Chinasage : All about China

A long time collector of historic photographs of China wants to find a buyer. Stephan Loewentheil has accumulated over 20,000 photographs of China taken between 1850 and 1920 over the last few decades.

It is a unique collection with many very rare images of life in China from this tumultuous period. He is keen to sell it to an institution or individual in China so that the collection at last goes home. There are many images by the largely unknown Chinese pioneers of photography: Lai Fong, Liang Shitai, Pun Lun Studio and Tung Hing Studio.

A traditional weaver at work (1870) by William Saunders. Image credit: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

In these dark days of approaching winter (in the northern hemisphere) now might be a good time to explore one of China's great cultural gems. As travel into China is very restricted at present it is good that it is now possible to make the trip with your computer. At the Mogao caves near Dunhuang, Gansu province there was a treasure trove of ancient paintings and writings preserved in the dry desert for up to 1,600 years. Western explorers in the early 19th century bought up many of these items so about 40,000 items are now spread between more than ten countries including the UK, France, Russia and Japan. The UNESCO world heritage site is located near the junction of the old Silk Road route to China, where traders in exotic goods chose the long desert road either to India or towards the Middle East and Europe. The 'Digital Dunhuang' project aims to reunite these lost items in the virtual world.

You can already visit and appreciate the beauty of the 30 richly decorated caves using the web site Digital Dunhuang ➚ and the fascinating artwork within them.

The world's biggest shopping spree is timed to fall on China's new 'festival/holiday'. A very recent special day, is ?Single's Day? when young, single people buy themselves presents. The festival started among men at Nanjing University in the 1990s and has caught on very rapidly in cities throughout China and amongst single women too. The choice of date is based on the fact that 11.11 has four single 'ones' in it, representing two 11 couples. It is now a popular day to declare love and propose marriage, a second Chinese Valentine's Day. More importantly it has become the world's busiest shopping day (mostly online but also in shops). Alibaba ➚ heavily promotes it as a special occasion to spend money and has already held one special bargain period (Nov. 1st to 3rd)this year.

China is continuing to successfully launch satellites at an increasing pace. The Mars probe Tainwen-1 天文 Tiān wén was successfully launched back in July. It will reach the Red planet in February and will aim to land a roving probe on the surface soon after.

Meanwhile on the far side of the Moon the lander and rover of the Chang'e-4 probe are still working fine. Its rover, Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2 玉兔 Yù tù is still delivering useful data after over 22 months of operation.

The latest set of rocket launches have been to put more monitoring satellites in Earth orbit. The Gaofen-13 satellite launched on the 12th October will monitor the skies in visible as well as infra-red wavelengths at a high resolution (高分 Gāo fēn means high resolution or high score). As well as giving vital geographic information (growth of crops etc.) it also acts as military defense as it can detect stealth fighter airplanes invisible to radar.

With the end of high tech. co-operation with the U.S. China is building an independent space program. It is now also building a network for global positioning (北斗 Běi dǒu-3 series) so it is no longer reliant on the U.S. controlled GPS system of satellites.

This much admired trio of figures founded the Zhou dynasty back in around 1100BCE. Little is known from historical source, not surprising as it all happened over over 3,000 years ago. The great sage Confucius held them, particularly the Duke of Zhou, as paragons of wise and virtuous government. We've added a brief introduction to these early figures of the early development of Chinese civilization to the web site. Both King Wen and the Duke of Zhou are associated with the great Chinese classic the Yi Jing and the development of the eight trigrams.

The Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching using the old spelling) is a much loved Chinese classic. It is written as a series of short, individual thoughts and contemplations of our place in the world. It follows the Daoist (Taoist) philosophical tradition and although it is over 2,500 years old it still has a message for us today.

We have added a brief introduction to this ancient classic as part of our coverage of Chinese culture.