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Small Town China.
Everyone knows about Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. But what about the smaller towns and cities? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of them. Here’s a typical fly through.
War Movies – China.
China is a nation with an enormous and complex history. If you think that the history of Europe, and all the wars and conflicts there were complex, you haven’t seen anything. The history of China if far older, with a far greater number of conflicts, battles and strife.
Not to mention, completely and positively, horrific.
Most people perceive China as a monolith that existed peacefully since its inception until today. That is far from being true. Back when Europe was enjoying relative stability under Roman rule, the Celestial Empire confronted one of the most prolonged crisis. Between 184 and 280 AD China was divided in three empires – Wei, Shu, and Wu. The three emerged after the breakdown of the Han dynasty and would be again reunited by the Jin monarchs. All historians base their life loss estimates on two national censuses that give a difference of 38 million. Whether the calculations were accurate will remain a mystery. Nevertheless, one thing is clear. China has a formidable capacity of regenerating its population. It seems that the Chinese were so happy once the century-long conflict ended that they celebrated mostly in their beds. -Unknown but not hidden
As such, popular shows, television series, and movies all discuss the history of China from various perspectives. For comparison, in the United States, we have war-themed movies as well. They generally consist of…
- World War II
- The Vietnam conflict
- Cowboys and Indians
Certainly there are a rare handful of outliers, however, most of the movies fit within the top three main groups.
Well, while the USA might have three main groups, the Chinese have around 200-300 sub-groups. All of which may, or may not, involve magic, powers, and God-like beings. To understand China is to understand that they are historically, a culture that has been immersed in war for 5000 years. They are TIRED of it, and want no part of the glories of war.
The Taiping Civil War, the conflict lasted between 1850 and 1864 and produced the most dramatic death toll in history at that time. The rebellion started with the millenarian movement of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace, which tried to overthrow the Qing dynasty. As you seen saw far on the list, every significant political change in the history of China came with savagery. The Taiping Rebellion counts as the bloodiest civil war in history and makes the American equivalent look like a banquet. -Unknown but not hidden
Here’s a video taken from a popular Chinese television show.
Between 1618 and 1683, China completed a full transition from its southern Ming emperors to the new ruling elite coming all they from northern Manchuria. You could say that in this fragment of history the Starks were victorious. As you suspect, the Ming did not leave without a fight. The Manchu (Qing) retaliation was unprecedented. More than 25,000,000 lost their lives in a conflict that spread across the entire land. Whole provinces like Sichuan and Jiangnan were completely depopulated, and chronicles mention massacres like the one of Yangzhou where 800,000 innocent souls perished. The expression “women and children first” had a terrifyingly different meaning for the Qing generals. At this point, we need to stress the fact that Qing Manchurians were foreigners who managed to conquer China mostly through betrayal and manipulation. Their savagery will be avenged similarly just three centuries later. -Unknown but not hidden
In comparison, while the United States has been in a near state of fighting wars for much of the years since 1776, most of the population has been sheltered from war. They never had to flee their homes, suffer through periods of starvation, or experienced being rounded up by armed forces and killed in large groups.
The only two exceptions were the Revolutionary War, and the American Civil War.
Now, since many Americans haven’t experienced the horrific violence that war can bring, they are easily manipulated by an evil self-serving oligarchy to rant and rave about wars in far-off lands. Like Iran. Like Yemen. Like Libya. Like Syria. Like the Ukraine. Like China.
Sigh.
At first glance, the An Lushan Rebellion seems to deserve just a footnote. That’s the error most historians make when they fail to check the numbers. More than 21 million perished as a result of an attempted coup that was close to overthrowing one of the most influential dynasties of the time. Take a good look at the man who can be held responsible for the mess. General An Lushan detonated order and peace once he proclaimed himself emperor of Northern China in 755 AD. Seven years of turmoil followed, during which China lost one-third of its population. -Unknown but not hidden
Rural Holidays…
In China, the government has specifically designated the use of certain communities for travel, tourism and recreation. In these areas, large amounts of funding pours into the community to render that area especially attractive to visit.
Part of the reason is to generate tourist revenue to non-industrial areas, but also another part of the reason is based on the Chinese concept of tradition. They believe that it is duty as conservative traditional Chinese to take care of their environment, their habitat and their environment.
This belief is top down straight from Beijing, and is still meeting strong resistance from (now very old) progressives. These people were very active SJW in the day and followed Mr. Mao with a fine revolutionary fever. Luckily they are dying out, though the “Dancing Grandmothers” are still a royal pain in the ass.
Progressives, of every age, think only of one thing; ME! All they care about is themselves.
Thank God that Beijing follows a traditional Chinese conservative model.
Bike Paths
China believes that the purpose of government is to serve the people. It’s not a slogan like it is used in the United States. They actually believe it.
In fact, they have enforcement police that constantly reviews budgets and the behaviors of government officials to prevent crime and corruption. And you do not want to get into trouble with the “enforcement arm” of the “corruption police”. That little bribe, or way-sided amount of money, could cost you your eyes, your liver, a kidney or even worse. Not to mention hard time in the Chinese mines cracking rocks for a spell.
Now, one of the things that the local Chinese government does is to increase the livability index of the various cities and regions that they control. This is most commonly handled by planting flowers, creating parks, planting trees, adding ponds, and walking paths. As well as providing bike paths.
Here is a typical two-lane bike path in a smaller third-tier city.
You will see things like this throughout Europe, and maybe one or two places in the USA. In China is mandated to be everywhere. Everywhere.
Let’s continue on…
If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.
Links about China
Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.
And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Articles & Links
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