Chinese Ribbon Dancing - 彩带舞蹈 / 彩帶舞蹈

Ever since I tried ribbon dancing for the first time at ALESN, I was fascinated by it. I always wanted try ribbon dancing, but I never had an opportunity during my childhood. In hindsight, I should have pursued everything I wanted to pursue before I entered college even with my tightly packed schedule because opportunities become scarce as we grow older. In my mini-research about ribbon dancing on Google, I found that:

1)       There is little information about the topic of ribbon dancing (at least in English) on Google

2)       Classes are usually offered to kids (kindergarten to 18yrs)

I will try to compile and organize all the basic information in combination with my one-class experience with Alyssa, our ALESN ribbon dance instructor, who I am grateful for teaching me all these moves. If you have any experience on this topic, please let me know if I’m missing anything or if any corrections need to be made.

Ribbon Dancing is known as  彩带舞蹈 / 彩帶舞蹈 (cǎi dài wǔ dǎo in Mandarin or coi2 daai2 mou5 dou6 in Cantonese). The literal meaning would be "colorful belt dance." Sometimes, people might shorten it to only  彩带舞 / 彩帶舞.

History:

I found an ehow website that sums up the general information about ribbon dancing. Apparently, a man named Hsiang Po stalled an assassination attempt on the Han dynasty king with his long, silk sleeve and saved the king's life. Then, ribbon dancing was created to celebrate the savior.

 http://www.ehow.com/about_6292248_history-chinese-ribbon-dance.html

http://www.ehow.com/about_6406156_history-chinese-red-ribbon-dance.html

Movement:

It’s important to stretch before doing this exercise. It may look easy while watching other people twirl a ribbon, but I have used almost all the arms and leg muscles in my body, which brought me lots of aches the following day. Beginners can work with one ribbon and alternate hands when tired. If the ribbon gets tied up in a knot while twirling (and it happens), a dancer should fix it right away or else the knotted ribbon will add weight while in motion.

The ribbon makes a whoosh noise if I swing it harder. It makes a beautiful sound while dancing as if we’re in a martial arts movie. It is especially beautiful to swoosh the ribbon at the beginning of a move if you plan to let the ribbon naturally fall.

The Walk

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/21207-chinese-ribbon-dance/

From what I researched, the term for walking in ribbon dancing is called “cloud steps” or "云步 / 雲步" (yún bù in Mandarin or wan4 bou6 in Cantonese.)  Dancers travel in mini-steps, one foot in front of the other in a heel-toe fashion. Traveling in cloud steps will work all the muscles in the back of the lower leg. Cloud steps give the audience an illusion that the dancers are walking on clouds. A dancer must use cloud steps to travel forward at all times unless the dancer is male. Male dancers may walk normally in wider steps in a manly fashion. When moving backwards, the female dancers should shuffle backwards in tiny steps. Men should just act manly at all times.

The Hand Gesture

www.nainichen.org/Tradition/DragonsTale.pdf  

When a dancer is not holding the ribbon rod, the free hand must always be in the "orchid hand" position known as 兰花手/  蘭花手 “lán huā shǒu” in Mandarin or “laan4 faa1sau2” in Cantonese. In the orchid position, the middle finger is bent lower than the rest of the fingers with the thumb almost touching the middle finger. This part creates the orchid. The rest of the other fingers act as petals, extending at different angles for a prettier pose. The hand or hands stay in this position whether the hand or hands is facing up, down, in or out. I believe this gesture is the same for all type of Chinese dances.

For the men, the hand gesture is easier. The free hand or hands is flat with the thumb bent at all times.

Ribbon Dancing Techniques/Moves:

These moves don’t have any special names (except for the advanced move) that I know of so I will just describe them one by one.

#1) Wave the ribbon up and down, making big or little movements as you travel.

#2) Start with the ribbon high (and according to Alyssa, I can accentuate the height by bending my knees and then stand on my tippy toes for a second to make it seem like the ribbon is flowing higher) and then make continuous left and right motions while moving the rod lower and lower at the same time. The width of the motion is up to the dancer.

#3) Like the second technique, the ribbon can be swung side-to-side behind the head and shoulders except there is no downwards motion. It looks like a flag is waving behind the dancer. The position starts with the elbow raised up and the hand behind and above the shoulders. This move is usually done while walking at the same time, creating a wavy effect behind the dancer.

#4) Move the whole arm in a circular motion at the side of your body. This will get tiring. You can also try the swoosh effect at the beginning of the move.

#5) Making figure-eights with your hands and arms in front of your body with each ribbon. This can also be done at the side of the body.

#6) Turning in place with the arms out. This move will create dizziness, especially when doing traveling turns. Spotting will be useful for this move. Spotting is when a dancer focuses on the same spot before and after the turn to lessen the dizziness.

#7) Modifying move #6, the turn starts with the arms up high and gradually the arms lower as they fall to the side while turning to make a beautiful ribbon descending effect. It looks like a slow jumping jack with the arms. Again, the turn can be done in place or while traveling.

#8) This move is another modification to a turn. Instead of keeping your arms steady while turning, try doing the wave while turning as mentioned in technique #1.

#9) The difficulty of this move is hard. I’m not sure if I remember correctly from Alyssa's class, but it’s called 风火轮 / 風火輪 “wind fire wheel” (feng1 huo3 lun2 in Mandarin or fung1fo2 leon4 in Cantonese). Coincidentally, this phrase is the same phrase for the “Hot Wheels” brand. It might be hard to explain but your arms are taking turns making circles either in front of you or behind you. Your arms are always rotating in opposite directions. The key is to twist your waist and upper-body left and right in order to complete the circle, swinging the ribbon to the other side to complete one half-circle at a time. The effect is actually really cool and is usually accomplished by guys with power, but this is a very advanced move. The legs should be apart and in place during this move.

In other words, if your left arm is swinging upwards in the circle while facing right in front of your body, by the time a half circle is done, your upper body will twist to face left with your right arm swinging upwards now in front of your body. Consequently, your left arm is swinging downwards in a circle.

A shorter order: Face Right, Left swing up, twist, Face Left, Right swing up.

When this move is done without ribbons and just arms, it looks like a kung-fu move.

Video:

I’ve included a video of Alyssa, our ribbon dancing instructor, performing her song at the end of class. She was already low on stamina, but decided to give us another grand performance. To those who are thinking of pursuing ribbon dancing, good luck and have fun!

Alyssa's after-class encore performance. She was a bit tired. You might notice that Alyssa uses a lot of the techniques that I mentioned in this post.

Alyssa trying to show us a move.

I filmed Alyssa's performance at a talent show. Bravo!

Want to Teach in China?

I attended an ALESN seminar event on Teaching English in China recently. ALESN is a volunteer-run program that I am fond of who is focused on teaching Chinese and other Asian languages in New York City. All program and events are free and I encourage anybody who is in or near Manhattan to participate and take advantage of such a wonderful program.

While I do not have any plans to teach English in China, I thought I would collect information for those who were interested. The seminar was held on April 28^th, 2012 so all information should be more or less up-to-date at the time. After attending the lecture, I am sure that I would rather stay online with my little blog to entertain and educate my readers. I don’t think teaching in China is for everybody, but I believe it is for flexible educators who want a sense of adventure or a change of environment and of course, have a passion for teaching.

Our guest speaker is Bob Angles who is an ESL/EFL teacher since 1993. He is in semi-retirement, but would not mind teaching again if the right opportunity comes along. Mr. Angles spoke about the Chinese education system in China and not in Taiwan or Hong Kong, which has a different education system.

Historically:

In 1949, China reset their education system for all schools at the city/provential, state, and federal level.

Culturally:

Typically in Asian culture, a person is defined by their job, especially if that job has a distinguished and respectable title like a teacher, doctor, lawyer, president, etc. A teacher in China will always be addressed by surname first followed by the title, which for teacher is “lǎo shī ” in pinyin. Mr. Angles would be addressed as “Angeles lǎo shī” since he is a teacher by profession in all situations whether or not the addressee is his student or not. Even when he goes to the grocery store, a familiar acquaintance would still call him by his surname and then title. If Mr. Angeles is teaching at a university, then he would be known as professor Angeles  or “Angeles jiào shòu .”

