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Chinese history

Chinese history
The latest news, analysis and opinion on Chinese history. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
“Dragonserpent” (2024), Gordon Hookey
Art

Hidden history of Aboriginal-Chinese culture comes alive in exhibition

Australian show of art and artefacts highlights a doubly marginalised community for whom racism has long kept their stories in the shadows.

Food and Drinks

Language Matters | How whisky took its name from the Gaelic ‘water of life’

Science

Genes whisper ancient tales of longest human migration out of Asia

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Asian cinema: Chinese films

How disaster struck for Air Strike, a Chinese film with Bruce Willis

Rated 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2018 film Air Strike with Bruce Willis, Liu Ye and Fan Wei is a mishmash of genres and underwhelming action.

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Bruce Willis (front) and co-stars in a still from Air Strike. Photo: Online
Chinese culture

How Mexico’s oldest and largest Chinatown rose despite terrible xenophobia

America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 saw many immigrants turn to Mexico, but their broad business dominance led to dreadful consequences.

Art Basel

Macau’s Poly MGM Museum draws 500,000 punters with hi-tech historical displays

Fusing ancient artefacts with cutting-edge technology, Macau’s new Poly MGM Museum is drawing huge crowds eager for an immersive historical experience.

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Lessons from China's history

Reflections | How China’s first modern elections bred a wave of politically active people

Despite being deeply flawed, China’s initial experiments with representative politics starting in 1907 left a lasting legacy.

China’s first modern elections took place during the last years of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) as part of Empress Dowager Cixi’s New Policies. Photo: EPA-EFE
US-China relations

Opinion | Why China has refused to back down in the face of Trump’s tariffs

China’s elites, going back to the late Qing, have been waiting for this moment – to push back against the world’s strongest power.

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Art

Q&A | How this artist transforms historical Chinese symbolism into paintings

New York-based Dominique Fung speaks about her creative journey, Empress Dowager Cixi, and why she wants audiences to leave her show feeling expansive.

History

Recap | China’s religious history features many faiths and a cult that started a war

Traditional Asian beliefs and Abrahamic religions have existed in China for centuries, columnist Wee Kek Koon looks at their impact.

A drawing of Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka Chinese who claimed to be the brother of Jesus and led the Taiping Rebellion against China’s Qing dynasty. Its brutal suppression by imperial troops left 20 to 30 million people dead. Photo: Getty Images
Science

A fiery conquest in 112BC may have led to decline of the Chinese swamp cypress

Han military campaign toppled the rebel Nanyue kingdom but also decimated vast stands of cypress, study finds.

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There are fewer than 1,000 Chinese swamp cypress trees left in the wild. Photo: Paul Leader
From our archives

When the Terracotta Army came to Hong Kong

A historic exhibition showcases artefacts from the Shang and Qin dynasties, drawing over a quarter million visitors.

Old Hong Kong

Then & Now | When sedan chairs and rickshaws dominated Hong Kong private transport

Taxis may be ubiquitous in Hong Kong today, but for much of the city’s urban history, human-powered transport was the only choice.

Lessons from China's history

Reflections | The ancient Chinese general whose calm during surgery is still told of today

Worshipped by many Chinese, Lord Guan so personified the virtues of courage and loyalty that he was deified after his death.

A statue of Lord Guan, or Guan Yu, in Thailand. Worshipped by many Chinese, his image adorns homes, restaurants, gambling dens and police stations in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Photo: Shutterstock
Lessons from China's history

Reflections | How ancient China’s standardised vehicle ‘specs’ transformed the country

Besides the Qin dynasty’s standardisations pertaining to Chinese writing and currency, equally significant was that of carriages’ axle width.

An engraving depicts an early Chinese horse-drawn carriage from the 18th century. More than 2,000 years ago, the Qin dynasty introduced the “standardised axle width”, which played a vital role in shaping ancient China’s military strength, administrative efficiency and cultural integration. Photo: Universal Images Group via Getty Images
History

Why Kochi, in India’s southwest, is reviving historical links to China

Many of Kochi’s historical monuments focus on Kerala’s European colonisers, but this city might owe more of its character to the Chinese.

Science

What’s in a Chinese name: scientists bid for identity when using Latin alphabet

Chinese researchers seek ways to be distinguished in a world where their work is not published using their Mandarin name.

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European cinema

John Rabe, film with a Western angle on the Nanking massacre

The film tells the story of the Japanese massacre of Chinese civilians through the eyes of ‘good’ Nazi John Rabe.

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Ulrich Tukur plays the title role in the 2009 film John Rabe, which recounts the Nanking massacre from a Western standpoint. Photo: Handout
Lessons from China's history

Reflections | After Trump decree, how China and Singapore’s official languages came to be

China did not have an official language in the modern sense before the 20th century, while Singapore’s is different to its national language.

Art

Explore China’s culinary heritage at the Hong Kong Palace Museum

Discover artworks and national treasures tracing the Chinese culinary evolution from Neolithic times to the Qing dynasty, until June 18.

Art

Profile | Father of modern ink art fused painting styles from East and West

An émigré from post-war China, in Hong Kong Lui Shou-kwan married Chinese ink art with Western abstract art to forge the New Ink Movement.

Lui Shou-kwan (pictured painting) moved from China to Hong Kong, where his exposure to Western art movements led him to fuse his Chinese ink art with abstract art and launch the New Ink Movement.
Horoscopes

What’s your luck looking like for March 2025, the Earth Rabbit month?

This is your month if you’re a Rabbit like Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp, while Horses and Roosters should tread carefully.

The Chinese Zodiac. Is your luck in this month? Photo: SCMP Graphic
History

Chinese stories of California gold rush told in Hong Kong exhibition

Sojourning in Gold Mountain at Hong Kong Museum of History shines a light on migrants’ journeys from China to San Francisco in the 1800s.

Chinese culture

Beijing’s Palace Museum taps its storage for relics to restore

The museum of imperial relics founded in the Forbidden City in 1925 has retrieved stored artefacts to restore and eventually put on show.

Art

The end of Hong Kong’s golden age marked the start of her success

Artist Jaffa Lam’s practice describes a dynamic arc – like Hong Kong’s art scene itself – moving beyond cultural tradition to embrace the everyday and individual.

Visual artist Jaffa Lam at her studio in Fo Tan, Hong Kong. Photo: Eugene Chan
Chinese culture

Opinion | Why Ne Zha 2 is part of a broader Chinese cultural renaissance

The film’s strong box office performance marks a shift in how Chinese culture is perceived by young people in China and around the world.

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An artist creates a Ne Zha-themed wall painting in Shijiazhuang City, north China’s Hebei province, on February 19. Photo: Xinhua
Profile

How Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan found his way in the industry

The Hong Kong filmmaker on the horrors of Hollywood, working his way up and exploring the handover.

Science

Tibetan tree rings link climate change and fall of major Chinese dynasties

Study tracking climate patterns across thousands of years found that periods of lower rainfall coincided with some major political upheavals.

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