China’s economic development is like a huge magnet, attracting all kinds of “foreigners.” Not only the number of workers going to China is increasing every year, but also there are more and more foreign-related marriages year by year. A foreign friend from Australia told me about his purpose of going to China: First, take a look at China’s development. Second, look for opportunities for personal development. Third, find a Chinese wife .For his friend had just married a Chinese woman, who has black hair, big eyes and delicate skin, and gentle personality, and is also a reliable partner. Watching them live happily, he also has the idea of marrying a Chinese woman. Why Chinese women are so charming? What kind of qualities do we appreciate from them?
Black Hair
The fever of color gradually dominates the people’s lifestyle. But in our eyes, black hair has some special meanings : mysterious, sexy, subtle, and attractive. In my opinion, if a Chinese woman has black silk-like hair, she is just as beautiful as a angel. Maybe most of foreigners who like Chinese black long-haired women are Canadian. Shawn ,an 28-year-old exporter, confirmed this point. He said that the perfect Chinese women are brave, confident, smart, of course, must be pretty with black long hair. if there is chance, he will not miss it.
Humor
Peter, a 35-year-old guy from Italy, has been living in China for 5 years. He is quite proud of getting married to a Chinese beauty with small eyes and thin lips. When being asked: “Do you think your wife is pretty?” He just gives a very typical Italian-style smile: “Of course! In my opinion she is perfect. Her appearance expresses a delicate aroma of the mysterious Orient. In Italy, my friends say she is beautiful! “, and Peter appreciates his wife’s sense of humor, “Communicating with her always makes you feel pleasant “. In his mind, the most attractive girls must be humorous, and he explains that humor is the most attractive quality, not only in Italy, but also in China. Probably, to most Chinese people, they think that Chinese girls are very subtle and gentle. But if you are a foreigner and goes to China, you will have a different experience and raise a different point of view.
Implicitness
Implicitness is one of Chinese women’s traditional virtues. It means a little shy, mysterious, and it has a rich connotation. James , , a 30-year-old Italian-American, has been in China for half a year. He boasted that he is well aware of Chinese culture. He said that the images of Chinese women in Zhang Yimou’s films are the basic image of rural women. and the women in the cities are more representative. Even though the United States will have a lot of Chinese women soon, but he still wants to go to china to look at the traditional images of Chinese women. Once being there, James says it is the implicit Chinese girls that most attract him. This is probably his feeling towards China. Terence, a 32-year-old Canadian and graphic designer, says Chinese women have their own charms, and they are, just as what Chinese people say, intelligence, but they are not exposed in the United States.
Gentility
Subtle elegance and gentle tenderness, these are all unique charms of women. Chinese women’s gentility is quite traditional, and in the eyes of our foreigners, gentility is our admiration. Steve Clinton, the professor of Virginia University of North America,, is a sophisticated man, and he has a Chinese wife, a pretty gentle woman. His love of Chinese women’s gentility is from his heartfelt appreciation. But most of time the feeling towards charm can be changed. When they arrived in China for the first time, Steve found that the northern women are very beautiful, such as long legs, and their beauties are quite similar with American women. However, after being in China for a while, the Southern women, who are just like fairies walking out of the draw with gentle temperament, deeply touch him .He usually praises it with his eyes shinning: “Sichuan girls are really beautiful. No wonder there is an old Chinese saying “you’d better not go to Sichuan, it wouldn’t help to your career ‘.” In other words, too many beautiful girls will distract you. This may be related to the beauty of Sichuan.
“Women hold up half of the sky” – it is a Chairman Mao saying that recently released figures seem to reaffirm, shedding light on the gender issues facing the country.
Chinese women take up 45.4 percent of the country’s workforce, the book Facts and Figures on Women and Men in China published by the National Bureau of Statistics bureau showed.
And about 64 percent of 347 million working women are in the agricultural industry, which is about 10 percent higher than that of men in the sector.
At the same time, the number of women involved in the secondary and service industries are 6.8 percent and 3.3 percent lower, respectively, than the number of men, the figures showed.
