Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Braised Potato with Chicken-Chinese food recipe3

Do you like to eat Chicken? Do you love spicy? Do you want to try the real Chinese spicy Chicken? Come and check it out! One of the most famous dishes in southern China-- "Braised Potato with Chicken"

Braised Potato with Chicken Recipe

 Materials: Chicken, potato

Ingredients: Salt, garlic, onion, dry red chili.

Spices: salt, cooking alcohol ( any type of beer, wine, whiskey is ok) , soy sauce.

Method:

1. Cut the ginger and onion into small pieces.

2. Cut the chicken into pieces, put salt, alcohol, soy sauce and minced onion into the chicken pieces, stir the mixture, pickle it for around 15 minutes.

3. Remove skin of the potato, cut it into pieces of 1cm square for each.

4. Put pot on fire or heater, pour some oil inside, couple of tea spoons are ok, when the oil gets hot, put the minced onion and ginger inside the oil, fry for a little bit then put the pickled chicken into the pot, fry all and stir them while frying, till most of the water goes away, then pour little bit soy sauce into the pot, plus the chopped potato, fry and stir for 2 minutes.

5. Pour some water into the pot, which is at same level of the materials in the pot, put some salt, open the big fire, or turn heater into high level, when the water boils, turn the fire small, or heater into low level, keep cooking for 20 minutes, then turn fire or heater into middle level, add some dry chili, keep cooking till the water goes away, then it's ready to eat.



Resource: http://makechinesefood.blogspot.com/2010/03/braised-potato-with-chicken.html

Kong Bao Chicken-Chinese food recipe2

Many local people know the famous Chinese dish "Kong Bao Chicken," but few know how to make it. Do you want to be able to eat it at home whenever you want and not throwing away too much money in the Chinese restaurant? Then come and learn how to make it. It's just that SIMPLE!

Kong Bao Chicken Recipe


Main material:
Chicken without bones: 900g ( best to choose drumstick without bones), Dry Red Pepper 40g, Fried Peanuts 75g

Ingredients:
Onion 1 piece ( better to find 2 bars of long green onion), cut into small pieces, egg white from 1 egg, farina two big spoons, soy sauce 2 big spoons, minced garlic, sugar half tea spoon, white vinegar 1 tea spoon, salad oil 5 cups, salt 2 tea spoons, farina water 1 big spoon

Method:
1. put the egg white, salt and 2 big spoons of farina together, stir till they mix with each other equally, keep the mixture there to be used later as preserving sauce... put 1 big spoon of soy sauce, 1 big spoon of farina, sugar 1/2 tea spoon, salt 1/4 tea spoon, and minced garlic 1/2 tea spoon together, stir till they are mixed equally, this would be sauce

2. cut the chicken meat into pieces, as 1cm small mass, mix with the preserving sauce stir equally, keep it for half hour, then put 5 cups of salad oil in the pot, turn on the fire, when the oil is hot, put the diced chicken inside, fry it with big fire, for half minute

3. when the chicken changes the color, take it out, dry it from the oil, leave 2 big spoons of oil in the pot, turn on the fire again, when the oil is hot put the dry pepper inside, switch into small fire, fry the dry pepper, then put the onion pieces inside and fry again, when there's smell coming out put the chicken back into pot again, switch to big fire, fry all the things, for a little bit while, now pour the sauce, again fry them for a bit while

4. now put the fried peanuts inside, fry and stir all things for another bit while, till you think they are ready to eat!


Resource: http://makechinesefood.blogspot.com/2009/02/kong-bao-chicken.html

Copy Crab-Chinese food recipe1

Are you interested in cooking healthy Chinese food? Here is a dish that is very popular in China called “赛螃蟹,” which means Copy Crab. There is an interesting story behind this dish. Long time ago, there is a poor Chinese student. He was envious of those kids who were born in rich family because they could eat crab which was a popular dish in his time, but he was too poor to afford one. Coincidently, he found that the egg white has similar taste as crab only by frying it, and actually it tastes better than the real crab. Since then Copy Crab became prevalent among poor people. Not long after, because of Copy Crab's good taste and cheap ingredient, it soon attracted more and more people.

