Qingdao Customs

Qingdao is a modern city, but it is also showing the world the local folklore. Local folklore outlines and emphasizes the urban characteristics of Qingdao's culture, and what Qingdao can leave a deep memory for the world is the city's characteristic humanistic features, including traditional folk culture. Qingdao's humanistic features include not only a wide variety of traditional folk crafts and snacks, but also the courtyard architecture of Qingdao's folk dwellings over the past hundred years, the rich local characteristics of the drama Maoqiang and Liuqiang, the coastal folk beliefs represented by Mazu, and various ethnic cultural festivals, and so on.

Qingdao Residence Folklore

Residence (also known as "shelter") is a place for human beings to protect themselves from the wind and cold and to rest and reproduce, and it is one of the most important conditions for people's survival. Due to the influence of geographical and environmental conditions, the types of dwellings and styles of houses are different in different parts of China, and the customs of dwellings are also diverse. The structure of rural houses in Qingdao is similar to that of houses in the northern part of China, which are built on sunny slopes, emphasizing on facing the sun and backing up to the shade, and relying on the mountains and water. The houses are made of earth, wood and masonry, with 3 to 5 rooms in a row, and the roofs are in the shape of "human" (also known as "double-flowing water type") with the neighboring houses connected to the mountain and the wall. There are main houses, east and west compartments or inverted houses, and each family forms its own courtyard. Most of them are triple courtyards. The size of the village varies from a few families to hundreds of families, and in recent years there have been many large villages with thousands of families. After 1897, Germany and Japan occupied Qingdao. With the harbor and municipal construction, a large number of farmers flocked to the city, at that time, the West Town area built 10 civilian homes, Taitung Town, Nanshan, Zhongjiawa and other places have appeared some shantytowns. These homes built without planning, low and dark houses, poor environment, in addition to the "human" type roof, but also appeared a lot of one side of the slope of the house, people are used to call "Daosi cap". Because of the living environment, the conditions of change, some of the thousands of years of inheritance of living folklore can not be continued. Since the 80's, the government has implemented the old city renovation project, and in the 90's, it also implemented the housing project. Nowadays, civilian homes and shantytowns have been built into residential neighborhoods, with many buildings and beautiful environment, and people's living conditions have been greatly improved. During this period, the old-fashioned houses in the rural areas of Qingdao were mostly replaced by beautiful residential buildings. Living from purely practical to emphasize the development of aesthetic type. Some modern building materials were widely used, and many villages also saw the emergence of building clusters. Village Qingdao rural areas, in addition to a very small number of people living in the "mountain nunnery" mountain watchers, more gathered together to live, thus constituting different sizes of the building complex, called "village", "Zhuang", "Tong" or "Tun". The village road, big called "street", mostly east-west, called the front street, back street. In large villages with many streets, the name of the street is the family name, such as Zhangjiajie, Wangjiajie. Small roads called "Hutong", more family name, hall number, village celebrities or trees for the name, such as Songjia Hutong, Fulei Hutong, Xieyuan Hutong, the old locust tree Hutong, etc.; a very narrow path called the "sandwich road"; idle people often gather gossiping place called the "lazy man's nest". "Lazy man's nest", "old man's nest". Some village names are very distinctive and interesting, such as Zhanggezhuang in Laixi, which was named after a man named Zhang who settled down here. This person is bold and helpful, the neighborhood people respectfully called Zhang brother, the village name also became Zhanggezhuang. Because of the homophony of "Gao", "Ge" and "Ge", village names such as Zhou Gezhuang and Xia Gezhuang appeared in the future. There are many villages named after their family names, some of which are directly called "Yuejia" or "Zhaojia", while others are added "Tun", "Gou", "Dian "Tun"、"Gou"、"Dian "etc, and so on, called "梁家仝"、"于家屯"、"王家沟"、"徐家溝 "Liangjia Tong", "Yujiatun", "Wangjiagou", "Xujadian", etc. Some villages are named after the people who built them. Some villages are named after the characteristics of the people who built them. Laixi has a Li beard Zhuang, because the Qing Jiaqing years, a person called Li Ke with this village, he has a long beard, known as "Li beard", day long, the village is called "Li beard Zhuang". Later, some people feel that this name is not elegant, the early years of the Republic of the village name evolved into today's "Li Huzhuang". Some also build the