Teaching in a Government-Run School:

The benefits package in a government-run school includes housing, airfare, healthcare, and vacation incentives. Back when the Soviet Union had a major influence on China’s education system, teaching contracts could not be negotiated and jobs were categorized in rigid job classification systems, but a lot has changed now. Contracts can always be negotiated. The worst that can happen is that an applicant may get rejected or the school representative may reject the request.

Usually, foreign teachers with a B.A. or B.S. degree will get an airfare incentive of a one-way trip. Foreign experts (those with a master’s degree) will usually get a round-trip airfare ticket. 

Every teacher is allowed a standard of one month of vacation which is usually the summer or winter vacation recess time. If a teacher was hired in the fall season, then the teacher would get the coming winter vacation off.

There are insurance benefits as well. Every teacher within the dān wèi receives the same type of health insurance. I will explain more about dān wèi in the “life” section. From the impression I am getting from Mr. Angles, the health insurance only covers basic health. Teachers who think they have a serious health condition or need more than basic health care should try to purchase additional health insurance elsewhere.

The wages at a public university are low. The pay would be slightly higher in big cities such as Beijing or Shanghai (or Guangzhou?), which would pay $1000-2000 dollars more. There are two classifications of teachers in government-run schools: Foreign Teacher (those with a Bachelor’s Degree) and Foreign Expert (those who have a Master’s degree or higher). A foreign teacher can typically make $6100 per month while a foreign expert can typically make $6500 per month. Those numbers were derived from the influence of the Soviet Union and can always be negotiated.

The big hiring season for the general education systems are next fall or around the time of Chinese New Year. Sometimes, there are summer jobs available. Chinese grade schools, both public and private, hire a lot of part-timers.

Workload:

The teaching contract would generally state that the workload is 12-20 periods a week. Each period is about 40-45 minutes. Bob recommends teaching 14 periods or less in order to spend quality time grading papers and having enough time to teach.

Schools like to give direction to the subjects their teachers are teaching, but will generally leave the teacher alone for the Oral English class. If English Writing is taught, there will be a lot of homework to grade. Phonetics may be taught as well. Mr. Angles was asked to teach subjects that he has little experience with such as British Culture and the History and Anthology of American Literature. I took a look at these bilingual textbooks, History and Anthology of American Literature Vol. 1 and Survey of Britain & America, which looked boring and old. 

Teachers do not need to speak Chinese as Chinese students should be already adept at speaking general English. Most students are too shy to speak and may need to be coaxed into speaking English.

Life:

Teachers live in their dān wèi units, which are life-influencing work units linked to the employer. Mr. Angeles describes his apartment as a two bedroom apartment with an okay kitchen, balcony, etc. The impression I have of the apartment is a decent apartment. There is also a doctor inside the dān wèi should a teacher feel sick. Teachers live on campus and work on campus.

China has all the basic items that one would need in his or her daily life for purchase so there is no reason for teachers to pack anything extra. According to Mr. Angles, the internet is somewhat censored in China. Spouses of teachers will have the option to also teach whether or not he or she has the credentials. Spouses can come to China on a tourist visa, which costs about $141.

Teaching at a Private School:

Private education sector consists of private training centers and private schools. The pay is about double more than a government-run school, but there are fewer benefits. Usually, an apartment is not part of the contract. Private schools and training centers are in the business to make a profit and their practices may not be honest. There might be instances where the school cannot make the payroll. In other words, as Heidi Klum, the host for the TV show “Project Runway” says, “one day you’re in, and the next day you’re out.” Mr. Angeles talks about a story where he was asked to hire some teachers for the private school where he was teaching. Mr. Angeles ultimately hired two teachers who flew over from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and Mr. Angeles was going to pick them up at the airport. Just before Mr. Angeles arrived at the airport, he received a call from the school that those teachers were no longer needed and the school had already hired somebody else. Needless to say, the teachers from Hong Kong were extremely upset since they packed everything for the move and were now homeless.

Teachers who work for government-run schools are forbidden to privately teach anywhere else such as a corporate training center, yet a majority of them do in secret in order to earn extra money. The law of China states that a person may only find employment within their dān wèi.

Requirements/Qualifications:

There are two departments that will be responsible for hiring teachers: The Bureau of Foreign Experts or Foreign Affairs Office and the English department.