Copy Crab Recipe:

Copy Crab 賽螃蟹 – Stir Fried Egg White

Ingredients:
1 dried scallop
5 egg whites
¼ cup of water

Seasoning:
¼ tsp of salt
¼ tsp of white sugar
1 tsp of chicken powder
1 tsp of wine
1 ¼ tsp of corn starch
Zhejiang vinegar

Cooking Method:
1. Soak the dried scallop with ¼ cup of water. Soak until tender and tear into shreds. Mix the soaking water with the seasoning. Leaves for later use.
2. Beaten egg whites. Mix with shredded scallop.
3. Heat wok with 4 tsp of oil. Pour in the seasoning mixture and bring it to boil.
4. Add egg whites/scallop mixture and braise for a while.
5. Stir well and serve with Zhejiang vinegar. You can also garnish with vegetable.

Remarks:
This is a low cholesterol healthy dish. Some recipes suggest serving with a raw egg yoke in the middle. Try not to do it. Though it looks nice but it is not healthy. Egg yoke is highly concentrated with cholesterol.

 

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Behind the Chinese blogging boom-Why blogging in China so different from the U.S.?

Kato Yoshikazu (加藤嘉一) is a journalist studying at Peking University's School of International Studies. He's been active in Sino-Japanese scholarly exchange activities and writes extensively on the exchange student experience, international relations, and a wide variety of other topics.
Among other online outlets, he writes a column for FT Chinese and keeps a blog of his own on iFeng.
In the following column from the current issue of Oriental Outlook, Kato discusses the rise of blogging in China:


Why is blogging so hot in China?


by Kato Yoshikazu 
With the Spring Festival nearing, I've been invited to parties thrown by the blog departments of a few Internet media companies. I'm pretty introverted and don't usually like that sort of thing, so I felt pretty uncomfortable at first. But having gone to few, I gradually realized through careful observation that the blog party is a particularly Chinese form of gathering.
First off, the attendees came from a wide variety of backgrounds: academics and lawyers, soldiers and artists, reporters and bureaucrats. Second, guests held quite lively viewpoints and opinions, making it unlike a typical Chinese meeting. Communication between different stations and exchange of different ways of thinking: I profited quite a bit from this.
This experience started me thinking: why is blogging so hot in China?
According to a set of statistics I consulted, the number of bloggers in China exceeded 100 million in 2007. Phenomenally-popular finance blogger Xu Xiaoming was the "hit king" of Chinese blogs in 2008 with 355 million hits. Other statistics predict that between 2012 and 2015, China will see blogs with hit counts of 1 billion.
Blogs actually have a history in China of only five years, more or less, so this pace of growth is astonishing. Two other points are surprising in addition to speed. First, diversity of blogger identity: both experts and non-experts are active in this medium of social exchange. Second, openness of blogger identity: celebrities as well as ordinary people are open about their identities and blog under their real names.
Although my homeland of Japan has around 10 million bloggers, in my observation, they are not as diverse in their social participation, and far fewer of them are open about their identity when they express their opinions.
Why are blogs so big in China? In my view, there are three main reasons:
First, the era of the Internet and the growth of netizens. China's online population reached 253 million in 2007 and is currently around 300 million. Such a foundation provides unprecedented space for the growth and development of blogs. The growth potential for new media on the Internet is obvious when compared to traditional media like television and newspapers.
Second, the respect major Internet media have for blogs as tools as evidenced by their active construction of blogging platforms.
Blog departments at major websites, as I understand it, are outfitted with a sizeable staff that is divided into teams according to subjects like politics, economics, society, entertainment, culture, and history. With one eye on societal trends and international conditions, they set up relevant feature topics to which they promote profound and penetrating blog posts. Posts promoted in this way, if they agree with netizens' tastes, will quickly climb to reach ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, or even ten million hits.
Behind China's blog boom is what I like to call a "three-in-one" promoter: the interests of media that hope to increase their influence and profit by blog promotion, bloggers who want to increase their exposure and enjoy their right to speak through the promotion of their blogs, and readers who want to broaden their knowledge and connections through promoted blogs are joined into one unit. I am highly dubious of a direct correspondence between "hit rate" and profundity.
Third, blogs satisfy the information needs of Chinese readers, who are new media consumers. Speaking of the demands of readers, European, American, and Japanese readers particularly enjoy reading the findings of independent journalism: political scandals or major corporate fraud, for example. However, my own investigations have shown that Chinese readers seem to be more excited about various perspectives on major social issues and problems. Perhaps you could call the former an attention to detail, while the latter is a propensity for the big picture.
Hence it's not difficult to understand how blogs fit comfortably into a Chinese environment. They exist against the backdrop of a swiftly-growing Internet that exerts a massive influence on society, and they have become incorporated into public opinion. They closely examine societal trends and reader demands, and they drive forward relevant debate as they seek out ways to grow.
China therefore has blogs with Chinese characteristics, a special phenomenon that is a product of a particular developmental stage and transitional environment. To a certain degree, they are one of the best ways of looking at contemporary Chinese society. Apart from the ideas of the "state" and the "people" that they represent, I am more interested in the "societal" dimension that is now gradually taking shape. If Chinese bloggers one day number 1 billion hits, it will have a far-reaching influence on China's future.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Deyong Zhu's Comics and his Philosophical Life

