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TOPIC

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.
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Diplomacy

China urged to monitor disputed border as India upgrades road to move tanks

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India has reportedly been upgrading a key all-weather road in the Himalayas to boost infrastructure at its border with China and is also building an alternative route. Photo: EPA-EFE

People & Culture

Chinese woman jailed for killing lover who told her to hit him and not break up

A woman in China has been jailed for killing her lover after he suggested she hit him when she wanted to break up. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock

Trends

Why Asian women are reclaiming tradition with teeth blackening

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Trending in China

New abbot at China Shaolin Temple enforces ‘Buddhist 996’ rule; 30 monks quit

The new head of China’s scandal-hit Shaolin Temple has introduced strict new rules, sparking a reported wave of monk resignations. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Xinhua/Weibo

People & Culture

Chinese women dance on trains, shock passengers, spark disturbance warning

A group of Chinese women has shocked train passengers by square dancing in the aisles. Photo: SCMP composite/RedNote/Douyin
Singapore celebrates its 60th year of independence on August 9. Photo: Shutterstock Images
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

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Chinese history

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

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.

An illustration depicts Chinese men playing cuju, an early version of football. Centuries before pickleball became popular in Asia, the Chinese played a variety of traditional ball games. Photo: Wikipedia
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.

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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.

Chinese culture

Reflections | Oxen, sheep or pigs? Ancient Chinese rules on animal sacrifices

Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha this weekend, which involves ritual animal sacrifice, something Chinese started performing in the Zhou dynasty.

A sacrificial offering is displayed in a Chinese Confucian temple circa AD500 in an image from Hutchinson’s History of the Nations, published in 1915. Photo: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Dragon Boat Festival

Reflections | Qu Yuan, Chinese poet whose death is marked in Dragon Boat Festival

Whether or not customs of Duanwu or Tuen Ng Festival can truly be ascribed to Qu Yuan’s drowning in 278BC, his life is worthy of celebration.

Dragon boat teams cross the finish line at the end of a race in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour in 2024. Dragon boat racing is one of the traditions of the Duanwu Festival, or Tuen Ng Festival, said to have arisen from the death of poet Qu Yuan in ancient China. Photo: Dickson Lee
United States

Reflections | Like lying Trump, Chinese counsellor made aides say black was white

Donald Trump’s lies are so ludicrous only idiots or lapdogs could believe them. In Qin dynasty China, aides parroted a counsellor’s lie too.

Religion

Reflections | Like popes, China’s emperors went by titles that reflected their legacy

How Chinese emperors’ titles, like papal ones, reflected their legacies and why their birth names were considered taboo during their reigns.

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
Chinese overseas

Reflections | How Chinese family ties have evolved, from Confucian lines to today

Is blood thicker than water? While family networks remain an important part of everyday life today, they used to play a much larger role.

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A Chinese public official surrounded by his wife and children. While family networks remain an important part of everyday life for Chinese people, they used to play a much larger role. Photo: Getty Images
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.

Chinese culture

Reflections | What China’s shift from feudalism can teach about today’s political climate

China’s first emperor ended 800 years of feudalism, then the imperial system was replaced in 1912. Political shifts are a constant of history.

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Chinese culture

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
Transport and logistics

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.

Earthquakes

Reflections | Why did ancient Chinese see earthquakes as messages from the heavens?

In ancient China, tremors were seen as cosmic warnings of misrule. China was also more advanced than the rest of the world at detecting them.

Ageing society

Reflections | Let old people earn our respect. They do not have a divine right to it

Asians in particular are conditioned to show older people deference, but I beg to differ. They should show themselves worthy of our respect.

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An elderly passenger boards a bus in Taipei, Taiwan, during rush hour. Priority seats on public transport provided for passengers like this are sometimes occupied by young people, sparking confrontation. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Commodities

Reflections | Ancient China’s cooking oil revolution and how it brought us stir-fry

When vegetable fats, especially sesame oil, replaced tallow and lard 1,500 years ago in China, people were able to ‘fry everything’, and did.

The advent of vegetable oils in ancient China sparked a stir-fry revolution. Photo: Shutterstock
Donald Trump

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.

Books and literature

Reflections | US conservatives ban books. In ancient China such acts didn’t end well

When Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang banned, then burned books it caused a loss of knowledge for all of humanity. Now book bans are back.

Wellness

Reflections | Why a Chinese ruler ordered people put to death for drinking

The legacy of a psychotic Chinese king who flew into murderous rages when drunk led his successor to decree death for anyone caught drinking.

Visitors take part in a drinking competition at the Wine & Dine Festival in Hong Kong in 2024. Discover why one writer has chosen a sober lifestyle, and why a ruler in ancient China decreed the death penalty for people caught drinking. Photo: Eugene Lee
Food and Drinks

Reflections | An ode to pandan, seen in Singaporean chiffon cake and other dishes

Pandan chiffon cake is associated with Singapore, but pandan is popular all over Southeast Asia and seen in various foods and drinks.

Kueh lapis and pandan chiffon cake from Bengawan Solo. Although it is often associated with Singapore, pandan is popular all over Southeast Asia and used in food and drinks across the region. Photo: Zhang Dayu
Donald Trump

Reflections | Nazi salute or no, Elon Musk reminds us of the importance of gestures

Some historical gestures should never be revived. The yi greeting, once common in ancient China, is thankfully not one of them.

Singapore

Reflections | Amid Singapore morning shower debate, how bathing used to be a luxury

A social media post about sweaty commuters sparked intense debate in Singapore, yet in the old days people would go months without a bath.

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