Modern Chinese History
Chinese Universities We include a comprehensive guide to the top Universities in China giving details of student numbers, location, ranking and a bit about their history. Read more…
Modern Leaders The leadership of the People's Republic since 1949 has been one of stability with an emphasis of continuity and steady progress. This was not the case in the early years. With China such a major power it is important to understand the background to the handful of people who have led China in a new direction. Read more…
The building of China's railways The building of railways became a competitive scramble between foreign powers in the late 19th and early 20th century. Railways were seen as the key first step to opening up inland China for trade. Britain, France, Germany, Japan and America all invested in the building of them only for the investment to be lost in the following years of turmoil. Read more…
Superpower China An in-depth overview of the position of China in the world and its likely future. Is China on track to become the leading world super-power as it once was? For thousands of years China was by any measure the top nation on Earth, and so it seems natural that after 150 years of turmoil China will become the leading country again. We speculate on what this might mean to China and the rest of the world. Read more…
China's Space Mission China is putting a great deal of money and effort in building a space exploration program . Already missions have put people into orbit around the Earth and landed robots onto the Moon. Plans exist for a large space lab and manned landings on the Moon and even missions to Mars. In a race to put people on Mars it could well be China that gets there first. Read more…
Proverb
郢书 燕说
Yǐng shū yān shuō
Ying's letter interpreted by Yan
The message has been misunderstood. The story is that someone living in Ying in the Chu kingdom dictated a letter to a friend, the Prime Minister of Yan kingdom. Inadvertently the secretary wrote down 'Raise the lantern' thinking it was part of the letter. The recipient interpreted this to mean he should appoint praiseworthy people to the government. So in this case the misunderstanding gave rise to benefit.
Get hold of the wrong end of the stick
All about Chinese proverbs
The standing of women in China Attitudes to women have changed greatly in China over the centuries. The traditional subservient position of women in society was removed in only the last sixty years but there yet to be a woman appointed to the top rung of government. Our section describes the role of women down the centuries including the role of concubines and how some Imperial women bucked the trend. Read more…
