A monthly quiz of general history, traditions, geography questions for January
1. Which was the capital city used by the Taiping rebels in the mid 19th century
Nanjing
Guiyang
Guangzhou
The Taiping rebellion quickly spread from its source in Guangxi and Guangdong and by 1853 he had captured the Yangzi valley and the great city of Nanjing which he made his capital.
Taiping rebels are chased out of Yuzhuang, March 8 1854. The Taiping arrived the previous day but had to retire the next day when the Manchus arrived in hot pursuit. From Ten scenes recording the retreat and defeat of the Taiping Northern Expeditionary Forces, February 1854-March 1855.
Source : web site ➚
Available under a Creative Commons license ➚.
2. Which number is considered unlucky rather like 13 in the west?
4
8
11
Four is the most unlucky of Chinese numbers because the character 死 sǐ ‘die; death’ only differs in tone to the character for 4: 四 sì. In her later days Dowager Empress Cixi is said to have forbade the saying of ‘si’ in her presence. Some roads have no house numbered 4 and some high-rise buildings have no 4th floor.
Japanese lucky cat
3. What was an old name for the island of Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)?
Formosa
Tsingtao
Sinkiang
Taiwan was given the name Formosa by Portuguese settlers in the mid 16th century. ‘Formosa’ means ‘beautiful island’ in Portuguese.
4. In 2016 the membership of the Chinese Communist Party stood at how many?
30 million
89 million
3 million
The Communist Party is the second largest membership organization in the world after India's BJP, it is necessary to be a party member to take a career in government related occupations.
5. The Queen Mother of the West is an important Chinese deity; where is her palace traditionally said to have been?
Mount Taishan
Kunlun mountains
Nanling Mountains
The Queen Mother of the West (Xi wang mu) is said to have lived in the Kunlun mountains in far western China defended by a spirit army. She is sometimes portrayed with a panther's tail and tiger's teeth. She represents integrity and virtue. Her palace is bedecked in gold and precious stones and is the location where the gods hold their banquets.
Queen Mother of the West and maidservants in painted clay sculpture at Jinci, Taiyuan, Shanxi. It was built in the Ming dynasty.
6. The Chinese Grand canal is roughly the same length as the distance between New York and where?
North Carolina
Texas
Florida
The Grand Canal spans 1,100 miles [1,770 kms] making it the longest canal system in the world.
Ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in Wuxi area.
京杭古运河无锡段一景. Image by 王波波➚ available under a Creative Commons License ➚
7. What is the Chinese (Mandarin) name for Hong Kong?
Xianggang
Xianzhou
Haidong
The official ‘Beijing’ name for Hong Kong is 香港 Xianggang - meaning literally ‘Fragrant Harbor’. The English ‘Hong Kong’ is believed to come from the local Cantonese rendering of Hēung Góng.
8. The largest carved Buddha in the world is located where?
Wuchang, Hubei
Leshan, Sichuan
Qufu, Shandong
The Leshan Giant Buddha is a 233 feet [71 meters]tall carved statue, built in the Tang dynasty between 713 and 803.
Genghis (or Djingis or Genghiz or Chinggis) was born as Tem?jin (or Temuchin) in around 1167 probably at Burkhan Khaldun, to the east of Ulanbator the modern Mongolian capital that lies at the center of present day Outer Mongolia.
10. The Red Flag Canal was a major engineering project built in the 1960s in which province?
Guizhou
Anhui
Henan
Near Anyang in Henan province is a spectacular achievement of human labor, the Red Flag Canal. It was built between 1960-1974 with the same large scale use of labor as the Grand Canal, it provides irrigation and transportation to arid northern Henan.
11. The world's deadliest earthquake was in China, how many lives were lost?
178,000
830,000
83,000
The city of Haixian (east of Xi'an in Shaanxi province) was the epicenter of the world's deadliest earthquake on Mon Jan 23 1556 when it estimated 830,000 people lost their lives.
12. Kite flying is particularly associated with which traditional festival?
Lantern
Blue dragon
Double ninth or Chongyang
On the 9th day of the 9th lunar month people take to high ground and fly all sorts of kites as a way of appeasing the spirits. If a mountain or hill is not to hand a tall building or pagoda would be climbed. It follows the traditional story of Huan Jing of the Han dynasty, who was told to move to high ground to escape floods.
Photo by Anonymous, Chinese plate, Ming dynasty, Yongle period 1403-1424, porcelain with under-glaze blue, 23 inches [58 cms] diameter, Honolulu Academy of Arts. Available under a Creative Commons license ➚.
13. The standard order of hexagrams in the Yi Jing (I Ching) is attributed to who?
Jade Emperor
Laozi
King Wen
The ordering is very old, dating back at least 3,000 years. It is traditionally attributed to King Wen whose son King Wu founded the Zhou dynasty. Other orderings of the 64 hexagrams were used but only the Zhouyi survived and is used to this day.
14. In which province was Mao Zedong born in 1893?
Hunan
Gansu
Sichuan
Shaoshan in Hunan is famous as the birthplace of Mao Zedong and has many exhibits chronicling his early life there. His family still live there - about 60% of the population bear the Mao family name.
A monthly quiz of general history, traditions, geography questions for January
