i wonder how situation is now tbh (its till 2018 as i see it)

The Terracotta Army refers to the thousands of life-size clay models of soldiers, horses, and chariots which were deposited around the grand mausoleum of Shi Huangdi, first emperor of China and founder of the Qin dynasty, located near Lishan in Shaanxi Province, central China. The purpose of the army was likely to act as guardian figures for the tomb or to serve their ruler in the next life. The site was discovered in 1974 CE, and the realistic army figures provide a unique insight into ancient Chinese warfare from weapons to armour or chariot mechanics to command structures. Shi Huangdi was desperate for immortality, and in the end, his terracotta army of over 7000 warriors, 600 horses, and 100 chariots has given him just that, at least in name and deed. The site of the mausoleum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site even if the inner tomb itself has yet to be excavated.

China's First Emperor

Shi Huangdi (also known as Qin Shi Huang ) was the king of the Qin state, who unified China from 221 BCE and then founded the Qin dynasty. He ruled as China's first emperor until his death in 210 BCE. His reign was short but packed full of incidents, most of them infamous enough to earn Shi Huangdi a lasting reputation as a megalomaniac despot. The period saw the building of the Great Wall of China, the infamous Burning of the Books, where thousands of literary and philosophical works were destroyed, and the construction of a sumptuous royal palace. The emperor seems to have been especially keen on acquiring immortality, a quest no doubt given further motivation by his survival of three assassination attempts. Scientists were given the task of discovering life-prolonging elixirs, and young emissaries were sent across the Eastern Sea in search of the fabled Penglai, land of the immortals

Failing in these endeavours to unnaturally prolong his life Shi Huangdi fell back on the age-old standby of autocratic rulers and had a huge mausoleum built instead. In fact, the whole massive project was begun in the early years of his reign as it required a prodigious amount of work to get it ready. An administrative district was established at the site with 30,000 families forcibly relocated there and given the task of building the biggest tomb ever seen in China's history or anyone else's. Eventually, no doubt as Huangdi realised time was running short, hundreds of thousands of forced labourers were sent to push the project to completion. One way or another, Shi Huangdi was going to be remembered long after his reign. The Terracotta Army seems to have achieved that goal.

Huangdi's Mausoleum

The mausoleum of Shi Huangdi, actually an entire multi-burial complex which covers an incredible 35 to 60 square kilometres, was discovered in 1974 CE buried at the foot of the artificial Mt. Li near Lishan (modern Lintong), 50 km east of the Qin capital Xianyang in Shaanxi Province, central China. The tomb itself remains unexcavated but its spectacular army of terracotta defenders has, in part, been revealed and already earned the site the title of “Greatest Tomb in the World”. The tumulus of the buried tomb takes the form of a three-stepped pyramid, measures an impressive 1,640 metres in circumference, 350 metres along each side, and rising to a height of 60 metres. The whole is surrounded by a double wall.

Legend has it that the tomb contains vast riches but includes fiendish traps to ensure Huangdi rests forever in peace.

The floor map with its geographical models and painted universe ceiling were symbolic of the emperor's status as Son of Heaven and God's ruler on earth. Qian also notes that members of Huangdi's harem were entombed with their dead emperor and many craftsmen and labourers, too, in order to keep the fabulous wealth of Huangdi's grave goods a secret for all time.

The Terracotta Warriors

To protect his tomb or perhaps even to ensure he had a handy bodyguard in the next life, Shi Huangdi went a whole lot better than his predecessors. Rulers in ancient China commonly had two or three statues to stand as guardians outside their tombs but Huangdi went for a whole army of them. The Terracotta Army is actually one of only four in all likelihood as that portion so far excavated - 1.5 km distant from the mausoleum - is on the eastern side and is probably duplicated on the other three sides of the tumulus. Even this one-quarter section has not been fully excavated with only three of its four pits having been fully explored by archaeologists.

