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iinexorabile · 5 months

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PANG TONG INFO (redux)

OVERVIEW

NAME: pang tong ALIAS(S): the fledgling phoenix OCCUPATION: strategist, sorcerer, supernatural hunter (occasionally) AGE: immortal, biologically mid-late twenties. SPECIES: aberrant transcendent (demonic) EYES: green HAIR: dark green HEIGHT: 165cm (5'4") WEIGHT: 180 lbs (81 kg) ALIGNMENT: chaotic neutral (at best)

PERSONALITY

At times nihilistic, smug, flippant, smarmy, sarcastic, or snarky, Tong is a genius who always speaks his mind, while also being a very casual, laid back person who often maintains a very calm demeanor regardless of the situation at hand. On the surface Tong's nature can be quite a disarming trait at times, but one should be wary to let their guard down around him, since his ever so casual demeanor can be downright deceiving, as he’s completely capable and willing to commit ruthless and (at times) horrifying acts to bring down his foes or otherwise achieve success in his pursuits, all with that same casual attitude in tow. That’s because at his core, Tong is ruthless, a ruthless pragmatist to be exact, and while he may not be proud of or happy with what he sometimes does, there’s almost nothing he won’t do to achieve victory, especially if he thinks it will bring the land / world closer to true peace.

That said, while Tong may still act quite casual and can still be a sarcastic bastard around friends, family, and loved ones from time to time, he will spare such people any malice (provided they don’t stab him in the back), and can actually be very caring, protective, thoughtful, and all around softer toward them, in his own way.

On account of his extremely casual nature, he’s been called lazy, and a slacker, and while he can indeed be lazy (you’ll seldom meet someone who naps as much as he does), to say he gets nothing done would be a lie– Tong always gets his work done, often outdoing expectations by a long shot to boot, he just takes things at his own pace, slow and haphazard as that can be.

The same can be said for Tong’s seeking of thrills– those who don’t know Tong may think he never let’s loose, but those who do will know he’s a little playful in his own way (flirtatious even under the right circumstances), and has plenty of fun with life, especially when alcohol or related substances are involved, or when clashing against his opponents. To that end , humour is not in short supply with Tong, either, though it’s usually of the dry, sardonic, and / or mocking sort, depending on who he’s talking to.

However, for all Tong’s cool and composure, he has moments of doubt and piles of insecurities and fears and pains just like most people do– despite everything, he’s still human at his core (even if his true nature is now more complicated thanks to his Contract) and has the emotions to match, meaning his calm, casual nature can sometimes be thought of as a facade, but you may never know that if you never grow close enough to him, since unsurprisingly, he’s not big on opening up to people.

STORY

Pang Tong, styled Shiyuan, and better known as the “Fledgling Phoenix”, is a genius strategist, and masterful sorcerer of Eastern Han China. Tong was raised by his foster father Sima Hui (a mystic and founder of the secretive order of the Eight Enigma’s) after Tong’s parents and uncle met an unfortunate end following one of many upheavals during the twilight years of the Han Dynasty. Tong’s genius and aptitude for magic was noticed early on, and under Sima Hui’s guidance, he was molded into one of China’s greatest minds and fiercest wielders of magic. It wasn’t long before Tong was outperforming seasoned minds and sorcerers alike in matters of strategy and spell casting, and soon enough, he would join his foster father’s order, where his prowess would only continue to grow.

By age twenty one, in recognition for his genius and magical ability, Tong would receive the title of “Fledgling Phoenix”, one of the only two titles to be held within the Eight Enigma’s, marking him as an equal to his fellow Enigma, Zhuge Liang, the “Crouching Dragon”, who was said to be the brightest mind and most powerful sorcerer to grace China in ages.

Some years after achieving his title, Tong would delve deeply into the more arcane sides of magic, where he would end up (in yet another feat of his genius and magical ability) tricking a demonic entity into forging a contract with him, an act that would afford him great power, though strain his social status considerably on account of the markings that ended up on his face.

In time, however, Tong, along with the other Enigma’s, would eventually set out into the world seeking worthy lords to serve, lords they felt were best equipped to bring peace to the war torn, disease ridden, destitute hell hole their country had devolved into. Tong would go on to ply his services as a strategist and sorcerer to a number of lords, but all, save for two, ultimately turned Tong away due to his appearance, those two lord’s being Liu Chong, the prince of Chen, and then later, Liu Bei, the future Emperor of Shu.

Tong quite enjoyed his service under Liu Chong, and saw great potential in their ability to lead and bring people together– Tong saw China’s future in the prince, and would have done anything to see them succeed, but due to the machinations of a fellow Enigma, Liu Chong ended up being the victim of an assassination plot. Though he mourned his fallen lord, Tong once again resumed his search, meeting a number of interesting individuals as he wandered the land, and getting into a number of even more interesting situations, but it would be with Liu Bei who Tong next found service, seeing within them many of the same qualities he saw in Liu Chong, and it would be under Liu Bei where Tong would finally begin to spread his wings…..

Skills, powers, abilities, & more

The Fledgling Phoenix - Genius Intellect, Master Sorcerer

Tong is known by his title “Fledgling Phoenix”, one of two titles conferred upon the best of the Eight Enigma’s, the other title being held by Zhuge Liang (Crouching Dragon). A title such as Tong’s was not given for show, he received it on account of his genius-level intellect, and his masterful aptitude with magic, intellect and prowess that are only rivaled (within the Eight Enigma’s) by Zhuge Liang’s.

Tong in particular is great at devising complicated chained stratagems and laying traps of all kinds, as well as using binding magics, and sealing magics, though he has a masterful grasp with all manners of strategy and most other forms magic alike (even if he prefers those of the darker nature).

Tong is perhaps best known for his use of elemental magic as well, specifically that of the air / wind element, though that is more the result of him tricking an entity into forming a contract with him than it has to do with his own magical aptitude, though it may have also been another mark of his intelligence, on account of how he pulled it off…

Contract - Invocation of Fengbo

Tong possesses a “contract” with the fallen wind god Fengbo, who’s power Tong can call upon whenever he wishes. The grim markings upon Tong’s face are both a result and proof of this contract, and are the conduits from which the contract functions.

In truth, the “contract” Tong has with Fengbo is one in name only, since the fallen deity was tricked into entering it by a crafty Tong many years ago, ending up bound to Tong’s will as if they were a familiar.

Fengbo themselves may be a fallen god, but their power is still that of a deity, and when Tong calls upon them and has that power shroud his body and soul, he is a right, terrible force of nature that can easily make quick work of foes or perform feats of that no mortal could ever hope to achieve.

When Tong invokes Fengbo’s true power, their spiritual power emerges from the markings on his face, enveloping Tong’s being in a corrupted aura that turns them into a nearly incorporeal, wraith-like figure– a projection of Fengbo’s corrupted form.

Elemental Authority: Air / Wind: One of the chief abilities afforded to Tong when he calls upon Fengbo’s true power, it gives him complete magical control over the element of air, giving him access to a wide breadth of tactics and powerful techniques that otherwise wouldn’t be possible for him to achieve on his own. Even when Tong has not invoked Fengbo’s power, his baser wind / air magic still receives a passive boost to its’ effectiveness.

