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Contents 6 Contributors 7 Nanjing Nomads 8 Editorial
THE
www.thenanjinger.com
APRIL 2020
Volume#10/Issue#5
#93
9 Poem; April 4; A New Tradition 10 Draw Loom Enlightenment How China Helped Dress The Beatles
14 Hume, Hope & Happiness; A Tradition of Human Survival
18 How WeChat, Urbanites & Consumerism Destroyed China’s Traditions 22 Strainer
Next Time, Baby, I’ll be Bullet Proof
23 Great Nanjingers (1)
The 5th Century’s Human Computer; Zu Chongzhi
24 The Trip
Yunnan; Tie Dye’s Blue & White Spiritual Home
26 For Art’s Sake
Nanjing Mapped Out; From City Walls to Psychedelic Spectrograms
27 Our Space 30 The Gavel
Civil Code of PRC; A Crossroads of Tradition and Innovation
31 Metro Map
4
Introducing some of our contributors, editors & designers Our Editor-in-chief and Music Critic, Frank Hossack, has been a radio host and producer for the past 35 years, the past 27 of which working in media in China, in the process winning four New York Festivals awards for his work, in the categories Best Top 40 Format, Best Editing, Best Director and Best Culture & The Arts. 贺福是我们杂志的编辑和⾳乐评论员，在过去的35 年⾥⼀直从事电台主持和电台制⽚的⼯作。在中 国有近27年的媒体⼯作经验。⼯作期间他曾经四 次获得过纽约传媒艺术节⼤奖，分别是世界前40 强节⽬奖，最佳编辑奖，最佳导演奖以及最佳⽂ 化艺术奖。 Francesca Leiper, from Scotland, is currently a columnist at the Nanjinger. She studies art history at Nanjing University of the arts and is fascinated by Nanjing’s Republican Period architecture. Francesca Leiper来⾃苏格兰，⽬前是南京⼈杂志 的专栏作家。她就读于南京艺术学院艺术史专业， 对南京民国时期的建筑⾮常着迷。 Roy Ingram has over 25 years experience working as an artist and Creative Director. His early career was with agencies in London but for the past eight years he has lived and worked in Nanjing. Roy Ingram先⽣有着超过25年的创意总监和艺术 家的⼯作经历。他早期的职业⽣涯是在伦敦的⼀ 家机构⾥开始的，但是在⼋年前他决定来到南京 ⽣活⼯作。 Matthew Stedman has spent years living and working in China. He has sold Chinese tea in the UK, and loves discussing the miraculous leaf with new (and suspicious) audiences. He however never feels happier than when researching the product here in beautiful South China. Matthew Stedman在中国⽣活⼯作了多年。多年在 中英两国从事茶叶贸易的他，喜欢和新读者讨论神 奇的东⽅树叶(虽然有时他的读者保持怀疑态度)。 没什么⽐在美丽的江南⾛访品尝各种茶叶更让他开 ⼼的事了。 Legal columnist Carlo D’Andrea came to China in 2005 and now heads up a boutique law firm which is a point of reference as a wellestablished entity in the international legal profession serving Chinese and foreign companies wishing to globalise themselves. He has been admitted to the Italian Bar Association and is Chairman of the EUCCC Shanghai Board. 法律专栏作家Carlo D’Andrea于2005年来到中国 ，如今正领导着⼀家精品律师事务所，作为国际律 师界的标杆和翘楚，向中国和外国公司提供服务以 助其实现全球化。他不仅是意⼤利的执业律师，同 时还是中国欧盟商会上海分会的主席。
THE
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APRIL 2020
Sponsor 办单位 SinoConnexion 贺福传媒
Publisher 编辑出版 The Nanjinger《南京⼈》杂志社
Operating Organization 运营机构 Nanjing Hefu Cultural Media Co., Ltd. 南京贺福⽂化传媒有限公司
Contributors 特约撰稿⼈ Triona Ryan Maitiu Brallaghan Steven Yeh
Columnists 专栏作家 Francesca Leiper Carlo D’Andrea Matthew Stedman
Editor-in-chief 主编 Frank Hossack 贺福
Graphic Design and Layout 平⾯设计与布局 SinoConnexion 贺福传媒 Web: sinoconnexion.com
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Volume 10 / Issue 5 / April 2020 “Tradition” Copyright 2020, SinoConnexion Ltd. Published in the United Kingdom ISSN 2051-9974
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7
In Love With Useless
W
e begin a new monthly column in this issue. And in a way, it’s odd that we’ve not done it before.
“Great Nanjingers”; prepare to make a spectacular entrance. See p.27. Hence to this month’s theme, and again, it is a surprise that in almost 10 years, we’ve not thought of this one. Firstly, totems and talismans tell tales of hope, human endurance and Humanity’s collective ability to overcome and thrive in times of adversity. Times like these. See p.14-17.
