EXPLORING TEA AND CULTURE
Last month, The Beijing Center hosted a culture event titled “A Taste of Spring: Tea Etiquette and Culture with Dr. Meng” as part of our 25th Anniversary celebrations. This event drew participants from various countries, including the United States, Sweden, and China. Even some friends from Hong Kong were able to make it! The event took place in our newly renovated and redecorated tea room, which is equipped with the latest technology to enhance the learning and class experience.
BISHOP OF HONG KONG VISITS TBC
The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, the preeminent Jesuit education center in mainland China, had the honor of welcoming Bishop Stephen Chow, SJ, to our campus on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Bishop Chow was previously the Provincial of the Chinese Province of the Jesuits and is a longtime friend of TBC, so it gave us great joy to welcome him again to TBC’s offices as the Bishop of Hong Kong.
UPCOMING EVENT: FRESH TEA AND TASTING IN TBC’S TEA ROOM
This April, The Beijing Center is hosting A Taste of Spring: Tea Etiquette and Culture with Dr. Meng. Our tea room has been newly renovated and redecorated to welcome visitors with tea paraphernalia (or wanju), excellent varieties of tea sourced by experts from around China, the latest technology to facilitate learning and classes, and a comfortable atmosphere.
MATTEO RICCI’S JOURNAL
The Beijing Center’s Anton Library has almost 30,000 books in English on and about China. In honor of World Book Day 2023 yesterday, we’ll introduce you to a rare book in our collection:
Trigault, Nicolas and Ricci, Matteo. De Christiana expeditione apud
Sinas Suscepta ab Societate Jesu. Lugduni: Horatij Cardon 1616.
GREEN BEANS RESTAURANT AND RECIPE
The Beijing Center is surrounded by over thirty restaurants, all bursting with good and interesting food. At many of them, especially the ones closest to campus, meals are fast, cheap, and most of all delicious.
A student favorite for many long years until it closed its doors in late 2017, the restaurant affectionately nicknamed ‘Green Beans’ was a great place to get a variety of warm and filling dishes – but most famous (and thought to be most delicious) of all was its Stir Fried Green Beans with Minced Pork.
CHINESE WUXING
Wuxing (五行), also known as the Five Elements, is a traditional Chinese conceptual scheme. It is used to explain an array of phenomena, from cosmic cycles to the interaction between internal organs. It originally refers to the five major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, and Venus) that create the five dimensions of earth life. The 5 elements of it are jin (metal), mu (wood), shui (water), huo (fire), tu (earth). These elements are normally around 73 days each and are used to describe various states in nature.
LIBRARY TOUR – RARE ATLAS OF CHINA
In the mid-seventeenth century, as the first full atlas of East Asia became available on the European book market, a dramatic shift took place in textual and visual representations of the Far East. The atlas, Novus Atlas Sinensis (1655), was the product of a cooperation between Joan Blaeu (ca. 1599-1673), who headed one of Europe’s foremost commercial publishing houses, and Martino Martini, a prominent Jesuit missionary to China.
CROSSING THE BRIDGE NOODLES – A YUNNAN SPECIALTY
Yunnan – a province of forests fills with native rhododendrons and azaleas, towns full of mud–brick houses with sloping tiled roofs, jungles teeming with monkeys and elephants, and a population that includes dozens of different Chinese minority groups, each with its own unique traditions and customs. The weather is usuallybeautiful and spring-like, with warm days and cool, clear nights. Even the pace of daily life seems calmer and quieter than in other parts of China. Kunming, its capital, is anidyllic city of eternal spring.
GRAIN RAIN
The sixth solar term – “grain rain” or “guyu” (谷雨) in Chinese – usually falls on April 20, and marks the end of spring. The old saying goes “Qingming ceases snow, grain rain ceases frost” (清明断雪，谷雨断霜). When this term arrives, cold weather finally ends, and the temperatures start to rise.
The Chinese name of Grain Rain originated from a classic folk story. When Cang Jie (仓颉), an official in the Yellow Emperor period, was hard at work creating characters that make up the written Chinese language, many grains miraculously fell from the sky, as ifrain. As a result, the Yellow Emperor dubbed this day “Gu Yu”, as the Gu means grains, and Yu means rain.
