We had a whole day worth of lessons for Chinese Culture and Reformation and Development of Chinese Finance.
In Chinese Culture, we learnt about auspicious Chinese patterns. There are 6 of them which include: auspicious Chinese characters, auspicious animals, auspicious plants, auspicious symbols, immortals and objects.
From the lesson we learnt that there are 4 most auspicious characters. They are 福(fu)，禄(lu)，囍(xi)，寿(shou). 福(fu) has the meaning of good fortune. 禄(lu) has the meaning of promotion. 囍(xi) carries the meaning of happiness. And last but not least, 寿(shou) means longevity.
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| One of The most auspicious characters, 囍 xi, commonly seen during Chinese weddings |
We also learnt about auspicious animals. There are four main auspicious animals which are the dragon, phoenix, tortoise and Qilin. The dragon is a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it, usually the emperor. In ancient Chinese civilization they believe that the emperor is the descendant of dragons.
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| Qianlong emperor in his dragon robe |
The mythical animal, phoenix is a symbol of high virtue and grace. Each part of the phoenix's body means different things. The head represents virtue, the wings represent duty, the back represents propriety and the chest represents mercy.
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| Phoenix - Auspicious birds raising from the ashes. |
The tortoise is an auspicious animal as it symbolizes a long life, wisdom and peace. It is the only non-mythical animal amongst the four mythical animals.
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| Tortoise Statue erected in the forbidden city |
Last but not least, Qilin, it is a mythical creature which is said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a sage or illustrious ruler. It is a good omen as it is thought to mean the arrival of prosperity and serenity.
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| Qilin of the Qing dynasty in Beijing's Summer palace. |
There are other animals like cranes which signifies harmony which were also taught during class.
For the Reformation and Development of Chinese Finance lesson, we learnt into income statements and statements of cash flow. It was similar to that of one of our previous modules which we learnt in Year 2. However, the professor provided new insights into the meanings of each of these statements.
During the early days of Mcdonalds, the company will keep their retained earnings and refrain from giving out dividends to its shareholders. This is to finance the company internally, thus allowing Mcdonalds to expand so quickly. One such person who was able to understand this in the early days was Warren Buffet who invested in Mcdonalds from the beginning and cashed out his stocks during the 1970s, earning him 10 times in profit.
As a result, a theory called the pecking order theory was developed which theorized the way which companies seek to finance their business. The best is through the company's own retained earnings, if the company are unable to do that, they will resort to debt financing and as for the last resort, it is through stock financing. This is because of the double taxation for stock dividends payout which can be seen in the income statement.
The lesson is really interesting and new insights are always gained when attending the professor's classes.
After the lesson, we met up for dinner and went back to have a good night's rest.