Immortality (Biological): A passive effect conferred upon Tong through his contract with Fengbo, his lifespan has been extended indefinitely provided he doesn’t sustain a level of physical or magical damage to his heart that’s great enough to kill him.

Enhanced Physiology : While Fengbo’s true power has enveloped him, the basic trait’s Tong possesses (physical strength, speed, agility, durability, etc) are enhanced to superhuman levels. Passively, thanks to the contract, Tong’s basic traits are always somewhat enhanced though, but without the invoking of Fengbo’s true power, they are on the far lower side of superhuman (perhaps peak human at best with certain traits).

Enhanced Regeneration: Passively, Thanks to Tong’s contract with Fengbo, he is afforded an enhanced regenerative factor, being able to heal wounds and restore lost limbs at a nearly instant rate ( with the exception that his heart is less regenerative). However, when Fengbo’s true power is invoked, this regenerative factor becomes null on account of Tong’s body becoming nearly incorporeal (allowing him to simply reform parts of his body at will since it’s all comprised of air anyway, save for his heart).

Supernatural Pain Tolerance: Another passive boon afforded to Tong through his contract with Fengbo, his tolerance for pain is now inhuman. However, when invoking Fengbo’s true power, this pain tolerance, like Tong’s regenerative factor, becomes null on account of his nigh-incorporeal nature, since he can’t feel pain in such a state regardless, unless you nail him in the heart.

Magic Resistance: After invoking Fengbo and their true power, Tong becomes very resistant (though not immune) to magic employed by non-deities, though when faced with magic from a deity or a divine source, this resistance does not apply. Tong is also afforded a lesser version of this resistance in the passive sense, when Fengbo’s true power is not being invoked.

Magical Enhancement: While Fengbo’s true power is flowing through Tong, the power behind other magics Tong employs is increased to great extents. The amount of spells that Tong is able to use is also extended to extreme levels that outstrip even his already great magical reserves many times over.

Affliction Purge: Upon invoking Fengbo’s true power, any afflictions Tong may have incurred prior– poisons, curses, and the like– are purged from his body and soul, provided they aren’t from a divine being or source.

Divine Words: When invoking Fengbo’s true power, Tong becomes capable of performing all spells and rituals at truly instant speed, and at full power to boot.

Avatar of Fengbo - Demonic Fenghuang: In exchange for Tong deciding to forego the use of Fengbo’s power directly, he can instead call upon an avatar of the fallen god resembling their true form, a massive demonic fenghuang-like entity that Tong can command to fight his enemies. This avatar’s power is great, and it’s mere presence can cause weaker willed opponents to collapse on the spot, and put others under immense strain, though the longer it is active, the less stable it becomes– if active for too long, it can go berserk, becoming a threat to even Tong himself if he’s not careful.

Weakness - Irregular Contract: Due to Tong’s contract with Fengbo being made under false pretenses and completed without a true cost being paid on Tong’s part, he’s only able to invoke Fengbo’s true power for brief periods of time (usually around twenty or thirty minutes, maybe a little more if he’s using certain techniques), and cannot instantly invoke the power again without causing serious damage to himself.

To further explain, because of Tong not paying for his contract with Fengbo when it was made, his soul takes damage each time he invokes their true power, and while this damage does in a sense heal, sustaining too much of it in a short period of time (i.e, Tong trying to invoke Fengbo’s power multiple times in say, an hour) doesn’t just run the risk of killing him, but it may also allow Fengbo to possess his body and make Tong the one locked inside.

High-Speed Incantations

Tong, like many in the Eight Enigma (besides Guo Jia who possesses a unique variation of this skill), is capable of reciting the incantations for spells of all types at extremely high speeds, allowing him to almost instantly cast spells of all tiers at full power, even those that would otherwise take someone much longer to perform due to long, drawn out incantations. Complicated rituals may still take Tong some time to perform, but he can generally unleash full powered spells at a much quicker rate than most magic users.

Supernatural Expertise

Within the Eight Enigma’s, each member had a specific role, and Tong’s role within the Enigma’s was the study and handling of supernatural entities or supernatural phenomena in general.

It should be noted that every Enigma was used to dealing with supernatural phenomena or beings, Tong wasn’t special in that regard, but in contrast to the others, he, over the years, had amassed encyclopedic knowledge and understanding of his homeland’s supernatural creatures, entities, and occult knowledge, and he was the one the other Enigma’s turned to for guidance or help when faced with such things when troublesome enough. Tong was only assigned to this position, however, after successfully tricking and binding the fallen deity Fengbo to his soul, a feat that truly put his expertise in this area on full display.

Jiǎolì Expert

A form of hand-to-hand combat that involves the use of strikes, throws, joint manipulation, and pressure point attacks. At first glance it resembles wrestling, but this art puts great emphasis on the speed of its user and their ability to locate and disable a foe via the weakest points of their body– in essence it’s not a very honorable way to fight, but it is very effective, and Tong is learned enough in it’s ways to be a threat should a fight end up getting close and personal with him.

EQUIPMENT, AND OTHER NOTES.

Weaponry: Artefacts

Tong employs the use of a wide variety of magical staves as his main form of weaponry, with each stave serving a particular purpose but all of them more or less aiding him in the casting of magic. Tong’s most notable staves are the Great Phoenix, a bladed Artefact which enhances Tong’s air / wind elemental magic, stacking nicely with his boost from Fengbo’s powers (while also just being a decent melee weapon that Tong is expertly competent with), and the Staff of Mirages, an Artefact that enhances the use of illusionary magic, while also affording its user a number of unique illusions to employ against foes.

Visage of the Enigma

The hat and mask Tong is often seen wearing, they were crafted for him by Sima Hui, and each of the Eight Enigma’s was made to wear them for a time. Many Enigma’s did away with these items once they felt it was no longer necessary to hide their identities, but Tong always kept his around, and prefers wearing it when around people he doesn’t yet know-- not to mention that he has enchanted it with a small barrier, giving it some degree of utility.

Tome: The Scripture of Master Lao

During Tong’s travels following Liu Chong’s death, he encountered a bizarre, emerald-eyed mystic who proceeded to put him through a number of even more bizarre trials, and at the end, the man revealed themselves to be Master Lao (known also as Zhuangzi), an immortal, who then bestowed upon Tong a magical tome.

The tome in question takes the form of a scroll that, when unrolled, reveals ancient magical knowledge to it’s user, allowing them the use of many unique spells. The tome speaks of arcane knowledge from a time when Gods still openly walked the land, and is best used when in the hands of someone of ‘pure heart'. Since Tong is not a person of such aforementioned purity, the tome is not as effective as it can be when used by him, but it can still prove to be a valuable tool at times, giving him access to spells and knowledge he would never have access to otherwise, hence why he keeps it around.

Familiars

Outside of the strange situation Tong has going with Fengbo, he also has a number of familiars bound to his will that he can call upon to defend or otherwise aid him whenever he wishes.

Most of his Familiars aren’t particularly notable, being entities that Tong defeated and then bound afterward, but they are dangerous entities nonetheless, and can spell trouble for opponents they are set upon, if those opponents are not careful. The few notable Familiars that Tong does have in his arsenal, however, are truly terrifying, and will stand out from the others.

