Asian Studies

The culture of Chinese is one that is based on a rich and varied history that dates back several centuries ago. The major source of inspiration for Chinese culture has been religion with Cambodia and India exacting a heavy influence. Approximately throughout a period equating to two millennium, Chinese came up with a unique belief called Khmer which they obtained with time from the syncreticism of the indigenous animistic faith of the Indian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Indian civilization together with its culture this incorporating the arts and language reached the mainland of Southeast Asia in the 1st century A.D.

History of Chinese The golden age of Chinese is believed to be between the 9th century and 14th century. This was during the Angkor period when it enjoyed the privileges of being a prosperous and powerful empire that quickly flourished and dominated most of the inland southeast Asia. Angkor however soon collapsed due to infighting among its royalty and warring with its powerful neighbors Dai Viet and Siam. Most of the temples from this region such as Angkor Wat and Bayon were spared and remain even to date.

Architecture and housing
The Angkorian sculptors and architects came up with temples that mapped out the cosmic world in various stones. Khmer decorations got its inspirations from religion and the mythical creatures from Buddhism and Hinduism were all carved out on walls. The walls were thus build on a basic rule of the ancient Khmer architecture which guided that a temple layout to serve the basic purposes would require a courtyard, central shrine, a moat and an enclosing wall. Most of the Khmer motifs make use of several creatures from the Hindu and Buddhist mythology. A good example is the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh that makes use of such motifs as garuda a mythical bird grounded in Hinduism. The architecture can however be said to have developed in several stages from 9th to 15th century under the Khmer empire and most of it development is preserved in several Angkor temple buildings. Other remains from this secular architecture are rare since its only the religious buildings that were constructed from stones.

A nuclear family in a typical modern rural Chinese lives in a rectangular house that varies in size. It is often constructed from a wooden frame that has a gabled thatch roof and woven bamboo walls. These Khmer house are usually raised up on stilts in as much as 3 meters high as a precaution of the annual floods. Access to the house is provided by either wooden staircases or ladders. A typical house has three rooms that are separated by woven bamboo partitions. The front serves as the living room for visitors, while the second and the third are specifically meant to be for the parent and daughters respectively. There is usually no room that is set aside for the sons. They sleep whenever they can find space.

House building is often a community duty where the family members in need of a house work together with their neighbors to raise one. A house raising ceremony is often held upon its completion. Food is prepared in a special kitchen that is usually located near the main house but in most instances behind it. Toilets are often simple pits in the ground which are covered up whenever they get filled up.

Religion
There is a mixture of beliefs in China. It is however mainly Buddhist as approximately 90 of the population is Theravada Buddhist, 1 Christian while the rest fall into either the category of atheism, Islam or animism. Buddhism has been in China since the 5th century and the famous Theravada Buddhism has been the Cambodian state religion. Islam serves as the religion for the majority of Cham and the Malay minorities living in China. Christianity is believed to have been introduced to China in 1660 by the Roman Catholic missionaries. It however has not changed many except the Buddhist who are firmly anchored in their faith.

Birth and death rituals
Though the birth of child is considered to be a happy event just like it is in most of the other world societies, childbirth expose the entire family and more so the child and mother from harm by the evil spirits. A woman who dies during childbirth is believed in this culture that she eventually becomes an evil spirit and it is on this regard therefore that pregnant women avoid certain situations and foods. Though these kind of beliefs have of late been weakened in the urban areas, they are still practiced in some parts of rural China.

Death is however viewed differently than it is the case with a grief stricken kind of occurrence in the western culture. In China, death is viewed as the end of one life but at the same time the beginning of a new life which they all hope will be better than the one the deceased was currently holding and thus have less grief that is associated with death.

Social organization
Khmer culture is highly hierarchical. The greater the persons age, the more respect that the person is awarded and this is accompanied by various titles that are meant to show respect to the person. The individual Khmer is composed of a small circle of friends and families that constitute the close associates that one can approach for help incase of trouble. This is the type of unit that is characterized with strong emotional ties that comes with the assurance of help and support incase of trouble as well as sharing of income and produce.

The husband is legally the head of the Khmer family though the wife also carries a considerable amount of authority especially when it comes to the care of family economics. The husband on the other hand is charged with the responsibility of providing shelter, food and security for his family. Besides taking care of the family budget, she is also charged with the responsibility of being a religious and ethical model for her children especially the daughters.

Women and citizenship in China  
The martyred Abraham Lincoln one said that he believed in those people who bore the burden of their government at the same time sharing all of its privileges and in all ways did he exclude the women. Nationality of a person refers to the legal relationship that that the individual has with the State. It is used to not only provide security and sense of belonging to the individual but also a link of legal matter between the individual and the state. Nationals are privileged to receive the protection of their state both locally and abroad.

