Archive for the 'History' Category

asia pacific photos, 1840-1940

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on August 5, 2008
in Art, Education, History, Photos and Travel
. 0 Comments

A city wall tower and very clearly, the moat, Beijing, 1840-1860: just one of the many photos from around the Pacific, circa 1840-1940, now to be found online at the National Gallery of Australia’s Picture Paradise exhibition.  Well worth browsing through this eclectic collection of shots of everything from Australian aborigines to Javanese dancers, a white European man in Chinese dress in a Hong Kong studio, bathers on the Ganges, and views of Fuzhou, in “daguerreotype portraits, mass-produced views and portraits on paper made possible by the revolutionary wet-plate and dry-plate glass negative-positive process, and prints from the modern era of small format film cameras and photojournalism.”

Start at the themes page and click through to the different collections, and be prepared for the dizzying format of photos sliding into view from left to right.  I wish they wouldn’t do that.

(via The Asian Studies WWW Monitor: Aug 2008, Vol. 15, No. 9 (283))

A false alarm over the death of traditional Chinese

Published
by
Jason Li
on July 24, 2008
in Government, History, Meme, News, Politics and Translation
. 1 Comment

Two calls to sign this petition have been floating around my inbox recently:

Being from Hong Kong, I quickly submitted my name to support this cause. Thoughts stirred in my head: What was the UN doing? Is this a signal for Taiwan? Does this mean Hong Kong will switch to simplified Chinese soon?

Upon further research however, it seems have all been a hoax based upon a chain of sloppy journalism. According to Xiao Zhao who took the time to investigate the matter:

…the rumor was obviously started with a false message from a professor in China, named Chan, Zhang Tai who casually said UN will stop use Traditional Chinese in 2008 to a reporter with a Chinese newspaper in Hong Kong, Oriental Daily in March 2006. The reporter didn’t confirm with UN and just went ahead reporting what professor Chan said. Later on, UN had to announce that there is not abolishment of traditional Chinese in 2008 and UN has never used Traditional Chinese since 1971.

See the full exposee at Xiao Zhao’s blog: A Country Bumpkin Offering Sunshine.

remembering pleasures of the past: Chinese black and white photos

Published
by
IFTF
on March 19, 2008
in BBS, History, Photos and Virtual China
. 2 Comments

A recent photo montage on Tianya, called Smiles of the Past 50 Years. You won’t be able to link to it without registering at Tianya, so I’ll post some more below the jump.

Early spring1957, Hubei province, Macheng County, Xujia Village, 549 Production Brigade: soldier Yang Zhiyi shows off on the bar.

Bar_work

Spring 1975, Hubei Province, Macheng County, Zhongyi Commune, Wangjiyi Production Brigade: practicing high jumping.

High_jump

Spring 1976, Jiangsu, Hai’an County, Beiling Commune, Fengda Brigade member. Using the natural elements of the rivers, banks, and ditches in the landscape, the brigade holds rope-climbing and other kinds of activities.

Ropeclimbing

July 1978, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous District, Du’an Yao Autonomous County, Gaoling Commune, 5 Bamboo Production Brigade: foot-race.

Mountain_path_race

January 1960, Heilongjiang Province, Longjiang County, Baishan People’s Commune: In the space of one short month the entire commune got together to build 9 ice rinks where over 4000 people participated in ice sport activities. This is a group heading to the rinks with their home-made ice skates and blades.

Skating

Summer of 1958, Liaoning Province, Beipiao County, Under Elms Village, Longtan Farming Commune, taking a break from work and “leap-horsing” in the fields.

Leapfrogging

Mao Zedong’s 111th Birthday

Published
by
Nan Yang
on January 1, 2008
in History and Virtual China
. 0 Comments

Mao111_2

December 26, 2007, was the 111th Birthday of Mao Zedong. Chinese people held various ceremonies to memorize the first Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. In Beijing, over ten thousand people visited Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (mausoleum) to see dear Chairman Mao’s body. In Mao’s hometown, Shao Shan in Hunan province, there were six different events to memorize their dear Chairman Mao, including a new Hope Chinese School founding ceremony, ten thousand people marathon-race,

111 families celebrating with Chairman Mao, ten thousand people eating longevity noodles together, and so on.  Moreover, Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House published a new golden version of Mao’s handwriting.  Those ceremony ended on December 26.

