fulltimestudent

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Posts by fulltimestudent

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  5

  Starting two days ago - travel for "Chunyun" the world's largest annual festival

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  chunyun - the spring festival (or, the chinese new year festival) is coming soon.

  and all over china and the chinese diaspora people are excited as they prepare for this festival.

  as prosperity has spread through china, more and more people can now afford to travel.

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  fulltimestudent

  Maybe these videos will convey the sense of excitement and celebration that Chinese people experience at Chunyun:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qcvRVysXq8

  
  

  http://english.cntv.cn/2015/02/03/VIDE1422961082891829.shtml

  Click to start video
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
• 
  5

  Starting two days ago - travel for "Chunyun" the world's largest annual festival

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  chunyun - the spring festival (or, the chinese new year festival) is coming soon.

  and all over china and the chinese diaspora people are excited as they prepare for this festival.

  as prosperity has spread through china, more and more people can now afford to travel.

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  2. 
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  fulltimestudent

  Chunyun - the Spring Festival (or, the Chinese New Year festival) is coming soon. And all over China and the Chinese diaspora people are excited as they prepare for this festival. 

  As prosperity has spread through China, more and more people can now afford to travel. For most, that means a family re-union somewhere. The Chinese Ministry of Transport has to arrange for lots of extra trains and planes during the 40 day festival period that started this year on February 4. The ministry calculates that Chinese people will make nearly three billion journeys during the chunyun holidays

  Railway stations will look like this station in Shizjiazhuang, capital of Henan province:

  
  

  
  

  If you do not know much about this festival, an explanation can be found here:

  http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/special-report/chinese-new-year/
  
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  5

  Another early Christian writing found- the, 'Gospel of the Lots of Mary'

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this document is fascinating.it reveals the important role that magic played in the lives of early christians.. .

  dated to the sixth century ce, the opening lines, written in coptic, read (as translated):.

  "the gospel of the lots of mary, the mother of the lord jesus christ, she to whom gabriel the archangel brought the good news.

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  fulltimestudent

  My own suggestion is that these Egyptian Christians used documents like these to search for solutions to some of the life-problems that are common to most humans.

  Pagans of that era did much the same and this document shows that Christians of that era were doing.

  It's possible that, in ancient times, the book was used by a diviner at the Shrine of Saint Colluthus in Egypt, a "Christian site of pilgrimage and healing," Luijendijk wrote. At this shrine, archaeologists have found texts with written questions, indicating that the site was used for various forms of divination.
  "Among the services offered to visitors of the shrine were dream incubation, ritual bathing, and both book and ticket divination," Luijendijk wrote. 
• 
  5

  Another early Christian writing found- the, 'Gospel of the Lots of Mary'

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this document is fascinating.it reveals the important role that magic played in the lives of early christians.. .

  dated to the sixth century ce, the opening lines, written in coptic, read (as translated):.

  "the gospel of the lots of mary, the mother of the lord jesus christ, she to whom gabriel the archangel brought the good news.

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  fulltimestudent

  Here's another example:

  

  An image of the gospel's 25th oracle. This oracle translates as "Go, make your vows. And what you promised, fulfill it immediately. Do not be of two minds, because God is merciful. It is he who will bring about your request for you and do away with the affliction in your heart."Credit: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Beatrice Kelekian in memory of her husband, Charles Dikran Kelekian, 1984.669
• 
  5

  Another early Christian writing found- the, 'Gospel of the Lots of Mary'

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this document is fascinating.it reveals the important role that magic played in the lives of early christians.. .

  dated to the sixth century ce, the opening lines, written in coptic, read (as translated):.

  "the gospel of the lots of mary, the mother of the lord jesus christ, she to whom gabriel the archangel brought the good news.

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  fulltimestudent

  This document is fascinating.It reveals the important role that magic played in the lives of early Christians.

  

  Dated to the sixth century CE, the opening lines, written in Coptic, read (as translated):

  "The Gospel of the lots of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, she to whom Gabriel the Archangel brought the good news. He who will go forward with his whole heart will obtain what he seeks. Only do not be of two minds."

  This is an interesting document, it demonstrates how early Christianity had developed.