Elsewhere, many readers may be wondering as to the cover of this issue; what on earth could Scotland have to do with Nanjing? Or China? More than you might think, as we investigate ties between the two, or three, from the wonderful world of weaving. See p.10-12. Lastly, the Chinese calendar is literally awash with festivals. But how has their observance diminished in the world of WeChat, consumerism and urbanity? See p.18-20. Welcome to “Tradition” from The Nanjinger.
Ed.
S
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2
By M a it iu Bralligan
April 4: A New Trad ition With fire crackers and streets of red, The Nian is once said to have been put to bed. Now “jia you” calls across cowed city towers, Inspiring new hearts in these darkest of hours. Ifevery tradition begins with an action Which only through time becomes an abstraction Ofwhat it once was, well so let it begin. Maybe in time at New Year we’ll sing “Jia you” from windows wide open for luck, Then sit down to feasts of fish and duck Dishes. And our children’s grandchildren will wonder. What it’s all about, this communal thunder. And they’ll be retold the story, told by families all, Ofhow a people stayed strong thanks to these calls, Defeated their demon with songs through the air... But for now, I can only offer my thoughts and my prayers.
9
10
By Frank Hossack
Key to our story is the draw loom.
11
Image courtesy Nanjing Brocade Institute
As the dynasties passed, Chinese brocade became
joined by John Murphy, also of Glasgow, who in
ever more complex, while its dynamic lines, rich
1827, published “A Treatise on the Art of Weaving”.
colours and designs began also to exhibit reverence
Now regarded as one of the classics in weaving
for happiness, life and death, marriage, ancestry,
literature, the treatise contains that era’s best
nature, heaven and earth. As such, just like the
known description of the draw loom.
setting sun, the beauty of brocade garments
All this well placed Paisley to be at the centre of the
became famous across the world.
weaving revolution.
Egypt, Syria and Palestine were all early adopters of the loom for creating patterns, likely later in the second century. Then Europe took it to the next level that saw its zenith in the famous Mozac Hunter Silk in Lyon, France. Dated 671 CE, the masterpiece employed
one
of
the
most
sophisticated
Everything changed for the town as Paisley Pattern designs sprung up all over western Europe. That which began as an imitation of the Kashmir shawl soon became the Louis Vuitton or Prada of their day, a symbol of wealth and status among upper-class women.
technologies of the time, the loon had at least 800
When the young Queen Victoria in 1842 was said to
draw cords and 2,700 different combinations of
have purchased 17 of them, the Paisley Shawl
warp threads.
became the de facto fashion garment for discerning
Then the learned Scots enter our narrative. For they and the Chinese were to be the world’s draw loom consummate craftsmen.
ladies everywhere. With the onset of the 1860s, Paisley had no less than 71 shawl manufacturers, churning out not only the stuff of royalty, but also affordable and accessible versions for people across
The Scottish Enlightenment was a period from the late
the world.
18th to the early 19th centuries in Scotland, which saw
Bringing our story up to date, in the Year of History,
intellectual and scientific accomplishments emerge en masse. As such, there was a disproportionate contribution from Scottish writers in many fields of study, expertise and vocation. Among them was the “Practical and Descriptive Essays on the Art of Weaving” by Glasgow textile manufacturer, John Duncan, published in 1808. Therein were brief descriptions of the different types of draw loom in use at the time as well as the principles on which they operated. He was
Heritage and Archaeology that was 2017, the Paisley shawls were named as one of 25 objects that shaped Scotland’s history. Nanjing has a sister city in England in York, but not one in Scotland. There is a powerful case to be made for the twinning of Nanjing and Paisley; as producers of perhaps the most iconic garments ever made, the two would indeed sit comfortably at opposite ends of the axis of global textile trade. 12
Hume, Hope & Happiness; A Tradition of Human Survival By Triona Ryan
T
raditions tell us how to be who we are. This year, for the first time in the history of The Republic, Ireland has had to cancel
its St. Patrick’s Day Parades, and even worse, the pubs have been closed as well. At a time when Nanjingers are looking to erudites of similar extraction for hope, David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher of the 18th century, springs to mind as an example of sense and pragmatism in the unsettling “Times of Cholera”. If Covid-19 is going to close the pubs on the Irish, a pox must indeed be upon us. 14
W
riters have long used the concept
that essentially, any idea of a self or soul that
of plague to explore the depths of
persists through time and change is mere
Humanity’s compassion and self-
illusion, a fabrication of the mind. Hume
awareness. From Gabriel García Márquez’s
believed that the prevalent notion of the self
“Love in the Time of Cholera” to Albert
as a solid identity was incorrect, a flat earth
Camus’
to the globe of consistent layers of self laid
“The
Plague”
and
Somerset
Maughan’s “The Painted Veil”, authors have explored the possibility of life suddenly and permanently ending, and the strange tricks this assertion of finality plays on the human psyche. We contemplate our mortality, and plug our ears to the soul screaming that follows, asking ourselves, “Where is that ghastly noise coming from?” And then?
down over time. Emotion shapes our responses to stimuli, and these responses are recorded as sensorial memory. If we feel scalded and angry at the sharp sting of a nettle, we avoid
the
hairy
demons
in
future.