village name for the occupation of the village. Laoshan has a Soap House Village, because during the Ming Yongle years there are several families with the stove burning salt households to settle here, the Song Dynasty called the salt households as "Soap House", the village is also called "Soap House Village". Many villages are named after myths and legends. Laoshan has a female nun village, because there is a village south of the "old nunnery" temple, the temple's main god known as "female nuns", the legend is that "the list of the gods" in the Zhao Gongming Marshal's sister, people will be the village name as "female nuns Hill The name of the village is "Nun Mountain". Dengying Village is the legend of the Qin people Xu Fu to get the medicine of immortality, and thus embarked on a journey to the immortal island of Yingzhou and named. Laoshan Santa Claus Village name, not only from a beautiful mythological story, but also because the village in front of the sea there is a huge rock that looks like an old man. Some villages are named after the old garrison or official canton, such as Aoshanwei, Xiongyasho, Yingshang, Huangguantun, etc.; some are named after temples and ancient homes, such as Miaotou, Jiazitou, Miaodong, Shifuyuan, etc.; some are named after geographic environments, such as Bumpy Ridge, which is named because of the topography of the area resembling a dustpan; and there are also names of local trees and flowers that are used in the construction of the village, such as Peach Grove, Zaoyuan, Willow Tun, Hazelnut Gully, etc. In 1979, Qingdao started the census of geographical names, and the duplicated and indecent village names were adjusted. The names of villages and the words used in village names have been standardized and normalized. Courtyard Qingdao folk living in most of the respective yards, commonly known as "patio", "yard". In the past, many people like to set up two courtyards. The front yard is large, is the main site of the family's weekday activities, the yard built pigsties, and the house, like to plant pomegranates, moonflowers and trees. Backyard is very small, not very useful, just to block the back window, that the back window on the street "not live. Nowadays, with the change of people's attitudes, coupled with the precious land, few people have a backyard. The wall around the yard is called "courtyard wall", which was mostly made of stone in the old days. In the street wall, inlaid with "nose" of the stone, used to tie mules and horses, called "hitching stone". Lime or mud on the top of the courtyard wall, called "playing the top of the wall." The top of the courtyard wall was plastered in a semicircle and called "Monk's Head". Nowadays, the courtyard wall is mostly built with stones in the lower part, bricks on top, and cement smoothed on the outside; some are also built with bricks or cement in a geometric pattern, called "flower wall". The courtyard wall must not be higher than the eaves. The courtyard wall in front of the street is left with a large door, commonly known as the "street door" or "street door". Street door is mostly south or east, Hutong also west, but rarely north. The street door should be offset from the entrance of the neighboring door, which is called "diagonal door". The gate is usually painted black, but for those who are famous in the old days, it can be painted red. There are two doors, each with an iron door ring, and the left door ring is connected to the door's "rocker", which can be rotated to close the door at will. Some people are also equipped with iron rings on the door, called "door scratch", to lock the door. The upper part of the door to repair a doorway, the old door and doorway are symbols of wealth, rich people's doorway to repair the four corners of the eaves, decorated with "dragon head", "Shou dog" and other auspicious objects, the door is tall, colorful paintings and decorations. Ordinary people's gates, doorways are very simple, doorways with more grass felt, some gates do not have a doorway, called the "soil door". Most of the main door built a shadow wall, commonly known as "wall" (brick screen), written on the "Fu" word, or painted with deer, cranes and other patterns, a search for good luck, two for decoration. Houses Folks mostly live in cottages. In the old days, houses were constructed with a ridge, a skeleton made of beams and pillars, earthen walls with straw roofs, and wooden windows (with stone walls and tile roofs in between). In a house with 3, 4 or 5 rooms, the room facing south is the "main house", the room facing north is the "back house", and the rooms on the east and west sides are the "compartments" called the "east compartment" and the "east compartment" respectively. The east and west sides are the "compartments", called the "east compartment" and the "west compartment" respectively. The middle room of the main house is called the "main room", and the two sides are called the "east room" and "west room" respectively, and then called the "suite room". The two sides are called "East Room" and "West Room" respectively, and the inner room is called "Suite Room". In the main room, there are two cooking