All in all though, Tong's Familiars can range from grotesque, possessed beasts (bears, tigers, boars), giant insectoid creatures, possessed corpses like Jiangshi, Demonic spirits / creatures in general, or Eldritch creatures that defy normal classification.

#tong: main info #//hewwo work is killing me atm but i finally got around to touching this up a little and giving tong one of his own audio intro things #//huzzah. this will be reflected on the muse nav shortly #//might be trying to do a thing or two with tong later on this week once im done with other drafts!! we'll see

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brookstonalmanac · 5 months

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Events 12.11 (before 1950)

#Events

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creativeprojecthis111 · 5 months

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*Han Dynasty* Luohe River Tombs

The Luohe River Tombs, located in the Henan Province of China, represent a rich archaeological site with a history that dates back over 2,000 years. This burial complex, discovered in the mid-20th century, offers valuable insights into the ancient cultures that once thrived in the region.

The tombs are situated along the Luohe River, a tributary of the Yellow River, and cover an expansive area. The site contains a multitude of burial mounds, revealing the burial practices of various dynasties. The most significant period associated with the Luohe River Tombs is the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), although evidence suggests that the site was in use during the preceding Western Han Dynasty as well.

Archaeologists have unearthed a diverse array of artifacts from the tombs, shedding light on the cultural and social practices of the ancient inhabitants. Among the discoveries are pottery, jade artifacts, bronze items, and elaborate burial objects, all of which contribute to a deeper understanding of the daily life, beliefs, and burial customs of the people of that era.

The layout of the tombs suggests a hierarchical social structure, with larger and more ornate burial mounds likely belonging to individuals of higher status. The meticulous craftsmanship of the artifacts found in these tombs attests to the advanced artistic and technological skills of the ancient craftsmen.

While the Luohe River Tombs have provided valuable archaeological insights, they also face challenges such as environmental factors. Conservation efforts are ongoing to preserve this historical site and ensure that future generations can continue to explore and learn from the remnants of China's ancient past. The site remains a testament to the enduring legacy of ancient Chinese civilizations.

#han dynasty #ancient china #history

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gibsonwheeler · 2 years

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14_3713481_huai 24 where did come from.1665809308

Huai 24 - Who is Huai Jin? Huai Jin is a tall, skinny ass who likes to snack all day. She has several guy friends, but most of them are cowards. She's very nice overall, but is rude to people she doesn't know. Her crushes are on men who don't like her back. She also thinks a lot of herself. huai'an Huai'an is a city in the eastern province of Jiangsu, China. Its location is about halfway between Chuzhou and Yangzhou. Historically, the city was known as Huaiyin. In 2001, the city was renamed Huai'an. It is located south of Lianyungang and southeast of Suqian. It is also located almost directly north of Yangzhou and northeast of Chuzhou. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Huai'an was an important city. Its importance declined after the mid-19th century, though it retained a provincial role as a transport and collection center for agricultural products. In particular, the town was important for collecting rice from the Hui River valley. Huai'an has a temperate, humid climate. The city lies at the junction of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, and has extensive transportation networks. It is also an important inland port. huai'an city Located at the Grand Canal, Huai'an is a thriving industrial city with a long history. The city is home to several high-technology industries. https://www.tode678.com/ include precision mould components, PCBs and computer peripherals. Huai'an is also an important inland port. The city is also famous for being the birthplace of several important historical figures. Notable figures who hail from Huai'an include Han Xin, the founder of the Han Dynasty, and Wu Cheng'en, who wrote "Journey to the West" in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Huai'an is home to many influential figures, whose temples and memorials give insight into their lives. Huai'an city is a beautiful and historical city in northern Jiangsu province. It is only a two to eight-hour drive from neighboring cities. The ancient Huaihe River flows through the city, and Hongze Lake, China's fourth largest freshwater lake, is also located here. The city also boasts a rich bounty of aquatic products. Those who are interested in local cuisine can try Huaiyang cuisine, which hails from Yangzhou and is famous for its authenticity. huai'an airport Huai'an Airport is located in Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province. It serves both domestic and international flights. You can find help at the airport's customs and passport control desks. You can also ask for assistance with your carry-on and checked luggage. The airport also offers lounges with comfortable chairs and duty-free shops. The airport is also convenient for families as there are children's rooms. In 2011, Huai'an Lianshui airport handled over two hundred thousand passengers, making it the 99th busiest airport in China. In addition, many airlines now allow customers to select their preferred window seats for a small fee. You can also use the web to check-in and select your window seat. The airport is easily accessible via public transportation or car rentals. There are also buses available to take you to Huai'an City. For more details, you can visit the official website of Huai'an Lianshui Airport. huai'an city of famous historical figures Located east of the Hongze River and the Yangtze River, Huai'an was a center of considerable importance. The city was served by the Grand Canal, which linked the two major rivers. In the 2nd century bce, a county was established there, and by the early 4th century ce it had become the administrative center of a commandery. The city was also walled. In 583, the city was given the name Chu, and in 618 it was given its present name. Huai'an has been known for its intellectual atmosphere since ancient times, and has been the birthplace of many important figures. This includes the great military leader Han Xin, the writer Wu Cheng'en (who wrote Journey to the West), and Zhou Enlai, the Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 until 1976. Huai'an has a temperate, moderate climate. According to the Koppen climate classification, the city experiences relatively hot summers and mild winters. It is also located near the Grand Canal and serves as a significant inland port.

#หวย ออนไลน์

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blueiskewl · 2 years

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Four Ancient Tombs Unearthed In China

Chinese archaeologists have discovered a number of objects from four tombs dating back 1,900 years in central China's Hunan Province, the provincial cultural relics and archaeology institute said on Saturday.

The tombs are located in Guiyang County. Unearthed objects include 81 pieces of pottery, ironware, glassware, silverware and bronzeware.

Based on the inscription on one of the tombs and the characteristics of the unearthed objects, the archaeologists believe the tombs are from a time from the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) to the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), about 1,700 to 1,900 years ago.

Accessories including pendants, glassware and silver earrings that were found in two tombs indicate that the tomb owners were likely women, the archaeologists said.

"The discoveries are of great importance to the study of the funeral customs, economy, culture and social development from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms Period in southern Hunan," said institute staffer Chen Bin.

#Four Ancient Tombs Unearthed In China #China's Hunan Province #Guiyang County #Mid-Eastern Han Dynasty #Three Kingdoms Period #archeology #history #history news #ancient culture #ancient civilizations #ancient grave

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mscoyditch · 2 years

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D'Artagnan.

"Traditional embellished boots from two different cultures ,the Tatars and the people of Yarkand in China These traditional boots date from 16th cent to early 20th century.

