. Pis family owns a zoo, and Pi takes interest in the animals, after Pi gets dangerously close to Richard Parker, his father forces him to witness the tiger killing a goat. When Pi is 16, his father announces that they must move to Canada, the family books passage with the animals on a Japanese freighter. During a storm, the ship founders while Pi is on deck and he tries to find his family, but a member of the crew throws him into a lifeboat. A freed zebra jumps onto the boat with him, breaking its leg as it lands, the ship is submerged into the Mariana Trench with the crew and his family. Pi sees what appears to be a survivor, but it turns out to be Richard Parker, after the storm, Pi awakens in the lifeboat with the zebra, and is shortly joined by a surviving orangutan. A spotted hyena emerges from a tarpaulin covering half of the lifeboat and snaps at Pi and it kills the zebra and later the orangutan. Richard Parker emerges from under the tarpaulin, killing the hyena and attempting to kill Pi, Pi fashions a small tethered raft from flotation vests which he retreats to for safety from Richard Parker. Despite his moral code against killing, he begins fishing, enabling him to sustain the tiger as well, when the tiger jumps into the sea to hunt for fish, Pi considers letting him drown, but ultimately helps him back into the boat. One night, a humpback whale breaches near the boat, destroying the raft, Pi trains Richard Parker to accept him in the boat, and realizes that caring for the tiger is also keeping himself alive. Weeks later they encounter an island of interconnected trees. It is a jungle of edible plants, fresh water pools
Life of Pi (film)
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Theatrical release poster
Life of Pi (film)
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Suraj Sharma plays Pi at age 16.
19.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
Chinese language
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The
Tripitaka Koreana, a Korean collection of the
Chinese Buddhist canon
Chinese language
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Hànyǔ (Chinese) written in
traditional (left) and
simplified (right) characters
Chinese language
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"
Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion " by
Wang Xizhi, written in
semi-cursive style
20.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
Standard Chinese
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A poster outside of high school in
Yangzhou urges people to speak Putonghua
Standard Chinese
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Zhongguo Guanhua (中国官话/中國官話), or Medii Regni Communis Loquela ("Middle Kingdom's Common Speech"), used on the frontispiece of an early Chinese grammar published by
Étienne Fourmont (with
Arcadio Huang) in 1742
21.
Hanyu Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
Hanyu Pinyin
–
A school slogan asking elementary students to speak
Putonghua is annotated with pinyin, but without tonal marks.
Hanyu Pinyin
–
In
Yiling,
Yichang,
Hubei, text on road signs appears both in Chinese characters and in Hanyu Pinyin
22.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
Cantonese
–
Street in
Chinatown, San Francisco. Cantonese has traditionally been the dominant Chinese variant among Chinese populations in the Western world.
Cantonese
–
Gwóngdūng Wah / gwong 2 dung 1 waa 6 (Cantonese) written in
traditional Chinese (left) and
simplified Chinese (right) characters
Cantonese
–
Chinese dictionary from Tang dynasty. Modern Cantonese pronunciation is more similar to Middle Chinese from this era than other Chinese varieties.
23.
Jyutping
–
Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
Jyutping
–
Jyutping Romanization.
24.
Southern Min
–
Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
Southern Min
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Koa-a books, Min Nan written in Chinese characters
Southern Min
–
Distribution of Southern Min.
25.
Hokkien
–
Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ is a group of Southern Min dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province and it is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese and Leizhou dialect. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, the term Hokkien is etymologically derived from the Southern Min pronunciation for Fujian, the province from which the language hails. The variety is known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan or Southern Min. Fujianese and Fukienese are also used, although they are somewhat imprecise, the term Hokkien is not usually used in Mainland China or Taiwan. Conversely Hokkien is the name in Southeast Asia in both English, Chinese or other languages. Speakers of Hokkien, particularly those in Southeast Asia, typically refer to Hokkien as a dialect, people in Taiwan most often refer to Hokkien as the Taiwanese language, with Minnan and Holo also being used and 福建話 is not as common. Hokkien originated in the area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is Taiwan, the Taiwanese version mostly have origins with the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect is becoming the modern prestige standard for the language. There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States, many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present day Malaysia and Singapore. Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are similar to Taiwanese and Amoynese. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the Chinese people in the Philippines, Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Southern and part of western Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects, Chinchew, Amoy, Chiangchew and Longyan, originating from the cities of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan. As Xiamen is the city of southern Fujian, Amoy is considered the most important, or even the prestige dialect. It is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, same as Amoy dialect, the varieties of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan are hybrids of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, and are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien or just Taiwanese. Used by a majority of the population, it bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, the varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. The Singaporeans, Southern Malaysians and people in Indonesias Riau and surrounding islands variant is from the Quanzhou area and they speak a distinct form of Quanzhou Hokkien called Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, and other states in Northern Malaysia and Medan, with areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia
Hokkien
–
Distribution of Min Nan dialects. Hokkien is dark green.
26.
Order of Brilliant Star
–
Order of Brilliant Star is a civilian order of the Republic of China recognizing outstanding contributions to the development of the nation. The order is instituted in 1941 and can be awarded to domestic and foreign nationals. The centre of the medal is a star in token of virtue. There are nine ranks within the order according to the Article of Decorations of the Republic of China, first rank should be awarded by the President of Republic of China
Order of Brilliant Star
–
Order of the Brilliant Star cordon, badge and star
27.
Pinyin
–
Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
Pinyin
–
A school slogan asking elementary students to speak
Putonghua is annotated with pinyin, but without tonal marks.
Pinyin
–
In
Yiling,
Yichang,
Hubei, text on road signs appears both in Chinese characters and in Hanyu Pinyin
28.