Applicants should be at adult age and no older than 60 years old, though this too can be negotiated.

For international schools, teachers must have a teaching license and a foreign passport. International schools are filled with kids of diplomats and businessmen so they expect a higher quality of education as well as a higher reputation of the school.

1.       Resume:

In most cases, an applicant needs a bachelor’s degree. Applicants with a bachelor’s degree in education or linguistics or a Master’s TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree are most likely to be hired. Schools may explain that they need the bachelor’s degree in order to process the visa, but Mr. Angeles doesn’t think that is true.

Applicants should include a photo only if he or she believes it will help his or her chances in getting hired. According to Mr. Angles, Caucasian-looking applicants should include a photo. Including a photo when an applicant is non-Caucasian will hurt the applicant’s chances especially in the private sector.  It is a biased world even for Asian-looking people. Everybody expects a Caucasian teacher to teach English. I felt sad when I heard Mr. Angles recount a story about a Chinese-American teacher who went to a training center in China to teach English and the employees in the company were outraged because she looked Chinese. The Chinese-American teacher was born in the United States, had a United States passport, and didn’t speak any Chinese, yet her students created a bias that was skin deep.

Additional items to mention on your resume if applicable:

• CELTA (Certificate in teaching English to speakers of other languages) or DELTA (Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults) certification is helpful to include in an applicant’s resume. CELTA and DELTA certifications derived from the U.K. DELTA is aimed specifically for experienced teachers who are already in the teaching field.
• TEFL (Teaching English as a foreign language) certification.
• Teaching assistant experience
• Volunteer teaching experience
• School Transcripts
• Having student teaching experience is a big plus.
• References
  Applicants who have no references should ask a teacher to write one.
• Medical Check
  For hired teachers, the actual physical is usually done in China. A representative from the school should be able to guide the new teacher through the process.

Recommendation:

Teachers with no experience in teaching in China should look for jobs in universities or state schools. The teaching contracts are standard contracts and the schools are not-for-profit. Trying to look for a job in the private sector is riskier even though the pay is higher. Teachers will have fewer benefits than in a government-run school and may be fired at any moment due to the school’s financial situation and private schools are more interested in profits than in education.

Two major websites that offer employment for English teachers:

www.eslcafe.com –The employer pays a fee to the website directly in order to post a job. There is no middle man.

http://anesl.com - The employer pays a fee in the case they decide to hire an applicant on this website. ANESL acts as the middle man who collects the fee prior to releasing the full information about the applicant and the full details about the school to the applicant.

Tips:

Applicants should not ever send money to anybody. It is likely a scam. Usually, the employer is charged recruiting fees. Applicants should be wary of anybody who simply asks the applicant to send all the applicant’s documents with the promise of helping the applicant secure a job.

One curious attendee asked Mr. Angeles if employers in China would do interviews over Skype. Mr. Angeles says employers in China usually try to verify everything on the resume or related documents by phone. A teacher can always bargain his or her contract with their employer once they arrive in China. Mr. Angeles recommends applicants to always speak positively when bargaining.

A Simple Explanation of The Actual Process:

1. The applicant answers the ad/letter.
2. The employer will send a hard copy congratulations letter informing the applicant that he or she got the job.
3. The applicant will accept (or reject) the job offer by reading and signing the contract before sending the contract back.
4. The employer will send a formal letter of invitation to the newly hired teacher.
5. By using the formal letter of invitation as proof of work in a foreign country, the newly hired teacher can now apply for a temporary Z visa. The newly hired teacher may need to get a physical, permit, etc.
6. The newly hired teacher begins packing his or her bags to begin his or her adventure in China.

That’s all I gathered from the seminar. Good luck to the teachers out there!

Interview - Is Chinese Important in Society?

I was interviewed by a NYU student one day after my Mandarin class for her research paper on why learning Chinese is so important for society. At the time, I was at a loss for words and it seemed to me like the answer is very obvious. I have Chinese roots. I am Chinese. Why shouldn’t I learn Chinese?

My interviewer was more specific. She asked me why is learning Chinese so important to our society? I was at a loss for words. Chinese is important because…

we do business in China?

