Author: MyChinaRoots

[EN] On this day, August 28th, in 1582, a little boy named Zhu Changluo was born in the majestic halls of Beijing’s Forbidden City. On the other side of the planet, European countries were about to turn the clock forward ten days for the adoption of...

(originally published in My China Roots) [EN] The Taiping Rebellion is one of the most under-recognized events in world history, both in terms of scale and impact. It devoured over 20 million lives and sowed the seeds for the founding of China’s Communist Party, whose actions today...

(Originally published in the blog of My China Roots).  [English] From 1757 until 1842, Guangzhou, or Canton as it was called back then, was China’s only official door to the outside world. With the aim to control China’s foreign trade, the ‘Canton System’ meant that all imports...

(Originally published in the blog of My China Roots).  [English] Who would have thought that the preservation of the ever so civilized ‘tea time’ would drive the British to instigate nationwide drug addiction and a ‘century of humiliation’ in China? By the 18th century, Britain was drinking so...

(Originally published in the blog of My China Roots).  [English] China has traditionally regarded itself as the center of all the world’s civilization. As a consequence, it has tended to frown upon citizens that choose to leave the ‘Middle Kingdom’ for foreign, supposedly barbaric countries. Overseas Chinese...

(originally published in http://www.mychinaroots.com/portfolio-items/hungry-ghost-festival-and-the-cross-cultural-nature-of-roots/ [English] Ghosts come in all shapes and sizes, especially Chinese ones. There are water ghosts, headless ghosts, friendly old lady-ghosts, and, as pictured here, hungry ghosts. Like all hungry ghosts, you can recognize him by his needle-thin neck, which hardly allows any food to...