However, our memory recall of this responses
is
also
filtered
so
each
through
This is when we summon up our self-
emotional lenses,
reliance and powers of reason and attack
memory of the nettle’s seething white
time
the
the heart of the matter. In a case like Covid-
spots exploding on my ankle is conjured
19, a “Coronapocalypse”, we summon up
up in the mind, it is coloured by the
our best self, activate our critical thinking
contemporary self who recalls it. Our
skills and rationally work towards the best
recollections are shaped by the self that is
solution. Right?
doing the recalling. Is that self happy?
Hume calls hokey.
Mad? Amused? Any memory is therefore
In his “Treatise on Human Nature”, (1739),
over time, as the self constructing and
Hume posits that, “The self is nothing but a
evaluating is also in a constant process of
bundle of impressions and ideas”. He argues
flux, growth and change.
susceptible to subjective reevaluation
15
This is important when it comes to dealing with new experiences and challenges. We must be aware of the power of the “passions”, as Hume calls them, to colour our perceptions. Now, I mention this because us Irish also know a bit about the self, and tradition. For many years, Ireland struggled to establish a Hibernian identity, learning
and new year’s resolutions; songs, swish, smoke. Traditions worldwide jump on the ceremonial bandwagon. Here in Nanjing, we burn money on the sidewalk and incense in temples. We sweep away old pig symbols of new years past and paste up new rats for the coming year. We gaze at the moon and ask, like Seán O’Casey’s brave Captain, “What is the stars, what is the stars?”
sense of identity during the years of occupation.
We acknowledge time, impermanence. Traditions often mirror life in their eclectic randomness. Rolling with the randomness seems to be the way forwards, using traditions as clearings in the brush to hop over life’s nettles.
Hedge schools popped up in the.., erm.. hedges,
When it comes to the idea of tradition, we often
where subjects were taught in Gaelic, while the
assume that there’s a bundle of it out there
world-weavers, the Seanachaí, travelled from house
somewhere, a nicely rolled ball of belief, like yarn,
to house each dusk, their words shaping the heroes
stretching from the beginning of time immemorial to
of old, giving them longings and loves and losses,
now, made up by people who knew what they were
tales from the old country, when we were still a free
doing. The naming of a child when it is born, for
and noble people.
example, or the celebration of a birthday or even the
a navigate a new world, in a new mother tongue. Despite the Penal Laws and the outlawing of the Irish language, the catholic religion and the old ways of life woven into each Gaelic syllable, tradition played a huge role in maintaining the strong Irish
These stories reminded us of who were, who we used to be. They contained the promise of a better future, when, like the heroes in the stories, we would overcome.
Music
from
our
grandfathers’
grandfathers’ soaked into the smoothed timber of the instruments handed down at wakes. Our collective past is woven into these stories, these acts of connection with the lifeblood of our cultures. St. Brigid’s crosses made of rush on 1 February to bless the house for the year ahead, the burying of the Child of Prague head-first under an apple tree the night before a wedding to ensure a dry day, sweeping the old year out across the threshold on 31 December and welcoming the new one in with song and laughter a second later. Traditions that make no sense, just like life.
ceremonial acknowledgment of the passing of a loved one. Tradition is culture blind. Worldwide, we use it as an umbilical cord to our soul, to reinforce our belief in ourselves. And we made them up as we went along, the same as we are doing right now. Taking time to sit with ourselves, to contemplate our traditions, lets those traditions remind us of who we are, of our common past and shared present, our anticipated
future.
They
allow
a
time
for
introspection and for understanding the natural laws of nature. They permit the mind to kaleidoscope and consider past selves, in different times, the changes that have transpired since last year, or last season or “the last time”. The allow us to craft the narrative of experience that we refer to as “the self”. Myself.
The story is ours to tell.
The mothers passed down the songs, the words came to us through women. The songs, the swish of the brush, the crisp cool air at midnight, thick with coal smoke
16
Right now, Coronapocalypse is upon us. “What should we do? How can we survive this?”, we all ask. When confronted with the end, the human spirit flinches. “Not me”, we say. “Not now.”
A man is interviewed by the CDC. They explain that he has two options for quarantine. A solemn voiceover says, “You can A.) Go into quarantine with your wife and child, or B.)…”
To understand the soul screaming, we need to admit
“B. B. Mmmhmm. Definitely B,” replies the man, eyebrows like Golden Arches.
to ourselves that life sounds ugly, scraped and frail,
Our capacity to see beauty and laugh in these times
sometimes. When life spits in your eye and stomps
manifests itself manifold. We stay in. We stay
on your foot, it is not targeting you. It’s just like a
positive. We stay striving.
child, doing its thing from time to time.
