The tradional asian sports and westerners

During these last decades, the customs of the Westerners in leisure activities, in sport and in physical exercise considerably changed. There are only around thirty years, sit down on the ground crossed legs, to meditate or to make slow movements by concentrating were practices to which devoted certain hippies and the other nonconformist eccentrics. Nevertheless today, this kind of not very traditional activity spreads within the superior and middle classes of the society.

Indeed, we can speak about few traditional activity about the T'ai chi and about the Chi Chong. On the contrary, in Far East, in China for example, slow movements and meditation in a park are considered as activities more than traditional; whereas in these same cultures, to move quickly in the sound of the disco, to take its pulse or to run around the block to make of the exercise appear to be very strange customs.

However time(weather) change. The Westerners became more tolerant and more opened to the practices of the east, and also, the oriental welcome better today the western traditions. Both have their benefactions.

By practising the T'ai chi or the other internal martial arts, you can recover a health and to find a new physical balance which seems to miss us, to us, put under stress and pressing Westerners, and this for several reasons:

- Instead of going always faster and thrashing about to you always of more, you will find means to go more slowly. A welcome slowing down in the life of numerous Westerners overbooked.

- You can seize the main part of another culture and its traditions (which seem to please more and more) and widen so your own horizons.

- You can look to your body of advantage of strength and balance, there where most of the other types of physical activity would not allow it you as well.

- Your spirit will begin to understand(include) how to be with itself and with its own thoughts. Welcome the serenity!

Ramen

For 2 persons.

Preparation : 10 minutes, baking : 3 minutes

Râmens come from China and appeared in Japan at the beginning of the century. This dish is constituted of a bouillon, pasta of wheat and decoration. Râmens are very consumed in Japanand it exist a lot of recipes : miso, shôyu, shio (salt), with chicken or beef, with soya, mushrooms, etc…

Ingredients :

- two sachets of 100g to the taste of your choice (one square of noodles precooked and a basic sachet of soup more possibly a small sachet of oil by scoop)

- 100 g of smoked bacon cubes

- 140g of corn

- 90g of beans mungo (soya )

- four or five pieces of broccoli

- two hard eggs

Recipe :

Cook broccoli ten minutes in some scalding water (if they are deep-frozen) then drain.

In another saucepan, carry one litre of water with boiling then overturn bacon cubes there. After five min, you can take away a little fats which piles up on the surface of the water with a spoon.

Plunge the two squares of noodles into scalding water. With chopsticks, separate noodles. Wait three minutes by moving from time to time.

Withdraw the saucepan of fire, then add the soup. Move and keep setting everything. Add eggs, soya, broccoli and corn as you want with a little black pepper or spice.

Serve immediatly in a big bowl.

Breaded pork - Tonkatsu

For 4 persons
Preparation : 15 minutes, baking : 15 minutes

Ingredients :
- 4 pork scallops (450g)
- 35g of flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 cm3 of water
- 100g of panko (it is a variety of breadcrumb from Japanese cuisine and French cuisine)
- 300g of cabbage, in fine strips
- tonkatsu’s sauce

Recipe :
Flatten the pork delicately. Pass in the flour and take away the excedent.
Beat the eggs and blend its in water, after that, plunge the meat into beaten eggs and put it in breadcrums.
Let rest during ten minutes.
Soaked the cabbage five minutes in frozen water to make it crispy. Drain it.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and deep-fried the meat five or six minutes by turning it until the meat become gold on two sides.
Drain the pork with absorbing paper and cut two centimetres wide in diagonal in pieces. Serve with the cabbage trimmed with some tonkatsu’s sauce.

The Chinese New Year 2009

Chinese New Year 2009

Chinese New Year falls this time on 26 January 2009, ending February 13 2010. This is a year of Earth Buffalo because it is under the sign of the animal symbolism Buffalo (Beef) and the cosmological element Earth. It is also a leap year, because there are thirteen months.

The home Genius

A week before Chinese New Year, each family carries out the ceremonial farewell to the home Genius. Indeed, he must do a long journey to heaven to present his annual report to the Jade Emperor (heavenly god) on good and bad family’s actions during the past year. In order to obtain the favours of Genius, presented at his picture placard in the kitchen, a lot of food gifts. Chinese people are accustomed to offer especially sweets, preferably adhesive products, in order to keep close his mouth and not speak badly of them in front of the Jade Emperor.

Duration of the festivities

On the eve of Chinese New Year and 3 days after it are holidays. But in many industries, the festival lasts a week. The only establishments open during that period are theatres and restaurants. The country's economic life resumes on 7th day of New Year, but the festive atmosphere continues until the Feast of Lanterns, the 15th day of the first month of the year.

Rites and customs

In China, the New Year varies from one province to another. But some rituals and customs were adopted by all Chinese, whether they live in the North or the South in the country or abroad.
First, not New Year without firecrackers. These detonate virtually unabated throughout the day, and sporadically during a full week.
Chinese people love to stick around the house bodes messages written on red paper. Two parallel sentences written in perfect calligraphy adorn the 2 sides of the door. The jar of rice is often topped by a sign bearing the words "always full". Offerings at different Geniuses are part of the ritual of New Year's Day. It pays tribute to dead ancestors and celebrates the arrival of the new home Genius by placing his picture in the kitchen.

The Eve

Like Christmas Eve for Westerners, the Chinese New Year Eve is first and foremost a festival of family reunion where everyone will gather around a table. Dinner can not begin until all family members are present. Places are reserved for those who work away and can not return to the family feast.
The meal includes a large number of dishes and some dishes with symbolic meaning are necessarily contained in the menu. For example, the dish called "vegetables of the long year" is intelligence; "chicken" is intended to ensure the health of all members of the family, etc…

The lucky money

The Eve ends with the distribution of the "lucky money". Adults, especially parents and grandparents, give to children red envelopes containing the money which is supposed to bring luck throughout the New Year.