#1 Tatar Boots; ca 1925 ; worn by Alicia Markova (1910-2004) as a Polotsvian maiden in Mikhail Fokine's ballet Prince Igor .Markova was only 14 when she joined the Ballet Russe in 1925 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

#2 Pair of boots, most likely worn by women from the city of Yarkand (also known as Shache in Chinese) at festive occasions. Made of leather with purple and brown woollen felt appliqué with elaborately embroidered and heavily couched floral motifs in a combination of silk, metal, gold and woollen threads on its upper and its cuff, with a blue-painted hemp layered at the top of the pitched cuff. The front vamp is decorated with magenta-dyed cotton/woollen ends, made in chagrin (or shagreen) between its upper and wooden sole and 4cm-high heel painted with decorative marks, and layered with leather at the bottom. Ca 1873 Height: 42cmLength: 23.5cm Width: 9cm © V&A. Museum

#3. Pair of boots, most likely worn by women from the city of Yarkand (also known as Shache in Chinese) at festive occasions. Made of leather lined with bright red and green woollen felt appliqué with elaborate floral motifs embroidered or couched in a combination of silk, metal, gold and woollen threads on its upper and its cuff, with a blue-painted hemp layered at the top of the cuff, a front vamp lined with magenta cotton/woollen ends, and edged with chagrin (or shagreen) between its upper and wooden sole and 4cm-high heel which is layered with leather at the bottom. Height: 43cm

Length: 23cm Width: 8.5cm ca 1873 © V&A Museum

#4 Pair of Tartar boots dated to 1582, in the Livrustkammaren museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Embroidered all over with a 4 layer leather stacked heel. The picture comes from June Swann's "History of Footwear in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Prehistory to 1950," Originally, this boot is thought to have been a present from the Khan of the Crimean Tartars during his visit to the Stockholm at the end of the century..

#5 Boots from Kazakhstan in the early 1900s Made for men and women these soft, light, indoor boots (ichigi or masi) have thin, flat soles. hey are decorated with brightly coloured leather appliqué patterns that evoke the natural world such as beetles, rams’ horns and cat faces. Leather overshoes were worn over these boots to protect them from the dirt and moisture outside © British Museum

#6. Boot 19th century Ukraine, possibly Crimea, Tartar (Tatar) peoples Pieced, dyed and embroidered leather Height x width: 14 9/16 x 3 1/8 in., 33 cm (37 x 8 cm, 13 in.) © MFA Boston

#7. Pair of Kazakh women's boots in orange-brown leather with applications of pieces of dyed leather in blue, brown and beige representing floral motifs - Republic of Kazakhstan - Central Asia  H.: 25 cm  Visible restorations.© Drouot Richelieu

#8. Woman’s boots, Yarkand, Xinjiang (China), mid 19th century. Leather, cotton, silk, height: 40 cm. Robert Shaw Collection, Ethnological Museum© Ethnological Museum SMB. Photo: Claudia Obrocki

~~~ooo~~~~

Yarkand

In the western outskirt of the Takla-Makan Desert, in the Yarkand River water gap there lies Yarkand one of the ancient cities on the southern branch of the Great Silk Road. Yarkand city, or Shache in Chinese, is one of the largest cities of Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous region of China. The city sprang up in the Ist millennium BC as a transhipment place for caravans, moving along the Great Silk Road, and is considered one of the main trade centres of Eastern Turkestan. Late in the Ist century AD, the city was occupied and annexed to China by Han troops and its importance diminished .Then later, under the Tang dynasty Yarkand once again became a strategically important point on the Silk Road.

~~~ooo~~~

Tatar boots (also Kazan boots, ichigi, chiteck) that date centuries back can be found in the collections of many prominent museums. There, the boots are labelled as originated from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Crimea, Russia, Indonesia, Ukraine, Georgia, Asia, Europe; in accordance with the area from which they came. The labels do not always accurately credit the authorship of the unique craftsmanship and technique of this kind of exquisite leatherwork. The boots were created using a unique leather mosaic technique developed and mastered by Volga (Kazan) Tat people.

The Tatars is an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar".Initially, the ethnonym Tatar possibly referred to the Tatar confederation; which was eventually incorporated into the Mongol Empire when Genghis Khan unified the various steppe tribes. Historically, the term Tatars (or Tartars) was applied to anyone originating from the vast Northern and Central Asian landmass then known as Tartary, a term which was also associated with the Mongol Empire itself. Recently the term now refers to related ethnic groups who refer to themselves as Tatars or who speak languages that are commonly referred to as Tatar, namelyVolga Tatars (Tatars proper), Crimean Tatars and Siberian Tatars.

Love D'Artagnan xxx".

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citrina-posts · 4 years

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Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. This is pretty long, so if you want to keep reading, it’s under the cut.

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!

#this deleted idk why #so here is me reposting it #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #cultural appropriation #meta #atla meta #racism

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fouryearsofshades · 3 years

Note

When did Hanfu started to become 2 piece (for both female and male)?

They always had separate top and bottom pieces but the higher-ups stopped wearing the outer robe by sometime during mid or late Eastern-Han? IDK, did not keep track of the specific period (it also might varied from region to region).

Two-piece seemed to be was the norm by Northern and Southern Dynasties.

The men's robe from the later period (yuanlingpao, daopao etc) re-developed later from Tang dynasty onwards.

If anyone have specific period feel free to add on.

#historical clothing #ask #fouryearsofshades #hanfu

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szalacsi · 3 years

Text

history

“I’m from Malaysia.

China has traded with Malaysia for 2000 years. In those years, they had been the world’s biggest powers many times. Never once they sent troops to take our land.

Admiral Zhenghe came to Malacca five times, in gigantic fleets, and a flagship eight times the size of Christopher Columbus’ flagship, Santa Maria. He could have seized Malacca easily, but he did not.

In 1511, the Portuguese came.

In 1642, the Dutch came.

In the 18th century the British came.

We were colonised by each, one after another.

When China wanted spices from India, they traded with the Indians. When they wanted gems, they traded with the Persian. They didn’t take lands. The only time China expanded beyond their current borders was in Yuan Dynasty, when Genghis and his descendants Ogedei Khan, Guyuk Khan & Kublai Khan concurred China, Mid Asia and Eastern Europe. Yuan Dynasty, although being based in China, was a part of the Mongolian Empire.

Then came the Century of Humiliation. Britain smuggled opium into China to dope the population, a strategy to turn the trade deficit around, after the British could not find enough silver to pay the Qing Dynasty in their tea and porcelain trades.

After the opium warehouses were burned down and ports were closed by the Chinese in ordered to curb opium, the British started the Opium War I, which China lost. Hong Kong was forced to be surrendered to the British in a peace talk (Nanjing Treaty).

The British owned 90% of the opium market in China, during that time, Queen Victoria was the world’s biggest drug baron. The remaining 10% was owned by American merchants from Boston. Many of Boston’s institutions were built with profit from opium.

After 12 years of Nanjing Treaty, the West started getting really really greedy. The British wanted the Qing government:

1. To open the borders of China to allow goods coming in and out freely, and tax free.

2. Make opium legal in China. Insane requests, Qing government said no.

The British and French (with supports from the US), started Opium War II with China, which again, China lost.

The Anglo-French military raided the Summer Palace, and threatened to burn down the Imperial Palace, the Qing government was forced to pay with ports, free business zones, 300,000 kilograms of silver and Kowloon was taken.

Since then, China’s resources flew out freely through these business zones and ports. In the subsequent amendment to the treaties, Chinese people were sold overseas to serve as labor.

