The jing

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-24 09:24

Film stars working for free?

The new hit film, The Founding of a Republic, created especially for the upcoming 60th anniversary celebrations debuted last weekend and boasts the largest number of Chinese movie stars ever in a single film. Some of these stars include Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Crouching Tiger Star Zhang Ziyi, whose performances tell the story of the founding of New China in 1949.

The blockbuster's paltry $6 million was kept in check due to many of the film's celebrities offering to work for free. This begs the question, which ones did not?

Long in the tooth?

Some younger expats may say middle-aged expats are a bit long in the tooth and according to the Jing's Chinese dentist, they are right. The dentist says the roots of teeth from Western nations are generally longer than those of his Chinese patients because expats from countries with dairy-heavy diets have deeper roots because of the large calcium intake.

Weird ways of learning

Some desperate Chinese language students are trying a bizarre mix of hypnosis and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to lift their game. Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness in which the mind becomes detached from its usual concerns. In the conscious state, the brain thinks and analyzes continuously, and the unconscious mind takes a back seat. The conscious mind is a little like a teenager, high on energy and annoyingly low on discipline. One student said his conscious mind was hijacking his lessons. Beijing hypnotherapist Barry Disch, who also uses acupuncture, put the fellow into a deep state of relaxation. He calmly tells the subconscious about the joys of Chinese language. Believing treatment is a key factor for the cure. One needs to be very open to meditation, hypnotherapy, TCM, and the concept of chi energy.

Expat history repeats itself

During the Tang times there were large numbers of foreigners flowing through the land, buying and selling and exchanging ideas just as there are today. The Tang Dynasty's capital was Chang'an, or today's Xi'an, and at the time, it was the world's biggest city- teeming with more than 1 million people. About 12 percent - that's 120,000 people - were expats. In AD 838, a Japanese ambassadorial mission came to China and one member of the group, a Buddhist monk by the name of Ennin, wrote a detailed dairy of his nine-year sojourn. Ennin's diary has become the fascination of American Virginia Stibbs Anami, who pieced together the monk's path over the past 25 years. She has written a very interesting picture book about her experience, entitled Following in the Footsteps of Monk Ennin. It's well worth the read.

Bye bye belly button boys

The bare bellies of Beijing are slowly disappearing and will soon be forced into hibernation as winter approaches. Summer forces T-shirts to appear all over China, exposing some of the best bellies in the world. So bid adieu to these Buddha-style bellies, which will no longer be bouncing around, defiant and proud. But an interesting fact is that our belly buttons, according to Chinese tradition, are a very important point on the body and are worthy of more attention. The belly button is called the spirit tower gate and the heart and kidney energy cross at this strategic point. TCM experts believe if your energy is strong and has good flow, the belly button will stay in good shape, which is round and deep. If your energy flow is weak and your belly button's shape becomes shallow and changes.