Tianjin: Encyclopedia II - Tianjin - Culture

Tianjin - Culture

People from urban Tianjin speak Tianjin dialect, which comes under the Mandarin subdivision of spoken Chinese. Despite its proximity to Beijing, Tianjin dialect sounds quite different from Beijing dialect, which provides the basis for Putonghua, official spoken language of the People's Republic of China.

Tianjin cuisine places a heavy focus on seafood, due to Tianjin's proximity to the sea. Prominent menus include the Eight Great Bowls (八大碗), which is further divided into the rough (粗) and smooth (S: 细 / T: 細) varieties; and the Four Great Stews (四大扒). As far as snacks go, Tianjin's Goubuli (狗不理) is a traditional brand of baozi that is famous throughout China; its Guifaxiang (S: 桂发祥 / T: 桂發祥) mahua (twisted dough sticks) is only slightly less famous; and its Erduoyan (耳朵眼) fried rice cakes round out the list of Tianjin's three representative light snack items.

Tianjin is also a respected home base of Beijing opera, one of the most prestigious forms of Chinese opera.

Ma Sanli (1914 - 2003), an ethnic Hui and longtime resident of Tianjin, is paramountly respected in China for his xiangsheng, a hugely popular form of Chinese entertainment similar to stand-up comedy. Ma Sanli delivered his xiangsheng in the Tianjin dialect.

Yangliuqing, a town about 15 km west of Tianjin's urban area and the seat of Tianjin's Xiqing District, is famous for its popular Chinese New Year-themed, traditional-style, colourful wash paintings. Tianjin is also famous for Zhang's clay figurines (S: 泥人张 / T: 泥人張) which are a type of colourful figurine depicting a variety of vivid characters; while Tianjin's Wei's kites (S: 风筝魏 / T: 風箏魏), which can be folded to a fraction of their full sizes, are noted for portability.

Zhou-Deng Museum The late premier Zhou En-lai was an alumnus of Nankai University, located in Tianjin. For that reason, there is a three-story museum dedicated to his memory and the memory of his wife, Deng Yingchao, whom he married in Tianjin. The museum has extensive photos and documents, as well as dioramas, of significant events in their lives, including their deaths and funerals. It's located near the Tianjin Water Park. Nankai University is now one of China's premier universities for social sciences. It's administered jointly with Tianjin University, which is known more for sciences, and their campuses sit adjacent to each other. Tianjin University, formerly known as Beiyang University, was established in 1895 and is the oldest western-style university in China. Its motto is "Seek Truth From Facts."

Tianjin - Stereotypes

People from Tianjin are stereotyped to be eloquent, humorous, open, and unfettered, but also loud, verbose, lazy, and prone to arguing / fighting. There is a term for the stereotype of the always-eloquent and sometimes-humorous Tianjin native: wèizuǐzi (S: 卫嘴子 / T: 衛嘴子), which translates roughly as "the Tianjin mouth". This stereotype is perhaps partially the result of Ma Sanli's reputation (see "Culture" section above).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Culture", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki