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Bread and soup fit for an emperor

ZHAO KUANGYIN (趙匡胤) was not having a good day. He was a high ranking soldier who felt he was destined to one day become leader of the country. But he had many battles ahead of him. On this particular day, he was a tired and hungry man, wandering through the city of Chang’an. This incident…

October 27, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

The world’s first restaurant and earliest celebrity chef

Shopkeepers in China 900 years ago accidentally created restaurant food culture, and their achievement is listed among Life magazine's 100 greatest achievements of the past millennium. Emily Zhou reports IN OR ABOUT THE YEAR 1120 AD, a shopkeeper in the old Chinese city of Kaifeng had an idea. There were lots of merchants arriving from…

August 11, 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

Culture

Bright lights and bars: the birth of Song Dynasty night life

Imagine a late-night scene: Restaurants, bars, revellers, and a lit-up sign advertising a hostelry. Is this modern Shanghai? Hong Kong? Vancouver? Las Vegas? Actually, such scenes were already taking place a thousand years earlier. Emily Zhou reports. AN ANCIENT PIECE OF ART shows a lightbox advertising a hotel: perhaps the earliest evidence of a light-powered…

April 14, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture Features

Chinese had trendy chai-lattes 1000 years ago, historians find

ENJOYED A NICE trendy cup of foam-topped matcha-flavored lactose-free caffeine recently? Well, guess who invented that drink? Starbucks? Maybe a Japanese branch of Starbucks? No. The Chinese did, a thousand years ago. It has become almost a cliché for historians to search for things that we think are modern, and then locate ancient Chinese versions.…

April 11, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Foodpanda-style service existed in China ten centuries ago

From a single ancient scroll painting, shown in part below, historians discovered three items of food history the Chinese may have pioneered: the three-meals-a-day tradition, the hot food delivery service, and the drive-in cafe. Emily Zhou reports. THE CHINESE HABIT of painting large, hyper-detailed landscapes on giant scrolls has been a boon for historians. And…

April 6, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Art dance revives interest in tragic Song Dynasty painter

A teenage painter's extraordinary skill marked him out for a great career, but fate had other plans. The "Emperor of Art" who mentored him came to an even sadder end. That happened 900 years ago, yet the story of the boy and his royal teacher, and the one painting he created, has inspired…

February 28, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Bread and soup fit for an emperor

The world’s first restaurant and earliest celebrity chef

Historians find toothbrush, eleven centuries old

Bright lights and bars: the birth of Song Dynasty night life

Chinese had trendy chai-lattes 1000 years ago, historians find

Foodpanda-style service existed in China ten centuries ago

Art dance revives interest in tragic Song Dynasty painter

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