JAPANESE CULTURE AND TRADITION

Japan, pronounced in Japanese as “Nippon” or “Nihon”, is a Pacific

Ocean island nation off the coast of mainland Asia. It is comprised of
approximately 6,900 islands. The most prominent and populous islands are
Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kyushu, making up 97% of the country.
Within these islands, there are 47 prefectures with a total population of 127
million (11th in the world).

73% of the country is mountainous, however, a majority of people live on

the coastlines, making it one of the most densely populated countries in the
world.

Language

The national language is Japanese, which is the primary spoken language

across the country. Old Japanese, or “Kanbun”, originated from China and the
earliest Japanese text, the “Kojiki,” was written in the early 8th century and
was written primarily in ancient Chinese characters. Modern Japanese
developed during the Edo period, between 1603 and 1868.

Modern Japanese consists of three alphabets:

 Kanji (logographic Chinese characters)

 Hiragana (a phonetic Japanese alphabet)
 Katakana (a phonetic alphabet used for foreign words)

The development and widespread use of Katakana is illustrative of Japan’s

recent adoption of Western cultures, ideas and words.

Culture

Early Japanese culture was heavily influenced by China. During the Edo era,
Japan exercised a strict isolationist policy, closing its doors to all relationships
with the outside world. This cultivated a distinct Japanese culture.

After the fall of that era in 1868, Japan reversed this practice, adopting
cultural practices from all over the world and mixing them with what was
established during the Edo era. Over the years, Western culture has influenced
all aspects of Japanese culture including art, lifestyle and food.

Religion
There are two main religions in Japan: Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto is a
Japanese religion, while Buddhism was imported in the 6th century from
China. A recent poll found that 39% of Japanese people identify as Buddhist,
3.9% as Shinto and 2.3% as Christian.

Celebrations

In Japan, the largest holiday is the New Year’s celebration. During spring and
summer, celebrations for the gods of the land and sea, or Matsuri, take place.
Each town holds its own Matsuri, and these celebrations are widely attended
by all.

Sports

Sports play a significant role in Japanese culture. Sumo, judo and karate are
traditional Japanese sports and baseball, soccer and rugby have been adopted
from other cultures.

Sumo is the national sport of Japan and to this day is primarily practiced only
in Japan. Modern sumo was formed during the Edo era and little has changed
since. Baseball is the most-watched sport in the country. It was first
introduced to the country in 1872 and has grown in popularity ever since.

Family Structure

The traditional family unit in Japan is called “Kazoku,” comprising of a mother,

father and their children. Traditionally, the Kazoku often live with their elderly
parents. However, more recently, three generation household numbers have
fallen in favor of more modern arrangements.

Cuisine

Across the nation, the Japanese are primarily fish eaters. Japan is the number
one fish importer in the world, consuming around 12% of the world’s caught
fish.

The most well-known Japanese dish is probably sushi, a dish that includes
fresh fish, seaweed and lightly-seasoned rice. Japanese also eat beef, poultry
and pork as part of their daily diets.

Conclusion

Japan is a nation shaped by its rapid transition from isolationism to globalism.

It represents a fusion of old world culture with newer Western practices.
 CHINESE CULTURE AND TRADITION

China is an extremely large country — first in population and fifth in

area, according to the CIA — and the customs and traditions of its people vary
by geography and ethnicity.

About 1.4 billion people live in China, according to the World Bank,
representing 56 ethnic minority groups. The largest group is the Han Chinese,
with about 900 million people. Other groups include the Tibetans, the Mongols,
the Manchus, the Naxi, and the Hezhen, which is smallest group, with fewer
than 2,000 people.
"Significantly, individuals within communities create their own culture," said
Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in
London. Culture includes religion, food, style, language, marriage, music,
morals and many other things that make up how a group acts and interacts.
Here is a brief overview of some elements of the Chinese culture.

Religion

The Chinese Communist Party that rules the nation is officially atheist,
though it is gradually becoming more tolerant of religions, according to
the Council on Foreign Relations. Currently, there are only five official
religions. Any religion other than Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and
Protestantism are illegal, even though the Chinese constitution states that
people are allowed freedom of religion. The gradual tolerance of religion has
only started to progress in the past few decades.
About a quarter of the people practice Taoism and Confucianism and other
traditional religions. There are also small numbers of Buddhists, Muslims and
Christians. Although numerous Protestant and Catholic ministries have been
active in the country since the early 19th century, they have made little
progress in converting Chinese to these religions.

The cremated remains of someone who may have been the Buddha were
discovered in Jingchuan County, China, with more than 260 Buddhist statues
in late 2017. Buddha was a spiritual teacher who lived between mid-6th and
mid-4th centuries B.C. His lessons founded Buddhism. [Cremated Remains of
the 'Buddha' Discovered in Chinese Village]
Language

There are seven major groups of dialects of the Chinese language, which
each have their own variations, according to Mount Holyoke College. Mandarin
dialects are spoken by 71.5 percent of the population, followed by Wu (8.5
percent), Yue (also called Cantonese; 5 percent), Xiang (4.8 percent), Min (4.1
percent), Hakka (3.7 percent) and Gan (2.4 percent).
Chinese dialects are very different, according to Jerry Norman, a former
professor of linguistics at the University of Washington and author of "Chinese
(Cambridge Language Surveys)" (Cambridge University Press, 1988). "Chinese
is rather more like a language family than a single language made up of a
number of regional forms," he wrote. "The Chinese dialectal complex is in many
ways analogous to the Romance language family in Europe. To take an extreme
example, there is probably as much difference between the dialects of Peking
[Beijing] and Chaozhou as there is between Italian and French."
The official national language of China is Pŭtōnghuà, a type of Mandarin
spoken in the capital Beijing, according to the Order of the President of the
People's Republic of China. Many Chinese are also fluent in English.
Food

Like other aspects of Chinese life, cuisine is heavily influenced by

geography and ethnic diversity. Among the main styles of Chinese cooking are
Cantonese, which features stir-fried dishes, and Szechuan, which relies heavily
on use of peanuts, sesame paste and ginger and is known for its spiciness.

Rice is not only a major food source in China; it is also a major element that
helped grow their society, according to "Pathways to Asian Civilizations:
Tracing the Origins and Spread of Rice and Rice Cultures," an 2011 article in
the journal Rice by Dorian Q. Fuller. The Chinese word for rice is fan, which
also means "meal," and it is a staple of their diet, as are bean sprouts, cabbage
and scallions. Because they do not consume a lot of meat — occasionally pork
or chicken — tofu is a main source of protein for the Chinese.
The arts

Chinese art is greatly influenced by the country's rich spiritual and

mystical history. Many sculptures and paintings depict spiritual figures of
Buddhism, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Many musical instruments are integral to Chinese culture, including the flute-
like xun and the guqin, which is in the zither family.

Eastern-style martial arts were also developed in China, and it is the

birthplace of kung fu. This fighting technique is based on animal movements
and was created in the mid-1600s, according to Black Belt Magazine.
Ancient Chinese were avid writers and philosophers — especially during
the Ming and Qing dynasties — and that is reflected in the country's rich
liturgical history.
Recently, archaeologists discovered detailed paintings in a 1,400-year-old
tomb in China. "The murals of this tomb had diversified motifs and rich
connotations, many of which cannot be found in other tombs of the same
period," a team of archaeologists wrote in an article recently published in a
2017 issue of the journal Chinese Archaeology. [Ancient Tomb with 'Blue
Monster' Mural Discovered in China].