Re: The first blog post! A primeur!

by **Daniel** Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:19 am

Kami wrote:
Daniel wrote:Oh yeah, sorry. If anyone wondered what the post below had to do with Asia... well, what if Chiang took power? What if Chiang acted differently to how he did? One thing is for certain, China's history would not be the same. Neither would be the US' foreign policy, or wars that have sprung out from it. A butterfly effect that would have China today radically different from what it may have become...

I dun think Chiang would be in power for very long if he won the civil war and become the leader of China... the people werent very fond of Chiang, especially the peasant which constitute to the majority of the people in China at the time. His policies were never popular among the people which unlike Taiwan, China was massive and it would take alot more resources to uphold order in a country plague with discontent. And I think if Chiang was to become the ruler of China, China wouldnt be a democracy (technically yes but in practice no), instead I think it would be a sort of dictatorship with Chiang being the supreme authoritarian leader as he did in Taiwan after he lost China.

You don't need to be popular to stay in power. Stalin wasn't - he stayed for life. Neither were the Tsars. China wasn't so different to 19th century Russia. The emperor in China was just weak, if the Qing dynasty was able to use its machinery of power more efficiently, it would of remained. European thoughts of liberalism, Marxism and such are different to Chinese philosophy. The common Chinese beliefs and supertitions would have been greater than ideas which never would of worked in the European contexts they were created in, let alone China.

by **Kami** Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:02 pm

Daniel wrote:Oh yeah, sorry. If anyone wondered what the post below had to do with Asia... well, what if Chiang took power? What if Chiang acted differently to how he did? One thing is for certain, China's history would not be the same. Neither would be the US' foreign policy, or wars that have sprung out from it. A butterfly effect that would have China today radically different from what it may have become...

I dun think Chiang would be in power for very long if he won the civil war and become the leader of China... the people werent very fond of Chiang, especially the peasant which constitute to the majority of the people in China at the time. His policies were never popular among the people which unlike Taiwan, China was massive and it would take alot more resources to uphold order in a country plague with discontent. And I think if Chiang was to become the ruler of China, China wouldnt be a democracy (technically yes but in practice no), instead I think it would be a sort of dictatorship with Chiang being the supreme authoritarian leader as he did in Taiwan after he lost China.

by **Daniel** Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:07 am

Oh yeah, sorry. If anyone wondered what the post below had to do with Asia... well, what if Chiang took power? What if Chiang acted differently to how he did? One thing is for certain, China's history would not be the same. Neither would be the US' foreign policy, or wars that have sprung out from it. A butterfly effect that would have China today radically different from what it may have become...

by **Daniel** Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:04 am

Well, this idea just seems so interesting - a thesis statement sort of, that I thought I'd just post it here. This I could maybe use to make a post or something.

Tragic heroes.

Tragic heroes really change the world. They usually sacrifice themselves for the betterment of others, or achieve good for others and themselves be destroyed. Hamlet is perhaps the best example of a tragic hero. But more interesting, in modern history, two figures strike me as the most interesting - Chiang Kai Shek and Trotsky.

Now just imagine, Chiang Kai Shek and Trotsky became the undisputed leaders of their nations. History would be so different. Yet those two were meant to be the leaders, they had everything going for them. Isn't it sad that they both lost everything when they could have easily won their power struggles.

by **Daniel** Tue Apr 20, 2010 7:39 am

haha that's awesome, so many people with the same chromo.

I think there was something similar, blonde hair, blue eyes Europeans or Euro/asians living in China? Thought to possibly be Romans (a legion which somehow got to China) .... I think this was written somewhere by gavin Menzies. Not sure though, I've only heard about it.

well another cool thing to check out is this thing called "Six Degrees of Seperation"

by **Shimen** Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:31 am

(since it'll be first post, it should be drafted and drafted to perfection ):

Great suggestions!

welldoneyay

by **Floris** Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:10 am

Agreed. One some points at least. I've seen some spelling errors and typos already too, it's mainly because the keyboard of this laptop is a nightmare.
And you're right about the intro. It could be more appealing. It's just that, as a bit of an inside joke, the intro was almost copy-pasted from Howard Carter's diary. But it's best to go for perfection. So I'll rewrite it a bit later on.
~anyway, I didn't make a link between Lü Bu and Achilles myself yet. But it's quite an apt one.
~Yup, that's kind of funny, realizing that sort of thing. But then again, those people might not even be that rare. I once heard of a very broad genetic research conducted in Asia. The conclusion was that nearly eight percent of the men living in the former mongol empire carry Y-chromosomes that are nearly identical. That translates to 0.5 percent of the world population, or some 16 million people (which is incidentially, the amount of people living in the Netherlands, haha).
They think it was Genghis Khan and his descendants who spread this Y-chromosome :p. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0214_030214_genghis.html

by **Daniel** Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:56 am

*Claps* *Whistlers* *Claps* xD

Well done!