The latest figures of women’s part in the workforce come amid ongoing discussion by members of the National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, on whether women civil servants should retire at 55 – five years earlier than their male counterparts – and face losing out in benefits, as highlighted by Zhang Yongying, an expert under the Women’s Studies Institute of China.
“More women civil servants have doctorates or masters degrees. This means they spend a longer time on education. That in turn means a shorter working life,” she said.
On the other hand, even those women who start work at the same age as their male counterparts get less pension, because they have to retire at a younger age”, she added.
“Women without higher education and technical skills working in factories might prefer to retire as early as 55 years old, as they are afraid of being laid off and losing their pension at this age,” Zhang said.
Statistics from the bureau’s book show that female workers in the country between 40-50 years old are in this group, in danger of losing their jobs.
The numbers are only part of the book, bureau officials reiterated.
“It does not only target women’s issues, but also collects comprehensive data of both genders in relation to social integrity,” said the book’s editor, Wang Kejun, who is the director of the bureau’s social, science and technology statistics department.
“Gender equality is a human rights issue that is necessary for achieving sustainable and people-centered development.”
“The book summarizes all related data, and provides an overview of China’s development of gender research,” Wang said.
The bureau had published three such books dealing with similar issues and data in 1999, 2004 and last year.
The data collection was carried out by the statistics bureau, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, Women’s Studies Institute of China, and the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council.
The projects were initiated following the Beijing Platform for Action, which was put forth on the fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.
“The empowerment of women and gender equality are prerequisites for achieving political, social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all peoples,” Wang said.
The book also touches on other social issues, ranging from family to broader aspects of social life.
Men in the community
Chinese men in urban areas showed increasing involvement in community management at the grassroots level, the bureau’s latest publication showed.
“Though it indicates a corresponding decrease of women’s involvement in the area, I believe it is a reasonable trend towards gender equality in social management in rural areas,” said Zhang.
Neighborhood committees, with the help of local government, used to be responsible for residents in areas such as family planning, security and sanitation.
In the 1970s and 1980s, employees of these committees did not need be to highly educated as most of them were the elderly. Few young or middle-aged residents were involved.
Now, the workers of such committees are required to hold better educational qualifications and have a more sound understanding of government policies that affect their communities, officials said.
Staffers of the neighborhood committees are also reportedly being brought under national civil servant quotas, a move that is expected to attract more young and middle-aged workers.
The proportion of female staff in villagers’ committees, however, is still much lower than those in urban areas, but has been steadily increasing in recent years, the bureau’s publication reported.
Many provinces have also made steps to promote rural women’s awareness of social management, since the Revision of Women Rights Guarantees Law was launched in 2005, Zhang said.
“For example, every village has to make sure there is at least one female member in their committees in Hunan and Hubei provinces,” Zhang said.
“Men are still the main economic pillar in rural families, so their support is very important for women.
“More rural women being involved in social management at the grassroots level indicates men’s increasing awareness of democracy,” Zhang said.
Share of contraception
Statistics from the Facts and Figures on Women and Men in China also showed that men shared a small responsibility in preventing pregnancy.
Chinese men should be encouraged to use condoms, which means not only taking more responsibility for preventing pregnancies, but also helping to prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, said Jiang Xiuhua from the Women’s Studies Institute of China.
She said that the government had launched various programs to encourage men to use condoms in some regions, and had seen a slight increase in men who choose to use the contraceptive.
For example, only 4 percent of men had reportedly chosen to use condoms in Deqing county, Zhejiang province, in the past. The proportion of such men has increased to 20 percent, after a joint campaign by the local government and the United Nations Population Fund to promote the practice was launched in 2004.
Jin Shangyi Portrait Oil Painting — Tajik Bride
Painting Title: Tajik Bride
Artist: Jin Shangyi
Painting Media: Oil Painting on Fabric
Size: 60*50cm
Created Year: 1983
About Artist Jin Shangyi:
Jin Shangyi, one of representatives of China’s contemporary oil painting artists, who was born in December 1934 in Jiaozuo, Henan province, China. In 1953 graduated from the Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and continued his post-graduate study, In 1955 Jin Shangyi went to Soviet and entered into the oil painting training class held by the former Soviet Union artist Maksimov to learn oil painting.
