We also did the dragon dance that is preformed on Chinese New Year. Dragons are also used for Independence Day in Indonesia.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
The dragon dance
A group of girls got together and built a giant dragon. We started from scratch with some cardboard and got this:
The Movie
Hong Kong's airport, through which many people move in and out of the country (of China) has many signs translating Chinese to English. Also, many of Chinese businesses extend into America or have English embassies. All temples throughout China, including in Hong Kong, are colored in red and gold--red pillars, gold roofs, and colorful insides. Many people throughout the region of China are Buddhists, Taoists, and practice other ancient beliefs such as Confucism. Citizens who practice these religions honor their gods with incense. Some, especially Buddhists, meditate in order to seek enlightenment and eventually moksha, a state in which they believe that the soul is eternally released into the world.Hong Kong expertly balances the traditions of east and west, old and new. Although Britain had ruled it for 99 years (1898-1997) and thus attained some western culture. However, the people there are very peaceful and religious. The more urban areas of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is an island located slightly southeast of mainland China. Many people use use boats to travel from Hong Kong to China's mainland. Also, a fair amount of Hong Kong's land was carved into tracks for horse racing. However, Hong Kong's people try to build their homes to honor spirits. They do this by purposely aligning their walls and doors so that all of the natural forces' energy is flowing in one direction. The water that Hong Kong is surrounded by not only provides a major port for ship transportation. Many fish and other forms of seafood are eaten frequently in Hong Kong. The magical powers of Hong Kong's Bangyung Tree are believed to help people, especially during the Chinese New Year. People hang fruit and colored paper upon this tree with the hope that it will grant their wishes.
In 1990, China's leader Deng Xiao Ping granted Shanghai trading rights after it was slightly oppressed in communism for forty years. Shanghai is located on China's eastern border. Shanghai is a bustling city, but its peaceful citizens are serene and wise. They are fairly religious. In fact, they believe that jade is a holy stone that connects the earthly word with the spiritual world. Along with the rest of China, Hong Kong has a very large population and population density. It also practices Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucism with very solemn religious ceremoniies. Many people have built towering skyscrapers in Shanghai, where old traditions and cultures blend with modern ones.
In 1990, China's leader Deng Xiao Ping granted Shanghai trading rights after it was slightly oppressed in communism for forty years. Shanghai is located on China's eastern border. Shanghai is a bustling city, but its peaceful citizens are serene and wise. They are fairly religious. In fact, they believe that jade is a holy stone that connects the earthly word with the spiritual world. Along with the rest of China, Hong Kong has a very large population and population density. It also practices Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucism with very solemn religious ceremoniies. Many people have built towering skyscrapers in Shanghai, where old traditions and cultures blend with modern ones.
Origami
Sanjana, Clara, Isabella, and I made a hat for a doll, and this took forever because we are not skilled at perfect folding.
Japanese
These are some phrases in Japanese that would be useful, and that I learned to pronuced.
Pronuced ee-tankii-des-nay
Tales from China
I read the book Tales from China by Annie Bergeret and Marie Tenaille. This shows Chinese culture because these were tales were molded by time and history. The definition of a folktale is a traditional story, and this means the story has been told for a long time. Each story was probably made up as a pass time for something and was remembered. These stories became folktales. An example of an American folktale is Bigfoot. Bigfoot is a story everyone knows; there are giant footprints, and who could have made these? Bigfoot, of course! Some folktales are more known about than others, but some are known all around the country. One that is known is The Ox Driver and the Weaver. This is called many different names and told many different ways, but in the end what happens is a girl goes to earth and falls in love with a human. They are separated, but find each other once a year.
Shogun (Japanese)
Clara, Sanjana, and I went to Shogun, and one part I liked was when we had to catch pieces of food in our mouth. I also liked trying to eat soup with chopsticks.
We had the Hibachi Chicken and rice.
NOLA art museum
I went to the NOLA art museum and looked at Japanese and Korean art. The Chinese part was rented out.
This is me in front of Plums in the Moonlight.
