Chinasage : All about China

In a merger of the very old and very new it is now possible to download a computer model of a terracotta warrior and print it out with a 3-D printer. In a scheme to engage youngsters with the Chinese Qin dynasty a miniature plastic model complete with banner engraved with words of your choosing, can be yours for free. A number of different forms are available, the charioteer can be used as a pen holder for instance. It's a novel way to promote an interest in history and archeology.

There are currently no plans for life-size models to be made available.

The famous terracotta warriors at the tomb of the first Qin Emperor Shihuangdi

For thousands of years Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been used very widely in China. The World Health Organization (special agency of the UN) has aroused some debate by publicly supporting TCM as a legitimate medicinal option by including a chapter on it in their global compendium.

Since the PRC was founded in 1949 China has supported both the Western system of medicine and the Traditional. Initially this was a necessity as funds could not support the rapid creation of a Western system of hospitals and medicines for 1,000 million people. Since then there has been a drift towards using both systems for different purposes. For injuries and infections Western treatments are sought while for long-term and minor ailments the traditional system is used. Another factor is cost, China does not have a free health service and so a cheap TCM treatment is attractive compared to a hospital visit. Many Chinese believe TCM can be a good preventive before a disease takes hold.

One of the main concerns about TCM is that quite a few remedies require parts of endangered animals. With increased prosperity these supposed cures for arthritis; impotence and so on have become increasingly sought after. However many ingredients are from common plants and fungi and do not give the same cause for concern as with tigers, pangolins, sea horses and other animals. Acupuncture and moxibustion are part of TCM and these do not require ingesting dubious ingredients.

The main criticism has always been that it has unproven efficacy; however some of the ingredients have been shown to have useful medical properties. The use of herbal medicine in Europe only came to an end in the early 20th century. Every village would have a herbalist with there own special potions. Here also some treatments were beneficial, many of no demonstrable effect (placebo) and a few were dangerously toxic. In China the government spent considerable effort in the 1970s and 80s to choose the ones that are beneficial and this is one reason why TCM has better credentials than remedies from elsewhere.

Dispensing traditional medicine prescriptions. Graham Street Market, Hong Kong. 2010 Image by deror_avi ➚ available under a Creative Commons license ➚.

The impressive stonework of the Great Wall can not fail to impress visitors, but for a good proportion of its great length the wall is in a dilapidated state. In the dry region of the Gobi desert, rain is so infrequent that stone was not needed to protect the wall - it could be built up in layers of tamped earth.

In Ningxia province there used to be 936 miles [1,507 kms] but only 314 miles [506 kms] of Great Wall remaining. Restorer Yang Long is working slowly and carefully to restore the old tamped earth. After many experiments they have come up with a close modern alternative using the same old material and tools. Layers of earth are reinforced with layers of gravel and needle-grass. The soil is tamped by hand with iron or wooden hammers. It is a slow process, it takes Yang Long a whole year to restore just 875 yards [800 meters] of the wall. It is hoped the restored wall will be good for another two thousand years.

The ruins of the Great Wall, this section is a mud built wall that was erected during the rule of the Ming Dynasty, Ningxia. Part of the Great Wall awaiting restoration.

If only it was possible to sit back and say ‘the web site is done’. Every time we believe it is all up-to-date and working well, technology comes along and offers new possibilities and challenges. Over the last twenty years it was initially a question of adding more complex features because everyone was using desktops with increasingly faster connections. Then along came the mobile/smartphones and reversed all this - web sites had to quickly become both simple and fast. Finally with faster/higher resolution screens and 5G networks on smartphones there is a move to putting back in more complex features.

In this revision we have put in a new menu. Instead of a cluttered second level menu with lots of links we've moved them all onto a drop-down menu. We've also put direct search and contact facilities on each page - you don't need to swap pages anymore.

All this should make it more usable on mobiles but not be a problem for desktop users. If we've broken anything that you liked, please let us know. Your comments on the new look will be much appreciated.

Many people think that slavery was abolished in the 1820s. While it is true that the African slave trade dwindled rapidly the plantation owners turned to new sources of slaves. These were the 'coolies' from India and China that were normally tricked into signing a contract and were treated just as appallingly as the African slaves they replaced. Mercifully the Chinese coolie trade came to an end in the late 1870s after the intervention of the Chinese government. The tale of these lost million people is rarely told, particularly the Chinese laborers. We have added a page summarizing this ignoble trade and also the treatment of the many Chinese immigrants to California in the late 19th century when racial discrimination reached fever pitch.

The picture on is a tolerably fair representation of a manager's house on its brick pillars. To the left, at the bottom of the picture, is a free Coolie driving his cattle. To the right a rural constable is seizing an unhappy pigtail to convey him to the lock-up, being absent, as we see, from the band just above him, with his arms unbound. This indicates that he is trying to avoid the restraints of his indenture, and for this he is liable to punishment. Above him, on the right of the picture, is a group of Chinese, and on the left of the steps a group of Coolies, represented with their arms bound, an emblem of indentureship. They always speak of themselves as bound when under indenture. At the foot of the steps, on either side, is a Chinaman and a Coolie, from whose breasts two drivers are drawing blood with a knife, the life fluid being caught by boys in the swizzle-glasses of the colony. A boy is carrying the glasses up the steps to the attorney and the manager, who sit on the left of the verandah, and who are obviously fattening at the expense of the bound people below them. A tatwife and children look out of the windows. 1871. Image by The Coolie - his rights and wrongs ➚ available under a Creative Commons License ➚