Light wave communication - 1977

Light wave communication - 1977

congratulations!

The "world" 3000BC-1215AD

East Asian Map by Year: 2000BC to 1600 AD

source: 中国東アジア歴史地図
currently there are still some gaps: 300-100BC, 1215-1580AD, 1600-2000AD.


Here is another map animation I found in youtube, but the part about Korea seems a bit strange.

Uncritical reading

I have commented on how uncritical reading could sway you previously. (btw, certain apple daily columnist continues to defend the-rapist, even till today, apparently idiots are everywhere in our corwded city)

There is another example today, via Chinasmack

1) from a comment in this post (perhaps also represents some 'widely held' misunderstanding among western media and uncritical readers)

• Domestically, Jiang was well known for his incapability since he handled miserably in diplomatic affairs (Yinhe Incident in 1993, Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996 and NATO bombing of the PRC embassy in 1999). He failed to defend China’s interests. The two Prime Ministers in his cabinet were targets by sides from both inside and outside the party. The first PM, Li Peng, earned his bad name by ordering crackdown on Tiananmen Square and the second PM, hardliner Zhu Rongji was hated by many for his tough administrative style (tempest reform on state-owned enterprises which resulted in soared unemployment, and brash rectification on banking system).

Wait a minute, who was Zhu hated by? many??? corruptor Chen Xitong or those princelings benefited from Jiang/Li era corruption who are now abroad and got a hand on influencing the western media?

The danger of taking a very small sample when you do your reporting.

2) I was going to say people never linked Jiang and Zhu together, but then Chinasmack promptly put up a follow up post (bravo chinasmack!!!), about netizens lamenting on Zhu's jaded silver hair vs Jiang's dyed brown head. You only need to take a couple sample (well, it is a 100% one-sided opinion from netizen up to this minute) to see comments like this

• "NND, why does National Day still need to give Jiang so many shots??? It should give our ex-Premier Zhu more shots instead, as everyone misses the old man more!"
• 哎！说什么好呢！只是朱总理在位的时候搭错了班子。但人民永远怀念您！

If something you heard does not feel right, just go to the forum and check the comments. Democracy works pretty well in the internet.

p.s. here is an exercise, blogger yang hengkun said, "60年前，美国政府对是否要打朝鲜战争举棋不定，这时，美国著名的智库兰德公司搞出了一个“可行性报告”，但他们不给美国政府看，要一大笔钱才肯出卖。可美国政府又舍不得花钱，就拒绝". This doesn't seem right. The US government wouldn't pay for a RAND report? unlikely but i could take this, but such a report could change a government decision? give me a break! the exercise is easy to do, try google for RAND and Korean War, see if you could verify Yang's story at all.

A Full Historical Map Series of the World

This is a GREAT site, perhaps the greatest historical map site. Though in Japanese, it is largely comprehensible for those who can read Chinese characters (Kanji), better if you can spell Katagana as well.

It has the maps of the world (well, Euroasia for the period it has been able to cover up to this date -- AD1215 when Mongolia was united by Temujen aska Genghis Khan), spaced at 5 year intervals (and at 50 years for B.C.). I believe it is still a work in progress and more maps will be filled for the period between 1215 and 2000.

Animation for such country evolution will be treated in future posts. It is especially useful to understand the periods of 16 states and N&S (i.e. 300-600AD) and that of 5 Dynasties 10 States (900-1000AD).

I have selected a few of its maps here for illustration

1000 BC: Shang dynasty

550BC: the year of Confucius and the Buddha, Persian Empire expanding, while China and India were still divided

200BC: India and China both united

5AD: Palestine/Israel under Roman Empire, Han close to its peak after defeating the Huns

210AD: Immediately after the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei acquired the State of Jin (Hubei today)

690AD: The Empire of Da Zhou (Wu Zetian, the first woman empress in China, interlaced in Tang Dynasty), the peak of any Chinese empire. The map here is a bit dubious, as it included tribute states such as Japan and part of India (Indus River, today's Pakistan, which I think is a bit of a stretch)

790AD: when the Tibetan Empire was at its peak (I bet not many people are aware of Tibet's brilliant footprint in history. Given the harsh environment it originates and the small population, the Buddhist Theocracy probably conquered a larger area (per original ethnic population) than Genghis Khan's empire did.)

880AD: Dali Empire (capital at today's Lijiang/Dali area) at its peak


2003AD: the 2000 onward are on a year-by-year basis. you may think nothing interesting is happening, but look at the two areas with Stars and Stripes flag across these years

It also has very nice series of maps for Africa, East Asia and Europe (years covered are still to be completed, but impressive enough to overwhelm any maplover)

Enjoy!

Map: dynasties in China

These animations show the different dynasties and states that had been established in the land of China in the past.

These mainly used map resources from outside China (e.g. wiki japan), and represents the "lower bound" of the territories, especially in the north (Siberia)


These use some Chinese map sources, and tends to include the northern area, which though paying tribute to the emperor, was mostly tribal. (and I do not under where the Tang#5 map is from, likely from this site)


These are from Chinese source (mostly likely all based on a PRC Historical Map published in 1996, which was great （7 Vol, Edited by Tan Qishuang), except for the minor nuisance of "political correctness")


related: Curzon's various maps of historical evolution

PRC's National Anthem from the original movie

From movie "Children of the Troubled Times" (Feng Yun Er Nuu), the clip is from the end of the movie, when the hero joined the Volunteer Army in Manchuria to fight the Japanese Occupation (at the time Manchukuo). It was in 1935, after the 9-18 but before 7-7 incidents.

March of the Volunteer


Related link: Frog in Well

Happy 35th!

China's 60th Anniversary national day - timelapse and slow motion - 7D and 5DmkII

1984 -- Happy 35th!


1949-2009 -- 35 years of Achievement

• 1949-1956 = 7 years; 1978-1989= 11 years, 1992-2009 = 17 years -- the middle years were essentially wasted
  
• Bard DeLong, "And in 1978 China had its first piece of great good luck in a long, long time--perhaps the first time some important chance broke right for China since the end of the Sung dynasty. China acquired as its paramount ruler one of the most devious and effective politicians of this or indeed any age, a man who was quite possibly the greatest human hero of the twentieth century: Deng Xiaoping. Deng sought to maintain the Communist Party oligarchy's control over China's politics while also seeking a better life for China's people, and he is guided by two principles: (i) be pragmatic ("what matters is not whether the cat is red [sic - should be "Black"] or white, what matters is whether the cat catches mice), and (ii) be cautious ("cross the river by feeling for the stones at the bottom of the ford with your feet")."

然后，在交了长年累月的霉运（可能自从宋朝完结后中国在主要的机遇上就从来没有什么事情是顺的）之后，在1978年中国终于迎来了她的第一个硕大无比的好运。中国获得了这时代，甚至可以说是任何时代里，最难得最有效的政治家 -- 一个很有可能是20世纪人类最伟大的英雄：邓小平，作为她的最高领导人。
邓一边寻求维持工程队对中国政治的寡头控制，一边为中国人民追求对生活的改善。而他遵循着两项原则：
(i）务实：不管白猫黑猫，能抓老鼠就是好猫
(ii)小心：摸着石头过河

Happy 35th, Xiao Ping Ning Hao!

Update: forget CCTV, Guardian's reporter made a stunting video, to download paste the video link to this site, then right click the 'download' link there.