Now Jin Shangyi is acted as Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association, and professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts. Former president of Central Academy of Fine Arts and enjoy special government allowances.
Jin Shangyi had taken charge of the teaching job at the first oil painting studio in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, whose artistic practice and art ideas, has influenced much on a large number of oil painting artists and caused a hot trend of absorbing nutrition from classicism in China since the mid-80’s.
Art Career: Jin Shangyi oil painting creations was take the historical themes of Chinese revolution as a starting point, during the nearly 20 years of before the reform and opening-up, he has created a large number of historical themed oil paintings, such as “Step on the Muztag Ata”, “December Conference “, “Long March” and so on, these works fully demonstrated the art talent of the artist, and people become familiar with Jin Shangyi. But in terms of Jin Shangyi, the creative practice of history paintings is just one of important links which urged him to begin his creation of portrait painting.
In the process of painting history oil paintings, Jin Shangyi gradually found the most interested things are those figures per se who showed unique vitality and personality, which make his thinking about the history of switched to the explore of the life and the human’s spiritual world. He inclined much and much to use simple compositions, as little as possible figures to reflect the broad social life, gradually this type of natural development sense become clearer and clearer, and ultimately he aimed to portrait painting as his main creative direction.
Publications: “Selected Oil Painting Works of Jin Shangyi” (published by Henan People’s Publishing House), “Selected Portrait Oil Painting Works of Jin Shangyi ” (published by Tianjin People’s Publishing House), “Human Portraits of Jin Shangyi”; Thesis “Steps and Methods of Sketch Practice” (published on magazine “Art Research” on the 2nd issue in 1979).
Representive Works: Jin Shangyi oil painting work “Northland Scenery” was collected by the Revolutionary Museum; “Youth”, “Sculptor”, “Thinking” were on display on the “The 3rd Oil Painting Research Exhibition”, as well as been collected by the National Art Museum of China; Oil painting “Explore” in on display on the “Beijing City Oil Painting Exhibition”, and won a second prize of outstanding works; Oil painting “Violinist ” was on display on the “Teacher Works of Central Academy of Fine Arts Teacher Works Exhibition” held in Hong Kong, and collected by a Singapore collector; Oil painting “Artist Huang Yongyu” was on display on a thematic art exhibition that organized by “Guangming Daily”, and won an Outstanding Award, and became a private collection; Oil painting “Memories” was on display on the USA Connecticut Art Exhibition, and turn to a private collection; Oil painting “Nature’s Song”, “Tajik Bride” were collected by Chinese National Art Gallery.
Oil painting “Qu Qiaobai” was admitted to participate the 6th National Art Exhibition and won a silver award, and was collected by the Chinese National Art Gallery; In 1986 Creation “Sun Yat-sen” won the first prize for the best best stamp design in the country, and collected by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
* Original address of this oil painting article: Stupendous Art World with Chinese Excellent Oil Paintings
Text and Captions by Hannah Clayborn – Copyright (c) 2009 – Turner Publishing Company, Nashville, TN 37219
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The book “Historic Photos of the Chinese in California” recently came into my possession. It looked like the standard coffee table book of photos. However, there was something about the picture on the cover that caused me to examine it carefully. I was then compelled to turn it over and look at the nine photos reproduced on the back cover. Each one commanded a bit of my time to study it fully. I was drawn to each photo.
I found the same thing happened when I opened the book. I was not able to put it down and, in fact went completely through it twice, and no doubt will visit it again.
Being a California native, I have a modicum of knowledge about how the Chinese fit into the development of California. I think most of us know there was a significant Chinese contribution to the establishment of the railroads, at least in the west, but the enormous offering made to railroad construction overshadowed some of their other contributions to California. Having lived in northern California, I was also aware of the hundreds of miles of rock walls built by the Chinese as fences for the ranchers marking the boundaries of their lands. Beyond that, I knew very little of California Chinese history.
