Modern Poetry Around the World

Cross Cultural Poetics has podcasts featuring modern poets from different countries around the world. The first podcast features Egyptian poets Mohamed Metwalli and Maged Zaher and Chinese poet Zhang Er. They compare Chinese and Arabic poetry to English poetry. Zhang Er points out that Chinese poetry has no tense — so it has an eternal feeling to [...]

Chinese Song, “Little Sister Carries Her Doll” With a Video

This song is called “Mei mei bei zhe yang wa wa” in Pinyin, literally it's, “Little Sister Carries Her Foreign Doll”. (Pinyin is the system used to transliterate Mandarin Chinese using the Roman alphabet.) “Foreign” doll refers to a western style doll as opposed to a traditional Chinese doll. Here's a Chinese song in [...]

Qingming Poem by Du Mu with an MP3 Recording

Yesterday, I posted the poem Qingming by the poet Du Mu (803 – 852) that mentions the Qingming Festival (also called Ching Ming). I asked my friend Ray Lee about it. He grew up in Hong Kong and I wanted to hear his impression about the poem and also my translation of it [...]

Qingming Festival in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

The Qingming Festival is on April 4th this year in China, and on the 5th in Taiwan. In Taiwan it's called Tomb Sweeping Day. This day is a remembrance of ancestors — it's similar to All Saints Day and The Day of the Dead. People clean the tombs of their ancestors and offer them [...]

Can Anyone Help with a Mandarin Song with the Line “Xiao me xiao er lang”?

Heather wrote asking for help with a Chinese folk song… Lisa, I'm not sure if you can help me but I am searching for the lyrics for a children's folksong in Mandarin that is about a little boy who carries a backpack on his back and doesn't want to disappoint his father. I sang this about 13 [...]

Mama Lisa Now Has a Facebook Group

We'd love it if you'd join the Mama Lisa Facebook Group. You can post anything you'd like about your culture. You can post your own musical recordings or YouTube videos… Links to culture and musical sites… Photos of your country… Questions about songs or cultural issues… Anything related to World Culture and [...]

Movie Recommendation – Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda is a really great movie. I'd highly recommend watching it with your kids. It looks pretty. It exposes your children to another culture (it takes place in China). It's funny and has a nice moral to the story (one being, be true to yourself). You can get an idea [...]

Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year starts on January 26th this year. It'll be the year of the Ox. Here's a composition by David W. Solomons that he created in honor of the holiday. If you're interested in learning more, you can read previous posts about the Chinese New Year. If you'd like to find [...]

Does Anyone Know the Song, “I'm a Little Chinese Doll from Across the Sea”?

Sandy wrote looking for help with lyrics to a Chinese New Years song. Here's what she wrote… Looking for the entire words to an old song “I'm a Little Chinese Doll from across the sea. Where the lovely lotus blooms neath a cherry tree. Paper dragons you will meet on a Chinese New Year, Winding [...]

The Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas

A couple of weeks ago, Ray Lee sent me photos from his trip to Hong Kong. Here are some more, from when he visited the The Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas. You have to walk up over 400 steps to get there. On the way up you pass by many Buddha statues, [...]