China One

Kim says yesterday’s blog was “ho Hum”, and she’s right. 

That’s how I’ve been feeling the past week: ho hum – bored. 

That’s not good. 

When I was a kid and I said I was bored, mom and dad always found me something to do, and it was never something fun. 

Of course I did the same with my kids. 

“Oh, you’re bored!  Well, lets see if there’s not some wood to be chopped around here”, or “I ‘m sure we can get the lawn mower going!” 

No wood to chop or grass to cut here in a ‘unit’ in Kununurra.  Too hot for a fire even if we did have a wood stove, and the back ‘yard’ is cement.  So… what to do? 

Write ho hum blogs apparently. 

Or.. get off my rump and start using this time to catch my breath and get stuff done: like packing and planning for what’s coming. 

And what’s coming?  Well, a lot of things, including Jackie’s 60^th birthday!  Anna is organizing a trip of sorts.. that ends in Beijing, PRC, and I woke up with China on the brain: which is good. 

Much better than ‘I need to lose a few pounds’! 

China was the first place I visited when I got my ESL certificate.  It is one of the oldest cultures in the world, and to curious Canadians from small town B.C., all that history is anything but boring. 

I molded my Master’s Thesis around the private school system in China and found the place to be magic.  Brilliant.. sweet.. rich: like cream though.. a little bit goes a long way and I couldn’t swallow too much, or  stay very long: too polluted, too busy.. too – stimulating. 

But I am really excited about a return trip to Beijing: especially the long way around – by train. 

My first trip was a real eye-opener.  I had no idea about China and the people there.  It didn’t seem real.  As I walked the streets of Beijing I was struck by how closely the people resembled the Indigenous people of Canada.. Central and South America.  These guys have been travelling and exploring the world for millenniums.

The faces are the same ones I see in other places around the globe today: on the streets of Vancouver, Richmond, Saltillo in Mexico, Central and South America, Oman, the United Arab Emerites, Australia – everywhere!   

The markets of Beijing were full of ‘stuff’: paintings, ceramics, religious artifacts: pots and sculptures, beads and polished rocks from different ‘dynasties’. 

So I looked some things up this morning. 

Imperial Rule was the name of the political game for more than 2000 years in China.  Each dynasty took it’s name from the ruling families, but the common name, (China), was Zhongguo. 

It started with the Dynasty Xia in about the 17^th C. B.C.  This one was thought to be mythical until 1959 when tangible evidence was discovered.  The Oracle Bone Script, the oldest form of Chinese writing, is said to be from this time in history. 

The Zhou Dynasty came next, from the 12^th until the 5^th C. B.C.  Then the area split up into seven sovereign states.  It regrouped again in 221 B.C. to form the Qin Dynasty, which lasted just 15 years.

Then the Han Dynasty, which expanded to include today’s Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and huge parts of Central Asia and formed what we know as the Silk Road.  This went until 220 AD and then the country split up for a time into independent states one of which, Wu, opened up diplomatic relations with Japan and introduced the Japanese to the Chinese writing system. 

Then the country reunited as the Tang and Song dynasties.  The Song dynasty was the first government to introduce paper money! 

There were a 100,000,000 people in China at this point, and it reached 120,000,000  by about 1279, right before the Mongol Invasion cut that number in half. 

After a peasant overthrew the Mongols in 1368, the Ming Dynasty was formed.  Then in 1644 another peasant revolt overthrew that government and the Emperor committed suicide. 

The Qing Dynasty then lasted right until 1912, when on January 1, the Republic of China was formed under Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang, the Nationalist Party. 

It sounds like things were pretty rough for a while, as the communists and the Kuomintang played tug-o-war with things, but they united, well sort of, they still fought when they got the chance, in 1937 through 1945 for the Sino-Japanese War (WWII) when the Japanese were responsible for about 20 million Chinese deaths. 

I spoke to an old fellow on a visit to Granville Island years ago and  as we sat on a bench soaking up the Vancouver sunshine and feeding pigeons, he shared that he had been in the Canadian Navy during WWII. 

“The worst thing I ever saw in my life was when we docked off the coast of China for supplies during the war.  They told us to stay inside, but of course, being a young fellow and all, I had to take a look.  The water was thick with the bodies of the Chinese people.  It’s no wonder they hated the Japs.”   

October 1949 brought in the Communists and their leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the Chinese mainland The People’s Republic of China, as the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan. Taiwan today, along with Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, Pratas Island group and some other little islands, claims itself separate and united under the name of the Republic of China. 

Nothing Ho Hum about Chinese History, but if you’re still bored and Canadian, go shovel some snow! 

Thanks for the kick in butt Kim.  Well done!