A while back I met a Chinese friend on Xaiohongshu who explained to me some history that I was never taught in school about China's past with Japan. As a fan of both cultures, I decided to educate myself out of respect for my friend. Today's reading is The Rape Of Nanking, once that's done, I have China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival by Rana Mitter. After that will be The Search For Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence.
// You can't get any closer to the #TerracottaArmy than this and marvel at the wonderful details - each #warrior is unique, down to the soles of his shoes! The colours are mostly faded now but still, I was deeply impressed. It also shows that megalomaniac leaders aren't a recent development. 
Written by a friend from Vancouver
"This post offers a detailed, firsthand account of how a community worked with its national archives to open racist government records needed to understand and confront this history. It shows how a community’s agency, self-determination, and right to remember its past can move an institution to action."
https://activehistory.ca/blog/2025/03/27/the-right-to-remember-the-past-opening-chinese-immigration-records-in-canadas-national-archives/
New Medieval Books: Complete Essentials for the Military Classics: Wujing Zongyao, Story Collection, Volume One https://www.medievalists.net/2025/03/new-medieval-books-complete-essentials-for-the-military-classics/ #books #ChineseHistory #MilitaryHistory
BDG news: Chinese Maritime Silk Road Hub Quanzhou Sees Record Rise in Visitors
Read here: https://tinyurl.com/ycy94nvp
This morning I woke up with a realization, my MMC for this novel is a Tang soldier and while I have tons of books and articles on merchants, frontier poetry and Chang'An. I have nothing on military structure, organization and life. #histodons and #ChineseHistory enthusiasts, what are some good books and articles in English and Chinese on the Tang military?
@histodon @medievodons #history @bookstodon #medieval #medievalhistory #AsianMastadon
"Chen Yaozuo was a #Teochew prime minister & grand tutor of the crown prince of the #SongDynasty (960–1279) in the 11th century. Coming from a family of officials, he was a rising star at the start of his career, until he bravely, or some might say foolishly, answered a call of Emperor Zhenzong for open criticisms by submitting a memorial that spelt out the ills of the times, including matters that no one else dared to speak about. As a result, Chen Yaozuo was banished & demoted to become an assistant prefect in the Teochew prefecture. This happened in 998, almost 180 years after Han Yu of the Tang dynasty suffered a similar fate."
"....Chen Yaozuo was more of a problem-solver than Han Yu, and he knew this. At the same time, he sensed the Teochew people’s deep admiration for his fellow Confucian. Cleverly capitalising on this, Chen Yaozuo erected a shrine in honour of Han Yu and he used it to commence his own programme to promote education among what was still a backward population. In pursuit of this goal, the Sichuan native also set up a Confucian temple and places of learning, while identifying and encouraging able families to send their children to schools.
Chen Yaozuo left Teochew after three years of devoted service to its people. He subsequently revealed in an inscription presented to a study room in Zhangpu (a county in Fujian adjacent to Teochew prefecture) that his time in Teo-yor was passed without major worries, despite it being enveloped in miasma."
"Chen Yaozuo’s heart remained with the place even many years after his departure. His poem below, “A note to Registrar Li Zi in Chaoyang” (送潮陽李孜主簿), illustrates this:
潮陽山水東南奇
The mountains and waters of Chaoyang are a wonder of the Southeast
魚鹽城郭民熙熙
Fishing boats, salt beds, and people going in and out of the city form a merry sight
當時為撰玄聖碑
Back then I had to write inscriptions for the sages
而今風俗鄒魯為。
Today its customs are like Zou and Lu [i.e. the home countries of Mencius and Confucius]
#Chinese #historians credit Han Yu for starting what we may call a #revolution through #literacy in Teochew. Yet the extent of Chen Yaozuo’s tireless contributions towards this cause can be seen by its fruits. Before his arrival, the Teochew prefecture produced only three men who attained the status of jinshi, the highest scholarly title awarded by the Chinese imperial court since the late 6th century. By the end of Song, the records show more than 170 jinshi from Teochew, of whom about a third came from Teo-yor.
Beyond scholarly titles, the creation of an educated class sparked a golden age in Teochew with accelerated advancements in agriculture and industry that ended its days as a backwater."
Ref: https://inf.news/en/history/08fbe530527e724eeeee5320bff4f3b9.html
It's only recently that I've learnt that the Mao suit was first developed by Sun Yat-sen.
Today is a great day for #podcasts! There’s a new #ChineseHistoryPodcast episode, too, on the Northern Wei!
Yiming Ha interviews Professor Scott Pearce about one of the dynasties I’m most interested in, and they both have such nice voices to listen to. 
https://www.chinesehistorypodcast.com/e/the-northern-wei-an-interview-with-scott-pearce/
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ch/podcast/the-chinese-history-podcast/id1593024675
Do you have a Chinese neighbour? Learn some basic facts about the Chinese Diaspora.
https://vibesmagazine.blog/a-world-of-connections-unravelling-the-story-of-the-chinese-diaspora/
#chineseculture #diaspora , #overseasChinese, #Chineseimmigration , #Chinesecommunities, #traditions , #culturalexchange #asianculture , #diasporastudy , #chinesefood #chinatown #chinesehistory , #worldcultures, #CulturalCelebration #diversity , #chinesenewyear , #sociology, #resilience, #historyofmigration , #UnderstandingCultureSocietyAndPolitics
The "Kingdom of Dali Buddhist Volume of Paintings" is a masterpiece of religious art and political propaganda. Commissioned by Duan Zhixing, it intertwines #Buddhist devotion with political authority, symbolizing his divinely sanctioned rule. This remarkable Buddhist scroll reflects the #DaliKingdom's unique integration of faith and power, offering a glimpse into its cultural and historical significance:
https://www.fabriziomusacchio.com/weekend_stories/told/2024/2024-12-21-dali_kingdom_scroll/
I think at that point the freaking Xuande emperor was the last 嫡 heir of any Chinese emperor??
