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Top Obscura
The Creepiest Amusement Park of All Time? 
21 Amazing Bangalore Breakfast Dishes 
Why Chinese People Eat Sea Horse 
Classic Chinese Torture Methods (and their cute names) 
Learn How to Speak North Korean 
Amazing Old Bollywood Poster Shops 
China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao 
Beijing’s incredible (and completely fake) Disneyland 
Castration Classes at the Beijing Eunuch Culture Exhibition Hall 
Beijing’s Single Most Horrific Meal 
The 38th Reich: Korean Nazi Cosplay 
Prosthetic Noses, Red Wigs, and Whiteface… American Characters in Chinese Films 
India’s Incredibly Cool Hand-Drawn Movie Posters 
18 Terrible Moments from a Taoist Hell 
This Hindu God has 1,000 Vaginas! 
Nazi Fashion in China 
Why Chinese People Eat Deer Penis 
About Andy Deemer & AsiaObscura 
Beijing’s Dongyue Temple and Their 19 Incredible Taoist Gods 
Why Chinese People Eat Ants 
Outrageously Cute Korean Cosplay: The 21 Favorites 
The Sick Collector and His 1000 Pairs of Shoes 
The Poem I Can’t Find… 
What the Fortune Teller Told Me (Hong Kong) 
Whoring in Chiang Mai 
Why Chinese People Eat Snake as Medicine 
Small Children Feeding Live Animals to Tigers in a Chinese Zoo 
One Ghostly Cambodian Ruin - Awesomely Steampunk Portable Corn Roaster
- The Disastrous Fall of Sanmao
A Postcard from Erenhot 
Another Abandoned Beijing Amusement Park 
American Imperialist Bastards in a North Korean Comic Book 
The Taj Mahal… Murder, Incest, and Fratricide 
Medicinal Sea Horse Soup 
Inspector Black Cat: China’s Gore-Soaked Answer to Tom & Jerry 
China’s first sci-fi movie: Death Ray on Coral Island (1980) 
Beyond the Valley of the Dwarfs: The Strangest Theme Park Ever? 
Deranged Clown Cream Biscuits 
Relive the Cultural Revolution (aka The Weirdest Dinner Theater in Beijing) 
Our Six Best China Stories! 
Noel Wilson’s Awesome Soccer-Themed House 
The Insane Monkey Bar in Tokyo 
Porn, Rats, and Antique Projectors at Sri Lanka’s Classic Cinemas 
North Korea frightening customs declarations form 
The Great Chinese Chip Taste-Off 
Antilia: The Most Gratuitous House in Mumbai 
13 Amazing Indian Circus Posters 
Dr Shankar’s Wonderful Collection of Brains and Other Medical Obscura 
A Huge Pile of Gorgeous Old Thai Movie Posters
Category Archives: Historical Wonders
Historical Wonders
The Taj Mahal… Murder, Incest, and Fratricide
Well, we made it to the Taj Mahal last weekend. Huge. Overwhelming. Magnificent. I wiped away a tear or two. Shah Jahan built it in memory of his beloved third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. That's like the awesomest romantic gesture, ever. But I was also reading William Dalrymple's City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi at ...
Consumerism, Historical Wonders
Bizarre Old North Korean Stamps Celebrating Regal Excess
On my way out of Deshengmen Tower -- where you'll find a strange collection of ramshackle museums crammed in together -- I noticed the most remarkable thing for sale: old North Korean stamps, celebrating European regal excess! There was the Versailles stamp, which reeks of excessive opulence... Franz Joseph I hot on the chase... And of ...
Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism
Rediscovering Beijing: Finding the Elephants
On using an 1897 guidebook to explore modern Beijing... My adventures begin with the elephants. A few hundred yards westward of (the Shun-chih-men) is the place for the Imperial elephants, the Hsün-hsiang-so, a large enclosure in which the elephants of the Court are kept... The intelligent animals are taught to salute the Emperor by kneeling down, and ...
Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism
Rediscovering Beijing with an 1897 Guide
Did you know that Beijing has a dozen or so elephants that kneel as the emperor passes by? Seriously. At least that's what my book says. It's a Beijing travel guide from 1897, author unknown, that Charlie Custer found on archive.org. The copy originally belonged to Herbert Hoover, China expat and one-time US President. ...
Historical Wonders
Obama and Hitler, Together at Last
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 ...
Historical Wonders
Classic Chinese Torture Methods (and their cute names)
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 ...
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 ...
Historical Wonders, Lost in Translation, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
Pages from an Amazing English Textbook
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 ...
Historical Wonders, Life in Miniature, Offbeat Museums, Somewhat Perverted
The Sick Collector and His 1000 Pairs of Shoes
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. ...
Historical Wonders
A Noble Slave and an Imperial Cannibal
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 ...