The main pit of the four which contain the discovered army measures 230 x 62 metres and is 4 to 6 metres deep. It had around 6,000 slightly larger than life-size depictions of infantrymen (1.8-1.9 metres tall), chariots and horses. The pit, originally with wooden columns supporting a wood beam ceiling, is partitioned by 10 brick-lined corridors. The floor was made from compacted earth which was then paved with over 250,000 ceramic tiles. The second pit, which is slightly smaller and R-shaped, had some 1,400 figures in it. In keeping with an obvious attempt to recreate exactly a real army, pit 3, measuring 21 x 17 metres, contains commanders and resembles a command post in the field.

Besides infantry, the army includes 600 horses and almost 100 chariots which carry officers and riders and have either a two, three, or four-horse team. The soldiers were set in regular rows and are depicted in different postures - most are standing while some are crouching. Their mix and particular arrangement of officers (slightly taller than everyone else with their general being tallest of all), cavalry, crossbowmen, skirmishers, archers, charioteers, and grooms give the illusion of a complete battlefield army ready for action. There are light infantry units with archers positioned at the flanks and front, the heavy infantry behind them, while chariots bring up the rear with their officers, matching the troop deployments mentioned in ancient military treatises.

The scale of the enterprise must have required a huge quantity of firewood to fuel the pottery kilns that made the figures, not to mention the countless tons of clay from local deposits needed to make figures weighing up to 200 kilos each. Besides the breathtaking finished result, the undertaking was a triumph of organisation and planning.

Much effort was made to render each figure unique despite them all being made from a limited repertoire of assembled body parts made from moulds. These parts are 7.5 cm thick and consist of a head, torso, leg, another leg acting as a plinth, two arms and two hands. Faces and hair, in particular, were modified to give the illusion of a real army composed of unique individuals, even if in reality there are only eight types of torso and head. Hands, too, were modified with straight or bent fingers and changes in the angle of the thumb and wrist. The figures were not glazed but were lacquered to protect them and painted using bright colours - traces of red pigment remain on some figures. It is astonishing to reflect that all of this almost infinite variety and realism was never intended to be seen by anyone.

Each figure would have held a weapon of some sort, probably real ones such as swords, halberds, spears, bows and crossbows, but most of these have long since been stolen, valued as they would have been for their bronze. Those swords still in place had kept their sharp edges, and each was inscribed with their manufacturer and supervisor. The warriors have seven variations of Qin armour which is (in imitation) typically in the form of riveted or joined panels of leather or metal, a design and materials confirmed by rare archaeological finds elsewhere and in text descriptions and other art forms such as tomb-paintings elsewhere.

mega text taken from worldhistory.org

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In a recent video on Twitter, he compared the China of today to 2019 and was completely shocked at the speed to progress and change. Says it’s like stepping into the future.

1 - Automation: From trains to taxis to purchases - everything is done seamlessly with super Apple Pay.

2 - EV: 30%-40% of the cars are fully electric. You can get Teslas but you have Chinese brands that offer sedans for $10k.

3 - The air is much cleaner. Partly due to EVs.

4 - People are more respectful of societal norms. There is better service everywhere you go.

5 - Less foreigners, even in touristy areas. Most white people are actually Russian.

6 - In factories, robots do the work in contrast to the perception people have in the US of China just throwing cheap labor at every problem. Factories set up their own e-commerce platforms and sell directly on China’s TikTok.

7 - It feels like over the past 5 years, everything by in China just got better, while everything in the US just got worse.

I want to leave this accursed place

edit: thank you for your advice everyone, but to be honest i was asking literally, like: what would i need to go, which websites, or resources, to apply to jobs that are located in the people's republic of china

1. "intensify the battle against pollution"

2. "Second, we must accelerate the transition to a green and low-carbon development model"

3. "we must enhance the diversity, stability, and sustainability of our ecosystems"

4. "we must actively and prudently work toward the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality"

5. "we must provide the security guarantees for the Beautiful China Initiative"

^ The five main points of the article.

Read it for yourself.