That’s the only thing I could come up with. Living in the United States, there is no real reason to learn Chinese just like there isn’t any reason to particularly learn French unless we are doing business with people who speak those languages. The only important languages in the United States are English and Spanish in my opinion because it is so apparent everywhere. Sure, a lot of documents and forms in the New York state are slowly being translated into Chinese, but what for? Chinese people only make up 3% (2010 U.S. Census Bureau data for New York) of the population in New York City.

I’m not saying Chinese culture is not important, but when I think of culture as a whole, it’s not very significant in the United States. Most Americans do not take a day off on Chinese New Year nor do they know when the Chinese New Year begins. Ask a random person what zodiac year we are in and they would probably draw a blank. Only Chinese or people who work with Chinese people would know the answer.

Then, my interviewer started asking me questions about whether or not I use it at work. I sheepishly replied that we don’t because I work in a laboratory who aids in clinical trials. Unless we had a Chinese client, I don’t think I’d be using Chinese any time soon at work. I believe we would use Chinese most often when we’re buying something at the Chinese supermarket or store and when we’re eating at a Chinese restaurant.

Sadly, I came to the conclusion that unless we’re interested in Chinese entertainment or Chinese business, there is no other major reason to learn Chinese. The last Mandarin paid class I attended in Manhattan was full of students who needed to go to China at some point in their lives to do business and maybe do a little sightseeing on the side.

Why learn Chinese then?

I have a natural interest in learning Chinese and its culture. I’m sure I am different than my brother or cousins in that I constantly want to learn more and I often fantasize that I am actually from China or Hong Kong. I am a bit of a hypocrite because I use English when speaking to Chinese people and I’m more comfortable communicating in English more than Chinese. Even then, my interest in Chinese never wanes.

Lastly, my interviewer asked me how long I plan on learning Chinese. One year? Two years?

I thought of it as a ridiculous question and simple replied, “forever.”

My interviewer opened her mouth in wonder. She then released her “ah~” moment with the realization that my answer had a deep meaning. She was expecting a short time span while I was expecting lifetime commitment. What more was there to say? We concluded our short interview. I actually had so much more to say, but I didn’t have much time to think it through. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak with my interviewer who was a Chinese Cantonese speaker. I wonder if she would continue her lifelong commitment to learning Chinese as well, but at least she is writing a paper about how important the Chinese language is in society for school.

No matter what language we are learning, I believe there is no end to learning. We are constantly learning even when we’re outside the classroom. We all learn at different levels, different comprehension speeds, and from difference experiences. Hopefully, I can compile the most interesting subjects in the hopes that it may interest you. Never stop learning!

Intro to Radicals / Section Headers

I don’t want to linger on the topic of strokes too long because you will have a better understanding of the big picture when you see how the parts work as a whole. When a combination of known strokes is used over and over again, it is likely to be a radical. As a recap, radicals are the basic forms to create a character. I went ahead and did a little research on the definition of a radical.

Dictionary.com:

4. Forming a basis or foundation.

The Free Definition by Farlex:

4. Linguistics Of or being a root: a radical form.

Merriam-Webster.com:

1b : of, relating to, or constituting a linguistic root

I think if we mesh all three definitions together, it explains “radical” the best. Radicals are the basic foundations or roots for each Chinese character. Without them, we might as well be scratching our heads while looking at symbols that we can’t decipher.

REFERENCE LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_%28Chinese_character%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kangxi_radicals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_headers_of_a_Chinese_dictionary

Many radicals are semantic, which means that the radical itself has a meaning. Others may be phonetic or what Wikipedia states as “artificially extracted” from another character, which normally does not exist by itself. The Chinese dictionary also includes artificial extractions or “glyph extractions” as is explained in Wikipedia.

I have not forgotten from our previous stroke post that our mission here is to be able to find a word in a Chinese dictionary. A standard Chinese dictionary has 214 radicals in the section header (部首 bùshǒu) and these radicals are indexed by using the stroke count method. Thus, radicals with one stroke count are listed first. Throughout history, the number of radicals in the section header kept changing depending on how a character should be classified and how many characters end up being classified in the section of a radical.  

