China Expats and Culture Blog

In the shopping districts of major cities across China, Christmas music can be heard starting late November. Christmas (圣诞节 Shèngdàn jié) is not a public holiday, but it is an increasingly popular diversion for young people, and the day when people tend to spend the most money shopping (although it doesn't come close to  singles day for online shopping). Chinese students who have studied abroad in the West and come back to China, or "sea turtles" (海龟 hǎiguī) as they are called, are suspected to have contributed much to the general public knowledge about this Western holiday. In recent years, a uniquely Chinese way of celebrating Christmas has emerged, egged on by brands eager to see the holiday cemented into the Chinese mainstream.  

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"The Art of War" remains on of the world's most famous military texts, 2,500 years after it was published by Sun Tze (孙子 Sūnzi) an adviser who probably lived during the Spring and Autumn Period (776-471 BCE). However, it is now celebrated by today's business gurus and even sports coaches as guidance for dealing with conflict of all sorts. When Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel felt threatened by the encroachment of Facebook into Snapchat's market, he gave each of his team members a copy of "The Art of War" in order to have them think in terms of ruthlessness competition. Whether it is internal or external to an organization or an individual's battles with themselves, competitors, or nature, "The Art of War" gives comprehensive advice on how to approach conflict. Let's take a look at 10 life lessons that can be taken from this broadly universal work.

People born under each of the twelve animals signs (生肖 shēngxiào) of the Chinese zodiac have different personality characteristics that make them more compatible with some animals than others. The twelve signs interact with each other in a way determined by the Five Elements Theory, a fundamental concept of how the universe works that also influenced traditional Chinese medicine, military strategy, martial arts, and feng shui. In ancient China, this system for zodiac sign compatibility was an essential part of arranged marriage and matchmaking and even governed some aspects of the business world, such as when a third party with a mutually compatible sign would be invited to facilitate business negotiations between two incompatible signs. Today, the Chinese zodiac is still looked to as a way to gain insight into the way people interact, especially in romantic relationships.