In 1900, China suffered attacks by the 8-National Alliance (Empire of Japan, Russian Empire, British Empire (including India), France, USA, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary).

Innocent Chinese civilians in Peking (Beijing now) were murdered, buildings were destroyed & women were raped. The Imperial Palace was raided, and treasures ended up in museums like the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.

In late 1930s China was occupied by the Japanese in WWII. Millions of Chinese died during the occupancy. 300,000 Chinese died in Nanjing Massacre alone. Mao brought China together again from the shambles. There were peace and unity for some time. But Mao’s later reign saw sufferings and deaths from famine and power struggles.

Then came Deng Xiao Ping and his infamous 'black-cat and white-cat' story. His preference in pragmatism than ideologies has transformed China. This thinking allowed China to evolve all the time to adapt to the actual needs in the country, instead of rigidly bounded to ideologies. It also signified the death of Communism in actually practice in China.

The current Socialism+Meritocracy+Market Economy model fits the Chinese like gloves, and it propels the uprise of China. Singapore has a similar model, and has been arguably more successful than Hong Kong, because Hong Kong being gateway to China, was riding on the economic boom in China, while Singapore had no one to gain from.

In just 30 years, the CPC have moved 800 millions of people out from poverty. The rate of growth is unprecedented in human history. They have built the biggest mobile network, by far the biggest high speed rail network in the world, and they have become a behemoth in infrastructure. They made a fishing village called Shenzhen into the world’s second largest technological centre after the Silicon Valley.

They are growing into a technological power house. It has the most elaborate e-commerce and cashless payment system in the world. They have launched exploration to Mars. The Chinese are living a good life and China has become one of the safest countries in the world.

The level of patriotism in the country has reached an unprecedented height. For all of the achievements, the West has nothing good to say about it. China suffers from intense anti-China propagandas from the West. Western Media used the keyword “Communist” to instil fear and hatred towards China.

Everything China does is negatively reported. They claimed China used slave labor in making iPhones. The truth was, Apple was the most profitable company in the world, it took most of the profit, leave some to Foxconn (a Taiwanese company) and little to the labor.

They claimed China was inhuman with one-child policy. At the same time, they accused China of polluting the earth with its huge population. The fact is the Chinese consume just 30% of energy per capita compared to the US.

They claimed China underwent ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang. The fact is China has a policy which priorities ethnic minorities. For a long time, the ethnic minorities were allowed to have two children and the majority Han only allowed one. The minorities are allowed a lower score for university intakes. There are 39,000 mosque in China, and 2100 in the US.

China has about 3 times more mosque per muslim than the US. When terrorist attacks happened in Xinjiang, China had two choices:

1. Re-educate the Uighur (CENSUDED by Youtube) before they turned (CENSUDED by Youtube). (**Here I could not copy the exact word, since today it is censored by YouTube if I write it next to the indicated ethnicity. It is the one used to identify those crazy people who are killing people thinking that by doing this they will be able to go to paradise**).

2. Let them be, after they launch attacks and killed innocent people, bomb their homes. China chose 1 to solve problem from the root and not to do killing.

How the US solve terrorism? Fire missiles from battleships, drop bombs from the sky.

During the pandemic, When China took extreme measures to lockdown the people, they were accused of being inhuman.

When China recovered swiftly because of the extreme measures, they were accused of lying about the actual numbers.

When China’s cases became so low that they could provide medical support to other countries, they were accused of politically motivated. Western Media always have reasons to bash China. Just like any country, there are irresponsible individuals from China which do bad things, but the China government overall has done very well.

But I hear this comment over and over by people from the West: I like Chinese people, but the CPC is evil. What they really want is the Chinese to change the government, because the current one is too good.

Fortunately China is not a multi-party democratic country, otherwise the opposition party in China will be supported by notorious NGOs (Non-Government Organization) of the USA, like the NED (National Endowment for Democracy), to topple the ruling party.

The US and the British couldn’t crack Mainland China, so they work on Hong Kong. Of all the ex-British colonial countries, only the Hong Kongers were offered BNOs by the British. Because the UK would like the Hong Kongers to think they are British citizens, not Chinese.

A divide-and-conquer strategy, which they often used in Color Revolutions around the world. They resort to low dirty tricks like detaining Huawei’s CFO & banning Huawei. They raised a silly trade war which benefits no one. Trade deficit always exist between a developing and a developed country.

USA is like a luxury car seller who ask a farmer: why am I always buying your vegetables and you haven’t bought any of my cars? When the Chinese were making socks for the world 30 years ago, the world let it be.

But when Chinese started to make high technology products, like Huawei and DJI, it caused red-alert. Because when Western and Japanese products are equal to Chinese in technologies, they could never match the Chinese in prices.

First world countries want China to continue in making socks. Instead of stepping up themselves, they want to pull China down. The recent movement by the US against China has a very important background.

When Libya, Iran, and China decided to ditch the US dollar in oil trades, Gaddafi’s was killed by the US, Iran was being sanctioned by the US, and now it’s China’s turn. The US has been printing money out of nothing. The only reason why the US Dollar is still widely accepted, is because it’s the only currency which oil is allowed to be traded with.

The US has an agreement with Saudi that oil must be traded in US dollar ONLY. Without the petrol-dollar status, the US dollars will sink, and America will fall.

Therefore anyone trying to disobey this order will be eliminated. China will soon use a gold-backed crypto-currency, the alarms in the White House go off like mad.

China’s achievement has been by hard work. Not by looting the world. I have deep sympathy for China for all the suffering, but now I feel happy for them. China is not rising, they are going back to where they belong. Good luck China.”

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jesselthedreamer · 3 years

Photo

Reflection about the things I’ve learned in Chinese Literature

Chinese literary works include fiction, philosophical and religious works, poetry, and scientific writings. The dynastic eras frame the history of Chinese literature and are examined one by one. The grammar of the written Classical Language is different than the spoken languages of the past two thousand years. This written language was used by people of many different ethnic groups and countries during the Zhou, Qin and Han eras spanning 1050 BC to 220 AD. After the Han Dynasty, the written language evolved as the spoken languages changed, but most writers still based their compositions on Classical Chinese.

The great literary works of philosophy and religion that became the basis for Chinese religious and social belief stem from what is called the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476) and the Warring States Period (475-221). Taoism, Confucian literature, and other prominent religious and philosophical schools all emerged during these two periods. The Chinese call this simultaneous emergence of religions and philosophies the “One Hundred Schools of Thought.” Perhaps so many philosophers could write simultaneously because they lived in small kingdoms that supported them.

In Chinese history, the dominant rulers generally squelch or discourage philosophical expression that contradict their own, so when there were several small powers, different schools of thought could survive in the land at the same time.

Chinese Literary works are the same with other countries literary pieces which has fiction and non-fiction. In Chinese, there were so called dynasties that every live during those times are making literary works.

