Chinese items

1. Wild China on ABC 1 last night

This is the program I meant to write about from Sunday night’s TV watching, until Compass distracted me. It is a BBC production in six episodes, Episode 1 last night dealing with rice cultivation areas mostly, but extending to some of those amazing Chinese mountains, including the Yellow Mountain which I have heard much of from M; I have added some images to the VodPod on the right. Do look, as they really are very beautiful. Wild China is also very beautiful, but even more it really is very informative. I certainly learned quite a few new things even in Episode 1 and will make sure I see the rest.

2. Chinese Face Reading

Make what you will of this.

We communicate through our mouths and our lips reveal our communications style. Thin lips usually indicate an argumentative personality, yet they usually belong to someone who has a sharp mind and good communication skills to match. Just don’t argue with somebody who has thin lips, you are bound to lose! Thick lips indicate a more emotional and affectionate personality. The more clearly defined the outline of the lips, the better for communication. Remember to use lip liner and lipstick on those days when what you say will really count! Like with the eyes, a person with a naturally upward turning mouth is more optimistic than one with a downward mouth. When we smile our mouths turn upwards, so smile more often and you will feel more optimistic.

Whilst the lips are important in communication, equally important, if not more so are the ears. Good listeners tend to have ears that lie flat and close to the head. In Chinese Face Reading, auspicious ears are long, thick and large. If the top of the ears are higher than the eyebrows, then these are high set ears which are a sign of intelligence and spiritual leanings.

I mention it because I became slightly annoyed with an article indexed on Arts and Letters Daily from The Times: The philosophy of physiognomy.

Hairy thighs, thick feet and other ways in which the Greeks judged character

…It is an ancient dream, this idea of an instant diagnosis of someone’s character or skills:

“Black hair announces cowardice and great craftiness, excessively yellow and pale white hair, such as the Scythians and Celts have, reveals ignorance and clumsiness and wildness, and that which is gently yellow points towards an aptitude for learning, gentleness, and skill in art. Unmixed fiery hair like the flower of a pomegranate is not good, since for the most part their characters are beastlike and shameless and greedy. Legs which are very hairy with thick black hair indicate slowness at learning and wildness. Those whose loins and thighs have lots of hair separately from the other parts of the body are very lascivious.”

Tosh, you may say – and rightly. A good half of Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul, edited by Simon Swain, some 332 pages, is filled with the stuff, in ancient Greek and Latin, medieval Arabic, and modern English translation. A huge effort (and considerable Leverhulme funding) has gone into this beautifully produced, collaborative project on ancient Greek physiognomy and its reception in medieval Islamic society. Does the other half, on the history and interpretation of this massive repository of tosh, redeem the enterprise?

In part it does – but how large a part may depend on your interests…

OK, fair enough; what struck me though is that here we have another Eurocentric enterprise where significance seems to be tied to proximity to the Mediterranean, as if the Ptolemaic map corresponded to some kind of ongoing reality. It strikes me as odd that the existence of a parallel practice in the oldest continuous civilisation in the world doesn’t appear on the map. How much of our enthusiasm for western civilisation is merely a combination of familiarity and ignorance? Even when it comes to tosh… On the other hand, the book reviewed in The Times is, it would appear, another useful example of the history of interaction between western thought and the worlds of Islam.

M, by the way, has very auspicious ears.

UPDATE: A couple of other Chinese items

Four Corners Monday 19 May: transcript soon… Meet (or hear of) totally amazing people like Hu Jia.

Have a look too at The Cleveland of Asia: A Journey Through China’s Rust Belt by P J O’Rourke. It complements Four Corners rather well.

On China, it is always worth visiting East South West North: Zona Europa.

None of these additional items affects the interest, value or quality of the BBC’s outstanding Wild China.

See also Chinese art 3 — modern traditional landscapes on Ninglun’s Specials.

— And at this time, how can we not mention this?

Children & Students in Sichuan Earthquake 2008

Video site. I have added the most moving one to the VodPod as well.