This is me in front of a suit of armor from the 18 century.
This is a banner showing a bunny. The bunny is making rice cakes on the moon for New Year.
This is a terra cotta head from the 4th century.
This is a lotus plate from the Min Dynasty.
Indian food
These are some spices that we used.
This is the base of the dish we made. (potatoes)
These are the vegetables that we put into the dish.
This is some musterd seed that we used in the recipe.
Interveiw
How is life different in India from life in the U.S.?
Life in India is a little bit more strenuous because people there do a lot more of their own work. They don't have special time for exercise, but they exercise by doing regular work. They don't have many things automated, and it's very uncommon to see dishwashers or washing machines. Now it is becoming more common, but it's not a very common sight—certainly not as common as it is here in the U.S. You do a lot more of your own work, and that's one major way in which life is different.Also, how crowded a place can be is different, in most cities or even rural areas the population density is very high. So you would run into a lot of people that you wouldn't in New Orleans and in pretty much any part of the U.S.
Which language(s) did you speak in India?
India is a very diverse country; there are 27 states in India, just like there are 50 states in the U.S. However, what is unique about India is that virtually all of these 27 states speak a different language. So for example, I am from the Southern part of India called Tamil nadu; we speak a language called Tamil. There are seventeen languages spoken in India, along with over 800 dialects. Dialects mean that you could speak the same language but also have very different words. English is the most common language across India. So if I wanted to speak to someone from another state, I would probably speak in English since our various local languages would be very different.
Are all these languages classified as 'Indian'? Isn't that technically the main language of India?
There is no language called Indian. India is the country, and Indian describes a person from the nation of India. Hindi is a very popular language in India; roughly 50% of all Indians are able to speak Hindi, especially those who live in northern India. So if you want to know what is the one language in India that is mostly common to everyone, that would be Hindi. In fact, Hindi is classified as the national official language of India. However, there is no language called Indian.
During which years were you in India?
I lived in India until 1988; 1988 is when I came here. That was when I completed my undergraduate degree, and I also completed my masters degree in mathematics in India; then I came here, to the U.S. For the first twenty-two years of my life, I lived in India, and for the remainder of my life, I've lived in the U.S. I came here to attend school and get my PhD in mathematics, and then on to finance.
Ms. Subramaniam, during which years have you lived in India?
I actually came here one year after he did, in 1989. My scenario is virtually identical to his: I lived in India for twenty-two years; in my twenty-third year, I came here. I, too, had an undergraduate degree and a masters degree from India. And I, too, came here to do a PhD in mathematics and then on to finance. So I also have lived in the U.S. for about twenty-six years, since I came from India in 1989.
So, what were some celebrations or holidays that were celebrated in India?
There are many! All sorts of celebrations are popular in India. There are numerous religious and cultural holidays. So, we start in January; during that month, we celebrate a harvest festival called Pongal, and it is a festival where we celebrate the farmers harvesting their crop. Pongal is actually the name of this celebration, but it's also the name of a dish made with rice and lentils and so forth.
Then we celebrate the Tamil New Year's Day. So just like the first of January is New Year's Day on the English calendar, we have our New Year's Day from the Tamil calendar on April 14th. And the reason it does not match up with the English calendar is that the calendar that the calendar we use to celebrate religious ceremonies and festivals is the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar.
We also celebrate the festival of Holi, and it is the festival of colors, where people express the joy and happiness by sharing with each other and putting colored powder on each other.
Another of our festivals is called Diwali, the festival of lights. It's got different meanings in different parts of the country, but almost everywhere, it's celebrated by distributing sweets, wearing new clothes, and lighting lamps. The reason for that festival is that in the northern part of India, it is believed that Lord Rama, a Hindu god, has killed an evil demon. In the southern part of India, there is some other god who killed some other demon. So it's the victory of good over evil.
About 5% of Indians are Christians. They celebrate Christmas, and we celebrate with them. So even Hindus celebrate Christmas along with the Christians. We also celebrate many Muslim religious holidays such as Ramadan. About 14% of all Indians are Muslim; the largest religious group in India is Hindu, but there are also Muslims and Christians as well.