Graphic journals during historic war

Published
by
Jason Li
on August 13, 2007
in Art, Education and History
. 0 Comments

Image excerpts spliced from scans of 王曲, the official journal of Hu’s #7 military school outside Xian. These particular panels are about military training during the War of Resistance Against Japan.

I’ve translated it as best as I could given the image quality.

Wangqu1_2

Wangqu2_3

Taken from Frog in the Well, the China History Group Blog — where you can read their full analysis of the comic.

Shanghai’s foreign themed satellite cities

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on May 3, 2007
in Design, History, Photos, Translation and Travel
. 0 Comments

Shanghai’s One CIty Nine Towns program and foreign-themed New Towns are strange and wonderful things. All are collaborative efforts between Chinese and international design teams.

Shanghai urban planners are trying to preserve the center of the city by not building any more new highways, and by setting up 9 satellite cities, or "New Towns" far out in the Shanghai suburbs.  But they need to attract people out of the city, into the outskirts–a tough job, unless you can create an atmosphere and lifestyle that one can’t find downtown. 

Thus the nine theme-cities, seven based on the architecture of the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Holland and Canada. The remaining two cities will be "Chinese," and one of those will a sustainable, eco-friendly city on the huge Chongming Island.  You’ll find a short slide show of many of the towns as part of a recent BusinessWeek article on Shanghai. Fengjing is to be built in Canadian/North American style. Anting, with a race track, is the German town.  The Italian area, Pujiang, is to be the largest of the nine cities with a planned 15 sq km and 80,000 residents.

British-themed Thamestown covers 1 square kilometer in Songjiang District, about 1 hour from downtown Shanghai.  It has a lake, a river, a golf course, a Gothic church, a town square, and villas with names like WindsorIsland.  Here is the Thamestown official website in English, with news about the latest commercials and movies that were shot there, among other events (boat racing). Thamestown officially opened October 20, 2006; here you can see the opening ceremony festitivities–Chinese dance performance against the backdrop of First Vision Creativity Square. 

Thamestown photo gallery. I especially love the shots that took advantage of an unusual snow in Shanghai:
Thames_snow

Luodian is the Swedish town. In a great post on Luodian and its original source, the Swedish town of Sigtuna, graduate student Ada Fredelius points out an irony: you can find more ancient authenticity, and even similarity to the original Swedish buildings, in Luodian’s old town, constructed in the early Min Dynasty.  Luodian’s old town on top, Sweden’s Sigtuna on the bottom, below: 

Luodian

If you are in Shanghai, go on a FAR tour of the New Towns!

 

1/12/07 Financial Times article: Alien Satellites, here.

old-school chinese cars

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on April 25, 2007
in Design, History and Photos
. 0 Comments

Came across this during my car roaming yesterday.  The China Motor Vehicle Documentation Centre, founded in the Netherlands in 1972 and currently located in France, publishes a series of what look like wonderful books on automotive history of China and North Korea. They have, for instance, a book on the history of the Hongqi (Red Flag) limousines, made by the First Auto Works in Changchun, China, once the favored ride of top Chinese officials. The oldest cars in this book are the Dongfeng CA 71 (1958), the Da Hongqi limousines (1958- 1995), and the Da Hongqi inspection cars (1958- 1999). 

Hongqi

Then there’s the just-out book on North Korean trucks and cars.  From the website blurb:  Trucks made by the Sungri General Auto Works, Heavy dumper made by the March 30th Works, Cross country vehicles made by the Pyongsang Auto Works, Trolleybuses made by the Pyongyang Trolleybus Works, Buses made by the Chongjin Bus Works, The Pyonghwa Auto Works

Northkorean_car

Also, Shanghai Saloons from the Artisan Era, describing all cars (production models and prototypes) made by the Shanghai Auto Works in Shanghai from 1958 until today.
Shanghai_saloons

The books are pricey, ranging from 55-69 euros, but they look beautiful!

five-year plans, the official history

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on March 14, 2007
in Government, History and Translation
. 0 Comments

If you’re curious about how the new Five-Year Plan compares with previous Five-Year Plans, you can browse China Mapping Out the 11th Five-Year Development Guidelines, which reminds us that the 1st Five-Year Plan’s (1953-1957) goals were pretty different than today:

to concentrate efforts on the
construction of 694 large and medium-sized industrial projects,
including 156 with the aid of the Soviet Union, so as to lay that the
primary foundations for China’s socialist industrialization; to develop
agricultural producers’ cooperatives to help in the socialist
transformation of the agriculture and handicraft industries; to put
capitalist industry and commerce on the track of state capitalism so as
to facilitate the socialist transformation of private industry and
commerce.