Traditions are totems and talismans, telling tales of
And just as at times, we react with composure,
hope,
compassion and calm to the minor gales that blow
collective ability to overcome and thrive in times of
though our days when raising little people with
adversity. When the world is spinning so fast that
growing brains, so too, do we respond with
you don’t know whether you’re pushing out of the
equanimity to adverse life circumstances, like scary
hurricane or into the eye, don’t stop. But remember,
apocalyptic virus’ that swoop down upon us with the
whilst you push, the Scotsman’s advice; “Beauty in
same predictability as a 3-year-old’s temper tantrum. Other times, we lose our sh*t. Hume argues that destroying the idea that there is a single, enduring, self is the key to empowerment. “The tendency to joy and hope is true happiness.” By allowing that change is life, that we cannot always react optimally to situations that set our
of
human
endurance
and
Humanity’s
things exists in the mind which contemplates them”. We do have a choice as to how we remember this time, this defining moment in our generation. Let it be contemplated as a mother does her child, as a student does campus, as the Irish shall the re-opening of the
Temples of the Lord, Arthur Guinness.
emotional kaleidoscopes tripping, we can give space to the waves of justified anxiety and terror, yes,
terror,
that
come with
the
thought
of
homeschooling and other calamities of life. As the west begins its journey through the Coronapocalypse, the memes begin. “The Irish close the pubs due to Covid-19. The Irish develop new 15-minute test to diagnose Covid-19. Cold fusion by the end of the week, lads, if we can keep sober.”
“The Covid-19 epidemic has been engineered by women to shut down sporting events and close the pubs.”
17
&
how WeChat,urbanites consumerism destroyed China’s traditions
W
hen I was a third grader, my family used to take moon cakes and chairs outside to sit in front of the lake, admiring the full moon for an hour. It was exciting for the first 5 minutes,
but later, I realised there were lots of mosquitos flying in my face and around my legs, trying to bite me. Plus, I was so bored staring at the moon that I asked my parents whether we could go back. Since that year, we have only glanced at the full moons for a few seconds before continuing our work; we think it’s useless to gaze at the moon, sitting still for an hour.
By Steven Yeh
Somehow, I miss the peace of that evening with the mosquitos.
mosquito 蚊⼦ (wén zi) 18
In the rapidly evolving 21st century, people are so caught up with work that many do not value some of the cultural traditions inherited from generations past. Yet, they remain part of our culture and identity, even though their
Then there is the commercialism that has immeasurably distorted traditional festivals.
context and meaning have changed. Also
known
as
the
moon
festival,
the
Mid-Autumn Festival is a harvest festival originating 3,000 years ago in the Zhou Dynasty. Each year, its emperors worshipped the moon goddess, Chang’e, because they believed it would result in a plentiful harvest next year. Conversely, today’s urbanites are so obsessed with work that they only remember the version of the familiar legend that is Chang’e and Hou Yi flying to the moon. Not being farmers, they forget its origin, making the moon festival seem very archaic.
The historical context of moon worship in the Zhou dynasty and the homemade moon cake eating of the later Ming Dynasty and Qing dynasties were purposed for family reunion. On the other hand, today’s trend of buying, gifting and regifting luxurious moon cakes for social purpose has diminished the festival’s cultural significance.
With people also now realising that moon cakes are sugary, calorific and unhealthy, an increasing disdain for the Mid-Autumn Festival is the result. 19
When it comes to Tomb-Sweeping Day, in my family, we never sweep tombs during the 3 day festival because it is too rushed for us to do the roundtrip between Nanjing and Taiwan. Essentially, we don’t believe tomb-sweeping has to be at a specific time of the year. Therefore, we tomb sweep when we have the chance to go to Taiwan. Besides the actual tomb-sweeping, spring outings and flying kites were “spring-welcoming” activities during the festival which I did with my family when I was a first and second grader. These unforgettable childhood memories are not likely to be experienced again because, compared to the Chinese NewYear holiday, the 3 days can be seen as a more relaxed work day at home for many. The tight schedule of school and work continues after the short break, likely making employees and students “not in the mood” for days off.
Equally, many Chinese New Year traditions are less likely to happen because of urbanisation. One such tradition is killing the new year’s pig, but people during the agricultural era and those living in rural areas today rarely eat pork since they sell pigs for living. That, together with urbanites and their quality living conditions who often eat pork, make this tradition pointless. Then there are the fireworks! The Chinese government has banned firecrackers and fireworks in hundreds of cities, including Nanjing, due to air pollution and safety concerns. Many families like ours therefore use electronic fireworks, but without the real fireworks, the neighbourhood seems to lack a New-Year-Festival spirit.