Confucius was born near the end of an era known in Chinese history as the Spring and Autumn Period (770–481 BCE). His home was in Lu, a regional state of eastern China in what is now central and southwestern Shandong province. Like other regional states at the time, Lu was bound to the imperial court of the Zhou dynasty (1045–221 BCE) through history, culture, family ties (which stretched back to the dynasty’s founding, when relatives of the Zhou rulers were enfeoffed as heads of the regional states), and moral obligations. According to some reports, Confucius’s early ancestors were the Kongs from the state of Song—an aristocratic family that produced several eminent counselors for the Song rulers. By the mid-7th century BCE, however, the family had lost political standing and most of its wealth, and some of the Kongs—Confucius’s great-grandfather being one—had relocated to the state of Lu.

Chinese Literature taught me how to be wise in life. That we must to be cautious and wise and every situation that we are up to because only you youself could help you.

#Cunfucius #ChineseLiterature

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jerryschineselitblog · 5 years

Text

Ten Interesting Chinese Books

Peter Hesseler

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze

Description

A New York Times Notable Book

Winner of the Kiriyama Book Prize

In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.

Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.

-Amazon

Peter Hessler

Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China

Description

A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.

-Amazon

Wenxian Zhang

China Through American Eyes: Early Depictions of the Chinese People and Culture in the US Print Media

Description

Cultural understanding between the United States and China has been a long and complex process. The period from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century is not only a critical era in modern Chinese history, but also the peak time of illustrated news reporting in the United States. Besides images from newspapers and journals, this collection also contains pictures about China and the Chinese published in books, brochures, commercial advertisements, campaign posters, postcards, etc. Together, they have documented colourful portrayals of the Chinese and their culture by the U.S. print media and their evolution from ethnic curiosity, stereotyping, and racial prejudice to social awareness, reluctant understanding, and eventual acceptance. Since these publications represent different positions in American politics, they can help contemporary readers develop a more comprehensive understanding of major events in modern American and Chinese histories, such as the cause and effect of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the power struggles behind the development of the Open Door Policy at the turn of the twentieth century. This collection of images has essentially formed a rich visual resource that is both diverse and intriguing; and as primary source documents, they carry significant historical and cultural values that could stimulate further academic research

-Amazon

Peter Hessler

Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip

Description

One of The Economist's Best Books of the Year

From the bestselling author of Oracle Bones and River Town comes the final book in his award-winning trilogy on the human side of the economic revolution in China.

Peter Hessler, whom the Wall Street Journal calls "one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China," deftly illuminates the vast, shifting landscape of a traditionally rural nation that, having once built walls against foreigners, is now building roads and factory towns that look to the outside world.

-Amazon

Haico Ebbers

Unravelling Modern China

Description

This book provides a comprehensive and balanced view of the main transformations that are happening in the Chinese economy today. This view has developed from more than 200 interviews and numerous surveys (based on primary data), in addition to mainstream literature by academia and consultancy companies.

The general view of China is often either black or white. Global markets are generally guided by euphoria or fear. Academia are optimistic or pessimistic about China's longer-term growth potential. People believe or distrust Chinese data. These black and white pictures are, in many cases, easy to communicate (and even proved by anecdotic evidence), but are not correct.

Modern China is not the result of tradeoffs but ambiguities: market-driven AND government-driven, central government AND local government control, increasing brand loyalty AND extreme price sensitivity, fall of consumption as percentage of GDP AND strong increase in consumption, export as an important driver behind longer-term development AND yet hardly visible as a determinant of today's economic growth.

The aim of this book is to help readers understand the often conflicting nature of China, not only from an economic point of view, but also from political and social point of view. In this sense, it tries to give the reader an eclectic picture of China — the country of contradictions.

That is a difficult task because of the linkages between reforms and the fact that there are many preconceived ideas of China, its development and choices. It is interesting to note that the further from China people are, the more negative their views towards China. This book will make clear that this pessimism is overdone. In the longer term, the author is quite positive about China's transformations, believing that the rise of China is here to stay and that this is the major factor of change of this century.

Readership: Readers who are interested to know where the Chinese economy is headed and how China will develop in the long term.

-Amazon

Barbara W. Tuchman

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945

Description

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Barbara Tuchman explores American relations with China through the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed ''Vinegar Joe,'' Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of the National Review, ''one of the historian's most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story.'' -- Joseph Stilwell was the military attaché to China in 1935 to 1939, commander of United States forces, and allied chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek in 1942-44. His story unfolds against the background of China's history, from the revolution of 1911 to the turmoil of World War II, when China's Nationalist government faced attack from Japanese invaders and Communist insurgents.

-Amazon

Jonathan D. Spence

God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan

Description

"A magnificent tapestry . . . a story that reaches beyond China into our world and time: a story of faith, hope, passion, and a fatal grandiosity."--Washington Post Book World

Whether read for its powerful account of the largest uprising in human history, or for its foreshadowing of the terrible convulsions suffered by twentieth-century China, or for the narrative power of a great historian at his best, God's Chinese Son must be read. At the center of this history of China's Taiping rebellion (1845-64) stands Hong Xiuquan, a failed student of Confucian doctrine who ascends to heaven in a dream and meets his heavenly family: God, Mary, and his older brother, Jesus. He returns to earth charged to eradicate the "demon-devils," the alien Manchu rulers of China. His success carries him and his followers to the heavenly capital at Nanjing, where they rule a large part of south China for more than a decade. Their decline and fall, wrought by internal division and the unrelenting military pressures of the Manchus and the Western powers, carry them to a hell on earth. Twenty million Chinese are left dead.

-Amazon

Captivating History

Ancient China: A Captivating Guide to the Ancient History of China and the Chinese Civilization Starting from the Shang Dynasty to the Fall of the Han Dynasty

Description

Product description

If you want to discover the captivating history of ancient China, then keep reading...

To understand present-day China, its politics, society, and culture in general, we have to go back to the beginnings of the Chinese civilization.

In this book, you will be led on a journey through almost 2,000 years of Chinese history, showing you all the ups and downs of those ancient times, the sufferings and joys of the Chinese people, along with their greatest achievements and failures.

Dynasties will change, people will be killed and born, art made and destroyed, but the Chinese civilization will prevail, rising from humble beginnings to an empire that at some points outshined any other in the world at that time. And yet it won’t be only a tale of kings and queens, emperors and rulers. Of palaces and forts, of swords and shields.

It will also tell a story of farmers and merchants, artisans and artists, philosophers and scientists. And hopefully by the end of this introductory guide, you will gain a sense of what, who, and how the Chinese civilization was made as great as it was and still is.

From that, a better understanding of this amazing Far Eastern culture and its history should arise as well as a greater appreciation of its achievements and contributions to the world. And with a better knowledge of history, a clearer understanding of the world will come as well.

-Amazon

Jing Liu

Foundations of Chinese Civilization: The Yellow Emperor to the Han Dynasty

Description

Who founded China? Are Chinese people religious? What is Chinese culture and how has it changed over time? The accessible and fun Understanding China Through Comics series answers those questions and more.

For all ages, Foundations of Chinese Civilization covers China's early history in comic form, introducing philosophies like Confucianism and Daoism, the story of the Silk Road, famous emperors like Han Wudi, and the process of China's unification.

Includes a handy timeline. This is volume one of the Understanding China Through Comics series.

Jing Liu is a Beijing native now living in Davis, California. A successful designer and entrepreneur who helped brands tell their stories, Jing currently uses his artistry to tell the story of China.