Film director
–
A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film, the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions, there are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors, other film directors have attended a film school. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors dialogue, while others control every aspect. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners, some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. Film directors create a vision through which a film eventually becomes realized/noticed. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of production, as well as directing the shooting timetable. This entails organizing the crew in such a way as to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful. Moreover, it is necessary to have an eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus. Thus the director ensures that all involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as a jigsaw puzzle with egos. It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when, omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating, thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that 20-hour days are not unusual, under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision
Film director
–
American director
Steven Spielberg with Sri Lankan film maker
Chandran Rutnam in Sri Lanka
Film director
–
The film director gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, while filming a
costume drama on location in
London.
Film director
–
Director
Pedro Almodóvar and actress
Penélope Cruz
Film director
–
Fritz Lang directing a movie
29.
Roger Ebert
–
Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic and historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the two verbally sparred and traded humorous barbs while discussing films. They created and trademarked the phrase Two Thumbs Up, used when both hosts gave the film a positive review. After Siskel died in 1999, Ebert continued hosting the show with various co-hosts and then, starting in 2000, Ebert lived with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands from 2002. This required treatments necessitating the removal of his jaw, which cost him the ability to speak or eat normally. His ability to write remained unimpaired, however, and he continued to publish frequently both online and in print until his death on April 4,2013. Roger Joseph Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois, the child of Annabel, a bookkeeper, and Walter Harry Ebert. He was raised Roman Catholic, attending St. Marys elementary school and his paternal grandparents were German immigrants and his maternal ancestry was Irish and Dutch. In his senior year, he was president and editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper. In 1958, he won the Illinois High School Association state speech championship in radio speaking, regarding his early influences in film criticism, Ebert wrote in the 1998 parody collection Mad About the Movies, I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine. Mads parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin – of the way a movie might look original on the outside, I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies, I lost it at Mad magazine, Ebert began taking classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an early-entrance student, completing his high-school courses while also taking his first university class. After graduating from Urbana High School in 1960, Ebert then attended and received his degree in 1964. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, One of the first movie reviews he ever wrote was a review of La Dolce Vita, published in The Daily Illini in October 1961. Ebert spent a semester as a student in the department of English there before attending the University of Cape Town on a Rotary fellowship for a year. He returned from Cape Town to his studies at Illinois for two more semesters and then, after being accepted as a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. Instead Kogan referred Ebert to the city editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Hoge and he attended doctoral classes at the University of Chicago while working as a general reporter at the Sun-Times for a year
Roger Ebert
–
Ebert giving an interview for
Sound Opinions in 2006
Roger Ebert
–
Roger Ebert (right) with
Russ Meyer in 1970.
Roger Ebert
–
Ebert and his wife Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert (left) giving the thumbs up to
Nancy Kwan (right) at the
Hawaii International Film Festival on October 20, 2010
Roger Ebert
–
Ebert (right) at the
Conference on World Affairs in September 2002, shortly after his cancer diagnosis
30.
Waishengren
–
Mainland Chinese or Mainlanders are Chinese people who live in a region considered a mainland. The word mainlander can refer to two different groups, Waisheng ren are people who moved to Taiwan from mainland China after 1945 until the late 40s and this group also includes all of their descendants born in Taiwan. Dalu ren are residents of mainland China, especially citizens of the Peoples Republic of China who live in mainland China, in the context of demographics of Taiwan, the term mainlander when applied to a Taiwan resident most likely refers to waisheng ren. The translations of waishengren and benshengren into English poses some interesting difficulties, most academic literature uses the terms waishengren and benshengren directly. The terms rarely come up in the English-speaking media, many supporters of Taiwan independence object to the term extra-provincial people, because it implies that Taiwan is a province of China, and prefer the name new immigrant. The latter phrase has not become popular in Taiwan and is unpopular among waishengren themselves. Chinese Civil War veterans especially are called old taro, or waisheng laobing, external-province veteran, in government publications and the media, they are also called honorable citizens. Mainlanders make up about 10% of the population of Taiwan and are concentrated in northern Taiwan especially in the Taipei area. Although no longer dominating the government, waishengren still make up a fraction of bureaucrats. The formal definition of a mainlander is someone living in Taiwan whose native province is not Taiwan, native province does not mean the province in which one is born, but rather the province where ones fathers ancestral home is. Until 1996, identity cards and passports in Taiwan contained an entry for native province, the removal of native province from identity cards and replacement with place of birth was motivated in large part to reduce the mainlander/local distinction. This is especially given that virtually all mainlanders born after 1949 were born in Taiwan. Because of the native province definition, someone who is born on Taiwan, by contrast, someone who is not born in Taiwan, but whose native province is Taiwan is generally not considered a waishengren. Similarly, a child that is born to a Taiwanese businessman residing in the PRC would generally not be considered a waishengren. Furthermore, recent immigrants to Taiwan from Mainland China, mostly from marriages and undocumented migrants, are not considered waishengren, for example, although Mainlanders are often stereotyped as supporting Chinese reunification and opposing Taiwan independence, there are numerous examples where this formula does not hold. Similarly, it is common to find younger waishengren who speak fluent Taiwanese, the number of the original waishengren generation who migrated to Taiwan sixty years ago has been dwindling as they age and die. Thus, the majority of todays waishengren are their descendants born in Taiwan. Waishengren are descended from the people who followed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan after the Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and these people included Kuomintang officials, soldiers, merchants, bankers, executives, scientists, intellectuals, refugees, and anyone else who feared Communist rule
Waishengren
–
Ma Ying-jeou, the current
President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Waishengren
–
Tung Chee Hwa, former Chief Executive of
Hong Kong.
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