I found the reference, and made update now.

Alfred:

Thanks for your comment.
I also have trouble finding everything nowadays. Just now, when Piet told me about my reference to the Mac machine, my first reaction is to ask him where he found the refernece. Then I realized that I can just do a search on Mac machine. Presto, I found the papge :-)

I am using Hot Bot search engine. I think that when there is a delay, it was due to the busy traffic of that site.

On your page it is mentioned dat Macintosh Computers can't play wav-files. They can! No problem!

FROM:piet bakker Holland - Friday, May 29, 1998

Piet:

Thanks for the info.

I have been told about this by others, and have (I thought) updated the page on this point some time ago.

I have added a search engine to search just China the Beautiful.

If you enter a keyword(s), it will search for it not just in the titles, but everywhere within China the Beautiful. It works well and will not give you a lot of extreneous results.

Try search with the keyword Alfred and you will get what he wrote here :-)

My name is Marianne Meinertz I found your name on the Internet under China. I am going to China to namegive a new building of a ship. In that respect I have to give a speach and is therefore trying to get to know more about Chinese culture and legends. I am seeking information about the meaning of the Chinese dragon and since the shipe is beeing builde in 1998 which I take also is the year of the Tiger I would like to know more about that as well. If you could also supply me with information about symbols which relates to ships, seemen and the sea and have a good luck meaning I would very much appriciate it. Is there any specific symbols conected to Shanghai?

Dear Marianne:

Glad to hear about your forthcoming trip to Shanghai to give a speech.

I have misgivings about getting smybols and such and to read so-called "meanings" into them. Much of these things are quite meaningless stuff circulated among the un-informed. I would hate to have you trying to use them in a speech, and make a faux pas using them.

May I suggest that you make an effort to read up about the great Chinese mariner Zheng Ho, whose sailings are more remarkable than Christopher Columbus.

There is a bit about him if you click here.

As you are lauching a ship in Shanghai, some reference about him might be appropriate in a speech.

I enjoyed your website, especially the part about Cheng Ho's 400-foot ships. I have read Levathes' book, as well as other English-language books on the subject.

I am interested in an engineering study of such large ships. Are there any such engineering studies of Zheng He's ships in the Chinese language, that have been translated into English?

Or do you know someone in China, who speaks English, who has studied the engineering of these giant ships?

If you are living in Vancouver or Toronto or Calgary, you should have no problem getting a personalized seal for yourself.

I suggest you go to the Chinatown and visit one of the bookstores that sells Chinese seals. Ask the store owner where you can personalize a seal for yourself. They should be able to help you out.

If you can't find somebody to help you in Chinatown, you can go to the universities and ask the professors in the Chinese faculty. They should be able to help you. Dr. Lee is correct. Many of the Chinese seals are pieces of art. But they are very expensive and normal people cannot afford those high prices. For most of us, all you need is just a seal that distinguishes you from other people. The red "ink" that you mentioned again can be very expensive if you want to buy top quality ones. The difference is the expensive red ink will last hundreds of years and it won't fade out.

My name is Marianne Meinertz I found your name on the Internet under China. I am going to China to namegive a new building of a ship. In that respect I have to give a speach and is therefore trying to get to know more about Chinese culture and legends. I am seeking information about the meaning of the Chinese dragon and since the shipe is beeing builde in 1998 which I take also is the year of the Tiger I would like to know more about that as well. If you could also supply me with information about symbols which relates to ships, seemen and the sea and have a good luck meaning I would very much appriciate it. Is there any specific symbols conected to Shanghai?

I thank you kindly in advance.

Yours sincerely

Marianne Meinertz

I have no trouble reading his pages. He is in China, and the Chinese texts are coded in GB.

Other than songs and a dragon, from what I've seen of the story's other elements, such as the love interest, have been performed in Chinese Opera versions for decades. But I guess we'll see. At anyrate, kids will know who Mulan is now, right?

