Read Keywords Through Good Books | This Week:“Festival Celebrations and People-to-People Exchanges”
Dear Friends,
Hope you are having a great week.
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Recently, South China Morning Post reported on April 13 that The world’s largest water fight erupted across Bangkok on Monday. The water festival—also known as Thingyan in neighbouring Myanmar and Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia—marks the start of the new year across the Mekong region, according to the Buddhist calendar, and is a moment of renewal and celebration for agrarian communities. This shared festive tradition embodies the best wishes of local people, while adding vivid color to regional people-to-people interactions and emotional bonds.
Here, we provide book recommendations on the topic of Festival Celebrations and People-to-People Exchanges.
【Books of the Week】
Book Title: Cambodia
Author: Gu Jiayun
The kingdom of Cambodia, known as Khmer in ancient times, is situated on the Indochinese Peninsular. With its brilliant civilization, it was an important country on the ancient Maritime Silk Road. The volume is organized chronologically, and makes full use of historical materials and some of the most recent academic research. It presents a vivid cultural history of Cambodian culture, and of Sino-Cambodian exchange.
Book Title: The water-splashing festival
Author: Zhang Yue, Xu Zijun
As the water-splashing festival has been passed down through generations, people have gradually integrated it with various myths and legends of their own ethnic groups, endowing it with more magical implications and distinctive ethnic characteristics. Centered on the blessings entrusted to water, people have carried out a series of activities including rituals, singing and dancing, musical performances, sports, entertainment, leisure and commerce. In the process, the cultural cores such as language, costumes, cuisine and marriage customs have been fully demonstrated.
Book Title: I’m Chinese Festival
Author: Qiao Qiao
I am Chinese Festival is a bilingual picture book which introduces 12 Chinese traditional festivals with poetic languages and fantastic illustrations. Following the steps of our little protagonist, the readers can discover and feel the charms of Chinese traditional festivals such as Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Dragon-Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival etc…The readers can also get to know the origins and the customs of each Chinese traditional festival by reading the part of Knowledge Links included in this picture book.
Book Title: River of the Gods: From Lancang to Mekong
Author: Yu Jian
In the summer of 1990, the author first set foot in Xishuangbanna and headed for the Lancang River, which he had long admired. He was profoundly struck by the grandeur and sacredness of the river. He silently vowed to himself that he would traverse this great river from its source to its estuary.
Thirteen years later, the poet finally got the chance to go abroad with a passport and embarked on his journey along the Lancang–Mekong River. Spanning years and covering more than ten thousand kilometers, the trip culminated in this remarkable collection of essays, accompanied by nearly a hundred photographs and interspersed with ancient and modern poems, presenting readers with a magnificent feast of words and images.
Book Title: A Feast of Poetry in Traditional Festivals
Author: Chen Shuqian
This book is an anthology of ancient Chinese poems and lyrics about traditional festivals. It carefully selects about 300 works created over more than 2,000 years, from the era of The Book of Songs to the fall of the Qing Dynasty. As a classic reader, it presents the inheritance of classical poetry and traditional festival culture to readers.
We’ll be sharing great reads on a regular basis. Stay tuned!