Why do some peasants in China rebel? Why did rebellions occur more often in certain areas, like the bandits of the Shantung marshes, the pirates…
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Author: Julia_M
St. Matthew Passion
The proverb “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword” and the idiom “washed his hands off the matter” come from the rich…
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The Empire’s Last Crime Scene
A British girl was murdered in Peiping (now Peking) around midnight next to the Tartar City walls in January 1937. Her face was brutally mutilated,…
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Hiroshige
Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road by Alfred Haft is a 2025 book by the British Museum published to accompany the exhibition at the British…
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Butterfly Lovers Erhu Concerto
The “Butterfly Lovers” (Liangzhu) was originally composed in 1959 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao as a violin concerto. It became world famous as it…
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Ukiyo-e, Pictures of the Floating World—Part 3
Unlike a Western painting masterpiece, one can find many different prints of a famous Ukiyo-e woodblock print. There is the first edition and later editions.…
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Ukiyo-e, Pictures of the Floating World—Part 2
It is important to know that a woodblock print is not the sole effort of the artist, Hiroshige or Hokusai, whose name appears on it.…
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Ukiyo-e, Pictures of the Floating World—Part 1
Popular during the Edo period (1615–1868), Ukiyo-e is a term for the beautiful Japanese art of woodblock prints of nature, landscapes, and people. Ukiyo-e literally…
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Tibet (1900 to 1959)
Dorje Yudon Yuthok’s House of the Turquoise Roof (published in 1990) is a fascinating account of life in upper-class Lhasa before the Chinese occupation of…
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The Butterfly Lovers
The Butterfly Lovers is the name given to a famous tale of the tragic love of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. According to the book…
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