You would use oil lamps made of clay and pour oil into the bowl. Then, you'd put little wicks into the oil lamps and line them around your house. This is what we do during Diwali.
But we also have non-religious holidays, just like 4th of July or Memorial Day here. Our independence day is on August 15th, since India received its independence day from the British in 1947.
Two-and-a-half years after it became independent from the British, India wrote a constitution and formerly became a republic. So we also celebrate this holiday, called Republic Day, in January.
Then, Mahatma Gandhi, who is considered the father of India, was an activist who fought for independence. But he fought for independence using only nonviolent means. The reason I bring his name up is that his birthday is October 2nd, and it's a big holiday in India. This is called Gandhi Jayanti; Jayanti means 'victory'.
What would you do in your free time in India?
So in India in our free time, most people play outside the house. Here, at least what I've observed is people using electricity. That is actually less common in India—people actually go out and play outside. Cricket is a very popular game in India. You have a bat and a ball, and the aim is to strike it. And they'll play it anywhere—in the backyard, on the street. They don't have a formal team or anything, it's more impromptu. You'd go outside, see a bunch of street kids playing, and join them. And the other thing that many girls do is play board games, make fancy clothes, and read.
And here, people are very busy and you make appointments. In India, you just go to people's houses and "show up" there. Rather than calling and asking if they are at home, people in India would just come to their friend's house and say, "Hey, are you home?" They just visit each other; people are very social.
What are some of your favorite foods from India?
One of them is poori, and it's a savory, fried dough that you eat with a potato dish called masala. The poori and masala is something that I really love. The other thing I like is a spicy pancake dish with many vegetables and some tomatoes on the pancake base. This dish is called uthappam, and just like people here eat pancakes with syrup, we use a syrup called sambar. Another dish I like is pulav, it is the equivalent of fried rice here—it is fried rice with vegetables. Most people in India are vegetarian, so they use mainly vegetables; however, there are some who are non- vegetarian. These people may put chicken and beef pieces in their pulav.
Pulav is actually derived from the Arabic word 'pilas', which is like rice. But we pronounce this differently in India.
What do you miss the most about India?
The thing I miss most about India is being able to go out and play cricket. I also miss my relatives, especially my sister, who still lives in India. I miss seeing her and hanging out with her. I also miss my aunts and uncles and other family members, too.
Unfortunately, since I have a full-time job, I cannot always attend weddings or other family get-togethers in India, where all my other friends and family members get together.
Another thing I miss is eating Indian food on a regular basis. We cook Indian food at home, of course, but certainly not every day. I miss street food—that's when you buy food from vendors off the street.
If you could go back to India with the same job, would you?
I certainly would love to go back to India. Well, if it were just me, I would love to return to India. These things that I miss from India are very dear to me and I wouldn't miss them if I were in India. However, I'm not so sure how Sanjana would adjust to Indian conditions because she has not lived in India; she has grown up in the U.S. rather than India, and if I were to go, it might be very hard for her to adjust to the conditions. There are many things that I really miss about India, but I really love the U.S. as well. I don't know. There are so many positives about being here, but simultaneously there are also so many positive factors about India.
What did you miss the least about India?
Oh, I most certainly did NOT miss the weather! The seasons are hot, hotter, and hottest. A typical winter day in southern India where I grew up would be about 85°. So in summer, the temperatures can actually climb into the hundreds!
But the catch is not all buildings are air conditioned. Also, vehicles may not even have air conditioning. So, doing business in summer is very difficult, even for people who aren't used to it.
So would that time period—the summertime—be the yearly low in the economy?
That's a very good question. Actually, though, summer is not really a low time for India's economy. Even though the summer is oppressively hot, people adapt. Shops will open very early in the morning, when it's not excruciatingly hot, and they will close in the middle of the day, at the peak of the temperature. Then, they will reopen in the early evening and stay open until about 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. What this tells you is that people in India are very flexible and can adapt quite easily. So business and commerce do not stop during the summer; they just continue during the cooler times of the day. Most businesses will not close for two days every week. In India, most businesses are open on Saturdays as well as the rest of the workweek.
