Xinran Blog

Archive for the ‘People's Republic of China’ Category

Xie-Xie Yu Wo Yi-Qi Si-Kao – Thanks for sharing a mind with me.

I have kept telling people that what I have experienced in China, whether in terms of place, the times, the environment or the situation, can only be representative of a minuscule proportion, like a drop of water cannot be used to explain the ocean, but only a spoon of tea or a bowl of soup.

Since I published China Witness last year, I have heard so many ‘wa—‘ and ‘what?!’ about today’s China …from the people I met on my book tours in Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Norway….and UK

In fact, I am a part of these words about my roots culture and today’s China. I have made some questions for myself; I am willing to spend my life time to get their answers. Would you like to share it with me?

If so, here is the first part of my questions:

People’s Republic of China, based on UN map, locates at Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam…9,596,960 sq km; land: 9,326,410 sq km; water: 270,550 sq km; mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east; lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m; highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m; world’s fourth largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US); Mount Everest on the border with Nepal is the world’s tallest peak.

· How much China culture and believes have been rooted by its geography?

· How much the mountains, ocean, and deserts have infected it’s culture?

· How much its neighbours have influenced it’s self-centre believes in those main historical comparison (Tibetan, Russia, South East Asia)?

· How Chinese’s image of the world have been built up and limited by 3 silk roads, Opium War, and speeding ‘open policy’?

Zhong-Guo You Gao-Shan he Da-Hai – China has mountains and sea