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Emily Zhou

71 articles published

A student told Confucius the most important thing in life

ONE DAY, CONFUCIUS asked four of his students to tell him about the greatest thing they would like to achieve. “I’d like to help rule a troubled land and bring peace to it,” said one. “I’d like to govern a poor place and raise it to prosperity,” said another. The third was a humbler young…

August 9, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Rain spoiled their picnic: so he invented the umbrella

MORE THAN TWO millennia ago, a young man and his sister decided to go a scenic spot called the West Lake for a picnic. But then it began to rain heavily. The pair, along with other sightseers, hurried to find shelter at nearby pavilions. From there, they found out that they could look out at…

July 27, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

News

China builds train loop the size of a country

CHINA BUILT A TRAIN track as big as a country—and they did much of it on shifting sands. The new Xinjiang railway loops around the huge Taklamakan desert, a patch of sand so large it could swallow the countries of the United Kingdom plus the whole of Ireland. It wasn’t just the size of the…

July 19, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Features

The missing ten seconds during the Hong Kong handover

The world's media reported that at exactly midnight on 30 June 1997, the British Hong Kong flag was replaced with China’s flag as the sovereignty of Hong Kong moved from British colonial rule to Chinese rule. But that’s not actually what happened. Emily Zhou reports. IN THE WINTER of 1994, 925 days before July 1,…

June 30, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

‘Bring me a westerner’: curious story behind Palace Museum art

IN THE EARLY 1700s, the ruling emperor of China had a curious request: “Bring me a westerner!” Although Chinese painting had been through hundreds of years of evolution, the Kangxi Emperor was intrigued by western art, which had a notably different style. The message was sent out by members of the Jesuit community in China…

June 29, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

The strange true story of the hostage prince who fell in love

PRINCE YIREN OF QIN had a horrible job. He was a hostage. He had been assigned to that role by his own parents. That may sound strange, but that was often the case in China during the Warring States period, more than 2,200 years ago. The young man was a member of the royal family…

June 14, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Film captures China’s 1979 entry to capitalism

A SURPRISE HIT movie in China tells the true story of the first man who decided to try making a TV advertisement in that country, more than 40 years ago. It may sound like a trivial thing, but in another way it was huge – his success or failure would signify the transition of China…

June 8, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Features

Wan Hu and his Ming Dynasty flying chair

YURI GAGARIN, the first man in space, is believed to have said that exploration “is not the work of one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process that humanity carries out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.” In terms of exploring the heavens, Chinese people might be…

May 23, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

How poverty alleviation became a hit TV show

Attempts are being made to tell what is arguably the most important story of the modern era: how a huge proportion of humanity has recently been raised from starvation level poverty to health and dignity. And, finally, someone has told the story really well – and in a suitably modern way, as an exciting, episodic…

May 17, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Historians find toothbrush, eleven centuries old

SMILE PLEASE! Archeologists have found toothbrushes more than a thousand years old – and they are remarkably similar to modern ones. They had the same shape, although were made of bone, not plastic. And instead of the nylon brushes of today’s equivalents, the ancient ones had hog bristles. There were different varieties, just like today.…

May 4, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Emily Zhou

A student told Confucius the most important thing in life

Rain spoiled their picnic: so he invented the umbrella

China builds train loop the size of a country

The missing ten seconds during the Hong Kong handover

‘Bring me a westerner’: curious story behind Palace Museum art

The strange true story of the hostage prince who fell in love

Film captures China’s 1979 entry to capitalism

Wan Hu and his Ming Dynasty flying chair

How poverty alleviation became a hit TV show

Historians find toothbrush, eleven centuries old

Can Europe dare to do the smart thing, and partner with China in Africa?

Australia’s government lives in a Pentagon-penned fiction of US primacy

How the HK Bar Association lost its way – and was guided back on track