This weekend is Qingming Festival. For most people, it is nothing more than a long weekend, but for many locals, this weekend is a time to pay respects to their departed loved ones. Qingming Festival or Tomb Sweeping Festival is a day traditionally commemorated by people visiting and tidying their family graves, kind of like a spring cleaning for the dead. It’s a time to pay respects and send love and prayers to their deceased loved ones. Many people will choose to visit the cemetery, but those unable to physically go can do it by burning paper. Last year’s Covid-19 restrictions have given birth to a new business model – virtual tomb-sweeping where you can now pay staff at the cemetery to clean your ancestor’s graves, place offerings, and recite prayers for you.

When I was about six years old one of my cousins told me that the Qingming Festival is believed to be a time when the Hell Gates are open and spirits and wander freely into our world. And for years after that, I would always sleep with the lights on and refuse to go outside at night during Qingming Festival.

So how do you explain this holiday to your kids without scaring them for years to come?

Turn it into a teaching moment and explain that each culture has its own beliefs. If they go out after sundown this weekend they’ll most likely see people burning paper at intersections (although many cities have officially discouraged the practice). No matter how fluent your Chinese is, it’s definitely not the right time to ask for a cultural lesson. So here’s our quick explanation.

The paper being burned this weekend is not your average A4 notebook paper. it’s called burn paper 烧纸 (shāozhǐ), the paper used specifically to honor the dead. The traditional ones will have money printed on them, but nowadays you can find really creative burn paper shaped like houses, cars, clothes, and even the latest tech gadgets.

People burning papers at intersections are those with recently departed loved ones (meaning siblings, parents, grandparents, etc.). It’s not very common for people to burn papers for their ancestors from a few generations ago. A circle is drawn on the ground and food to honor the departed is placed in plates next to the circle. Then incense is lit and placed alongside the circle. Before the official paper burning for your loved ones begins, you need to place a smaller plate of offering food and burn a small amount of paper money outside the circle for the passing ghosts. This is so that the passing ghosts will be satisfied and not grab the things intended for your loved one. Think of it as a ghost tax. Once that paper burns out, you can begin. Start by saying your loved one’s full name and tell them to get ready to receive money and goodies. Then start burning.

Once all the burn paper has been used up, stay until the incense burns out.

After the incense burns out, it’s time to leave. Douse water on the pile of ashes to make sure you’re not leaving a fire hazard behind, but don’t clean up the ashes or the offering fruits. While littering is something frowned upon, this weekend there will be plenty of street cleaners on the lookout for them at intersections.

It took me a while to get over my fear of the Qingming Festival but had it been explained to me better at age six, I wouldn’t have associated the holiday with zombies and ghosts. Rather, I would have seen it for what it actually is, a wholesome holiday that pays respects and remember our dearly departed loved ones.

KEEP READING: Does It Rain Everywhere During Qingming Festival?

Images: liverse, gtimg, ifengweekly, tuchong

Ching Shih 鄭氏 was a pirate. She was ruthless and blood thirsty and did a lot of things that we as a modern society judge heavily as amoral. But she was also something truly exceptional for her time. A successful business woman. By today’s standards, she would have been a fortune 500 CEO that made Bezos, Buffet, Musk, and Ma all look like tiny fish in her real-life shark tank.

This is the story of a woman who started with nothing except her intelligence and work ethic and built the most successful floating empire in the history of the world.

Shih was born in Guangdong, China around 1775. Nothing is known about her family and she started working in a disreputable dock house around the same time most girls today would be learning how to use photo filters on their first phone. But young Shih was smart, savvy, and she developed a small side business trading in information. This brought her to the attention of a young pirate captain named Zheng Yi. He had a force of 200 ships and when he proposed. Shih insisted on a legal arrangement where she would be a 50% owner in his enterprise. She got a pre-nup and she made it work in her favor. This was unheard of anywhere in the world at the time and that alone would have been notable, but she didn’t stop there.

Over the next few years Shih would help her new husband turn those 200 ships into a 600-mast juggernaut called the Red Flag Fleet. Things were developing nicely as Shih helped form a coalition of captains loyal to her spouse… until he passed away. Fearing a hostile takeover and loss of everything she had worked for Shih consolidated power. She not only ensured the loyalty of the captains but also of the crews and all the townships that serviced her flotilla by creating a series of honor codes that benefited everyone who worked for her. While her methods of acquiring wealth and enforcing order were incredibly bloodthirsty and inhumane, her sense of loyalty to her workers and support staff were remarkably egalitarian and forward-thinking in her time.

All villages that provided services to her ships were protected from looting and theft. This not only gave the villagers stability and created industries along the coast but offered them protection from other pirate groups. Any women kidnapped during a raid had to either be released or ransomed back to their families unharmed. In addition, all loot taken had to be accounted for and was dispersed equitably among the crew by a purser. Breaking any of these codes would result in some pretty awful penalties.