Life in India is a little bit more strenuous because people there do a lot more of their own work. They don't have special time for exercise, but they exercise by doing regular work. They don't have many things automated, and it's very uncommon to see dishwashers or washing machines. Now it is becoming more common, but it's not a very common sight—certainly not as common as it is here in the U.S. You do a lot more of your own work, and that's one major way in which life is different.Also, how crowded a place can be is different, in most cities or even rural areas the population density is very high. So you would run into a lot of people that you wouldn't in New Orleans and in pretty much any part of the U.S.
Which language(s) did you speak in India?
India is a very diverse country; there are 27 states in India, just like there are 50 states in the U.S. However, what is unique about India is that virtually all of these 27 states speak a different language. So for example, I am from the Southern part of India called Tamil nadu; we speak a language called Tamil. There are seventeen languages spoken in India, along with over 800 dialects. Dialects mean that you could speak the same language but also have very different words. English is the most common language across India. So if I wanted to speak to someone from another state, I would probably speak in English since our various local languages would be very different.
Are all these languages classified as 'Indian'? Isn't that technically the main language of India?
There is no language called Indian. India is the country, and Indian describes a person from the nation of India. Hindi is a very popular language in India; roughly 50% of all Indians are able to speak Hindi, especially those who live in northern India. So if you want to know what is the one language in India that is mostly common to everyone, that would be Hindi. In fact, Hindi is classified as the national official language of India. However, there is no language called Indian.
During which years were you in India?
I lived in India until 1988; 1988 is when I came here. That was when I completed my undergraduate degree, and I also completed my masters degree in mathematics in India; then I came here, to the U.S. For the first twenty-two years of my life, I lived in India, and for the remainder of my life, I've lived in the U.S. I came here to attend school and get my PhD in mathematics, and then on to finance.
Ms. Subramaniam, during which years have you lived in India?
I actually came here one year after he did, in 1989. My scenario is virtually identical to his: I lived in India for twenty-two years; in my twenty-third year, I came here. I, too, had an undergraduate degree and a masters degree from India. And I, too, came here to do a PhD in mathematics and then on to finance. So I also have lived in the U.S. for about twenty-six years, since I came from India in 1989.
So, what were some celebrations or holidays that were celebrated in India?
There are many! All sorts of celebrations are popular in India. There are numerous religious and cultural holidays. So, we start in January; during that month, we celebrate a harvest festival called Pongal, and it is a festival where we celebrate the farmers harvesting their crop. Pongal is actually the name of this celebration, but it's also the name of a dish made with rice and lentils and so forth.
Then we celebrate the Tamil New Year's Day. So just like the first of January is New Year's Day on the English calendar, we have our New Year's Day from the Tamil calendar on April 14th. And the reason it does not match up with the English calendar is that the calendar that the calendar we use to celebrate religious ceremonies and festivals is the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar.
We also celebrate the festival of Holi, and it is the festival of colors, where people express the joy and happiness by sharing with each other and putting colored powder on each other.
Another of our festivals is called Diwali, the festival of lights. It's got different meanings in different parts of the country, but almost everywhere, it's celebrated by distributing sweets, wearing new clothes, and lighting lamps. The reason for that festival is that in the northern part of India, it is believed that Lord Rama, a Hindu god, has killed an evil demon. In the southern part of India, there is some other god who killed some other demon. So it's the victory of good over evil.
About 5% of Indians are Christians. They celebrate Christmas, and we celebrate with them. So even Hindus celebrate Christmas along with the Christians. We also celebrate many Muslim religious holidays such as Ramadan. About 14% of all Indians are Muslim; the largest religious group in India is Hindu, but there are also Muslims and Christians as well.
You would use oil lamps made of clay and pour oil into the bowl. Then, you'd put little wicks into the oil lamps and line them around your house. This is what we do during Diwali.