LIBRARY TOUR – RARE BOOK ON CONFUCIUS
Confucius sinarum philosophus, sive scientia sinensis latine exposita, published in 1687, is the first edition print of the three major Confucian classics to be published together in any language other than Chinese. It’s published in Latin, making it the first recorded example of Confucian texts published in any European language. The Latin title translates to “Confucius the philosopher of China, or, the knowledge of China translated into Latin.”
HAPPY CHILDREN’S DAY!
Children’s Day (兒童節) is an important holiday around the world. In China, Children’s Day is celebrated on June 1st, while Hong Kong celebrates on April 4th. Although it’s often celebrated on different days, they all share one thing in common: honoring children.
JINGZHE: THE AWAKENING OF INSECTS
Do you remember the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics? It glittered with Chinese culture from the very start when a 24-second countdown performance was staged, with each second representing one of the 24 solar terms.
The 24 solar terms embody the ancient Chinese wisdom of observing nature, represent a picturesque landscape as the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter change, and reflect Chinese people’s outlook on life and cosmology. Today TBC would introduce you to the third term of the 24 solar terms – Jingzhe (惊蛰).
LANTERN FESTIVAL
On the 15th day of the first lunar month, two weeks after Chinese New Year, another important traditional Chinese festival, the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao Jie元宵节) is celebrated. It is the first full moon night in the Chinese calendar, marking (the anticipation of) the return of spring and symbolizing the reunion of the family. It also marks the end of the Spring Festival. It will be celebrated on Tuesday, 15 February in 2022.
During the Lantern Festival, Chinese people would do many interesting things to celebrate it.
CHINESE ZODIAC
The Chinese zodiac is also known as Sheng Xiao (生肖) or Shu Xiang (属相). Originated from ancient zoolatry and boasting a history of more than 2,000 years, it plays an essential role in Chinese culture. The 12 Chinese zodiac animals in a cycle are not only used to represent years in China, but are also believed to influence people’s personalities, career, compatibility, marriage, and fortune.
THE SPRING FESTIVAL IN CHINA
The Spring Festival(春节) is the most distinctive Chinese traditional festival. It has a history of over 4000 years. It is generally the first day of the first lunar month of the year. Traditionally, celebrations last for fifteen days, ending on the date of the full moon, when it is at its brightest. Chinese New Year 2022 falls on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022.
VIRTUAL INTERNSHIP SHOWCASE – FALL 2021
Landing an internship has always been competitive for students, but the pandemic hit makes it even harder. Considering that, TBC first launched the Virtual Internship Program (VIP) in summer 2020, aiming to provide international students with remote internships to realize their potential. On 17 December, TBC held the Virtual Internship Showcase for students participated in the 2021 Fall VIP. They ended their internship journeys by sharing their experiences in this program.
LIBRARY TOUR
The Beijing Center Library, also known as the Anton Library, was founded in 1998 with just about 200 books. A library stores the books that store its soul. With the effort of many generations of our staff to collect books, the total collections of the library amounted to 27,000 volumes at the end of 2021. It is the largest private collection of books about China written in English within Beijing and one of the largest in China.
CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME – VIRTUAL EVENT RECAP
On July 16, 2021, TBC held its series event East Meets West Talks, bringing together a diverse group of speakers who shed light on a pressing global issue – environmental destruction and Caring for our Common Home – planet Earth. Read more below or watch the full event recording here.
Dr. Carlos Zepeda from the Laudato Si’ Research Institute (LSRI) at Campion Hall, Oxford University began the discussion with a presentation on the current challenges of the climate and biodiversity crisis.
CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME – VIRTUAL EVENT
Part of “East Meets West Talks” series, The Beijing Center presents “Caring for Our Common Home.” Bringing together speakers representing organizations in the UK, the US, and China, our discussion will focus on caring for our common home, offering insights into climate and biodiversity, the Encyclical Laudato Si’, and our responsibility to the planet we inhabit and future generations.
THE IGNATIAN YEAR
The Ignatian Year: May 20, 2021 – July 31, 2022. The Year will open on May 20th, the 500th anniversary of when Ignatius the soldier was injured by a cannonball in the Battle of Pamplona. The Year will conclude on July 31, 2022, the feast day of St. Ignatius. The peak of the celebration will fall on March 12, 2022, the 400th anniversary of the canonization of St. Ignatius. While the Ignatian Year honors the past, we are invited to be future-focused and attend to the Universal Apostolic Preferences.