Good afternoon everyone, it;s Luca here, how is your caturday going, here in Ausie land it is a nice warm day. Today Nana is sharing a video of me in the washing machine I was just checking it out.
Caturday with Luca
Month: September 2025
China’s National Anthem
China’s national anthem is the “March of the Volunteers.” Nie Er wrote the music in 1934, and Tian Han wrote the lyrics as a patriotic march. In 1949, the tune was adopted as the national anthem.
The anthem mixes new and traditional Chinese music. The first phrase suggests a major mode using F♯. However, the piece becomes Chinese pentatonic after that point. The first phrase also leads one to expect symmetrical four-bar phrases, but the tune quickly takes a more flexible Chinese course.
It was officially made the national anthem in 1982, and a provision for it was added to the Chinese constitution in 2004.
Here are the English lyrics.
Stand up! Those who refuse to be slaves!
With our flesh and blood, let’s build our newest Great Wall!
The Chinese Nation is at its greatest peril,
Each one is forced to let out one last roar.
Stand up! Stand up! Stand up!
We are billions of one heart,
Braving the enemies’ fire, March on!
Braving the enemies’ fire, March on!
March on! March on! On!
Now let’s be good Chinese learners and study some of the keywords from the Chinese national anthem lyrics.
This weeks post with links to other posts
Monkey’s
Today’s topic is monkeys, so what is a monkey, well a monkey is a tailed primate, excluding lemurs, tarsiers, and lorises. They are different from apes because apes do not have tails. Monkeys have narrow chests and specific skeletal features that distinguish them from apes. Most monkey species, of which there are nearly 200, reside in tropical forests and move on all four limbs.
Monkeys are divided into two main groups: Old World and New World monkeys. Old World monkeys belong to the family Cercopithecidae, while New World monkeys are platyrrhines, comprising five families. These groups are distinguished by their noses: New World monkeys have broad noses with wide septums and outward-facing nostrils, while Old World monkeys have narrow noses with thin septums and downward-facing nostrils.
Most monkeys have good problem-solving skills and can learn from experience, but they do not reach the cognitive levels of great apes. Monkeys are highly social animals that live in troops.
Monkeys are found in the wild in many countries across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. While they are most prevalent in tropical rainforests, some species have adapted to live in other environments, including snowy mountains and urban areas.
How long do they live well that differs depending on the species, their environment (wild vs. captivity), and other factors. However, in general in the wild most live between 15-30yrs, baboons, can live up to 40yrs.
Monkeys in captivity often live much longer than their wild counterparts due to protection from predators, disease, and competition for food. It’s common for monkeys in zoos or research centres to live well into their 30’s or 40’s.
Monkeys are highly adaptable omnivores, and their diet can vary significantly depending on the species, their habitat, and the season. While the image of a monkey eating a banana is iconic, it’s not a primary food source for many wild species, and their diets are much more diverse.
They are opportunistic eaters, and their diet reflects their ability to adapt to their surroundings and take advantage of any available food source. They eat a large variety of fruits and not just bananas, they also eat berries, mangos and figs to name a few. They also eat nuts and seeds, some are able to crack open hard nuts and seeds.
Many monkeys, especially larger species like howler monkeys and colobus monkeys, have specialized digestive systems to process fibrous plant material.
They get crucial protein from a variety of animal sources, such as invertebrates like ants, termites, caterpillars, and spiders, as well as small vertebrates like lizards, frogs, bird eggs, and even small birds and rodents.
China’s National Things
Today we are looking at some of the national things of China.
The Great Wall
They have a national landmark which is of course The Great Wall, The Great Wall of China is a series of fortified walls stretching across the historical northern borders of China to protect against nomadic tribes of the Eurasian Steppe. It was first built in the 7th century BC, and slowly expanded over time until the Ming Dynasty.
A Giant Panda
The national animal of China is the Giant Panda, a bear native to south-central China. Also considered a national animal is The Chinese Dragon, or Loong, which is one of four auspicious legendary creatures appearing in Chinese mythology and folklore. The dragon has many animal-like body parts, including wolf’s head, stag’s antlers, hare’s eyes, bull’s ears, serpent’s torso, carp’s squama, tiger’s limbs, and eagle’s talons. Theories claim that Loong was a combination of totems of many tribes created to unite them under one banner.
Red-Crowned Crane
There are two national birds the red-crowned crane or Manchurian crane which is a large East Asian crane and among the rarest cranes in the world. It is found in Siberia northeastern China. The other one is the Golden Pheasant which is a game bird native to Western China.
Fuzzy Kiwifruit
The Fuzzy Kiwifruit is the national fruit of China. It has fuzzy, dull brown skin and tangy, bright green flesh, also considered a national fruit is the Jujube it is an oval drupe 1.5-3 centimetres deep; it resembles a date and has a single hard stone like an olive.
The national tree is the Ginkgo it is the only species of these trees left all the others are gone. The national flower is the Chinese peony, Chinese herbaceous peony, or common garden peony it is a species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Paeoniaceae, native to Central and Eastern Asia from eastern Tibet across northern China to eastern Siberia
The national instrument is The Guqin this is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement
The national sport is Table Tennis as declared by Chairman Mao.
I am sure most people will not be surprised to read that the national dish is Peking Duck, but how many know that the national drink is Baijiu which is a Chinese colourless liquor typically coming in between 35% and 60% alcohol by volume.
This is all for this week, I will do more about China next Monday.
Jo-AnneRamplings 