Julian, there's quite a couple of possibilities to fail in posting chinese character texts. First of all you have to make sure, that your browser (Netscape Gold 3.01 - I'm just about to start my experiences with Communicator 4.x) is set to the chinese encoding respective *the very moment you send the form*, otherwise you'll get 'garbage' on the guestbook. I have experienced, that you cannot use 'cut & paste' within the form with chinese encoding enabled! So, while doing this, switch back to the non-chinese mode and, after it, return to GB or BIG5. Make sure, that your message reappears in correct chinese character text - and only then click the *send* button!

If you first prepare your text with Netscape's editor (to get the html-format "all-by-itself" ;–) ) and after this 'refine' it in an external text program (like 'Nisus Writer') to perhaps replace some of the <P> </P> tags by <BR> etc., the correct chinese characters might get lost: write the character parts (again) in your external editor! (after switching back to Netscape, they will remain correct). Then copy the part of the text you want to post - not the whole HTML-page - and go online to paste it into the guest book's form (see above).

Alfred

There are several sources that you can find more on Sik Yan Kwai and his famous family members.

One is to read the "official history" on Tang Dynasty. But I am afraid there won't be too much coverage on him.

Thanks for the tips. I am trying it out while my son is at my side. See if it works.

I did try the Word cut and paste method, but it didn't work last several times, I will try again later if this doesn't work.

Reading Chinese on the Internet is getting easier now. It is no longer necessary to add an extra piece of software any more, because both Microsoft's Navigator 4.0 and Netscape's Communicator 4.0 broswer support and read Chinese without any help.
However, the Chinese font (big5 or GB) are not included in the standard package, so you need to download it. It is free, and anyone can download it.

See the details in wwwfaq.html in China the Beautiful.
Note: Last year I recommend HNVIEW. Now I recommend installing Chinese font to the browser.
The instructions are in great detail. Print it out.

I enjoy very much your site www.chinapage.com and its links showing the multi-facuet chinese culture. Like many others, I have been struggling to display Chinese characters on the screen.

I have downloaded hnview and I use Internet Explorer. So I could not follow your instruction given in your ....../viewer.hmtl page which pertains to Netscape Navigator. Probabaly there are similar options to be selected in Internet Explorer. Please enlighten me.

I then downloaded netscape navigator and followed the instruction, and did the tests. The tests all worked - a hnview window was opened automatically and displayed the peoms. That is the way it is supposed to work?

When I got to your other sites with links that showed the extension big5, and I clicked on those extension, the chinese characters were not displayed, the ususal garbage showed up in the browser window, and there was no hnview window brought up automatically. How is it supposed to work? I can manually open a hnview window, copy the garbage characters from the browser screen, and pasting to the hnview to show the chinses characters - but that is such a nuisance. I was expecting that when I click on the extension big5, a hnview window would automatically be opened as in the case of the installation tests, or better still the chinese characters show up in the browser window itself.

I would appreciate if you can provide me with further details.

Thank you very much

I now have the full text of Mulan Ci in both BIG5 and GB format, in addition to the calligraphy as well.

All of the text written in the "Comments" field of your discussions follow the rules of HTML, just as one would write a web page.

Briefly: 

(1) It must be a plain text file. 
(2) All "returns" are ignored.  
(3) Use <BR> or <P> to indicate a "new line" or "paragraph."
(4) You can include a hyper link to any where!  You can
    include a image file, or a link to http etc.
    This is quite useful.

When I can get around to it, I shall write a help file to explain this.

BTW, you can also prepare your discussion, offline or online, using Notpad, Word or anything else. Simply do a "cut and paste" into the discussion page when ready. That is, in the other program, high light the passage, Edit, Copy. Come to the Discussion, position the cursor within the area, Edit, Paste.

All of the text written in the "Comments" field of your discussions follow the rules of HTML, just as one would write a web page.

Briefly:

(1) It must be a plain text file. 
(2) All "returns" are ignored.  
(3) Use 
 or 
 to indicate a "new line" or "paragraph."
(4) You can include a hyper link to any where!  You can
    include a image file, or a link to http etc.
    This is quite useful.