Chao C. Chien

The Chinese Origin of the Age of Discovery

Description

Product Description

This is not some frivolous stunt. The early history of the European Age of Discovery, as many already have suspected, is largely legendary. Columbus did not discover America. Magellan did not discover “his strait.” And, oh yes, Marco Polo did not go to Chuna. The lost history is reconstructed from extant documents, mostly European, and their analyses, providing irrefutable proofs, shown in over 300 illustration.

-Amazon

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brookstonalmanac · 1 year

Text

Events 12.11

220 – Emperor Xian of Han is forced to abdicate the throne by Cao Cao's son Cao Pi, ending the Han dynasty. 361 – Julian enters Constantinople as sole Roman Emperor. 861 – Assassination of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil by the Turkish guard, who raise al-Muntasir to the throne. Start of the "Anarchy at Samarra". 969 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is assassinated by his wife Theophano and her lover, the later Emperor John I Tzimiskes. 1041 – Michael V, adoptive son of Empress Zoë of Byzantium, is proclaimed emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. 1282 – Battle of Orewin Bridge: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, in mid-Wales. 1602 – A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva. (Commemorated annually by the Fête de l'Escalade.) 1640 – The Root and Branch petition, signed by 15,000 Londoners calling for the abolition of the episcopacy, is presented to the Long Parliament. 1675 – Antonio de Vea expedition enters San Rafael Lake in western Patagonia. 1688 – Glorious Revolution: James II of England, while trying to flee to France, throws the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. 1792 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention. 1815 – The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance. 1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state. 1868 – Paraguayan War: Brazilian troops defeat Paraguayan at the Battle of Avay. 1899 – Second Boer War: In the Battle of Magersfontein the Boers commanded by general Piet Cronjé inflict a defeat on the forces of the British Empire commanded by Lord Methuen trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley. 1901 – Guglielmo Marconi transmits the first transatlantic radio signal from Poldhu, Cornwall, England to Saint John's, Newfoundland. 1905 – A workers' uprising occurs in Kyiv, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), and establishes the Shuliavka Republic. 1907 – The New Zealand Parliament Buildings are almost completely destroyed by fire. 1913 – More than two years after it was stolen from the Louvre, Leonardo da Vinci's painting Mona Lisa is recovered in Florence, Italy. The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, is immediately arrested. 1917 – World War I: British General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot and declares martial law. 1920 – Irish War of Independence: In retaliation for a recent IRA ambush, British forces burn and loot numerous buildings in Cork city. Many civilians report being beaten, shot at, robbed and verbally abused by British forces. 1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King. 1927 – Guangzhou Uprising: Communist Red Guards launch an uprising in Guangzhou, China, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet. 1931 – Statute of Westminster 1931: The British Parliament establishes legislative equality between the UK and the Dominions of the Commonwealth—Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland. 1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the final time. 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India, becomes effective. 1937 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Italy leaves the League of Nations. 1941 – World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them. 1941 – World War II: Poland declares war on the Empire of Japan. 1941 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy suffers its first loss of surface vessels during the Battle of Wake Island. 1946 – The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established. 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, creating a Conciliation Commission to mediate the conflict. 1958 – French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin), respectively, and joining the French Community. 1960 – French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle. 1962 – Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada. 1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. 1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon. 1978 – The Lufthansa heist is committed by a group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. It was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil, at that time. 1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) is enacted by the U.S. Congress. 1981 – El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War. 1990 – Demonstrations by students and workers across Albania begin, which eventually trigger the fall of communism in Albania. 1990 – Several fatal collisions in the 1990 Interstate 75 fog disaster result in a total of 12 deaths and 42 being injured[6] 1993 – A block of the Highland Towers condominium complex collapses following a landslide caused by heavy rain and water flowing from a construction site at Ampang district in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 48 of its residents die, including one who died in hospital after being rescued alive, leaving only two survivors. 1994 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya. 1994 – A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, en route from Manila, Philippines, to Tokyo, Japan, killing one. The captain is able to land the plane safely. 1997 – The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature. 1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Airbus A310-200 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation. 1999 – SATA Air Açores Flight 530M crashes into Pico da Esperança on São Jorge Island in the Azores, killing 35. 2001 – China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO). 2005 – The Buncefield Oil Depot catches fire in Hemel Hempstead, England. 2005 – Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese in Cronulla, New South Wales; these are followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla. 2006 – The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran, by then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; nations such as Israel and the United States express concern. 2006 – Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War. 2007 – Insurgency in the Maghreb: Two car bombs explode in Algiers, Algeria, one near the Supreme Constitutional Court and the other near the offices of the United Nations. 2008 – Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. 2009 – Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment releases the hit mobile game Angry Birds internationally on iOS. 2012 – At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria. 2017 – New York City Subway bombing: A pipe bomb partially detonates in the New York City Subway, in the Times Square–42nd Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal. Four people are injured, including the perpetrator. 2019 – The results of the 2019 Bougainvillean independence referendum are announced. The results are overwhelmingly one-sided. Over 98% of voters vote for Bougainville's independence. 2020 – The Food and Drug Administration issues an Emergency Use Authorization on the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the agency.

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zamancollective · 5 years

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Pan-What? / The Political Legacy of Defining Ethnicity in the Middle East

By Kyle Newman

For well over a millennium, southwestern Asia and North Africa have been regions characterized by ethnic diversity in every sense of the term. Centuries of cultural exchange between various empires that have ruled over Western Asia and the Iranian Plateau accompanied admixture between what once were isolated ethnic pockets in the region, creating a complex gene pool that is often difficult to categorize (as we explored in the last article of this two-part series on Middle Eastern ethnic identity). As tribalism was increasingly eclipsed by other sociological trends in the region, the concept of ethnic identity (although an extremely abstract one) has come to serve as a tool for rousing political or ideological fervor over time. The potential of such movements to foster unity is often just as strong as their potential to be weaponized, which is more than enough reason to analyze the effects of politicizing ethnic affiliations.

In modern history, one of the first attempts at establishing an ethnicity-based ideological current in the Middle East was the movement of Pan-Arabism. With Ottoman rule still presiding over much of the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Maghreb in the late 19th century, many prominent Arab intellectuals and scholars were concerned about the proliferation of Turkic language and culture throughout the region and its potential to overshadow Arab cultures and dialects in both religious and secular spheres of society. Two of the most prominent Pan-Arab thinkers were Jurji Zaydan and Sharif Hussein Ibn Ali. Zaydan advocated for the standardization of the Arabic language based on Quranic Arabic, seeking to unite Arab peoples who spoke regional dialects and encourage mutual intelligibility. Fuṣḥá (Modern Standard Arabic) was partially created in an effort to foster a sort of broader ethnic solidarity between Arab peoples from North Africa to the coast of the Persian Gulf, irrespective of more specific religious or tribal tensions. Ibn Ali, who was the Sharif of Mecca at the time, felt increasingly drawn to the idea of an Arab national consciousness that had been espoused by Zaydan and other thinkers, eventually making concrete efforts to create a unified Arab state encompassing most territories with Arab ethnic majorities in southwestern Asia and North Africa. At the height of World War I, Sharif formed an alliance with government officials in the United Kingdom at the height of World War I in order to ensure inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula that a unified Arab state could be created if there were to be a successful revolt against the Ottomans. Although the United Kingdom and the Allied Powers defeated the Ottoman Empire and Germany in World War I, Britain could not guarantee to Sharif the creation of a unified Arab state in the Arabian Peninsula due to land allocations outlined in the Sykes-Picot agreement.