What’s more, red envelopes (“hong bao”) are traditionally given by elders to juniors on New-Year’s night, but now, for many Chinese families, red envelopes sent using WeChat have become a replacement for the real deal. However, this physical-to-digital transformation lessens the meaning of the “lucky money,” as red envelopes are supposed to be placed under the pillow to rid the whole year of bad luck. Without the same level of blessing from family and friends, people are likely to forget the intention and connotation behind the gift. Yet, these traditional festivals have one thing in common; they enable people to rest and spend quality time with family. Strong family relationships have health benefits such as reduced stress. Research by the Harvard Medical School suggests that they decrease the risk of premature death by 50 percent. In addition, life satisfaction, decreased job stress, increased creativity and improved mental health, together with physical improvements from quality rest are all associated with taking a holiday. As a package, they enhance our spiritual health, says independent mental health social network, Psych Central. Therefore, instead of overlooking the Mid-Autumn Festival, using TombSweeping Day to work or thinking about how Chinese New Year is meaningless, it is more beneficial to use the time available during these traditional festivals to slow down in our fast-paced, busy lives, so that we can reconnect with ourselves, our family and our values. 20
Baby, Next Time,
By Matthew Stedman
I’ll be Bullet-Proof
H
e’s been described as “half the man he used to be”; the UK politician who has dramatically lost weight. Asked on the radio about his outward transformation, Tom Watson explained that he had been addicted to sugar but weaned himself off. Conversation then shifted to the drink in his hand, the interviewer identifying it as a “bullet-proof coffee”; coffee with not milk, sugar or even cream, but butter. Yes, butter! That, said Watson, was the other secret of his weight loss. Now, it seems entirely counter-intuitive that butter could be any kind of slimming agent. At around 750 kCal per 100g, only lard (900+) and extra virgin olive oil (1000+) are more calorific. The key to bullet proof’s purported function is “ketosis”. Not only does this butter coffee replace your breakfast now, it allegedly also suppresses appetite and helps burn remaining calories in the body during the fast. I’m less a coffee than a tea man. But FOMO had my mouth foaming. And I thought today’s home-made “bullet -proof tea” sounded like an innovation on the concept. Of course, when preparing it, I was also very aware of the Tibetan tradition of preparing tea with butter and salt. As with the “onion stuff” I drank in a previous Strainer, this was something I’d been wanting to try. I used the same Henan dark brick tea. And (foolishly, it turned out) I boiled it up for even longer this time. I put a lot of butter in the teapot. But, with the liquor lacking that paleness I’d seen in pictures online, I added some milk as well. As recommended in a B-P Coffee fan site, I used unsalted butter (“because salty coffee would be gross!”), but expected to add salt itself later, so as to taste it both ways.
In the event, like my wife, I preferred it with salt. It tastes more like a meal that way. And, with that oily film on the top, it somehow needs to taste like a meal. Sugar may be nice instead, but probably not with salt. The result was similar to the Milk Tea that friends from Inner Mongolia have given me. Despite this being “fresh” rather than made from powder, I don’t consider the taste very different. Nice? Well, it has to be tried. I do know many real fans. It’s a lot better than the onion one. And I will drink this again if anyone ever offers me a real yakbutter version. When I set out writing this article, I was taking full ownership of this coincidence; the connection seemed mine to make. But that’s where I was wrong. You see, the term isn’t longstanding slang. It isn’t like “on the rocks” or “going comanche”; it’s only about ten years old, according to Wikipedia. The etymology leads us to David Asprey, a contemporary Californian body-hacker. And “bullet proof” doesn’t describe the butteriness of the coffee; it merely namechecks his own lifestyle brand. This could easily have been called Livestrong or Goop Coffee instead. Tibet is to Asprey’s bullet-proof butter what Thailand is to Dietrich Mateschitz’s taurine (the Red Bull ingredient). The diet guru allegedly discovered the concept while trekking there and drinking tea like today’s, later translating it to American Joe. So much for my innovation and insight. I’ve just found all this out. Did butter tea suppress my appetite? Well, it certainly delayed my lunch, because I was suddenly so grumpy I didn’t want to sit down anywhere with anyone. I did finally eat a lot, after returning from a long, grumpy cycle-ride in the rain. I guess that’s more caffeine than is good for me. 22 21
Great Nanjingers (1) By Frank Hossack
The 5th Century’s Human Computer; Zu Chongzhi Bust of Zu Chongzhi in the Beijing Ancient Observatory. Image courtesy Hans A. Rosbach
Zu Chongzhi (祖冲之) had a thing for circles. In fact, he knew his way around an ellipse better possibly than gravity itself. Such was the extent of Zu’s influence, this Great Nanjinger had parks, roads and schools named after him. Commemorative silver coins have even been struck in his image. Above us in the heavens, Zu’s name has been given to asteroids and craters. And as we will see, the modern automobile industry owes him a debt of gratitude too. Zu was the mathematician of his day, but he also had a keen interest in natural science and literature, philosophy and astronomy. In retrospect, we might today describe Zu as the essential link between mathematics and astronomy. Born in 429 CE, when Nanjing went by the name of Jiankang, Zu’s ancestral home was Xishui County in Hebei Province. The family settled in our neck of the woods after an en-masse migration brought on by the outbreak of war. With his grandfather a master of civil engineering and a family involved in astronomical research, Zu’s exposure to astronomy and mathematics brought about in him a love for numbers. Yet, he was also a revolutionary thinker who wished not to blindly accept conclusions of the ancients. His talent earned him much repute as an astronomer who calculated time values with unprecedented precision. As a youth, Zu successfully predicted four solar eclipses over a 23 year period. His method utilised Zu’s own calculation for the length of the moon’s nodical period (draconic month) as 27.21223 days. We know today the actual number to be 27.21222 days.
