“On Behalf of Our Great Leader Mao, Fight Gloriously. On Behalf of the Great Socialist Bloc, Fight Gloriously,” 1970
New study shows Chinese tolerance for homosexuality over thousands of years | Gay Star News
Note: there is also just as long of a history of the changeability of gender in Chinese history.
But. Yeah. This book may be of interest to some.
(via angryasiangirlsunited)
World's longest bullet train service launched in China
China launched services Wednesday on the world’s longest high-speed rail route, the latest milestone in the country’s rapid and — sometimes troubled — super fast rail network.
The opening of the new 2,298-kilometre (1,425-mile) line between Beijing and Guangzhou means passengers will be whisked from the capital to the southern commercial hub in just eight hours, compared with the 22 hours previously required.
State broadcaster China Central Television showed the 9:00 am (0100 GMT) departure of the first train live from Beijing West Railway Station and its arrival later in Guangzhou at about 5:00 pm.
It also carried occasional live reports inside the train throughout the day, showing passengers toting cameras to apparently snap commemorative photos, as well as shots from outside as it sped through the countryside.
Another train departed Guangzhou for the capital at 10:00 am, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The train departing Beijing travelled at an average speed of 300 kilometres per hour and made stops in four cities — Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan on the Yangtze River and Changsha before arriving in Guangzhou.
State media have reported that December 26 was chosen to start passenger service on the Beijing-Guangzhou line to commemorate the birth in 1893 of revered Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
Hafted axe with dragonsca. 1300-1200 B.C.E.
Unidentified, Chinese
Late Shang dynasty
Early Anyang period
Bronze with turquoise inlay and jade (nephrite) blade
Anyang, ChinaSmithsonian Museums
(via art-of-swords)
Did you know?
Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s. It was for emperors only.
Penis Seadog Pill by cowyeow on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
At a medicine shop near Temple Street. In Kowloon, Hong Kong
"
The reluctance of the educational system - public and private - to grasp the Chinese nettle is a metaphor for a much wider problem: our ignorance about China and our failure to appreciate just how much it will change the world and transform our lives.
[…]
The great task facing the West over the next century will be to make sense of China - not in our terms but in theirs. We have to understand China as it is and as it has been, not project our own history, culture, institutions and values onto it. It will always fail that test. In truth such a mentality tells us more about our own arrogance and lack of curiosity than anything about China.
Let’s take one example. We assume that the nation-state, that long-standing and remarkably influential European invention, is more or less universal. True, China has called itself a nation-state for about a century. But 100 years is a mere pin-prick for a country that dates back over two millennia. Modern China emerged in 221. By the time of the Han dynasty - still more than 2,000 years ago - China’s borders already closely resembled those of eastern and central China today. China is very old, the longest continuously-existing polity in the world. And for more than 2,000 years, it was not a nation-state but a civilisation-state. In essence it still is.
"Martin Jacques, Making Sense of China (via perfectcoma)
(via asianhistory)
Polytech MAK 90 Sporter
A neutered AK built in China and imported in this configuration to meet the Assault Weapons Ban requirements. It has no flash hider or muzzle brake, no bayonet lug, and a single piece thumbhole stock. This was as best an attempt to demilitarize the rifle. With the AWB gone it’s a simple conversion back to it’s original form. Note the 5-round magazine.
(Source: gunrunnerhell)