The Arab state envisioned by Sharif and Pan-Arab intellectuals never came into fruition, but the nationalistic fervor they espoused among Arabs based on shared ethnic and linguistic ties helped fuel resentment against the Ottomans, whom Arab rebels eventually defeated. Pan-Arabism went on to be a core tenant of anti-imperialist movements that helped foster autonomy and independence across the region. Unfortunately, however, movements like the Ba’athist party in Syria and Egypt or Rashid Al-Gaylani’s National Brotherhood Party were responsible for the persecution of ethnoreligious minorities like Jews and Kurds under the guise of Pan-Arabism. For instance, anti-imperialist Arab nationalist sentiments were weaponized as a rallying cry against Mizrahi Jews, who were eventually expelled from their homes Iraq, Syria, and surrounding nations in the years framing Israel’s War of Independence.

It is not surprising that Southwest Asia, being a region with such complicated notions of ethnic identity due to its genetic and cultural diversity, saw the development of multiple nationalist movements and efforts to create ethnic solidarity among non-Arab peoples. In fact, the Pan-Turkic movement, a movement whose beginnings much resembled those of Pan-Arab thought, was arguably the first modern form of ethnonationalism to appear in Southwest Asia. In the mid 19th century, Islamic Tatar theologians and intellectuals living in the Russian empire established the Jadid movement. The name Jadid, meaning “new” in Arabic, very well reflects the ethos behind the nation that these Turkic intellectuals sought to create: a state unifying all of the ethnically Turkic pockets of Eurasia which would observe a semi-secularized version of the Islamic faith and embrace cultural Westernization. As nationalistic fervor grew in Europe throughout the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire followed this trend, as well. The Young Turks, a political reform movement in Turkey that sought to overthrow Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II and bring constitutional governance to Turkey, succeeded in its efforts and popularized the idea of Pan-Turkism among the Ottoman public through the Committee of Union and Progress. Turkic peoples living outside of the Ottoman empire started immigrating in modest numbers to the Ottoman empire with the hope of being accepted by a government that strongly advocated ethnic Turkish unity. Despite the seemingly positive connotations of ideas like self-determination and unification in the name of common lineage, Pan-Turkism is a testament to the ever-present danger of pursuing such an endeavor without a sense of inclusivity and tolerance for ethnic variation within a state. The Pan-Turkic movement, engendering a limitless rise in Turkish nationalism in the early 20th century, led almost directly to the horrors of the Armenian genocide, which were undertaken in the name of “purifying” the state of non-Turkic inhabitants. This fact begs us to more carefully contemplate the further implications and moral dangers of calls for ethnic unity and solidarity, and where to draw the line between peaceful unification and violently exclusionary hatred for the other.

The last prominent ethnonationalist movement to arise in the Middle East was the Pan-Iranist movement. After the collapse of the Qajar dynasty in 1925 in Persia, Iranian intellectuals, socialists, and nationalists all wished for the creation of a democratic state in present-day Iran. Reza Shah Pahlavi’s subsequent seizure of power added fuel to the fire of resentment among teachers and intellectuals who hoped for democracy with territorial integrity. During the British and Soviet invasions of Iran during World War II, student demonstrations decrying the Shah’s tolerance of foreign interference and advocating for unity among Iran’s indigenous inhabitants increased. At first, nationalistic fervor of those involved in the grass-roots pan-Iranist movement saw a different trajectory than Pan-Turkism; people who wished to see an Iranian nation that encompassed all of the Iranian plateau and its surrounding plains often included a wider roster of Iranic peoples in their political advocacy, blurring the lines of absolutist ethnicity-based unification. Of course, a degree of ethnically Persian hegemony and simplification persisted, but earlier Pan-Iranist protests were much less characterized by the violent hatred of minority groups like Assyrians or Armenians in comparison to the sentiments found at nationalist rallies in Turkey. Eventually, the movement for ethnic solidarity among Iranian peoples in a single large nation led to the establishment of the Pan-Iranist party in Iranian parliament during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with the party being led by Mohsen Pezeshkpour and Dariush Forouhar. Although efforts to cooperate with the Pahlavi dynasty to bring Pan-Iranist ambitions to fruition never succeeded, this movement is yet another example of how an increasing sense of awareness for ethnic identity in the Middle East had a notable impact on national consciousness.

However, the most observable legacy of Pan-Iranism did take on a more exclusionary character than the aforementioned protests- and this legacy is found in the word “Iran,” the modern name for the country. Reza Shah Pahlavi, being a Nazi sympathizer at the height of World War II, replaced the name “Persia” with the name “Iran” as suggested by the Nazi pseudoscientist Hans F.K. Günther. Günther claimed that the people of Iran were supposedly “pure-blooded Aryans,” being descendants of the ancient Aryan tribes from the Russian Steppes region - believing (quite reductively, to say the least) that the name “Iran,” literally translating to “Land of the Aryans” in Persian, would be appropriate for the country. Pahlavi’s decision foreshadowed the persecution of Iranian minority groups, such as Jews, that became increasingly violent in the years leading up to the Islamic revolution.

When examining the details of such controversial and large scale movements as Middle Eastern ethnonationalisms, it is always appropriate to investigate their overall purpose and credibility. Digging deeper into this issue and drawing upon the history of ethnic distinction as a phenomenon in southwestern Asia, it is important to ask ourselves what ethnic solidarity in the Middle East even is to begin with, when the entire region is a vibrant, dynamic tapestry of intersecting histories, tribal affiliations, religious ideologies, and cross-cultural interactions. The complex reality of Middle-Eastern demographics greatly contrasts the homogeneity bastioned by any ethnonationalist movement. Of course, in contemplating the idea of ethnic solidarity we cannot forget the post World War I Wilsonian doctrine of Self-Determination that brought independence and joy to many ethnic minorities previously living under the rule of larger umbrella empires. Thus, despite the belligerence of nationalism, the question of ethnically unifying movements’ mutual exclusivity (or possible compatibility) with tolerance is at times difficult to answer. What is certain, however, is that the nuances inherently embedded in the discussion of ethnic identity will only increase as globalization intensifies the pace of diversification around the world.

References

Electricpulp.com. “Encyclopædia Iranica.” RSS, www.iranicaonline.org/articles/fars-iv.

Electricpulp.com. “Encyclopædia Iranica.” RSS, www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iranian-identity-iv-19th-20th-centuries.

"Pan-Turkism.". “Pan-Turkism.” New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Encyclopedia.com, 2019, www.encyclopedia.com/history/asia-and-africa/middle-eastern-history/pan-turkism.

Reiser, Stewart. “Pan-Arabism Revisited.” Vol. 37, no. 2, 1983, pp. 218–233. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4326563. Accessed 20 June 2019.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/iran-during-world-war-ii.

#kyle newman #nonfiction & opinion

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