The heat was unbearable. My dark hair was soaking wet with sweat and I could hardly breathe since the dust of ages accumulated in my lungs and airways. Feverishly I cleared away the remaining last scraps of rubbish on the floor of the passage. The flickering lamp lighted the dark while I used all my effort to move another big chunk of debris. What would I discover underneath it? Another piece or junk or maybe….
At that point the gap was wide enough to see trough. If my lamp would’ve been a candle it would have flickered because of the ancient air that suddenly came through the opening. Someone behind me said: “Can you see anything?”. “Yes, fabulous treasures”. At that point I realized my life would never be the same again. Wherever I looked I saw gold en treasures exceeding my wildest dreams.

Last week I cleaned my room. After quite a while of serious effort cleaning a bookcase, I discovered something I had not seen in quite a while. When I got eight years old, an aunt who used to be a stewardess brought me this curious birthday present from Shanghai. Yet it wasn’t until now I could fully appreciate it. Poor quality though it might be, it is a gem nonetheless which got a prominent case once my bookcase was cleaned.

The thing I’m talking about is in the picture to the left. It is a flat box with some red cloth with a pattern of dragons and lotuses stitched with gold-colored thread. On the box is a kind of sticker, with the text “The man of the Romene of the Three Kingdoms”. Common sense and the Chinese characters written teach us that it actually means to say “The men of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. And that’s exactly what it is. Opening he box reveals us Sixty-six plaster figures arranged in six rows. Inside the box is also a text, saying in both English and Chinese:

“The romance of the three kingdoms is one of the four classical Chinese works, revealing the historical period from the corruption of the Han dynasty to the establishment of the Jin dynasty. According to the work, this handicraft article portrays more than one hundred history figures. You may catch a glimpse of Chinese history from the vivid figures rather than from dull writing”

Well that’s pretty much the truth, except that the one who wrote this couldn’t count. Taking a close-up of the figures teaches us that they are all unique, some with swords, some with fans, and some on horseback. Next to the figures are their names in Chinese characters. I tried to figure some out, and I found out about half of them. Well, the top-left one, which I took a close-up of, is Cao Cao, warlord/emperor of the state of Wei, one of the most prominent figures in the Romance. Let’s take a better look at this work.

“Sānguó yǎnyì”, Better known as “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is an extensive book (my English translation has some 1600 pages across three volumes) written in the 14th Century by Luo Guanzhong. It loosely represents an historical period, roughly the second and third century A.D. It is about a time between the Han and the Jin dynasty, when because of the crumbling of the Han dynasty three kingdoms formed, that all tried to topple each other for supremacy. The kingdoms were Wei, in the North, governed by the Cao clan, Wu, in the South, governed by the Sun clan, and Shu in the east, governed by Liu Bei.

The Romance of the three kingdoms has had an enormous influence on Chinese culture, and more recently, has had spread beyond the Chinese border through all kinds of modern media. There have been theatrical adaptations, opera’s, movies, tv-series, songs (Cao Cao by JJ lin is an example), video games (see picture, dynasty warriors 5), manga, board games and more. Even some Chinese proverbs are actually taken straight from this text; for example “Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.” Which is equivalent to the English proverb “to speak of the devil”, meaning that someone appears right when being spoken about.
So summing things up, go read The Romance of the three Kingdoms!

So next time you feel too lazy to clean up your room, remember the great rewards that may lie in wait!

(But beware of the curse of the pharaoh)

Just some suggestions though (since it'll be first post, it should be drafted and drafted to perfection Smile

):
* The heat was unbearable. My dark hair was soaking wet with sweat and I could hardly breathe since the dust of ages accumulated in my lungs and airways. Feverishly I cleared away the remaining last scraps of rubbish on the floor of the passage. The flickering lamp lighted the dark while I used all my effort to move another big chunk of debris. What would I discover underneath it? Another piece or junk or maybe….

You don't really need to have the first sentence (the heat was unbearable). In fact, by implication through the second sentence, it would be a better hook and more appealing. Short sentences of a narratives aren't very appealing as they lack detail to pose any suspense or interest. Rather, suggestion through metonym and synedoche is a better way to start especially in this case.

* Also, maybe more synecodche rather than terms like big chunk of debris. Connotative words over naming words.

* There's a few spelling mistakes but never mind them, spell check should fix it...

* (Wherever I looked I saw gold en treasures exceeding my wildest dreams.) Sorry, it's a bit cliche, a lil bit more stranger would make it appealing.

* The details are good, but its a bit boring. People usually are attracted to juicy bits - not annalistic or Newtonian history. Instead of giving so much details about the period, perhaps for example...