Historical Wonders, Offbeat Museums
America started the war, and lost it, too.
"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 ...
Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
Inspector Black Cat: China’s Gore-Soaked Answer to Tom & Jerry
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 ...
Historical Wonders, Modern Ruins
One Ghostly Cambodian Ruin
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 ...
Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao
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, ...
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:
Extraordinary Eats, Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism
Relive the Cultural Revolution (aka The Weirdest Dinner Theater in Beijing)
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 ...
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities
18 Terrible Moments from a Taoist Hell
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 ...
Historical Wonders
Mao & Mangoes, Together Again
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 ...
Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
Red Detachment of Awesome
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 ...
May 23, 2011 / Comments Off
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities
Beijing’s Dongyue Temple and Their 19 Incredible Taoist Gods
So the rapture left you behind, eh? Feeling cheated? Looking for a new deity? Try Taoism. These gods will kick your ass! Okay, maybe not all of them. Some, like this swarthy fellow, will just make sure when you're reborn, you'll get your deserved rank. Fail to accomplish enough good in this ...
Historical Wonders, Life in Miniature, Modern Ruins
Modern Day Cavemen of Shanxi
Recently, Woo and I were in rural Shanxi Province, and noticed a series of caves carved into the landscape, off in the distance. They were just dark shadows, really, but they were clearly man-made. "Before, did people live there?" we asked the cab driver, like the good tourists that we were. "Yes, but they still live there ...
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities
The Mystery of Shuanglin’s Scooped-Eye Statues
A $2 tuktuk ride from the ancient city of Pingyao 平遥, in the deserts of Shanxi Province, there's a wonderful little temple called Shuanglin Temple (双林寺). The name translates to something like A Pair of Forests Temple. Cute. Inside, though, you'll find a strange sight. Walk to the back, and you'll come across the Goddess Temple, ...
Historical Wonders
Kim Jong Il’s childhood thoughts of America
To celebrate the 69th birthday of Kim Jong Il, this entire week is jam packed with DPRKoolness. Today, we explore Kim Jong Il's feelings about America. Where do they come from? How did he feel as a kid? Find out, below... (At the age of six) Kim Jong Il harboured a bitter hatred for the class ...
Historical Wonders
Kim Jong Il learns to ride horses and shoot guns!
In celebration of Kim Jong Il's 69th birthday, this week is flooded with DPRKoolness. Today, we learn that Kim Jong Il by the age of five is a master equestrian. But what about his marksmanship? Can he handle a gun? Find out, in these excerpts from his official biography, below! Young Kim, shortly before he became ...
Historical Wonders
The official story of Kim Jong Il’s birth…
Happy 69th birthday, Kim Jong Il! To celebrate this holy day, this entire week will be jam packed with DPRKoolness. First, the true story of the birth of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. These wonderful snippets -- many of them truly endearing, some just funny -- are from volume one of Kim Jong Il's ...
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities, The Occult
Keep the Evil Away For Chinese New Year
In Zhangbi, an ancient Shanxi village surrounded by sprawling factories, we just discovered the perfect antidote for bad ghosts... and it's.... Apparently, cypress! I'm not sure how prevalent this is across China, but every old Zhangbi door had a sprig of cypress shoved into it. "避邪," explained the guide Lucy, who had no idea how to explain ...
Historical Wonders, Offbeat Museums
Gorgeous Old Chinese Studio Photos
One of my favorite things about old Chinese studio photos is the props and backgrounds -- they're positively delicious! I found these three hanging in a rundown Pingyao museum (although M has an incredible collection -- which she refuses to let me post here. For the time being!) The drape backgrounds are about my favorite thing... ...
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities
The Story of (These Creepily Awesome) Big Head Buddhas, with video
Michelle's spent a slew of Chinese New Years here in Beijing, but she's never seen these before -- 大头娃娃 (Dàtóu wáwá or Dai Tao Fut) -- incredible paper mache masks that we found in the back of a junk store, in Bangkok's Chinatown. In English, they're called Big Headed Buddhas, and for just a few ...
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities
Three (Really Huge) Wise Men
An hour east of Beijing on the 930 bus, you'll pass a couple of ominous industrial (nuclear?) chimneys. They're real big. Springfield Simpsons bastards, if you pardon my French. Hop off the bus, and sneak behind them. That's where you'll find the most charmingly bizarre guesthouse, The Tianzi Hotel (天子大酒店). Apparently, business was bad. The ...
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities, Offbeat Museums, The Occult
The Craziest Holy Sculptor in Laos
The long, slow, dusty bus-ride cost 20 cents and took lord knows how long. But eventually it delivered us to the incredible Buddha Park. You see, 40 or so years ago, some loony Lao was hiking along a remote mountain trace, accidentally tripped, and fell into a hole. A deep hole. It was a lot like ...