stoves, which are connected to the kangs in the east and west rooms for heating the kang in winter. In the old days, a small square hole was left on the wall between the main room and the east room, which was called "lamp nest", and oil lamps could be put inside the hole, so that one lamp could illuminate the main room and the east room, and the oil could be saved. Some people also call it "mother-in-law's eyes", saying that from the square hole can see the action of the stove, for the mother-in-law to monitor the daughter-in-law with. Above the main room, a wooden board or sorghum straw is used to tie a roof, also called "canopy", which can be used to store groundnuts in winter. The east and west rooms are often decorated with paper cutouts of bats and flowers, called "yangpang". In a family with a large population, the elders usually live in the main house, and the younger generation lives in the compartment. If you live in a house, the elders live in the outer room, the younger ones live in the inner room (suite), the elders live in the east room, and the younger ones live in the west room. Inverted houses generally do not live, ordinary people pile up sundries, tools or firewood, the status of the family used as a guest, called "guest house". Compartments hot in summer and cold in winter, ventilation and lighting and poor, so the folk have "east wing west wing, unfilial sons and daughters", "rich people do not live in the east wing, winter is not warm, summer is not cool," the proverb. The compartments of rich people did not house people, but were used to raise large animals or to make stone mills for grinding. Building a house (Qingdao people called "cover the house") is a major event for the family, in the old days, to see the feng shui, choose the base of the house, An door frame, do the beam rafters and so on have to go through a variety of ceremonies and activities, which is the beam ceremony is the most lively, grand. On the beam time a red cloth, called "hanging red". Beam purlins should be affixed to the cross slope of the words "on the beam of great good luck", but also tied to chopsticks, tied with a red rope on the copper money, hanging red cloth and other ornaments, in order to seek good fortune. On the beam, the house around the firecrackers, the main room in the middle of the square table, set up offerings, lit red candles, by the master of the family to build a house kneeling. Laixi area in the beam, the two carpenters, masonry masters will also sing happy songs while throwing down some dragons, phoenixes, tigers, butterflies and other shapes of small meat and potatoes, attracting children to grab. The day after the beam ceremony, the owner of the new house to set up a banquet for friends and relatives, craftsmen and helpers, food and wine are generally very rich. Now, the folk building "to see the feng shui" and "set up offerings for God" and other old customs have been abolished, but in the beam, purlin above the sticker cross, Jianlian, as well as firecrackers and other customs for good luck is still popular. Starting from the 70s, rural houses were built by the production brigade (village committee) with unified planning, and the streets and houses gradually achieved a neat and tidy layout, and the houses were mostly made of masonry walls, tiled roofs and glass windows. The dining room, sleeping room and meeting room were set up separately, and the compartment houses were mostly cement flat roofs, which were used for drying grain or taking a cool summer night. After the 80's, the old straw house is basically extinct, some rural villages have been buildings in succession, the living conditions of farmers have greatly improved. In residential folklore, there are many taboos, but more with superstitious colors, such as in the past there are places in the lunar calendar in May to avoid covering the house, said May is a bad month, cover the house to die at home, obviously no scientific basis; residence door taboo rushing to the hills, rivers, avenues, wells and graves, said that this will be subjected to the evil and inauspicious, if you can't avoid, it is necessary to hang the door on the "Bagua Mirror "crack; house foundation can not be straight through the street, can not face the temple, such as can not be avoided, to be outside the mansion in a corner of a small stone tablet, engraved with" Tarzan Shi Dare Dang "5 words; wood used to build a house, avoid rowan wood, acacia wood, because of" rowan ", "acacia" stained with "fire", "ghost" two words, fear of inauspicious. In the yard also avoid planting mulberry, willow and poplar trees, commonly known as the front does not plant mulberry, not planted after the willow, the yard is not planted "ghost clap". Because "mulberry" and "funeral" homophonic, out of the wind funeral unlucky; willow does not bear seeds, fear of childlessness; planting "ghost beat hands" (refers to poplar) is afraid of attracting ghosts, the house is not the word. Nowadays, few people believe that there are ghosts, but farmers still do not plant the above three kinds of trees inside and outside the yard.

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