This is some amazing art. I mean, the book sounds great so I’ll buy it anyway, but even if it wasn’t, this is gorgeous. I might even have to make a poster out of it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3933013

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3933012

Notes: Besides the gaokao prep starting from middle school, and taking at least 12-14 hours a hour to prep for it each day and it being mentally strenuous and seemingly decisive to your career,

the narrator talks about how the Gaokao varies per province and apparently

depending on how high your city/province's GDP is, it may be easier compared to other provinces

Other than that, though, he talks more about societal issues rather than political ones, so I think he's at most, a naive Chinese lib, even considering his reddit account, which has little activity...

Also, I've heard there are other comparable hard exams which are not necessarily hard as the Gaokao, in the comments, such as Brazil and India, thoughts on that as well

If you lemmy libs want to come on here, I'll politely tell you which instance you're in and tell you to go back your mother's skirts....

Wu Xia, a working poet, left her hometown at 14 to work on an assembly line in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen. As documented in the award-winning film “The Verse of Us” (2014), she transformed her feelings during those times into poetic expressions. However, her post-documentary life hasn’t unfolded quite the way she had hoped. Leaving the factory, she encountered persistent setbacks in finding writing-related jobs. Determined to stay in Shenzhen, Wu Xia and her parents now rent a house in a nearby workers’ community, trying their best to navigate the escalating costs of city living so as to make ends meet.

This summary doesn't quite do justice to her story . The video (just ten mins) made me tear up. She's a really good writer - her brilliance shines through, man. I wish she could be free to write. Seeing the poverty she has to live in is really depressing.

Zhou Enlai, born on this day in 1898, was a communist revolutionary, statesman, and military officer who served as the 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1976. "All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means."

Zhou was educated in a missionary college in Tianjin before studying at a Japanese university. In Tianjin, he met his future wife, Deng Yingchao while participating in a radical political group known as the "Awakening Society". In 1920, Zhou moved to France, where he helped form the overseas branch of the Communist Party of China. He also lived in Britain and Germany before returning to China in 1924.

While working in the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, Zhou was also made the secretary of the Communist Party of Guangdong-Guangxi, and served as the CPC representative with the rank of major-general.

After the Chinese Civil War broke out in 1927, Zhou served in the communist forces, helping establish and oversee a network of underground cells of communist resistance. Zhou played a leading role in the Long March of 1934-35, an arduous military retreat of communist forces over 8,000 miles.

Following the Zunyi Conference in 1935, Mao Zedong became Zhou's assistant. After the conclusion of the Long March, Mao officially took over Zhou Enlai's leading position in the CPC, while Zhou took a secondary position as vice-chairman. Both would hold their leadership positions until their deaths in 1976.

Zhou was a prominent participant in the 1955 Asian–African Conference, held in Indonesia. The conference produced a declaration in strongly in favor of peace, the abolition of nuclear arms, general arms reduction, and the principle of universal representation at the United Nations. Zhou was critical of American imperial aggression and stated "the population of Asia will never forget that the first atom bomb was exploded on Asian soil."

Zhou passed away from bladder cancer on January 8th, 1976, just nine months before Mao Zedong's death in September that year.

"Today the first unification of the Chinese people has emerged. The people themselves have become the masters of Chinese soil, and the rule of the reactionaries in China has been irrevocably overthrown."

Zhou Enlai, from "Chinese People Will not Tolerate Aggression" (October 1950)

• Zhou Enlai Archive
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Also going to Chongqing next week and Guilin in two weeks.

Definitely going to try as many chili oil noodle dishes as possible.

Link - https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1765026438150078810

China says it'll grow its economy by 5% this year. That is, it'll add 6.3 trillion RMB to its 2023 GDP of 126 trillion RMB. This is worth USD 880 billion.India is forecasted to grow its economy by 6.5% in 2024 but that's from a $3.7 trillion base, meaning it'll grow its economy by $240 billion this year.

This means China'll grow its economy by an amount 3.7 times larger than India's growth! Which means that, contrary to what many might think, despite a faster growth rate, India isn't catching up with China at all: it's China that's widening the distance ahead of India! At current growth rates it takes India 3.7 years to grow its economy by how much China's economy grows in just 1 year...