  Anne Marie Luijendijk, a professor of religion at Princeton University, discovered that this newfound gospel is like no other. "When I began deciphering the manuscript and encountered the word 'gospel' in the opening line, I expected to read a narrative about the life and death of Jesus as the canonical gospels present, or a collection of sayings similar to the Gospel of Thomas (a non-canonical text)," she wrote in her book "Forbidden Oracles? The Gospel of the Lots of Mary" (Mohr Siebeck, 2014). 
  What she found instead was a series of 37 oracles, written vaguely, and with only a few that mention Jesus.
  The text would have been used for divination, Luijendijk said. A person seeking an answer to a question could have sought out the owner of this book, asked a question, and gone through a process that would randomly select one of the 37 oracles to help find a solution to the person's problem. The owner of the book could have acted as a diviner, helping to interpret the written oracles, she said.
  Alternatively, the text could have been owned by someone who, when confronted with a question, simply opened an oracle at random to seek an answer.

  quoted from the Livescience report on this document.  http://www.livescience.com/49673-newfound-ancient-gospel-deciphered.html

  
  
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  4

  Being poor in China, what's it like?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  these images are from chinese media.. .

  like kids everywhere these children of migrant workers in dongguan (near shenzhen) like to play.

  when farm workers leave their villages to work in the huge chinese construction/factory industries they are faced with a decision - leave their kids with relatives (usually grand-parents) in the village or take them with them, to face the uncertainties of city life.. this photograph was taken by zhan youbing, a 41 year old photographer, who for the past nine years has focused his camera on the lives of migrant workers.

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  fulltimestudent

  Some, who don't know China well, may wonder how, given the one child policy, that a family could grow to this size?

  The answer may be, that given that this is a rural village in Sichuan (next to Tibet) that the one child policy did not apply to the villagers. The one child affected less than 40% of Chinese people. Farmers and ethnic groups could have at least two children and in some cases more. Even so, eleven children would have exceeded any family-planning rules in China.

  More interesting, while one child was adopted by relatives, ten of the children were registered in the local government system. 

  The family has caused some controversy, as the family receives welfare funding that may bring an income of nearly 1000 yuan a month. 

  More, despite family planning assistance, the wife says that neither her or her husband know anything about contraception, and that anyway, even if they were fined for exceeding the planning limits, they had no money and could not pay any fine.

  So, to an extent, this families poverty appears to be self-imposed. 
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  4

  Being poor in China, what's it like?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  these images are from chinese media.. .

  like kids everywhere these children of migrant workers in dongguan (near shenzhen) like to play.

  when farm workers leave their villages to work in the huge chinese construction/factory industries they are faced with a decision - leave their kids with relatives (usually grand-parents) in the village or take them with them, to face the uncertainties of city life.. this photograph was taken by zhan youbing, a 41 year old photographer, who for the past nine years has focused his camera on the lives of migrant workers.

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  fulltimestudent

  This is an interesting example of poverty in China. These images are of an eleven child family, and the first piks show their poor living conditions:

  the seventh child lying in a pile of rags while his brothers and sisters are playing [Photo/CFP]

  

  The children standing around their mom, waiting for food. [Photo/CFP]
  

  

  the children wait for their meal around the cooking pot. 
  

  
  

  
  

  But there is an interesting and instructive story behind this family

  
  
• 
  3

  If you live near the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, California, you may like to visit this exhibition

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  in 1986, workman near the chinese city of chengdu (in sichuan province) dug up some 200 relics of an unknown civilisation:.

  the bronze castings showed a high level of technical skill, but interestingly there was also this:.

  elephants in china, and important to the elite that ordered the fabrication of the masks, some obviously large enough to be fitted to an elephant's head?

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  fulltimestudent

  In 1986, workman near the Chinese city of Chengdu (in Sichuan province) dug up some 200 relics of an unknown civilisation:

  

  the bronze castings showed a high level of technical skill, but interestingly there was also this:

  

  Elephants in China, and important to the elite that ordered the fabrication of the masks, some obviously large enough to be fitted to an elephant's head? Many more questions and few answers.

  But there are some clues.

  First, modern Sichuan Province is just to the north of modern Yunnan province which borders modern Burma which borders modern India, Thailand and Laos - which are all important ancient centres of elephant culture and worship. 

  Of even greater interest, is the fact that there are still wild elephants in China's Yunnan Province, not so far from Sichuan Province. How widely elephants ranged in this area of the China of two thousand years ago is not known.

  Further, the entire area is an interface between Aryan-Indian civilisation and Chinese civilisation. So we could easily imagine that a little more than three millenia ago, before Abraham was, an elite (perhaps from the south),with attachments to a nascent elephant culture took control of the locality where the relics have been found. At that time the Shang dynasty was ruling central China, and some hundreds of years later (before Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians and the Jewish/Israelite elite deported to Babylon and Kongzi (Confucius) was teaching the nascent Chinese civilisation the right way to live), the elephant culture people of Sanxingdui collapsed.