Hannah Clayborn has done a stellar job of bringing some of the other Chinese contributions to light by way of an excellent photographic journal, combined with on-target comments and captions. Like many others, the Chinese were attracted to California in part as a result of the Gold Rush. However, because they were unable to own land or file gold claims they mostly ended up working for others for very low laborer’s wages. Their dreams of riches by way of gold were pretty much wiped away.
In 1850 there were 25,000 Chinese in California as recorded in California’s 1852 census. Many left the gold fields to seek employment and income elsewhere. As Chinese women were somewhat restricted from immigrating, this was a largely male population and a very able work force. By 1870 Chinese made up ten percent of California’s population, but accounted for almost 25 percent of the unskilled labor force. Chinese laborers were active in farming, fishing, sharecropping resulting in vegetable sales and other menial labor-intensive tasks as well as working the gold fields. In addition they proved to be very adept as cooks and shopkeepers.
While I am able to relay a bit of Chinese history here, I want to credit Hannah Clayborn, as this book is the only reference I used as a source of information. If you have found what I have written interesting, I must tell you it pales in comparison to Hannah’s book. The book “Historic Photos of the Chinese in California” is a must see. From beginning to end, with hundreds of photos and comments, the history unfolds. If you are at all like me you will be spellbound.
I understand this review may seem more like a promotional piece for the book rather than an objective review, but there was just no other way I could write it. This book is an exciting piece of work.
A wonderful wedding dress is a fantasy for every little girl—even after the girl grows up and is unmarried. In the U.S., we won’t wear our our wedding gown except in our weddings, but it is sort of a tradition for Chinese to-be-brides to style in some outfits of wedding gowns with her fiance to shoot for a wedding dress album before they hold their wedding ceremonies.
Most of to-be-couples in China would choose to do so simply as a fashion to create a romantic memory. Of course, not every to-be-couple observe the tradition—it is popular, but not enforced. Currently, not a few expat tourists to China are also appealed to have a special wedding dress shoot there as a way to memorize their wedding. If you go to the major scenic places like by the lakes, for example, of Tianjin, you may run into a shoot for wedding dresses for either foreign or Chinese couples.
Commonly, wedding gown shooting agencies offer wedding dress shooting packages consisting of make-up, hair fixing, choosing outfits, doing fittings and of course, photo shooting. Western-styled wedding dresses are indispensible for almost every wedding dress album shoot. According to different costs and the shooting packages you opt for, there are various numbers of wedding gowns to choose from. Most are Western-styled, but wholesale wedding dresses in other styles like traditional Chinese Cheongsam and minority costumes are also commonly seen in wedding gowns album shootings. Likewise, to suit different fittings and wedding gowns, service staff from wedding dress album shooting shops can do various make-ups and hair styles for the couples. Normally, there are 2 or 3 or more service staff fussing around you helping you make up, select wedding dresses, fix hair styles, and fit your poses and the shooting settings. Besides, a a wedding dress album shoot normally consists of outdoor shoots and indoor shoots, requiring at least an entire day to complete the album shooting. Though it may be a little too tiresome, it is very interesting!
Wedding dress shooting is commonly in China for many reasons. As far as I am concerned, three major reasons contribute to the popularity of the tradition. First, lots of Chinese young people regard Western-style wedding outfits as more trendy and more romantic outfits for the beautiful moment. And people wish to generate the precious memory with a fashion and sweet wedding dress album. It is a joy to thumb through the album to savor the beautiful days of their love! Second, taking a wedding gown shoot is one channel to spread the gaiety of the newlyweds among their friends and families. Newlyweds, especially to-be-brides, like to present their wedding gown albums to people whom they hope to share with their joy. Third, as the globe’s largest dress manufacturing country, wedding gowns which come in various levels of fabrics and styles enjoy a rather remarkable pricing. They are affordable even for those who are low-paid people in China. In addition, prices on wedding gown album shooting services differ from various options based on the different standards of packages you want. On the average, a wedding dress album shooting costs you from about 1,000 RMB to more than 10,000 RMB.