Such findings also paved the way for Zu’s calculating of the planet Jupiter’s year. He found it to be 11.858 years. Today’s astronomy puts it at 11.862 years. That’s 1,500 years of progress for you. Zu also calculated the orbits of Earth, Venus, Mars and Saturn. No wonder, therefore, that the far side of the moon sports a small impact crater named “Tsu Chung-Chi” (one of many photographed by Luna 3 in 1959; politics of the time dictated that the list include an American and a Chinese) and that “1888 Zu Chong-Zhi” is the alternative name for asteroid “1964 VO1”. In the realm of mathematics, as the Sheng-Ming reign period (477–479 CE) was coming to an end, Zu found himself commissioned to perfect the “south-pointing chariot”. The British scientist and historian of the time, Joseph Needham, wrote that, until Zu, “these vehicles, constructed as they had been by barbarian (Qiang) workmen, did not function particularly well. Though called south-pointing carriages, they very often did not point true, and had to negotiate curves step by step, with the help of someone inside to adjust the machinery”. Without Zu’s solution, a precision three-gear differential, not only would the south-pointing chariot not have been perfected, we would also not have the cars we love driving around in so much today. More than a millennia and a half ago, this Great Nanjinger brought to the world many of its first modern inventions and discoveries. Zu’s lasting legacy however, would be a feat that was not to be surpassed for 800 years; the calculating of pi to seven decimal places, somewhere between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927. 23
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Trip
Yunnan; Tie Dye’s Blue & White Spiritual Home
By Frank Hossack
If there was one word to describe Yunnan, likely that word would be “spiritual”. And if there were roads to Heaven, they would look like the tarmac strips that ascend the skies over this gem of southwest China.
This is where the Himalayas begin. Yunnan is of course a huge tourist draw, particularly during China’s major holiday periods. Not so at Christmas, which is when The Nanjinger chose to go to Lijiang. It’s cold, for sure (a dry, bearable cold; lip balm essential), but the lack of people makes it tranquil. 24
Lijiang lies in northwestern Yunnan Province from where it is only about 100 kilometres to Myanmar as the crow flies. At an elevation of 2,400 metres, flying into Lijiang is excitement in itself, as the mountains on either side of the plane seem to get nearer and nearer. Dawn of day 1 was spent waiting for the sun to rise sufficiently to reveal our target; Jade Dragon Snow Mountain that is the most southerly snowcapped mountain in the Northern Hemisphere. At 5,596 metres, it would tower 800 metres above Mont Blanc, the summit of Europe. As part of the 5A scenic area, Yulong Snow Mountain National Scenic Area and National Geological Park, an ascent of the mountain was our first order of business. However, the increasingly blustery winds that morning forced a closure of the cable car that would have taken us most of the way, before a climb of a few hundred steps to one of the highest observation platforms in the world, elevation 4,680 metres. The disappointment was only partial, as everywhere we looked were views that were almost biblical. With all three of us feeling the effects of altitude sickness kicking in, this is where the disposable oxygen bottles came out. And where our driver’s advice and local knowledge became a great enhancement to the holiday. He then turned the car southwards, destination Zhoucheng town on the outskirts of Dali, 2 hours drive away.
This is the home of the irresistible summer accessory that is tie dye. While the craft itself is thought to date back to the central plains of China 1,000 years ago, in Zhoucheng, tie dye is practiced by the Bai people, just one of the 25 ethnic minorities which comprise some 38 percent of the Yunnan population.