When I can get around to it, I shall write a help file to explain this.

There is no single rule for translate one's name into Chinese.
You could adopt the same translation for James Bond.
I think it easier that you simply use just one Chinese word, which stands for Jim instead.

Lao Tze's Tao De Jing in German
¦Ñ¤l¤§¹D¼w¸g¡]¼w»y¡^

Ming, thank you for the hint. I visited the site and think, it's great. I downloaded the German version and printed it out. From its writing style it doesn't seem to be a modern text (I'm not sure, but it perhaps could be done by famous Richard Wilhelm, who also translated the "I Ging" (©ö¸g) into german.

Alfred

http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

BTW, Julian: For formatting texts on the guestbook, you just have to use HTML-code, i.e. for example <BR>.

Have you seen the German translation?
laotze.html

The poem ( actually it is an essay or prose and not a poem ) mentioned by you is a very famous essay by Chow Dun-yi. Most people learn about it in their junior high school. I so happen to have an English translation of this essay by Lim Chuen-chin and I type it here for you. No translation can justify the poetic beauty of the original prose.
I wish you were able to appreciate this essay by reading the original text in Chinese. Here is the translation:
( to respect the original translator, no changes are made to the translation )

Lovers of flowering plants and shrubs we have had by scores,
but Tao Yuan-ming alone devoted himself to the chrysanthemum.
Since the opening days of the Tang Dynasty,
it has been fashionable to admire the peony,
but my favorite is the water-lily.
How stainless it rises from its slimy bed !
How modestly it reposes on the clear pool - an emblem of purity and truth !
Symmetrically perfect, its subtle perfume is wafted far and wide;
while there it rests in spotless state,
something to be regarded reverently from a distance and not to be
profaned by familiar approach.
In my opinion, the chrysanthemum is the flower of retirement and culture;
the peony, the flower of rank and wealth;
the water-lily, the Lady Virtue sans pareille.
Alas; few have loved the chrysanthemum since Tao Yuan-ming;
and none now love the water-lily;
whereas the peony is a general favourite with all mankinds.

Vegard, I post this anew since the message got lost. From your e-mail I know, that you are interested to learn more about the symbol meaning of 'ho/he' (crane) and the colour 'pai/bai':

The crane is one of the many symbols of longevity, often showed in company with 'pine' and 'stone/rock' (sung ªQ - also standing for long life) or together with 'tortoise' (kuei/gui Àt) and 'stag/deer' (lu ¼{). The crane also symbolizes the relationship between father and son (as one of the five relationships between men, when grouped with 'wagtail', 'phoenix', 'mandarin duck' and 'heron').One also speaks of 'heaven's crane' (t'ien-ho ¤ÑÅb) or 'immortal's crane' (hsien-ho ¥PÅb) as symbols of wisdom (and longevity). The dying of a Taoist priest also is called 'the changing into a feathered' (=crane) 'yu-hua' ¦Ð¤Æ. There often is mentioned 'Yellow Crane's Tower' (huang ho lou - ¶ÀÅb¼Ó): This was a building in the ancient state of Wu §d in the time of the 'Three Kingdoms' (San Kuo ¤T°ê) , where Chou Yu wanted to kill Liu Pei, the later emperor of the state of Shu-Han (a famous scene of 'Story of the Three Kingdoms').

The colour 'white' (pai/bai ¥Õ) is related to the west (and the 'white tiger' ¥Õªê, being the animal of the west), standing also for autumn/fall, death and high age. It also has been the symbol of Shang-dynasty (about 1050 BC). The god of earth 'T'u Ti' (¤g«Ò) and Kuan Yu, the later God of War both were imagined as old men with faces painted white. It means misfortune to wear white items in the hair; 'pure white' (ch'ing pai) stands - like in western culture - for virginity.

Alfred

BTW, you can find some links to Martial Arts pages on my site.
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Before I can do this for May, the entire file is destroyed.

So we start anew.

If you have posted any messages during the last few days, you may wish to re-post.

My apologies to all.