  So, if you can make it to Santa Ana, I can recommend this exhibition as opening your mind to the beginnings of a civilisation about which the Isrealite/Jews knew nothing.

  The exhibition closes on March 15, 2015.

  If you' like to know more, this is the Museum's web-site: http://www.bowers.org/index.php/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/190-china-s-lost-civilization-the-mystery-of-sanxingdui

  
  
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  4

  Being poor in China, what's it like?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  these images are from chinese media.. .

  like kids everywhere these children of migrant workers in dongguan (near shenzhen) like to play.

  when farm workers leave their villages to work in the huge chinese construction/factory industries they are faced with a decision - leave their kids with relatives (usually grand-parents) in the village or take them with them, to face the uncertainties of city life.. this photograph was taken by zhan youbing, a 41 year old photographer, who for the past nine years has focused his camera on the lives of migrant workers.

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  fulltimestudent

  Liang Qinying and her husband are a retired couple. They maybe receiving a small pension, but to gain some extra income, they keep a few "yang" (which can be translated as either 'sheep' or 'goat'-thus making the translation of the sheep and goats parable difficult)

  
  

  

  But as can be seen in the background, the city of Xian encroaches. In 1950, 80% of Chinese may have been from villages, now its less than 50%.

  Looking after sheep in what was a village is now difficult. The journey home is now through busy city traffic:

  

  It is unlikely that the Liang household will be able to keep pasturing their sheep in the city for much longer

  

  Soon people will displace the goats

  
  
• 
  4

  Being poor in China, what's it like?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  these images are from chinese media.. .

  like kids everywhere these children of migrant workers in dongguan (near shenzhen) like to play.

  when farm workers leave their villages to work in the huge chinese construction/factory industries they are faced with a decision - leave their kids with relatives (usually grand-parents) in the village or take them with them, to face the uncertainties of city life.. this photograph was taken by zhan youbing, a 41 year old photographer, who for the past nine years has focused his camera on the lives of migrant workers.

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  fulltimestudent

  These images are from Chinese Media.

  

  Like kids everywhere these children of migrant workers in Dongguan (near Shenzhen) like to play. When farm workers leave their villages to work in the huge Chinese construction/factory industries they are faced with a decision - leave their kids with relatives (usually grand-parents) in the village or take them with them, to face the uncertainties of city life.

  This photograph was taken by Zhan Youbing, a 41 year old photographer, who for the past nine years has focused his camera on the lives of migrant workers. So far, he has taken over 400,000 photos of migrant workers.

  Strictly speaking, migrant workers may not be below the poverty line. In their village, they likely have a home and land, and many villagers today are well off. But not all, and that's when they consider becoming part of this huge migration of people from a rural life to a urban life

  In November, Zhan published his first book, titled I Am a Migrant Worker, which drew a great deal of attention among the public due to the insider's view it offered into the lives of migrant workers. The book also became known as the first of its kind to fully delve into the lives of this segment of society.

  Zhan knows the lives of  migrant workers from personal experience, this is a personal story, as well as his special interest.

  In 2002, Zhan spent 1,400 yuan, then the equivalent of one month's salary, on a second-hand Nikon camera, and started to take photos. At the very beginning, he wanted to show the best aspects of life and took a large number of scenic snapshots. 
  
  By chance, he met a documentary photographer who influenced him to take a new direction. It was then that he began to focus on migrant workers.
  
  Almost every day, he would spend hours hanging around factories, dormitories, bus stations, labor markets and book stalls, capturing the daily routines of migrant workers.
  
  "I want to record the lives of migrant workers, their lives and struggles," he said.
  
  In 2006, he took lessons at a local photography school for two months to improve his skills. By then, he had also started to post his photos online, which allowed him to make friends with several photographers. 
  
  Tang Shouxin, deputy director of the Chang'an Photography Association, was one of them. Tang has been friends with Zhan for over a decade and was impressed by his persistence and hard work. 
  
  "He would use every opportunity to learn from other photographers. He is modest and devoted to his job," Tang said.  
  
  "It is a difficult thing to focus on one  group for nine years straight. Zhan did this, and his help in documenting the history of migrant workers, a group that is neglected, has been invaluable," Tang told the Global Times.
  
  He may also be one of the most diligent photographers around. Besides taking photos, Tang conducted interviews with migrant workers and documented their personal stories.
  

  Reference: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/903558.shtml