Our tie dye teacher was an old women who spoke in the Bai tongue that is one of the Tibeto-Burman languages. Making an uneducated guess at one word in ten, we fumbled our way through the stitching, twisting and tying part of the process, after which our creations were plumped into the vast wooden vat of isatus tinctoria for the dying. Their proximity to those great, wide skies has given the Bai their favourite colours. The blue and white can be seen everywhere; from their tie dye to their architecture. It is said that the contrast of these two colours reflect the beauty and simplicity of the Bai’s peaceful and tolerant minds. Back in Lijiang, the World Cultural Heritage Site that is Lijiang Old Town is the most important traditional habitat of the Naxi ethnic minority. Indeed, the majority of the 300,000-strong tribe live in Lijiang. There, the Naxi ancients created the “Dongba” script that dates back to the 7th century. It is now the only living hieroglyph in the world. Treading the cobblestones of the Old Town is the way to discover hidden delights, such as the museum that tells of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. With Myanmar and Bengal at one end, and Tibet and Sichuan Province at the other, Yunnan was the link along which Tibetan ponies were traded for Chinese tea in a practice dating back at least 1,000 years. Such sturdy horses were vital in China’s fighting of the warring nomads in the north. As a worthwhile break from the geographical monotony of China’s eastern China, the Trip to Yunnan was also standout for us as an underscoring of the vast diversity of the Chinese people. If you don’t like the cold, and don’t mind a few crowds, The Nanjinger recommends to visit Yunnan in April, May or October (avoiding holidays). 25
FOR ARTS SAKE with Francesca Leiper
Nanjing Mapped Out From City Walls to Psychedelic Spectrograms
It’s 22 February, 2020 and Xuanwu Lake has just reopened to the public after a long spell of closure in attempts to control the spread of the new coronavirus. I open up Baidu maps to suss out the best route and find them not to be the usual grey, but rather a panoply of colours, like oil spilled on water. Red blotches indicate areas with a high density of people, which gradually flood through orange, yellow and all the colours of the rainbow to purple. That’s where I find myself, in one of the quiet spots. It’s a nifty feature, and the child inside me is drawn to the multicolour shapes that continuously morph throughout the day. But for all its colourful vibrancy, this version of Nanjing maps, somewhat ironically, marks a rather less colourful time to be staying in China. Maps are one way in which we visually process and understand the world around us. We often think of them as objective and accurate, but in fact they conceal just as much as they reveal. They may be useful tools for navigation, but equally they can be made as propaganda, as works of art or fanciful imaginations of non-existent worlds. If you look at a world map in China you’ll find the Middle Kingdom is placed front and centre, with the “West” sat on what appears the eastern half of the map. Who’s to say where is east, west or middle, but this simple example demonstrates how our different views of the world are manifest in maps. The earliest painted world map in China follows the above format, although interestingly it was made in collaboration between the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci and Ming dynasty official Li Zhizao. The map exists in several later copies, one of which can be seen in a large reproduction at Solar Villa (Mingshe Puzhai) in Nanjing. Around the main image, additional maps and diagrams explain the logic of other astrological phenomena, such as solar eclipses and how to calculate the 24 solar terms; ideas that would change the Chinese people’s understanding of the universe. Combined into one huge painted image, this map in many ways represents the merits of crosscultural engagement at that time. Maps of what we now call Nanjing were made from as early as the 3rd century. Often vastly disproportionate in scale, ancient maps instead highlight important features of the city at any given moment. Nanjing’s magnificent city walls for example consistently feature prominently in maps of the last 600 years. When Nanjing became capital again in 1927, there was a great frenzy of mapmaking as the government drew up blueprints of a city that was to be an exemplar of modern China. Maps were made to demark districts, to carve out the transport and sewage systems, but in reality few of them reflected the true state of the city at the time – predominantly open fields with a number of overflowing shantytowns. These map were idealised visions of a Nanjing to be. They were not made to navigate through the city, but to navigate through Nanjing’s, and indeed China’s, “glorious rejuvenation”. It’s easy to think that with satellite imaging maps these days lack the complexity of hidden meanings found in their earlier editions, laden with inaccuracies and distortions, but just as maps become evermore sophisticated, so they are embellished with more intricate layers of meaning that have plenty to say about when, where and who is sat at the drawing board.
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BEAUTY By Frank Hossack
Top Cuts in Jiangning; Top Scissors! W
e’re willing to bet you need a haircut, like bad. And we’re also willing to bet that you’d prefer to avoid a crowded hairdresser where every customer, more or less, needs to take their mask off.
Hence the timing for this review. Top Scissors has, in fact, been going strong for 8 years. Many an expat downtown has made their main store in Deji Plaza the go-to choice for a hairdresser that knows what they’re doing with our foreign locks.
