Beijing Opera

Beijing opera (Jing Ju) is a purely Chinese opera form which dates back to the year 1790. Jing Ju absorbed the tunes of Kun Qu, Qin Qiang, Bang Zi and other local operas.
	For the roles, different colors of the faces represent different characters and personality. Yellow and white represent cunning, red stands for uprightness and loyalty, black means valor and wisdom, blue and green indicate the vigorous and enterprising character of rebellious heroes and gold and silver represent mystic or super-natural power.
	In general, there are four different roles. positive male role, positive female role, supporting male role and clown. Jing Ju fans call themselves "piao you". Everybody loves Jing Ju, rich people and poor people. In Chen Kai Ge's movie "Ba Wang Bie Ji"(Farewell My Concubine), you can see how hot Jing Ju is among fans. In China, especially in Beijing, sometimes you come across with people singing in a street corner.

The Fifth Week

We entered the fifth week of Mag's Mandarin lessons. She had one two hours lesson per week and study on her own the rest of the time through online lessons. She travels quite some time and has heavy work load.

It works out really well. We have done eight weeks work in five weeks, and judging from her pronunciation, her vacabulary pool, and the ability to use what she has learned, the over all result is really good.

A new member of Mandarin Express Family

Basic Level A Work Book finally rolled out.

From the first scratch to the finial production, it took about nine months. Grace did the most writing and I added some and did the editing. E book version will be available probably next month.

So now I feel pretty good.

'A' Stands for Arabic

I have come across this interesting article in Newsweek. Americans have been urged to take up the language. For many, it's a lucrative choice. (of course, the article is talking about Arabic)

You can read the whole article here.


There are other talks about an increasing number of high paying jobs in China or in Chinese companies. It might be another lucrative choice.

wo shi xin huiyuan

jintian wo ganggang canjia le zhe ge boke, hen gaoxing.
shangge zhoumo wo ganggang cong Nanjing hui Xianggang, Nanjing shi wo de laojia, wo yijing chabuduo sannian meiyou huiqu le, zhe ci huiqu, wo faxian le yi ge xin de wanyir. wo de pengyou dai wo qu le yi ge difang, jiao QingQiuYu, women zhi fu le 40 kuai RenMinBi.
Jinqu yihou, keyi xizao, chi zizhucan, shangwang, kan dianshi huozhe dianying, da pingpang qiu, baoling qiu, jianshen, da MaJiang dengdeng. Wo de pengyou shuo , 40 kuai qian keyi dai zai limian 12 ge xiaoshi, birushuo, zaoshang 9 dian jinqu, keyi zai wanshang 9 dian huozhe yiqian chulai jiu keyi le, ruguo wanshang 6 dian jinqu, name di'ertian zaoshang 6 dian huozhe yiqian chulai jiu keyi le. suoyi you yitian, wo he wo de jiaren ye qu le, women zaoshang 8 dian jinqu xile zao, ranhou yi qi qu chi zaofan, ranhou yiqi qu da majiang,ranhou.... yizhi dao wanshang 8 dian women cai huijia, nage shihou, women yijing chi le wanfan, xile zao, huijia jiu keyi shuijiao huozhe zuo shenme bie de le. zhen shi ting you yisi!
ni zhidao shenzhen huozhe xianggang you zheyang de difang ma?

A good start

Mag is a busy person. Recently she started her Mandarin lessons with the new option: private lessons + online lessons. She is the first to do this. Let's see some facts:

We have had two lessons, total 4 hours. And she spent time listening to the audio lessons at home or on the ferry and learn the meaning of the words and pronunciation. So when we were in our lesson, the focus is on maximum practice. So, in these 4 hours, she has accomplished at least 6 hours of usual class time.

I shall say it's a good start!


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