And I guess Zhengde but honestly that guy doesn't count, Hongzhi was an anomaly (a pleasant anomaly but still)
The "heavenly horse" of China could travel 400 miles in a day, its back was marked like a tiger's and at peak exertion, it sweated blood. JSTOR breaks down the true history of these legendary beasts, which were so desirable Emperor Wu, who ruled the Han Dynasty from 141 to 87 BCE, started a war over them.
#History @histodons #ChineseHistory #China #Legends #Culture
Edit: Found one! Tracked down a copy in Germany via www.vialibri.net. Thanks Joost Rekveld and everyone who gave advice and boosted!
I'm looking for a physical copy of "5000 Years of Chinese Costumes" and trying to avoid Amazon. Digitally I can borrow it from the Internet Archive, but this is a book I want irl. Anyone who wants to part with their copy? Yes, I'm ready to pay for it.
Where the Malan Blooms.
60 Years After the First #Chinese #NuclearBomb.
"Malan, a type of iris, is also the name of China’s only nuclear arms testing base, and 21 was its military unit number. Situated on the northwestern edge of Lop Nur in Xinjiang, it’s named after the eponymous plant common in the arid landscape. The Chinese government formally acknowledged the site in 1987. Since then, the blossoming of the malan has become a euphemism for the Chinese nuclear weapons program, inscribed in military ballads and school plays.
This October 16 marks the 60th anniversary of the testing of the first Chinese nuclear bomb. When my friends and I coiled up our jump ropes and returned to class, we learned inspirational tales about the earliest generation of Chinese nuclear scientists, who left the comfort of home for the northwestern frontier and toiled in anonymity to forge the country’s atomic shield. In the same classrooms and from the same textbooks, we also marveled at our motherland’s vastness and diversity: every inch on the map had been part of China since time immemorial, and the Han majority and all 55 ethnic minorities constituted one big happy family."
https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/china-nuclear-bomb-60-years
On 10 June 1907, the first edition of Tianyi (天義 – Natural Justice), a #Chinese #anarchist #feminist #magazine , was published in exile in #Tokyo. It had been founded by He-Yin Zhen (何震 – He "thunderclap"), a leading member of the #WomensRights Recovery Association (女子妇权会).
The Association advocated forceful #resistance against #oppression by men, as well as that by #capitalists and the ruling class. It also forbade its own members from being subservient to men or becoming a concubine or second wife, while offering to come to the assistance of any member who was being abused by their husband, or under some other form of male dominance. He-Yin urged:
"You women, do not hate the man: hate that you don't have food to eat. Why don't you have food to eat? Because you can't buy food without money. Why don't you have money? Because the rich have stolen our property and walk all over the majority of the people."
Tianyi argued for a #SexualRevolution and the abolition of the family, which it believed gave rise to selfishness, #patriarchy and private property.
He-Yin also argued that #women forming part of a government would be inadequate for the #liberation of women, believing that while a few women might be able to join the ruling class, they would only join men in oppressing everyone else. And so liberation would only come with the overthrowing of both patriarchy and the state:
"What we mean by equality between the sexes is not just that men will no longer oppress women. We also want men no longer to be oppressed by other men and women no longer to be oppressed by other women."
In total, 19 issues of the journal published over the next couple of years.
https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8210/Tianyi-first-published
Nohara Shiro, until his death in 1981, was a #Marxist #historian specializing in Chinese history and #ChinesePolitics who had also become strongly involved in the movement to eradicate pre-war feudal and fascist influences from #Japanese education and learning. The essay translated here originally appeared in his 1960 collection, History and Ideology in #Asia (Ajia no rekishi to shisb). Despite his personal preference for #Marxism over anarchism, Nohara’s approach to the subject is quite open-minded. The strengths of his essay are its focus upon practical organizing attempts rather than intellectual activities, and its revelation of the considerable #anarchist influence upon Li Dazhao, whom the #Communist Party has long claimed as its own. Whilst most of the early intellectual exponents of the anarchist idea either drifted away into obscurity, were converted to Marxism, or joined the bandwagon of the nationalist movement (some even becoming outright fascists), the organizing activities described here often became the building blocks for the subsequent communist movement. Nohara’s work is thus invaluable not only for shedding light on the role of anarchism as an intellectual stimulus for the Chinese #revolutionary movement as a whole, but also for making clear the political debt owed the anarchists in terms of practical activities.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/nohara-shiro-anarchists-and-the-may-4-movement-in-china
thinking about nüshu and how it enabled female community in a time that wasn't necessarily willing to grant it... there's just so much to unpack there
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200930-nshu-chinas-secret-female-only-language ← an overview and solid jumping-off point for my inevitable further research
ferb, i know what we're doing today!