Deyong Zhu, the famous cartoonist in China, likes to share his philosophical life with his fans through Weibo. His famous comic book   “涩女郎” and “双响炮” have cynically observed relationships between Chinese men and women in today's society. Now he begins to share his philosophy about life on Weibo through uploading his hand painted works. These comics are cute, simple but vivid. I believe Deyong's intended readers would not be the children even though children may most likely be attracted to these comics at first sight, but he is intended to get the grow-ups who are running a busy life and gradually lose themselves. I love his comics and always find something meaningful in them. Looking at those cute little characters, I feel that I've returned to my childhood when I was innocent and naive, and I start to see the world with my new curious eyes.







It's weekend! Whoever asks
me to work, I will punch him
in the face!







                                                                                          There is always a   little devil in our heart that urges us to take some time off and start traveling in our crazily busy life.









I've tried to behave like others all the time. If one day I want to stop behaving like others, can I still be myself?








                                                         The past has passed and the future has not  yet come. Only today belongs to me.










This weekend is so boring! Well, just let me cry for those things whichever deserve my tears. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Vote for your favorite "Uncle" !

Helen Cat is one of the most popular Weibo users on the internet. He is from Japan and owns many lovely cats. His favorite hobby is to take funny pictures of these lazy cats. One of his most famous cats is "Uncle." Very  lovely, very sophisticated (from appearance). Here are some interesting photos of "Uncle." COME and VOTE for your favorite picture of him! Whoever loves cats should participate in this event. You'll for sure get inspirations to decorate your lovely cats in the future! :D
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NO.6















Sunday, April 10, 2011

UW-L Weibo User Survey

This survey intends to examine the popularity of Weibo among Chinese students at UW-L. It helps the researcher get an idea of Weibo's influence overseas and how to develop WeiboChina to a better blog. Thanks for everyone who conducts this survey.
(Big sweet smile! :)


UW-L Weibo User Survey link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G99J9QF

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Earth Hour 2011

"Earth Hour 2011" is an international activity that started on March 26th. Many netizens in Weibo have prepared well for their contribution to our earth. They make a promise to protect our environment by consuming less energy.
                          Come to Weibo and Make your Promise!

In order to respond to the call of protecting our earth, the famous Chinese musical group Yu Quan made a popular song to cheer us up. It's a very beautiful song, and it shows how Chinese people have made their effort to protect the earth. I am deeply moved by people's good will for our planet. This year, many natural disasters have happened around us: earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, etc. People are suffering from natural disasters which helps them realize they are consuming too much energy. "Earth Hour" is meaningful because it  inspires people all around the world to appreciate that earth is our home, and it is our responsibility to protect it. As the slogan says: Contribution to an hour, Save the earth for one-hundred years!

Here is the beautiful song sang by Yu Quan "Turn Off the Light"
       


Turn off the lights lyrics
Turn off the lights
let’s make the change
I can’t see the ice on Iceland
I can’t see the star in the sky
we lose directions
like the polar bear lose their lands

more, there is not that many
few, there is not that few
we always desire for more than many
but we don’t know few is many
turn off the lights and light up the stars
at this moment, let us get our common induction
turn off the lights and restore the true picture
turn off the lights and light our dreams
turn off the lights and light up the stars
at this moment, let us get our common induction
turn off the lights and restore the true picture
turn off the lights and light our dreams
(repeat)




Earth Hour 2011 Invitation


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Micro blogs's great power

Weibo--the most popular Chinese "Twitter"--has shown its great potential to solve criminal cases. It has such a great power that the Chinese police have started their official police micro blog to communicate with netizens who could provide clues to criminal cases or report criminal activities.  A news article from China Daily today presents the power of Weibo to allow Chinese police and citizens to interact, and it also gives us a concrete example that shows how netizens have helped the police in Guangdong province fight against criminals. Also, there is a video below from YouTube talking about how Weibo had helped parents find their abducted kids in China (child trafficking has become a severe social problem in China these years).

