northeastern china culture

•Manchuria -- a geographical region of China.

• Consists of three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, known as the Three Northeastern Provinces, but broadly also encompasses part of eastern Inner Mongolia.

•Another term for the area is Guandong, meaning "east of the Pass," referring to the famous Shanhai Pass between Liaoning and the neighboring Hebei Province to the west.

东北（ DONGBEI ）

沈阳

Er Ren Zhuan is a genre of local folk dance and song from Northeast China. It usually consists of two people, a boy and a girl. They sing as well as dance, using folded fans or red square handkerchiefs (which are twirled along as a song is performed) during the dancing portion. It is very popular due its humorous dialogue and sketches, which have eclipsed the old dances and songs.

Yangge, or "Rice Sprout Song," is a form of Chinese folk dance originating from the Song Dynasty. It is very popular in northeast China and is one of the most representative form of folk arts. It is popular in both the countryside and cities in northern China. It is especially popular among older people. Crowds of people will go out into the street in the evening and dance together in a line or a circle formation.

Some dancers dress up in red, green, or other colorful costumes, and typically use a red silk ribbon around the waist. They will swing their bodies to music played by drum, trumpet, and gong. More people will join in as they see YangGe going on and dance along.

Houses in North China are mostly made of bricks in the courtyard style. For houses in Northeast China, the style is almost the same as that in North China except for the walls. As Northeastern China is extremely cold, walls are built thicker and more solid than those of other places to retain warmth.

Northeastern Mandarin belongs to the branch of Mandarin, Chinese, and its large language family if Sino-Tibetan family. It is very similar to the Beijing dialect upon which Standard Chinese is based.Northeastern Mandarin retains elements from native Tungusic languages, Japanese, and Russian and there are enough differences to give the dialect its own distinctive characteristics. Ethnic Manchus speak Mandarin, and the Manchu language is almost extinct due to widespread assimilation to Han culture over the last four centuries. Mongols tend to be bilingual in their own languages (Mongolian) as well as Mandarin.

Some words that came from other language

噶斯 (Ga si) came from Japanese: ガス , means gas咧巴 (Lie Ba) came from Russian:Хлеб, means bread.笆篱子 (Ba Li Zi) came from Russian:Пале, means fence, or prison.

Although not considered a language in academic circles, Mandarin variants like Northeastern Mandarin often contribute to a strong regional identity. Native or fluent Chinese speakers can usually recognize a Northeasterner by his or her accent (similar to how a fluent English speaker can assume a person with a Southern American English accent to be from the Southern United States). Because of its informal usage of words and tones, comedians often use Northeast dialects when performing.

My home city--Shenyang is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious gathering place.The world's three major religions - Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, as well as the Chinese Taoism, has its own practice and activity places in shenyang.

Shenyang has following religion:Roman Catholicism BuddhismIslamismChristianismTaoism

The Catholic church became established in northeastern China by a French Franciscan missionary.Sacred Heart of Jesus Diocesan Cathedral Church was built in 1878, followed by a nursery and a school. During the Taiping Rebellion of 1900(Chinese cultural revolution), they were destroyed. Then the large cathedral was rebuilt, which remains the current Sacred Heart of Jesus Diocesan Cathedral in Shenyang. General construction style was European Renaissance architectural form, and a typical gothic architecture.

Buddhism is one of the greastest influence religious in shenyang. It was introduced into Liaodong in Wei, Jin, Tang dynasty and widely spread in shenyang. For example, the famous buddhist temple is chang 'an temple, Qing Imperial temple, etc.

During the cultural revolution, large buddhist establishments were occupied and destroyed, all the religious activities were stopped. After the third plenary session of the eleventh, part of the religious activity places were rebuilt and continued religious activities.

The earliest written records of Islam's diffusion to shenyang is now in the Palace Museum of the yuan dynasty (in 1352). In 1662, Tie Kui paid for building the first mosque in shenyang-- The Shenyang South Mosque. The overall design of the the Mosque is Chinese ancient temple style. The other major constructions are moon building, kiln hall, teaching room, and classic-learning room.

Christianity was diffused into China after the First Opium War, and then diffused to Shenyang, Liaoning Province.

In 1872, the Presbyterian church of Scotland send missionary reverend John to Shenyang, established Shenyang Dongguan Christian Council.

Now Shenyang has 23 Christian church, 48 missionary staff, around 150000 followers.

Taoism was diffused to Liaoning Province in Tang Dynasty. Shenyang is the major practicing place of Taoist activities in the northeast China.

In 1352, a Taoist called Yunshan created Shenyang Chenghuang Temple.

After that, Taoism began to develope and built more famous Taoism temples, such as Taiqing Palace(established in 1663 Qing Dynasty), etc.

The most famous Taoism Temple is Peng Ying Palace( 蓬瀛宫 )