Category Archives: Historical Wonders

Historical Wonders

Obama and Hitler, Together at Last

hitler-obama-dvd

On sale in the Bangalore airport, right now: Historical Heroes, the complete DVD set. Which of these people doesn't fit? (Was this produced by Rush Limbaugh????) That's right... Che, MLK, Himmler (?), Castro, Hitler, Mussolini and Obama, all under the loving gaze of Obi Wan Gandhi. In Asia, Hitler isn't a bad guy. He ...

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Historical Wonders

Classic Chinese Torture Methods (and their cute names)

torture

From the strange reign of Empress Wu Zetian (690-705): "Inviting the Gentleman into the Jug" - Place the victim in a large vat, and heat it to roasting temperature with fires around its base. "The Phoenix Suns Her Wings" - Hang the prisoner by his arms and legs from a beam, and spin him. "The Fairy Maid Presents ...

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Historical Wonders, Lost in Translation, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Cute Little Cultural Revolution “Learn Chinese” Booklet

The cultural revolution-era "Learning English" book blew my mind, but when I stumbled on this little "Learn Chinese" booklet the other day, I was touched. It represented such a different side of the Cultural Revolution. Instead of war/hate/fear of the "Learn English" book, this one radiates with the hope, promise, and togetherness that ...

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Historical Wonders, Lost in Translation, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Pages from an Amazing English Textbook

Cover

Back in the cultural revolution, China was in turmoil. Almost anything could get you in trouble. Han Xin, a blacklisted artist, told me that painting the sun the wrong shade of red would mean jail time. Absolutely everything had to be in unquestionable service to Mao and a Maoist China. The only plays were ...

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Historical Wonders, Life in Miniature, Offbeat Museums, Somewhat Perverted

The Sick Collector and His 1000 Pairs of Shoes

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Yang Shaorong lives in a small Shanghai apartment. He collects women's shoes. Tiny shoes. Shoes for bound feet. "That's horrible," said the publisher of my magazine, when I mentioned Yang the collector to him. "It's a disturbing part of Chinese history." I was confused. I didn't really know much about them, or why he was so upset. ...

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Historical Wonders

A Noble Slave and an Imperial Cannibal

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Two and a half thousand years ago, Prince Zhong'er was hungry. He was in exile. His state was in turmoil. He'd lost his castle, his kitchen and surely his chef as well. So what else was there to do but start eating his followers? That's what I discovered on Mianshan Mountain in Shanxi Province, in the ...

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Historical Wonders, Offbeat Museums

America started the war, and lost it, too.

Statue outside

"Look at that soldier," said a burly Dongbei redneck, shoving past me to get a better look at the painting. "He's on fire. He's a real man." His sweaty pal leaned in, and laughed. The torched soldier was still letting loose a volley of bullets from his machine gun, mowing down a row of terrified ...

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Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Inspector Black Cat: China’s Gore-Soaked Answer to Tom & Jerry

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Cute baby bunnies, frolicking in a field. Identical twin monkeys, playing hide and seek. A sweet baby panda, serving soup to his sickly mother. This is how the 1986 mainland cartoon for kids, Inspector Black Cat (黑猫警长), always starts. But then... well, let's just say it's Tarantino time. Plenty of cartoons are violent, but in Inspector ...

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Historical Wonders, Modern Ruins

One Ghostly Cambodian Ruin

The old hotel

It used to be a retreat. 90 years ago, the French spent 9 months building Bokor Hill Station up as the ultimate getaway: escape from the miserable heat and humidity of Phnom Penh. 900 laborers died while building it, but to the French all these ghosts were worth it. There was a ...

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Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao

Where'd you go?

Not many foreigners know about Sanmao. Here in China, though, he’s bigger than Disney. He's as prone to mischief as Bart Simpson. As endlessly honest as Richie Rich. And as dark as Charlie Brown. Darker. Even though Sanmao comics are as much for kids as they are adults, they're filled with death, ...

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Extraordinary Eats, Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism

Video of the Cultural Revolution Restaurant

I gave all the juicy details of this restaurant where you can make merry, while celebrating the best of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, earlier this week. But here, for your pleasure, is some video of the mad show and the flag-waving audience. For China: For elsewhere:

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Extraordinary Eats, Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism

Relive the Cultural Revolution (aka The Weirdest Dinner Theater in Beijing)

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Update: read the story below, but don't miss the video of the performance! "Two foreigners in the RED restaurant?" Reverb howled, "I think this will be more fun than the restaurant itself!" Red Restaurant, in the east of Beijing, is an opportunity to relive the passion and pain of China from the late 50s through the late ...

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Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities

18 Terrible Moments from a Taoist Hell

Oh, the horror...

A few weeks ago, I posted about the Incredible Taoist Gods -- cool court officers tasked with enforcing rules of life and the afterlife. Well, to further display how far traditional Taoism strays from the mystical romance of the Tao Te Ching, here are some of the darker views of the Taoist "Way." I found ...

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Historical Wonders

Mao & Mangoes, Together Again

Mao and the Mango

I recently had the opportunity to sip hot black coffee with a high ranking Pakistani official, and while everyone else is talking Osama and war, we talked fruit. "My basic objective here is to improve the trade between Pakistan and China," he told me.  "I'm trying to diversify the trade, to go into newer fields..." He counted ...

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Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Red Detachment of Awesome

red detachment 2

This Wednesday thru Friday, if you're in Beijing, you shouldn't miss the best of the "model operas," The Red Detachment of Women (红色娘子军). Playing for three nights only at Poly Plaza. It's called a model opera, but it's actually a ballet. The eight model operas were, during the height of the cultural ...

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