Monday Music: Chinese Folk Music

Today is the official day for the Chinese Moon Festival. The autumn season is a time of celebration and sharing of moon cakes leading up to the festival day. Here are some musicians with the New York Chinese Cultural Center performing traditional Chinese folk music played on traditional Chinese Instruments Pipa and Dulcimer.





-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Thomas Keating

Image
(Photo from the Tribute page of Contemplative Outreach San Diego ) I was sad to learn of Father Keating's passing two weeks ago, but only joy springs to mind when I think of him. He taught many modern pilgrims the concept of apophatic prayer and meditation with his centering prayer retreats and writings. He ushered many into the profound beauty of resting in silence and emptiness before God. At the website for the Center for Action and Contemplation are three short remembrances of Fr. Thomas Keating from Cynthia Bourgeault, James Finley, and Richard Rohr. There is also a link at that site where you can view the memorial service on Nov. 16. For Further Reading: “ Thomas Keating, pioneer in centering prayer, interfaith dialogue, dies at 95 ,” an extensive article in the National Catholic Reporter about Father Keating which also includes a couple of brief words of his from video recordings. “ Father Thomas Keating Is a Rebel with a Cause ,” a cover story in 5280 Denver’s Mile High M...
Read more

Robert Lucas in biology class

Image
Back in August, a bunch of people were talking about Paul Romer and Bob Lucas and history of macro and stuff like that. Somehow I missed this post , where Brad DeLong dug up a Bob Lucas memoir and made fun of Lucas' college biology class exploits. For reference, here's a longer version of Lucas' story: The only science course I took in college was Natural Sciences II - a biology course. We read a modern anatomy text, and also selections from Darwin, Mendel, and others...  [T]here was nothing spooky about Mendel’s genetic theories. They were clear, they made some kind of sense (though there was nothing molecular in our Nat Sci II readings), you could work out predictions that would surprise you, and these predictions matched interesting facts. We did a classroom experiment with fruit flies, focused on eyes, and pooled the results. Our assignment was to write up the results in a lab report and compare them to predictions from a Mendelian model. I had not enjoyed the actual l...
Read more

Cultural appropriation is great!

Image
"You'll wear a Japanese kimono, babe/There'll be Italian shoes for me" - Randy Newman, Political Science A lot of people are talking about this story from Oberlin . Apparently some kids are complaining because certain kinds of Asian-themed food served in dining halls is crappy and non-authentic, and therefore constitutes "cultural appropriation." Now, on one hand, this is just a story about rich kids complaining about bad food. Nothing much to see here. But it gives me an opportunity to say something that has been rattling around in my head for a while: Cultural appropriation is actually a great thing! Wikipedia defines cultural appropriation as "the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture." This is a good thing, for several reasons. Reason 1: Product diversity. This is the simple, "Econ 101" reason, if you will. Suppose Japanese people open a bunch of Italian restaurants in Tokyo. The "Italian fo...
Read more