China’s prolific history of innovation has generated much debate and speculation. Rather than wade through a long list of Chinese inventions, let’s focus on four major game-changers plus four lesser-knowns...
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Chinese eunuchs across history belong to a vast, anonymous clan, sharing the same unspoken shame in service to emperor and court. Several of these brave souls, however, rose to such…
The excruciating surgery featured in this post falls outside “normal” medical procedures. Yet it’s far from rare. China’s Ming Dynasty alone produced over 100,000 eunuchs!
Silk was once such a prized commodity that an entire trading network spanning 4,000 miles to connect Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with China was named after it….
The ongoing battle between the Cao and Sima families during China’s Three Kingdoms Period was as complex and unpredictable as HBO’s hit TV series Game of Thrones, based on George…
International Women’s Day on the 8th of March is not a thousand year old Chinese tradition. (Surprise!) It originated in the United States in 1908 as a socialist movement calling...
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Imagine the supreme challenge of motivating 27,400 people in an enormous floating corporation, waves buffeting your 240 separate offices with limited channels of communication, managing the uncertainty of landing in…
The Seven Bamboo Sages (竹林七贤 zhú lín qī xián) took pleasure in alcohol-fueled philosophical debates and musical/poetic expression, secluded in the bamboo forests of northwest Henan. Insiders turned outsiders, they...
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History books effuse about the sublime glory of the Han, Tang, Ming, <add your favorite here> and the visionary emperors who built incredible palaces. Let’s explore China’s historic capital proliferation…
Dragons. They’re everywhere…and they’re nowhere. Some say Chinese dragons aren’t dragons at all! How does this ancient creature keep clawing back into our 21st Century consciousness?