Less well known is the cosy branch of Top Scissors in Jiangning District, close to Biajia Hu. Located on the 6th floor of the Golden Eagle Summit Hotel on Shuanglong Avenue, beside the hotel’s gym and swimming pool, this hidden gem opened for business just over a year ago. Such a location is a clue as to the standards on offer; this publication can testify to the fact that Golden Eagle are sticklers for quality. Here, an excellent basic haircut will set you back ¥150, with no difference in price for man, woman or child. Same goes for ¥220 in the Top Scissors Deji Plaza HQ. Owner, Mr. Qin, takes his time to give you the right look, with very little prompting; it’s clear he knows his way around a head. Qin also speaks a degree of English. More importantly, Top Scissors offers solitude. With the salon’s other stylist absent on account he hails from Wuhan, what could be better these days than just you and your hairdresser? To guarantee that privacy, The Nanjinger recommends calling to make an appointment. After the cut, expect your new look to be invigorated with some Kérastase Paris (part of L’Oréal Professional) beauty oil, no doubt a means to tempt you to purchase from the conveniently-placed display. Top Scissors is located on 6F, Golden Eagle Summit Hotel, 1688 Shuanglong Avenue. Tel: 15151822866. 27
The oldest students from Year 9 upwards welcomed back to classes at the British School of Nanjing by a glorious Spring day. With new routines and a much quieter campus, those permitted to return enjoyed catching up with friends and teachers. Younger students are unlikely to return for some time, and so the school also distributed “home learning boxes�, with parents picking them up from the front gate, each one packed with activities and materials to keep the tiny ones busy at home.
B ra n d Ne w Da y 7 April, 2020
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With 87 percent of schools in the world experiencing Covid-19-related closures according to UNESCO, Nanjing International School (NIS) became one of few schools in the world to able to host students on campus this week; a tribute to our excellent Operations team, committed teachers and entire NIS crew. Some 85 students in grades 9 and 12 were some of the first in China to return to classes, while there is still plenty of online learning taking place for students that are not yet back on campus. Supporting them is something that is essential to the school’s approach in the coming days, weeks, and months.
St ar t in g Over 30 March, 2020
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Legal notes from The Nanjinger in association with:
D’Andrea & Partners Law Firm
Civil Code of PRC; A Crossroads between Tradition and Innovation
O
n occasion of the upcoming Annual Session of the National People’s Congress, a complete Draft of the first Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China is expected to be finally submitted for deliberation, concluding an ambitious project that started in 2012, but with a much longer history behind it.
group was dissolved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in 1981. However, the General Principles of Civil Law (GPCL) was promulgated in 1986 as an interim solution to meet the urgent needs of social and market development.
In fact, this great work, which confirms the Chinese legal system as belonging to the tradition of the Civil Law Systems, is not entirely new, as the idea of a comprehensive Chinese Civil Code can be seen in various eras of Modern China.
The GPCL laid down an important foundation for private law development in China. For the first time in PRC history, that the law explicitly stipulated that it shall govern property relations among the nation’s subjects with equal legal status. Therefore, it not only provided the urgently needed rules and guidelines, but also laid the foundation to develop a civil and commercial law system in China.
A first attempt at modern codification dates back to the late Qing Dynasty (1902–1911), in which basic laws were introduced as per tradition in Western countries. This became the first attempt of modern legislation in China, and it included both civil law and commercial law, modelled after the codes of Germany and Japan. Afterwards, following the 1911 Revolution, the nationalist government promulgated the first civil code in China’s history in 1930. This also followed the style of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch; BGB), mainly inspired by Roman Law and in particular the great corpus iuris civilis (“Code of Justinian”). The selection of a civil law system, instead of a common law system, by Chinese leaders was down to circumstances deeming it a better fit. However, the establishment of a socialist government in 1949 led to not only the complete abolition of the former legal system, but also to a domination of the Soviet-style planned economy for more than three decades. Therefore, the next round of codification was not initiated until the late 1970s after the economic reform and openingup policy was introduced by Deng Xiaoping. Although two drafts with more than 460 articles were prepared, political uncertainties of the time, together with insufficient experience and theoretic preparation, rendered it very difficult to achieve further progress. As a result, the drafting
The Chinese leadership was finally able to announce the codification of Chinese civil law in 2012. The General Rules of Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China (GRCL), adopted on 15 March 2017, were intended to be the first section of a codified PRC Civil Code, containing general legal principles also applicable to other sections of the planned Code, covering the law of personality, obligations, property law, family and estate law. This particular structure still evokes the BGB and, indirectly, the traditional Code of Justinian. However, the current process of civil codification in China appears to have distinctive features in many respects. The complexity of modern society and the economy has led western legislators to approve a myriad of special laws, which complements the civil code, frustrates the original aim of having a single code and expression of general principles which may govern any inter-subjective relations. In contrast. the Chinese civil code thus represents how the traditional and original structure of civil law codification may be reinterpreted and readapted for a contemporary and complex society. Whether or not the Chinese legislator has accomplished this exceptional goal is the next question to be asked.
DISCLAIMER This article is intended solely for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Although the information in this article was obtained from reliable official sources, no guarantee is made with regard to its accuracy and completeness. For more information please visit dandreapartners.com or WeChat: dandreapartners
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Download this map to your smartphone via The Nanjinger’s official WeChat account
The Nanjinger’s Metro Map is the only map of the city’s metro system to include first and last times for every station, perfect for planning a late night out or an adventure to somewhere new with an early start.
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