BBS: a new forum for folklore

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on February 27, 2007
in BBS, Food and Drink, History, Religion and Virtual China
. 18 Comments

Folklorists, historians, and anthropologists of the future will have a huge new source of self-generated firsthand reports of folk customs around China, complete with photos and pretty soon, audio and video. Poking around Tianya trying to understand a bit more about some of the big forums, I came across this lively, descriptive Feb. 27 post titled [Chaoshan] Hometown Great Pig Contest. A rough translation of the post, followed by photos and selected comments:

Guanlong, Denghai [in Guangdong province] has the custom of an annual "Great Pig Contest." This contest is a folk ceremony for celebrating an abundant year, similar to praying for a bumper harvest and prosperity.  But the spectacle and grandeur of this ceremony is rarely seen in these parts, and in addition the Great Pig Contest promotes growth.

On the 18th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the site of Denghai’s Great Pig Contest is quite a spectacle. All one can see is over 500 flayed-open fat pigs, each spread on a wooden frame about 1 meter in height. Looking in that direction, one sees a field of snow white. These porcine offerings have their heads held high and their mouths stuffed with tangerines.  They look as if they’re leaping forward, presenting a scene of vigor and high spirits. Attached to each wooden frame is a red label reading, " so-and-so fortune and respect" so that each family can identify its own offering.  People are milling about, each wanting to be submerged in the center of the crowd, and only bits and pieces can be seen of even the tallest. Shouts echo through the crowd as people try to locate one another.

Every year the largest pig is put forth in the front row with its weight displayed.  They’re generally about 1000 jin or more.  In addition to labeling it with the family name, the biggest ones were also wearing big red flowers!

These huge pigs have all been raised since last spring. There’s a very rigorous process for keeping them fat and healthy.  It’s said that every year the Great Pig Contest takes place on the 17th and 18th of the first lunar month, and that it’s organized on a rotating basis by different family lineages. And as it’s at the beginning of the year, this kind of contest can not only enliven the farmers’ enthusiasm for production and fill the new year with hope, it also increases the atmosphere of joyous celebration.

Pigs4

Pigs2

　　

Pigs_1

So lively! My spouse’s family does this too, we call it "Displaying Pigs and Sheep," sometime around the new year.  It’s a shame I’ve been unable to see it for many years!

May I ask, what do they do with all the pigs after the contest? If the weather’s a bit hot, wouldn’t the pig flesh start to stink?

Is it interesting?  It makes me feel I’ve entered a slaughterhouse. What a strange folk custom!

It’s really a problem, what to do with all that pork.

For those animal rights people, have you never eaten meat before? Who are you kidding?

I wonder how Muslims would feel if they saw this…

political sustainability of Chinese inequality

Published
by
Lyn Jeffery
on February 26, 2007
in Education, Gender, Government, History, Politics and Statistics
. 1 Comment

A very smart, balanced, readable report, "How Much Inequality can China Stand?" has just been issued by Nick Young at China Development Brief.  The report relies on Chinese scholarly and government data to give a succinct summary of some of the key areas of inequality in China today: gender, income (including intra-rural inequality), access to basic services and social protections such as education and health care, exposure to "externalities" such as the effects of urban congestion and pollution, environment and proximity to pollution, and land use deals. 

The report argues that market forces are unlikely to create greater income convergence in the short-term, that state involvement is necessary and that it does exist:

…the predominantly urban NGOs that have emerged over the last decade, the “public intellectuals” who have voiced their concerns and the more adventurous media that have reported those concerns, by no means constitute a coordinated, united or oppositional force. There are, to be sure, some angry individuals who denounce abuses in ways that invite confrontation with the authorities.  But the characteristic form of civil society advocacy in China is to call on government leaders to “pay more attention” to this or that social issue, to “hear the voice” of  this or that social group, and/or to consult more extensively with NGOs, intellectuals, and the general public….The central government has recently introduced a number of social, economic and fiscal policy measures to alleviate rural hardship. It is too soon to judge the effect of these palliatives but they do at least appear designed to address what was, by the turn of the century, beginning to look like a crisis in the countryside.