At the height of her power, the fleet had grown to 1,800 ships and 80,000 people worked for her organization. To put that in a modern perspective in 2020 Nike had 1,096 retail stores and about 75,000 employees worldwide. She was literally bigger than Nike and she didn’t have an Instagram account to fuel her expansion!

Shih was pardoned by the Qing Imperial Government in 1810 and retired with her family to Macau where she invested in a gambling house, the salt trade, and acted as an advisor to the Chinese official Lin Zexu.

She started life with nothing and died at the age of 69 as one of the wealthiest people to have ever lived.

Keep reading for tomorrow’s interview and profile of the modern Beijing Business woman behind Cheers Wine.

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Photo: hisoryofyesterday.com

On Mar 20, the Archaeological China project met in Chengdu about the important archaeological discoveries and research results of the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan. More than 500 cultural relics were unearthed in the six newly discovered sacrificial pits. The news described the discovery as “[They] slept for three thousand years and now they’ve woken up to shock the world.”

The six newly discovered sacrificial pits are located next to sacrificial pits one and two. Experts believe they currently constitute a sacrificial area as a whole, which is a place specially used by the ancient Shu Kingdom to worship Gods and ancestors and pray for peace and prosperity. From the view of the scene, one can imagine how grand and luxurious the sacrifice scene was about 3,000 years ago.

The archaeological team cleared out a number of gold wares, as well as a large number of jade pipe beads and ivory ornaments from the sacrificial pit No. five sacrificial. In the pit No. 3, hundreds of bronze wares are covered, including bronze statues and large bronze masks. The most mysterious thing is the wooden box coated with cinnabar found in the pit No. 6. What is it for? What is its origin? These questions have yet to be answered by archaeologists.

The golden mask fragment

The bronze Sacred Tree

The bird-shaped bronze statue

The cultural relics unearthed at the Sanxingdui site have strongly proved that this is an important part of the pluralistic origin of Chinese civilization.” However, there are still many unsolved mysteries surrounding Sanxingdui:

• Where do the ancestors come from?
• What do they do for a living?
• Why did their civilization vanish?…

The unearthing of a large number of precious cultural relics is only the beginning of archaeological work. After that comes the hard part of research to figure out the history of these relics.

There are still many unknown areas in ancient Chinese history, and the work of studying history has a long way to go. This year, traditional Chinese culture has blossomed everywhere.

The National Museum of China has opened its first exhibition “Ancient Chinese Culture: Costume and Adornment” on the general history of Chinese costume, taking visitors on a journey through the evolution of ancient Chinese costume over thousands of years. On display are about 130 pieces or sets of cultural relics, including jade, stone and bone artifacts, figurines, clothing, gold and silver accessories, painting and calligraphy works. These items provide a vivid depiction of people’s attire and related artistic views in ancient China from the pre-Qin period (pre-221 B.C.) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The exhibition kicked off on Feb. 6 and is set to last for one year.

Ticket price: free
Time: currently on display
Address: Hall 8 South, National Museum of China 中国国家博物馆北18展厅

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Ruyi, which was based on the shape of Ganoderma lucidum, was endowed with the meaning of auspiciousness and exorcism and became a precious object for carrying good wishes. In Feb of 2021, the “Auspicious Wishes – Ruyi Sceptres from the Palace Museum Collection” held in the Shenwumen Exhibition Hall of the Palace Museum opened to the public and will last for three months. It is reported that the Palace Museum has more than 2,000 handles from Ming and Qing dynasties. The materials cover jade, bamboo, wood, metal, dental bone, porcelain, etc. 158 pieces (sets) are selected for display in this exhibition.

Ticket price: free for exhibition, entrance ticket RMB 40
Time: Feb 10 – May 9
Address: Shenwumen Exhibition Hall of the Palace Museum 故宫博物院神武门展厅

In the middle of the seventh century AD, Buddhism was introduced to Tibet from India and the Tang Dynasty, and it merged with the local Bon culture to form Tibetan Buddhism. Thangkas are scroll paintings mounted on colored satin and hung for worship, which is a unique painting art form in Tibetan culture. Recently, the “Auspicious Land – Art Exhibition of Tibetan Buddhism Painting and Sculpture” held by the Tsinghua University Art Museum appeared in the exhibition hall on the fourth floor of the museum, exhibiting a group of Thangka boutiques from the 17th to the 20th century.

Ticket price: free for exhibition, entrance ticket RMB 20
Time: until April 11
Address: Exhibition Hall 12, 4th Floor, Tsinghua University Art Museum  清华大学艺术博物馆四层12号展厅

KEEP READING: The National Museum of China

Images: People’s Daily，Xinhua Net，China News