Name: (Melissa Douglas)

Class: Chinese 1

Date: 8/27/2017

What I learned about China:

Twenty things I learned from these videos were

1. China borders 14 countries (it is the nation that borders the most countries)
2. There are 56 distinct Ethnic groups in China (over 90% are Han)
3. Chinese characters are derived from hieroglyphic drawings
4. Mandarin has over 40,000 characters, but scholars can readily recognize only about
6000
5. Chinese new year is the most important holiday. It involves eating and time with the
family (people from all over the world return home to China to be with their families).
Decorations are usually placed on the door for good fortune and are usually red.
6. The one child policy was in place between 1979 and 2015. This policy limits couples
to have only 1 child or pay a fine in order to reduce the population. Since then, the 2
child policy has been put in place.
7. Boys are preferred to girls; there are now more boys than girls (6 boys to every 5
girls).
8. 1 Skyscraper is completed every 5 days. This makes China have 4 times the number
of skyscrapers than the USA
9. Although China is the worlds largest producer and consumes a lot of coal
(contributing to pollution), they are also the number one investor in renewable energy
10. The concept of face (mian zi) is very important to Chinese for power and influence
11. Connections (Guanxi) favours /networking is also very important (each person does
the other favours) and may lead to corruption
12. The flag is a red banner with 5 yellow stars (4 small stars and 1 big stars). Red
represents revolution and yellow radiates. It means unity under the communist party;
the big star is the communist party and the 4 small stars are the 4 social classes
(working class, peasantry, urban petite bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie).
13. China has 22 provinces (4 are autonomous regions which have unique cultures, 4 are
municipalities which are bigger cities; 2 are special administrative regions including
Hong Kong and Macau)
14. There are a lot of border disputes especially with India and over Spratley Islands
15. There is only 1 time zone for the entire country
16. Apart from the beautiful architecture and industry, China has a lot of amazing natural
beauty
17. Each region has its own dialect that doesnt sound like mandarin. They can be
written/pronounced in a completely different way.
18. Specially gifted Chinese children are selected by the state to undergo training to build
their skills
19. China is not a communist country, even though it is ruled by a communist state
20. There are a lot of Christians, Buddhist and Muslims even though it is known as an
atheist country