The dragon dance

Unlike Westerners, Chinese people considere the dragon as an animal representing the nobility, bravery and luck. After more than a thousand years of existence, the dragon dance retains its popularity and his power of fascination. It can run day or night. The night show is still a beauty. The used dragon is adorned by a wide variety of colours. It generally includes 9 to 12 sections, each up to one to three meters in length. Drums and gongs punctuate the dance of the mythical beast so respected by Chinese.

Taekwondo

The taekwondo is a martial art of Korean origin, it name can be translated by « The way of the foot and the fist ». Taekwondo officially born April 11th, 1955, after a development and unification of the different Korean martial schools of martial arts. It is therefore the fruit of a long martial tradition and of the job of a man : the general Choi Hong-hi. Enter 1988 to 1994, it became an official Olympic sports for the Games of Sydney in 2000, and not only a simple discipline.
Taekwondo can be played from the age of 5 years. He allows to acquire a good articular suppleness. It solicits the qualities of concentration, attention and application like a lot of martial arts. Besides, the education of Taekwondo for the children begin with the realization and the approval of the emotions. Fighters use to have protections items for head, hands and feet.

Competitions are organized by the ITF (International Taekwon-Do Federation) and regroup four sub-disciplines :
Free fight :
It is a light-contact fight, it means that blows are controlled, and are not aimed at putting the adversary out of battle. So fighters can use striking performed with fists, sharp side or back of the hands, top of the feet, heel, etc... Full contact exist in competition, but only at the level of black belt (the best level).
Tuls or formes :
It is the technical side of taekwondo's competitions. The aim is to mime a fight as though they are confronted to one or several adversaries. They have a key importance to go up in rank.
The breakage :
Breakage is a test of potency. The contestant who breaks most boardwalk carries off competition.
Specials techniques :
As in breakage, every contestant has five techniques to be performed. It is not however a question of breaking boardwalk in potency, but of attaining with various techniques a target put as high as possible.

The T'aï-Chi-Chuan

T'aï-Chi-Chuan is a Chinese martial art. It is the most popular gymnastics in China, played at the daybreak in small public gardens. The T'aï-Chi is also named “the circulation of the chi".
This term is translated by "Energy" or "Breath", translation recalling energy, physical or moral force of an organism. Another way to translate "chi" is vital Energy.

T'aï-Chi-Chuan recalls at the same time a slow dance and a fight with slow motion. It is a question of performing slow and flexible gestures. Besides, breathing is one of the centers of the discipline ; it must be slow and deep.

Movements aren't unpredictable, they are codified and belong to the education :
- keep the summit of the skull from above,
- let shoulders fall,
- do not use force,
- remain always discharged,
- accomplish fluid movements
- and make sequence of movements.
These sequences will develop suppleness, coordination and in a general way dynamism. So, T'aï-Chi-Chuan is a method to manage stress and find peace.

There are different applications of the T'aï-Chi-Chuan. First, someone can use blows hit with feet, knees, hands or elbows.
Then, it exist a T'aï-Chi by put pressures on holes to cause damage (respiratory or blood blockages) and on the points of acupuncture which can draw away disturbances of the organism (mental state, destruction of the internal organs, K.O or even death). In general, the T'aï-Chi-Chuan is played in bare hands, and there are forms of tai-chi with fan, dirk, sword, staff, sword.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy held his long-awaited meeting with the Dalai Lama on Saturday, despite warnings from China that it could have a negative impact on links between the two countries.
The French president and the Tibetan spiritual leader sat down for a 30-minute talk behind closed doors in Gdansk (Poland) during celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of former Polish President Lech Walesa's Nobel Peace Prize.
Sarkozy told reporters before leaving for the airport that the meeting went "very well."
"I told him how much importance I attach to the pursuit of dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leadership," Sarkozy said. "The Dalai Lama confirmed what I already knew, that he is not demanding independence."
The Dalai Lama did not talk to reporters before or after the meeting.
Sarkozy also said the Tibetan leader voiced concerns about his homeland, while the French leader said those worries "are shared in Europe."

Asked about the situation in Tibet, Sarkozy said: "The Dalai Lama shared with me his worries, worries which are shared in Europe. We have had a wide discussion of this question."

Sarkozy Defies China With Dalai Lama Talks

Beijing's unusually vocal criticism of Sarkozy's plan to meet the Dalai Lama is linked to the fact that Paris holds the European Union's rotating presidency, diplomats say.
In Paris, an official said there had been no sign yet of any Chinese boycott of French products. The EU is China's biggest trade partner and supermarket chain Carrefour employs tens of thousands of people in China and is the biggest purchaser of Chinese goods in France.
French companies were subjected to Chinese boycotts and demonstrations earlier this year after the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay was disrupted by anti-China protesters.
Earlier on Saturday, the Dalai Lama called for dialogue and compassion to solve the world's problems.
"Warfare failed to solve our problems in the last century, so this century should be a century of dialogue," he told delegates, including Walesa, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Dalai Lama, who met Tusk privately on Saturday, praised Polish courage in resisting past oppression.
The 73-year-old monk is a popular figure in Poland, where some see in his struggle with China's communist authorities echoes of their own battles under Walesa against Soviet-backed communist rule that ended in 1989.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 after a failed insurrection against Chinese rule in Tibet, occupied by People's Liberation Army troops from 1950.

(Additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Paris)

(Writing by Gareth Jones, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

http://www.dalailama.com/