Even if you recognized the radical from a character, you may still have trouble finding it in the dictionary because there is constant debate over the placement of a character in the correct radical section. What if a character has more than one radical? Which one would dominate? What if a radical from a traditional character is now gone in the simplified version of that character? So many questions and the only answers are to eliminate the possibilities and start with the best guess. The character has to be listed somewhere under a radical so we’ll find it…eventually.

I also want to mention that there is a great debate over the usage of the term radical to as a way to index the dictionary. It would have been nice if the classifications were set in stone, but it isn’t. Apparently, the word “radical” has a variety of meanings for the purposes of indexing a dictionary by acting as the root, semantic, or a artificially extracted component of a character. People are confused when they can’t tell the difference or assume all the indexers in the dictionary are radicals roots. Wikipedia calls the radicals section of the dictionary, “section headers” instead. When I speak of a radical, I am referring to the root definition and not the semantic component definition for the time being. Don’t worry if you don’t know what I’m talking about. All you need to know now is the definition I have given to you in this post when it comes to radicals.

To recap, there are three types of radical indexers listed as section headers of a Chinese dictionary:

1) Radical Root (the one and only)

2) Semantic Radical (a borrowed radical root just for sound or pronunciation purposes)

3) Artificially Extracted Radical (a part of a radical which has no meaning by itself)

The radical of a character can be any of the three categories above for the purposes of classification in a dictionary.

In order to find out which section header or radical section a character is classified in, we must make our best guess and look into the section header or radical section the character is most likely to be in first. Our success rate in finding the character on the first try will be much higher.

My tips in finding the correct section header is to find the radical in this order:

1) Does the character have a dominant radical on the left side?

2) Does the character have a dominant radical on the top?

3) Does the character have a dominant radical on the bottom?

4) Does the character have a unique or rare radical in it?

I just gave you an fuzzy overview of radicals, but what are the radicals? I'm sure you want to know what all 214 radicals look like!

I searched around Google and found that this website is the best when it comes to listing all the radicals or section headers.

http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/radicals.php

Go ahead and study it. It acts as a great guide for radicals.

If you want to go in depth, this is a great site for further study of the individual radicals.

http://www.clearchinese.com/chinese-writing/radicals1.htm

Once you are more familiar with the radicals or radical parts, you can officially start looking up characters in the dictionary using your stroke counting powers and radical detective skills.

You need to guess:

1) What radical would this character most likely be associated with? What is the stroke count of this radical?

2) How many strokes does this character have in total?

 There are a bunch of online dictionaries out there to search for a character by using the stroke count method. Let's use this website to look up our characters:

http://www.archchinese.com/arch_chinese_radicals.html

 Let's say, we see the word 好 and we have no idea what it is. (For intermediate or advanced students, let's just pretend we don't know!)

好

What is this?

I know! I'll consult the dictionary...

Now, if I had to take a wild guess, radicals are usually on the left side if there is a left side available.

What do we have in the left side? The character: 女 (pronounced: nǚ)

If you have no idea which part of the character is the main radical, try to figure out the stroke count of one radical and go from there.

How many strokes does 女 have? 

Answer: 3 (piědiǎn stroke, piě stroke, and a héng stroke)

Checking the nǚ at the archchinese.com website above, you'd see that it is radical number 38.

(Note: If you happen to mess up and thought 子 (zǐ) was the main radical, you would have searched and realized that it was radical number 39, but if you try looking in that section, you wouldn't be able to find the character 好.)

Going back to the 好 character we were so curious about, let's figure out the total stroke count. 

Answer: 6 (女 = 3 strokes as previously covered, 子 = 3 strokes)

If you didn't know the answer, you're just going to have to take your best guess and then go from there. Perhaps, you can add or minus a stroke or two if you were wrong the first time.

If you clicked on the 女 radical link, you will arrive at the following page:

http://www.archchinese.com/arch_radical_characters.html?rad=5973    

Next to stroke count #6 section, we will see, to our delight, the third character is the 好 character. Clicking on the character will give you all sorts of information such as definition, audio pronunciation, pinyin, stroke order, useful words, etc. Excellent..or, err...  好 (hǎo)!

This concludes our mini tutorial on how to look up words in the dictionary. Use this power well.