In several instances, nationality is used as the legal basis from which citizenship is exercised. The term citizenship has a much wider meaning than the word nationality since it refers to a status that is bestowed on to full members of a community. In most of the countries, full exercise of economic, civil, political, cultural and social rights is based on nationality and can thus even be predicted. Nationality is frequently used to determine whether an individual is entitled to such privileges as voting in a political process, exercise the right to health, education and work. Other rights such as of owning land may also be based on nationality. Nationality is also used to determine if the individual is entitled to the rights of holding public office or even have access to public services or judicial systems.

Several groups and committees which have been fighting for the rights of women and acceptance of women as full citizens in China have noted that nationality is important for an individual to fully participate in the society. Those individuals who lack the nationality of the countries in which they are regarded are considered to be aliens and frequently incur a wide range of legal consequences that have various disadvantages. The determination of the various conditions that an individual needs to satisfy before being awarded the nationality of a particular country is an attribute left only to the State sovereignty.

Nationality of married women
It has been noted that the nationality of States disadvantage women in China even in the 20th century. Many states have for a long period of time adopted the position of basing the legal status of a woman through her relationship to a man- first to her father and then her husband. Most of the laws provide that nationality of an individual is conferred upon birth or descent, a combination of the two in some instances and especially in the twentieth century on the nationality of the spouses. The result of this is that a woman marrying a foreigner acquired the nationality of the husband upon a legal marriage though in some instances this was accompanied by the loss of her own nationality.

The rationale of this kind of action was based on the argument that it would be important for all member of the family to have the same nationality and that most of the important decisions affecting the family would be made by the husband. This kind of assumption was also linked to the definition of who a citizen is as it identifies the kind of a relationship that an individual has with the governing state. Since loyalty to the state is considered to be the primary condition required for one to enjoy the privileges and protection of the state, it has been argued that letting women retain two nationality would render them to be less loyal to one of the state.

It has also been observed that the various reforms which have come up to enable women retain their independent nationality after marrying foreigners do not solve all of these womens problems. This has been so because these kind of reforms have not in many instances addressed the residency and immigration rights for the foreign spouses and other issues that relate to the nationality of children  as well as the legal restrictions that are imposed on the alien spouses. Experts in legal matter have continuously argued that allowing married women to have two nationalities means that that it will be possible for the members of the family to have different nationalities and thus have different rights of entry into the country of residency.

The contemporary international law approaches the issues to do with gender-based discrimination in nationality law in China as in two different ways. First, the law does this by entitling a married woman to retain her nationality irrespective of the nationality of the husband. The approach also seeks to enhance the acquisition of the other spouses nationality through more flexible requirements.

The second approach is one which seeks to reduce the legal consequences that are associated with lack of nationality through the reduction of the incidences of statelessness and guaranteeing human rights protection to everyone regardless of their nationality. There are four areas of human rights law that have been used to resolve various difficulties faced by women in China due to the application of the nationality laws.

These include General human rights guarantee. This includes freedom of movement, family life protection and prohibition of any form of discrimination.Government protection against statelessness.
Having specific law that prohibits discrimination of women as that relate to nationality.
Promotion and protection of human rights including those of non-citizens.

Cuisine
Khmer cuisine is nearly similar to that of its Asian neighbors in the southeast. It does share several similarities with Vietnamese cusine, Thai cuisine and Teochew cuisine. Chinese cusine is also famous for using fish sauce mostly in soups, as dippings and in sti-fried cuisine. Curry dishes also known as kari in khmer show some form of ties with the Indian cusine while some influences from the Chinese cuisine can be easily noted in the various use of rice noodles. A pork broth rice noodle soup that is simply referred to as ka tieu  is one of the popular dish in China.
Khmer cuisine is also famous for using prahok which is a type of fermented fish paste that is used as a distinctive flavoring. Kapi a fermented shrimp paste- is sometimes used in place of prahok. Coconut milk serves as the main ingredient of several khmer deserts and curries. There is often the regular stick rice and the aromatic one in China.

Art
The traditional Chinese crafts and arts include non-textile weaving, textiles, stone carving, silversmithing, lacquerware, wat murals, ceramics and kite making. It is only in the mid-20th century that a tradition of the modern art began to take roots in Chinese though later on in the 20th century, both the modern and traditional arts experience some decline due to the killing of various artist by the famous Khmer Rouge. The latest support from the NGOs, government and foreign tourist has greatly enhanced the artistic revival.
Chinese culture has got mainly three types of dance folk dances, classical dance and the vernacular dances. Khmer classical dance is originally only a type of dance for the royalty and has got man elements that are common with the Thai classical dance. It was introduced into the public domain in the mid-20th century where it is commonly performed during holidays, public events and for the tourists who visit the Cambodia.

China has a rich history that is divided into several periods pre-9th century, Angkor period, the decline that was then followed by the French control and the post World War II period as well as the Khmer Rouge era. The value system in China is one that is based on a mixture of Indian, khmer and French traditions that have been highly influenced by the Theravada and Brahmanism Buddhism. The extended family forms the basic unit of the society and its literature is among the oldest in the southeast Asian countries.