Micro blogs help crack cases
By Zhang Yan and Cao Yin (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-22 07:54




GUANGZHOU - Thirty criminal cases and more than 300 misdemeanor cases have been resolved with the help of micro blogs since becoming the subjects of investigations by public security authorities one year ago in South China's Guangdong province, a senior local police officer said.
The cases concerned crimes such as intentional injury, robbery, theft and fraud, rape, and child trafficking, said Liu Bo, head of the network operation department under the Guangdong provincial public security department.
Since March 2010, when police in Zhaoqing city started the first official police micro blog in Guangdong, 72 police micro blogs have been opened on sina.com, qq.com and the department's official website, gdga.gov.cn.
"In the beginning, we had tried to use new media to release public security information to interact and communicate with the public," Liu said, adding that they didn't project the likely results of their decision.
Those grew to conspicuous dimensions by late February, about a year after the micro blogs had been started. By then, the sites had attracted more than 1 million postings of messages and comments and more than 170,000 fans, according to the department's statistics.
Most of the messages left by netizens asked for advice about various laws and regulations; a small number sought help or provided clues. And a mere handful reported violations of discipline by police officers.
"They thought that it's a direct, convenient and quick way to communicate with us," Liu said.
The police, meanwhile, try to make timely releases of information that pertain to case developments and crime tips. They also use the blogs to refute rumors, he said.
According to Liu, the police receive more than 1,400 messages on the micro blogs a day. After sorting them out, they make some 400 to 500 responses, from which have resulted about 100 clues pertaining to criminal crimes.
"After receiving the crime reports and after a preliminary identification and verification, we reported the clues to the relevant departments, including the criminal investigation, economic investigation, public order and drug enforcement departments," he said.
"The relevant department will then follow up on the clues and begin to investigate the cases," Liu added. "And they will respond to informants soon and keep in regular touch with them."
On May 13, 2010, a netizen, who goes by the name Army Brother, claimed on a police micro blog that a large number of detonators and explosives were hidden in a shop near a kindergarten in the Baiyun district of Guangzhou, the provincial capital.
After noticing the report, the blog's operator relayed the information to the Guangzhou police, who rushed to the scene and discovered 5,400 electrical detonators, 31.2 kilograms of explosives and 150 meter of fuse in the shop. As it turned out, the bomb paraphernalia had been stored there by a hydropower engineering company.
Liu said even though micro blogs have played an important role in solving crimes, they are not useful in all circumstances.
"If you were in bad need of help, or witnessed a crime, please make a report by dialing 110," he said.
"And if you want to make a report that includes photos or tape or video recordings, please get in touch with us directly by e-mail or by writing a letter, instead of writing on a micro blog. That will help to protect the privacy of the parties involved."
"Micro blogs have disadvantages as well," said Wu Ming'an, a law professor at China University of Political Science and Law.
"They might allow for invasions of privacy or provide a means of spreading fake information or even slander."
China Daily
Chinese Blog Reunited Parents with Abducted Children 



Netizen in custody for spreading salt rumors

After I talked about the salt crisis and the Chinese salt rumor going around these days, a news article was reported on China Daily today about a netizen who was arrested by local police for spreading salt rumors.  It's meaningful news because we see the Chinese police is making progress in cracking down on rumors that cause unnecessary panic among Chinese citizens. The news also emphasizes that the government should provide accurate and accessible information to citizens, so that citizens can stop believing rumors. Here is the news:


