{"id":1609,"date":"2023-10-23T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2023-10-23T14:03:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T06:03:49","slug":"why-do-the-chinese-deeply-respect-their-elderly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/?p=1609","title":{"rendered":"Why Do The Chinese Deeply Respect Their Elderly?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This year\u2019s\u00a0October 23<\/strong>\u00a0is celebrated as\u00a0\u91cd\u9633\u8282\u00a0ch\u00f3ng\u00a0y\u00e1ng\u00a0ji\u00e9\u00a0(Double Ninth Festival)<\/strong>. In the Chinese society,\u00a0\u91cd\u9633\u8282\u00a0ch\u00f3ng\u00a0y\u00e1ng\u00a0ji\u00e9\u00a0is a special day to advocate the morality of\u00a0\u201crespecting and loving the elderlies\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0and to wish for their health and longevity.\u00a0It is called Double Ninth Festival since the festival falls on the 9th\u00a0day of the 9th\u00a0month of the Lunar Calendar.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do you wonder why this day is emphasized for the elderlies? Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 in Chinese is \u4e5d\uff08read: ji\u01d4\uff09<\/strong>. Hence, \u201cdouble 9\u201d or \u4e5d\u4e5d ji\u01d4 ji\u01d4  sounds similar to \u201c\u4e45\u4e45\uff08read\uff1aji\u01d4 ji\u01d4\uff09\u201d.\u4e45 means \u201cfor a long time\u201d<\/strong>, which symbolizes \u201clong and healthy life\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Double Ninth Festival focuses on longevity, it is often called “Height Ascending Festival”. For this reason people will usually climb a mountain or a tower as part of the celebration. <\/p>\n\n\n

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During this festival, people usually eat \u91cd\u9633\u7cd5 ch\u00f3ng y\u00e1ng g\u0101o \uff08Double Ninth Cake)<\/strong>. In Chinese, \u7cd5 g\u0101o (cake)<\/strong> has the same pronunciation with \u9ad8 g\u0101o (height)<\/strong>. This way, eating cake is expected to smoothen all life endeavors. There are no fixed rule for making the Double Ninth Cake, but it typically has as many as nine layers, looking like a tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Chinese are known to have a profound respect and reverence for the elderly.\u00a0Here are the reasons why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.     Filial Piety (\u5b5d\u987a xi\u00e0o sh\u00f9n)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confucianism has a major influence in the Chinese culture. This belief focuses on the importance of family and the duty of children to honor and care for their elderlies, or better known as \u5b5d\u987a. It has somewhat been doctrine to Chinese children since they were at a very young age. Hence, respecting elderly is seen as a moral duty in the society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.     Wisdom and Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese perceive elderly to have more wisdom and experience. Thus, they deeply value and respect the knowledge passed by a more senior person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.     Deep Emphasize on Seniority<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese deeply emphasize on family hierarchy and seniority. As a fun fact, in Chinese dining culture, it has become a norm for the elderly to take the take the food on the table first before anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do the Chinese Elderly usually do after retirement? Here\u2019s the trend of Chinese elderlies to spend their retirement days:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.     Square dancing \uff08\u5e7f\u573a\u821e gu\u01ceng ch\u01ceng w\u01d4\uff09<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.     Taichi (\u6253\u592a\u6781\u62f3 d\u01ce t\u00e0i j\u00ed qu\u00e1n)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.     Playing Mahjong \uff08\u6253\u9ebb\u5c06 d\u01ce m\u00e1 ji\u00e0ng\uff09<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Baby-sitter their Grandchildren\u00a0\uff08\u5e26\u5b59\u5b50\u00a0d\u00e0i s\u016bn\u00a0zi\uff09<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although the retirement age in China varies depending on the occupation and region, the standard retirement age for men<\/strong> is generally 60<\/strong>, and 55<\/strong> for women<\/strong>. Chinese government show their care for senior citizens by providing pension fund. In Shanghai, the retirement fund starts from 6000RMB\/month. Isn\u2019t it quite generous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respecting and cherishing our seniors is a part of our duty as the younger generation. Until then…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wishing you a safe and healthy life on the Double Ninth Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u91cd\u9633\u8282\u5b89\u5eb7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ch\u00f3ng y\u00e1ng ji\u00e9 \u0101n k\u0101ng<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This year\u2019s\u00a0October 23\u00a0is celebrated as\u00a0\u91cd\u9633\u8282\u00a0ch\u00f3ng\u00a0y\u00e1ng\u00a0ji\u00e9\u00a0(Double Ninth Festival). In the Chinese society,\u00a0\u91cd\u9633\u8282\u00a0ch\u00f3ng\u00a0y\u00e1ng\u00a0ji\u00e9\u00a0is a special day to advocate the morality of\u00a0\u201crespecting and loving the elderlies\u201d\u00a0and to wish for their health and longevity.\u00a0It is called Double Ninth Festival since the festival falls on the 9th\u00a0day of the 9th\u00a0month of the Lunar Calendar.\u00a0 Do you wonder why this day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,3,10,20],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1618,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions\/1618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}