Guangzhou/Canton (2nd Half)

Presented by Group 5:

Daniel HuanteHenry LiuLauren WongRussell Ling

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Sun Yat-Sen UniversitySun Yat-sen University, originally known asGuangdong University, was founded in 1924 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a great democratic revolutionary hero of the 20th century. The university is one of the top rankeduniversities in the People's Republic of China.

Shudan, a Teochew student from Sun Yat-Sen University, as well as a new friend, gives a brief description of how in the last three decades, Guangdong province is the site of one of the largest migrations of people in the world as Chinese from other province migrate to the area, while on our tour around the University’s campus.

A SYSU student, also one of our tour guides around SYSU campus, briefly explains Sun Yat-Sen University being a name-brand institution of higher education with fine traditions in teaching and learning. In addition, the school motto is to “study extensively; enquire accurately; reflect carefully; discriminate clearly; practice earnestly.”

The tuition, per semester, for attending Sun Yat-Sen University is 8700 RMB, which roughly converts to $1600 USD.

On our tour around SYSU campus, we took a group picture in front of the North Gate of the North Gate Square. This gate is the pinnacle piece of attractive architecture on the square because on this memorial gateway is the name of Sun Yat-Sen etched in his own handwriting.

Sun Yat-Sen University consists of four campuses, which sits along the Zhu Jiang, in other words, the Pearl River.  The Pearl River is named this because of all the pearl colored shells that lie at the bottom of the river in the section that flows through the city of Guangzhou. It is the widest distributor within the delta, although considerably short. The waters that converge east of the Bei Jiang are first referred to as the Pearl River just north of Guangzhou.  

• During our time in Guangzhou, we stayed in Zijingyuan Hotel of Sun Yat-Sen University. Next to the hotel was a class room where students would attend lectures and study throughout the evening. Near the end of our stay in Guangzhou, we made a toast and said our good-bye to Wu Jian, a new friend from Xiamen University.

• Wu Jian’s Mandarin Chinese skill was also an invaluable asset to us in Guangzhou in terms of communication and navigating around the city. Due to Mainland China’s influence on Guangzhou to communicate in Mandarin Chinese instead, has led many Guangzhou local to speak Mandarin Chinese instead of Cantonese Chinese. Even Guangzhou media and TV station has been switch to Mandarin Chinese.

Food in Guangzhou ranged from being tender and creamy to succulent and savory. Some dishes that we ate at restaurants consists of: taro-root boiled in a thick creamy stock, steamed pork-filled dumplings, thinly sliced pork covered in a sweet & savory sauce, and roasted chicken glazed with sugar and soy sauce.

The Bruce Lee museum, located in Sunde Guangdong, is regarded as the largest museum in the world that is dedicated to the life of the legendary Bruce Lee.

Sunde was a thriving place of traditional agriculture but due to the reform policy in 1978, Sunde was given full control to its people. This allowed Sunde to developed into an industrial boomtown. This led Sunde to be economically competitive.

Some of the products that Sunde proudly manufacture are furniture and electric appliances. Some of Mainland China famous companies, such as Kelon or Midea are stationed here.

Bruce Lee Museum and Sunde Guangzhou

Some famous people are originated from Sunde such as Ip Man, Wong Fei Hung and Bruce Lee.

Ip Man was an exceptionally talented martial art teacher. He opened up a few martial art school and trained many students who would later to become famous martial arts in their own right, including Bruce Lee. Ip Man was also a police officer during his time in Foshan.

Wong Fei Hung was also a famous martial artist who would blessed many televisions and films with his martial art skills. His martial art style was called the Hung Gar. His martial art skills was so great that some would argue that he could match Bruce Lee in a fight. Hung was also a physician that owned a private clinic in Foshan. Hung also has a museum dedicated to him with the aims of carrying on his legacy and his medical ethics at Foshan.

The legacy of Bruce Lee was his contribution in promoting Chinese martial arts and kung fu films. Both of Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s achievement pales in comparison in Bruce Lee legacy.

Due to his strong passion in films, Bruce Lee fought to build a good image of Asians in Hollywood films and refused to partake in any roles that could negatively portrayed Asians.

Bruce Lee was recognized as one of the seven best martial artist in the 1970s and was the only Chinese national, to be nominated as one of the most influential icons in the 20th century.

Some of Bruce Lee’s equipment for his training. He believed in absolute fitness and physical conditioning. He felt that many athletics would focus on one aspect of training, such as cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, muscles endurances and muscular strength. He balanced all of these elements which made him more of a well-rounded fighter and thus, made his skills in martial fighting to be at the highest level.

Bruce Lee basics styles of martial arts was taught in one of Ip Man’s class, whose was also a renowned martial artist teacher. Ip Man’s martial arts style was Wing Chun. Bruce Lee only completed halfway through Ip Man’s courses before leaving and decided to innovated and incorporated new moves which created his own style of martial art.

Bruce Lee was an alumni to our beloved University of Washington.

Bruce Lee majored in drama and philosophy. His love of philosophy was so great that he owned an library of books. Due to his extensive knowledge of philosophy, he incorporated many of it in his personal life and his martial art philosophy. Lee believed that everyone should be constantly gaining knowledge in order to become self-knowledge. This seems be part of the reason of how he lived his life. Even though he lived only for 32 years, he has accomplished many achievements in such a short period of time.

Bruce Lee faced difficulty in landing a movie role due to Hollywood discrimination of his ethnicity. He would eventually land an supporting role in the movie “The Green Hornet.” This movie was a huge success, which helped him to become more recognizable. He would later have more negotiating power in landing more favorable roles in his future films. In one of his film “The Way of the Dragon,” he was given complete control as the writer, director, star and choreographer of the fight scenes.

Bruce Lee’s ancestry originated in Shunde, Guangzhou. Lee’s grandfather built the house with bricks and woods. It was spacious and had rooms to practice martial arts. It covered about 51 sq meters. It was overall, a very humble home, where Bruce Lee had only lived there for a short period of time.

Throughout this part of the tour, our tour guide, Louis went into some details of Sunde. Louis mentioned that the Sunde mayor, is considered to be the most nationalist in all of Guangzhou. He only speak Cantonese Chinese, which helped the Cantonese Chinese language to thrive in Sunde.

Louis also mentioned that there was a time where women in Sunde refused to take marriage with another man. They would called themselves “self-combed woman.” Many women chose the route of being single gave them education, freedom, some level of independence and a voice. In addition, it was also to support their family. During the silk production era, many of these factories would refuse to hire married women. By staying single, many women would ensure to their family that they would have a source of income in order to survive. Pretty Chinese females were quite unfortunate during this time as they were forcibly taken to marriage or they have to become concubines.

Our tour guide, Louis, has mentioned a great deal of Sunde Cuisine. Many famous Cantonese chefs are from Shunde, which made the place famous for being the precursor to the Cantonese dishes. Due to the frugal life of Guangzhou people, Cantonese chefs has mastered diverse and complex cooking skills which makes seemingly easy cuisine into dishes that could be considered prestigious.

Many of these dishes were uniquely tasty due to the many mixture flavors that would burst into anyone’s mouth.

Among them, one of the dishes, the Jun’an pork, the dish on the bottom right panel, is an example of how a deceptively simple looking dish in Shunde, was imbued with many flavors. The chef would deboned the whole pig, marinated them in five-spice powder, salt, and sugar, which would be steamed for an hour with charocal. Then the pork would be thinly cut and be sprinkled with sesame seeds. This method of cooking intensified the pork flavor while also giving the subtle taste of the sauces.