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Lessons from China's history

Lessons from China's history
Wee Kek Koon draws parallels between current events and trends and episodes and attitudes in China’s past.
Residential buildings in Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court burn on November 26, 2025. Hong Kong’s recent tragedy is a grim reminder of the enduring menace fires have posed throughout Chinese history. Photo: Sam Tsang
Chinese history

Reflections | In wake of Tai Po blaze, China’s long and difficult struggle fighting fire

The qualities that made buildings beautiful in premodern Chinese cities also made them dangerously flammable, and fire was a constant threat.

Chinese history

Reflections | ‘Mar-a-Lago faces’ echo Chinese elites’ unhealthy attempts to please a king

Chinese history

Reflections | From slapping body parts to National Games, China’s history of exercise

Chinese culture

Shameful period? How China’s Qing dynasty brought both wealth and humiliation

China’s final dynasty saw the arts and economy thrive under Manchu rule. But internal and external struggles corroded centuries of stability.

The Qianlong Emperor was the fifth emperor of China’s Qing dynasty, reigning from 1735-1796. Under the Manchus, China’s final dynasty was marked by flourishing arts and economic growth. But in 1912, the imperial system that had survived for centuries collapsed as the country entered the modern era.
Chinese history

Reflections | Andrew’s loss of ‘prince’ title echoes the downfall of China’s past royals

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s fall from prince to commoner mirrors how many disgraced royals in imperial China also lost their titles.

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Chinese history

Reflections | How Asean differs from the alliances of China’s Warring States Period

Asean’s consensus-driven approach, based on non-aggression, generally fosters regional peace, unlike the factious alliances in China’s past.

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Chinese history

Reflections | How Trump’s new ballroom echoes the grand monuments of China’s emperors

Many monuments built by the emperors of old were architectural marvels and stunning spectacles of power, but perilous in consequence.

US President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom, privately funded at an estimated cost of US$250 million, echoes the monuments built by China’s ancient emperors. Photo: The White House
History

Reflections | Like Trump’s Time photo, Chinese emperor’s portraits were often unflattering

The contradictory portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang, one of China’s most controversial rulers, reflect his complex historical image.

Chinese history

Reflections | The small Chinese state that once played peacekeeper like Singapore today

Long ago, the Chinese state of Song repeatedly helped end conflicts between powerful neighbours with a diplomatic heft that belied its size.

Chinese history

Reflections | How ancient Chinese sects have foretold Rapture-like divine ends for millennia

Christian groups prophesise paradisiacal new beginnings today, but similar visions existed throughout imperial Chinese history.

In Christianity, the Rapture refers to Jesus’ return to Earth to guide his followers to heaven before the apocalypse. Photo: TNS
Singapore

Reflections | ‘I shall do harm’: the ancient Chinese traitor who boosted his country’s enemy

Zhonghang Yue’s reforming of Xiongnu puts the negative attitude often seen towards Malaysians-turned-Singaporeans into perspective.

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Xiongnu nomads were considered “barbarians” by many Han Chinese. After Chinese palace eunuch Zhonghang Yue was forced to visit the warlike state, he became a valued advisor to its people, much improving the state’s productivity and self-governance, and remained there until his death. Photo: Weibo

Reflections | How the lion became a symbol of Chinese identity and cultural exchange

From homes to temples, lion figures are ubiquitous in China. Why is an animal that has never lived in the wild there so culturally relevant?

Chinese culture

How China’s earliest 3 dynasties shaped its society and culture

From 2070BC to 256BC, the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties paved the way for Chinese society with Taoism, written language, music and more.

Mainland China

Reflections | China’s ‘durian express’ recalls emperor’s efforts to sate consort’s cravings

New system to get durians to northern China faster reminds of how lychees were rushed to Emperor Xuanzong’s favourite consort at great cost.

Durian is native to Southeast Asia, but China is now the world’s biggest market for the “king of fruits”. Its new “durian express” system will transport more of the fruits to northern China faster. Photo: Getty Images
Donald Trump

Reflections | Like Trump’s US, imperial China used to have a Ministry of War

For centuries, the ‘Three Departments, Six Ministries’ system, which included a Ministry of War, was at the heart of China’s governance.

US President Donald Trump hands a signed executive order to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth renaming the Department of Defence as the Department of War in the Oval Office of the White House on September 5, 2025. An arm of the government dedicated to war also existed in imperial China. Photo: AP
Chinese history

Reflections | After Fan Bingbing’s Malaysia award, a history of Chinese official honours

Honorary titles have existed in China for millennia, and apart from a rejection of such notions in the 20th century, are still awarded.

Shi Yongxin

Reflections | Shaolin Temple scandal would have led to far harsher reactions in China’s past

The resolution of the temple’s recent shameful episode is much more civilised than the violent purges of Buddhism in China’s history.

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Chinese culture

Reflections | History of Chinese libraries, from huge palace collections to public spaces

Libraries were the preserve of rulers and officials for much of China’s history, but that started to change at the turn of the 20th century.

Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo, in China’s Zhejiang province, is one of the world’s oldest libraries still standing. Photo: Edmond So
China-Russia relations

Reflections | A brief history of China-Russia relations, from bitter rivals to close allies

China and Russia have forged a deepening strategic partnership in recent years, but relations between the two have not always been so warm.

Singapore

Reflections | As Singapore marks 60th birthday, how did Chinese dynasties fare at same age?

The Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were some of China’s most prominent. What was happening with them six decades in?

Hong Kong

Reflections | How homosexuality was accepted, even celebrated, in ancient China

Opponents of Hong Kong’s Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill cite traditional values, but China has a history of being more accepting.

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A painting depicts male lovers in ancient China. Before the mid-20th century, homosexuality was much more accepted in China than in other parts of the world. Photo: Library of Indiana University
Chinese history

Reflections | My good friend died last week. A classic Chinese poem sums up my feelings

Tang dynasty poet Wang Bo’s poem on friends separated is a bittersweet encapsulation of what I feel towards my recently departed pal.

A statute of Chinese poet Wang Bo. Bo was born into a distinguished family of scholar-officials during the Tang dynasty (618-907) and showed remarkable intelligence from a young age.
Chinese history

Reflections | Ancient Chinese played football? Ball games popular in imperial China

The Chinese started playing early forms of football and polo more than 2,000 years ago, and later games resembling modern golf and bowling.

Chinese history

Reflections | How fortune-telling decided vital affairs of state in ancient China

Predicting the future was serious business during China’s Shang dynasty, when ‘oracle bones’ helped kings make big calls.

Iran

Reflections | Like Iran today, China once had theocracies governed by divine rule

While emperors in Imperial China generally kept religion and governance separate, true theocracies could be found among breakaway regimes.

Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864), who ruled the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the most famous theocracy in Chinese history, claimed that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. Photo: History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Mainland China

Reflections | Unlike Trump, ancient China embraced foreign students, even made exams easier

As China has shown at various periods in its history, the greater a civilisation, the more open and magnanimous it is to foreigners.

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Activists hold up signs during a rally in support of international students at Harvard University in the US. President Trump has launched a campaign to block the university from accepting foreigners. Photo: TNS
Extreme weather

Reflections | How extreme heat proved Chinese military officer’s undoing in classic novel

Yang Zhi’s insistence that his convoy hurry in the height of summer comes back to bite him in the Ming-dynasty novel Outlaws of the Marsh.

Chinese culture

Reflections | What is the Three Letters and Six Rites, ancient Chinese wedding custom?

A complex series of ceremonies, the Three Letters and Six Rites aimed to ensure social recognition, family consent and spiritual blessing.

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