But we also have non-religious holidays, just like 4th of July or Memorial Day here. Our independence day is on August 15th, since India received its independence day from the British in 1947.
Two-and-a-half years after it became independent from the British, India wrote a constitution and formerly became a republic. So we also celebrate this holiday, called Republic Day, in January.
Then, Mahatma Gandhi, who is considered the father of India, was an activist who fought for independence. But he fought for independence using only nonviolent means. The reason I bring his name up is that his birthday is October 2nd, and it's a big holiday in India. This is called Gandhi Jayanti; Jayanti means 'victory'.
What would you do in your free time in India?
So in India in our free time, most people play outside the house. Here, at least what I've observed is people using electricity. That is actually less common in India—people actually go out and play outside. Cricket is a very popular game in India. You have a bat and a ball, and the aim is to strike it. And they'll play it anywhere—in the backyard, on the street. They don't have a formal team or anything, it's more impromptu. You'd go outside, see a bunch of street kids playing, and join them. And the other thing that many girls do is play board games, make fancy clothes, and read.
And here, people are very busy and you make appointments. In India, you just go to people's houses and "show up" there. Rather than calling and asking if they are at home, people in India would just come to their friend's house and say, "Hey, are you home?" They just visit each other; people are very social.
What are some of your favorite foods from India?
One of them is poori, and it's a savory, fried dough that you eat with a potato dish called masala. The poori and masala is something that I really love. The other thing I like is a spicy pancake dish with many vegetables and some tomatoes on the pancake base. This dish is called uthappam, and just like people here eat pancakes with syrup, we use a syrup called sambar. Another dish I like is pulav, it is the equivalent of fried rice here—it is fried rice with vegetables. Most people in India are vegetarian, so they use mainly vegetables; however, there are some who are non- vegetarian. These people may put chicken and beef pieces in their pulav.
Pulav is actually derived from the Arabic word 'pilas', which is like rice. But we pronounce this differently in India.
What do you miss the most about India?
The thing I miss most about India is being able to go out and play cricket. I also miss my relatives, especially my sister, who still lives in India. I miss seeing her and hanging out with her. I also miss my aunts and uncles and other family members, too.
Unfortunately, since I have a full-time job, I cannot always attend weddings or other family get-togethers in India, where all my other friends and family members get together.
Another thing I miss is eating Indian food on a regular basis. We cook Indian food at home, of course, but certainly not every day. I miss street food—that's when you buy food from vendors off the street.
If you could go back to India with the same job, would you?
I certainly would love to go back to India. Well, if it were just me, I would love to return to India. These things that I miss from India are very dear to me and I wouldn't miss them if I were in India. However, I'm not so sure how Sanjana would adjust to Indian conditions because she has not lived in India; she has grown up in the U.S. rather than India, and if I were to go, it might be very hard for her to adjust to the conditions. There are many things that I really miss about India, but I really love the U.S. as well. I don't know. There are so many positives about being here, but simultaneously there are also so many positive factors about India.
What did you miss the least about India?
Oh, I most certainly did NOT miss the weather! The seasons are hot, hotter, and hottest. A typical winter day in southern India where I grew up would be about 85°. So in summer, the temperatures can actually climb into the hundreds!
But the catch is not all buildings are air conditioned. Also, vehicles may not even have air conditioning. So, doing business in summer is very difficult, even for people who aren't used to it.
So would that time period—the summertime—be the yearly low in the economy?
That's a very good question. Actually, though, summer is not really a low time for India's economy. Even though the summer is oppressively hot, people adapt. Shops will open very early in the morning, when it's not excruciatingly hot, and they will close in the middle of the day, at the peak of the temperature. Then, they will reopen in the early evening and stay open until about 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. What this tells you is that people in India are very flexible and can adapt quite easily. So business and commerce do not stop during the summer; they just continue during the cooler times of the day. Most businesses will not close for two days every week. In India, most businesses are open on Saturdays as well as the rest of the workweek.
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