Netizen in custody for spreading salt rumors


By Yu Ran (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-22 07:54




SHANGHAI - A netizen surnamed Chen in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, was held in custody for 10 days and fined 500 yuan ($76) by local police on Sunday for spreading salt rumors online last Tuesday.
Working at a computer company, the 31-year-old man posted a hoax on a local online forum, saying that the radiation leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan had polluted the sea off the coast of eastern Shandong province. He encouraged people to store salt and dried kelp. He also said they should try to avoid eating seafood for a year.
The post spread rapidly on the Internet and caused local residents to panic, according to the police.
Chen said he received the false information when chatting with a friend online.
In Shanghai, the local police said on Friday last week that two men will be faced with prosecution for disseminating rumors that said the city will be severely contaminated by the nuclear leak in Japan, Shanghai-based news portal Xinmin.cn reported.
Among the other causes of the panicked purchases of salt were rumors contending that eating iodized salt could prevent people from being harmed by radiation leaked from a Japanese nuclear plant.
Supermarket shelves in places like Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Sichuan provinces and in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai were nearly devoid of salt by Thursday.
However, by Saturday last week, some consumers who had realized that the hoarding of salt would not be useful in countering a leak of nuclear radiation had started to return to supermarkets to try to get their money back.
A university professor believes insufficient releases of reliable and timely information by the government also contributed to panicked purchases of salt in China.
"The panic perhaps could have been avoided if the government had released enough reliable information in response to the recent series of disasters in Japan," said Qiu Liping, a professor in the sociology department at Shanghai University.
He added that food safety is perhaps the largest concern in China at present.
A related rumor spread on the Internet on Sunday said that a man from Cixi, in Zhejiang province, died from eating too much iodized salt. Cixi authorities proved that story to be false.
"The public feels anxious because it doesn't receive enough scientific knowledge from day to day," said Qiu.
Qiu said the elderly and the middle-aged were among those most likely to buy salt in response to the rumors. Many of them had picked up the false information from gossip.
"I got my earthquake fears from another old lady in the market, who made me believe that Shanghai will be severely affected soon," said Lu Huizhen, an 82-year-old local resident who was stopped by her daughter from taking all her savings out from a bank and moving inland.
"The government should find a good way to release accurate and accessible information after emergencies," Qiu said. "This will ensure citizens believe the authorized information instead of rumors."
China Daily

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Scared to Death?--China's Salt Crisis

  "Stop the rumors of salt
         stop transferring rumors, stop believing rumors, start from me!"

A heated discussion about salt purchases is spreading on Weibo. A few days ago, the Japanese nuclear power plant exploded and released a large amount of nuclear radiation; the radiation scared a lot of Chinese citizens. After this, a rumor spread claiming that iodized salt could prevent the effects of nuclear radiation, so more and more Chinese people rushed to purchase salt which eventually led to a serious shortage of salt in the market. Fortunately, the rumors had been quickly detected by the government, and some local Chinese officials announced that the Japanese nuclear radiation would not affect people's health. But today there are still many Chinese citizens anxious to buy salt and store it at home.
A netizen on Weibo talked about his experience in Japan after the nuclear explosion. He said he had visited several super markets and wanted to see if the salt had been sold out. To his surprise, the owner of the market told him that there were not many Japanese buying salt, but most of his salt was sold to Chinese who lived there. A question arose in Weibo: are the Chinese too scared of death? Even the Japanese are not that scared! Isn't it exaggerated? Some experts tried to explain such phenomenon in China. They said that many Chinese are scared of the nuclear radiation because they are not educated enough, so they tend to believe the rumors easily. Many peddlers are taking advantage of people's worry about the radiation and disseminating rumors so that they can earn a lot from the salt industry. China has a big population, and people are connected, so the negative feelings easily spread and influence others around them; in the end, it becomes the fear of a larger group of people. The influence is especially great in rural areas where people are less educated.
According to Sina micro-blogging, 90% of  Weibo netizens have behaved calm and remained sane to the panic purchase of salt. But the shortage of salt is still severe in China today. Due to the situation, the Corporation of National Salt Industry made an announcement through its official Weibo that the company is fully capable of protecting the steady supply of salt to all Chinese citizens.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Weibo swept China‘s network

Since 2009, "Weibo"--the Chinese twitter--has become a super star on China's network. As the first website to launch "Weibo", Sina micro-blogging is the most popular platform for sharing information among Chinese netizens.  I didn't get to know about Weibo until 2010, since I was a nerd. But micro-blogging is becoming so popular in China that whenever I visited Chinese websites or read online news, I could not escape the word "Weibo." Everyday, my friends in China would ask me "Did you weibo today?" When I visited Chinese websites, I was surprised to see that the netizens had already voted for the queen of Weibo online. Her name is Chen Yao, and she happens to be one of my favorite Chinese actresses.  I am so impressed by Weibo's popularity in China today.
I started playing Weibo at the end of 2010 when I purchased my first Ipod touch, and I fell in love with it immediately. I was amazed by its rich information and the personalized environment where I can choose to follow whoever I am interested in. I found many of my friends on Weibo, and I followed some celebrities who I admire. There is no doubt that the Chinese version of Twitter has been a success in this land, and surprisingly, it had endowed a uniqueness in China that can't be found on twitter in the U.S. which is the great power of connection. I would love to discuss Weibo's power in my future posts. But now, I would like to share a video that gives us a common sense of Chinese micro-blogging's popularity and great social influence: 
Weibo becomes powerful media CCTV news