"I gasped. Dropping the figure, my mind registered what my eyes had not. I had just held the Chinese God of War. The sworn brother of Liu Bei. An opponent that even Lu Bu - the Achilles of Sanguo/China (plp might not know what Sanguo means so... [but it would be more technical]) feared.... etc

Oh yeah, another interesting thing is maybe another interesting theme could be we don't know who we see on the street. For example, I was surprised to find that I knew someone (who I wouldn't of presumed) to be a direct descendent of one of the Chinese emperors himself. Granted, he doesn't have any of the power or wealth that his family would of once held - it's interesting that there are villages in China dedicated to his family. Another instance, is I actually met another descendent or relation to I think was Ma Chao - she didn't look very strong to me xD. [It would be very interesting to meet from one related to Mao or Stalin though - wonder what life would be like for them... but Mao isn't really that bad, Deng Xiaoping is the meanie. Well this post has had me gone off on a tangent...]

by **Shimen** Mon Apr 19, 2010 4:21 am

Tsk, pretending you're a hero ugh Razz

!

Joking, I like it Wink

! But you knew that already.

by **Floris** Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:58 am

This time as a word file, with the pictures.
I also converted it to .doc besides .docx so older versions of word may support it. But may have lost some of it's beauty Wink

Attachments

: Yet another good reason to clean your room.docx the file for word 2007 and upYou don't have permission to download attachments.(684 Kb) Downloaded 5 times

: Yet another good reason to clean your room.doc the file for word 97-2003You don't have permission to download attachments.(698 Kb) Downloaded 3 times

by **Shimen** Sat Apr 17, 2010 3:39 am

Floris, I changed the settings, please check whether it's okay now Wink

.

by **Floris** Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:13 pm

Hey guys. here my first draft for the blogpost. Right now shimen is the only one who can make attachements and pictures on the blog so that kind of sucks, but she's trying to figure out how to change it. So my draft is missing the pictures that are in the word document. but ill add them later. Feel free to comment, I know it isn't perfect at all:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yet another good reason to clean your room: Amazing Discoveries!

The heat was unbearable. My dark hair was soaking wet with sweat and I could hardly breathe since the dust of ages accumulated in my lungs and airways. Feverishly I cleared away the remaining last scraps of rubbish on the floor of the passage. The flickering lamp lighted the dark while I used all my effort to move another big chunk of debris. What would I discover underneath it? Another piece or junk or maybe….
At that point the gap was wide enough to see trough. If my lamp would’ve been a candle it would have flickered because of the ancient air that suddenly came through the opening. Someone behind me said: “Can you see anything?”. “Yes, fabulous treasures”. At that point I realized my life would never be the same again. Wherever I looked I saw gold en treasures exceeding my wildest dreams.

Last week I cleaned my room. After quite a while of serious effort cleaning a bookcase, I discovered something I had not seen in quite a while. When I got eight years old, an aunt who used to be a stewardess brought me this curious birthday present from Shanghai. Yet it wasn’t until now I could fully appreciate it. Poor quality though it might be, it is a gem nonetheless which got a prominent case once my bookcase was cleaned.

The thing I’m talking about is in the picture to the left. It is a flat box with some red cloth with a pattern of dragons and lotuses stitched with gold-colored thread. On the box is a kind of sticker, with the text “The man of the Romene of the Three Kingdoms”. Common sense and the Chinese characters written teach us that it actually means to say “The men of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. And that’s exactly what it is. Opening he box reveals us Sixty-six plaster figures arranged in six rows. Inside the box is also a text, saying in both English and Chinese:

“The romance of the three kingdoms is one of the four classical Chinese works, revealing the historical period from the corruption of the Han dynasty to the establishment of the Jin dynasty. According to the work, this handicraft article portrays more than one hundred history figures. You may catch a glimpse of Chinese history from the vivid figures rather than from dull writing”

Well that’s pretty much the truth, except that the one who wrote this couldn’t count. Taking a close-up of the figures teaches us that they are all unique, some with swords, some with fans, and some on horseback. Next to the figures are their names in Chinese characters. I tried to figure some out, and I found out about half of them. Well, the top-left one, which I took a close-up of, is Cao Cao, warlord/emperor of the state of Wei, one of the most prominent figures in the Romance. Let’s take a better look at this work.

“Sānguó yǎnyì”, Better known as “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is an extensive book (my English translation has some 1600 pages across three volumes) written in the 14th Century by Luo Guanzhong. It loosely represents an historical period, roughly the second and third century A.D. It is about a time between the Han and the Jin dynasty, when because of the crumbling of the Han dynasty three kingdoms formed, that all tried to topple each other for supremacy. The kingdoms were Wei, in the North, governed by the Cao clan, Wu, in the South, governed by the Sun clan, and Shu in the east, governed by Liu Bei.

The Romance of the three kingdoms has had an enormous influence on Chinese culture, and more recently, has had spread beyond the Chinese border through all kinds of modern media. There have been theatrical adaptations, opera’s, movies, tv-series, songs (Cao Cao by JJ lin is an example), video games (see picture, dynasty warriors 5), manga, board games and more. Even some Chinese proverbs are actually taken straight from this text; for example “Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.” Which is equivalent to the English proverb “to speak of the devil”, meaning that someone appears right when being spoken about.
So summing things up, go read The Romance of the three Kingdoms!

So next time you feel too lazy to clean up your room, remember the great rewards that may lie in wait!

(But beware of the curse of the pharaoh)

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The first blog post! A primeur!