China however is catching up with the US in nominal terms (it's already overtaken the US long ago in PPP terms): the US is forecasted to grow its economy by 2.1% this year from a $27.36 trillion base, which means $575 billion in absolute terms, which is much less than China's $880 billion... Put another way, at current growth rates it takes China a bit more than 7 months to grow its economy by the amount the US grows in 1 year.

i came to look for resources re: China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. resources on Chinese Communist history and thought in general would also be appreciated. be it books or website or whatever. thanks

Zhou Shen (Chinese: 周深; pinyin: Zhōu Shēn; born 29 September 1992), also known as Charlie Zhou, is a Chinese singer known for his ethereal voice and wide vocal range.

Great to see cctv recognize him. good video to send to people saying China has banned femboys.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1735517

You can read this masterpiece here.

People swear by this work by Liu Shaoqi and I have yet to read it myself, but plan to start soon.

From https://techtracker.aspi.org.au

Recently, the US asked China to "help" maintain the flow of Red Sea shipping. The US is currently in a state of conflict with Houthi rebels in Yemen. The cause of the conflict is a failure of the US to push for a ceasefire and peace negotiations in Israel, which has caused regional tensions and instability. The US and UK, in turn, have responded with a bombing campaign in Yemen. However, according to US officials, it is China who should apparently be making the peace.

We've heard this all before. The US has also repeatedly stated that it is China's responsibility to ensure peace in the Ukraine conflict too. However, the reality is that in both scenarios, not only does US foreign policy run completely contrary to the interests of peace, but moreover, the White House has no intention in either instance of attempting a balanced peace scenario brokered on China's terms.

Instead, what is being asked is that Beijing capitulates to enforcing American-centric goals and interests in respect to each conflict. And of course, because US officials know there is no chance of that happening, the goal of these public overtures is merely a propaganda effort to smear China as being responsible or culpable for the given wars that US is in fact escalating, and thus to frame China as a threat to the international order.

American foreign policy is not driven by an attempt to ensue balance, peace or stability, but on a prerequisite goal that it must always maintain unilateralist hegemony at all costs. To this end, contemporary US foreign policymaking, unlike the Cold War, does not yield a notion of compromise with states that it deems to be adversaries. Rather, its objectives focus on preventing the breakdown of unipolarity and enabling strategic competitors to emerge which challenge the post-1991 status quo. In other words, the US pursues maximalist goals and does not compromise on "strategic space" in its diplomacy and continually aims to expand its leverage.

That is why, for example, the US was not prepared to compromise on the subject of NATO in order to alleviate tensions with Russia or bring a swift end to the Ukraine conflict. Instead, it sets itself on a policy that aimed to use the conflict as a means to impose a zero-sum strategic defeat on Moscow so that it could eliminate them as a competitor and destroy economic integration between Russia and Europe. The US only finds a peace outcome acceptable if it supports all its strategic goals.

Given this, when China proposed a peace plan for the Ukraine conflict last year, the US readily dismissed it. Yet at the same time, the US had repeatedly asked China to put "pressure" on Russia, to end the conflict. What does this mean? It does not mean brokering a peace or a mutually acceptable resolution, but rather subduing Moscow to follow American foreign policy preferences, which is of course a total non-starter. China isn't being asked to make peace or find a mutually acceptable resolution, but to act on the behalf of the US.

Therefore, as China will not support unilateralist American foreign policy goals in seeking peace, the US subsequently uses this to push a narrative that China is a "threat" to the peace. This is the propaganda game played by US officials. It is an act of "gaslighting" to demand that China support "peace," when in fact it means supporting "American strategic goals." When China does not comply, it is accused of deliberately prolonging and enabling the conflict.

The mainstream media in turn responds by assuming that China "supports" the side against the US in the given conflict. In the process, the narrative then whitewashes the actual culpability America has in having created those wars in the first place through its pursuit of unilateralist and zero-sum policies. One example of this is refusing to compromise on the expansion of NATO, or alternatively, giving Israel unconditional and uncritical backing in the war on Gaza and even resorting to more military solutions when the instability escalates. Yet China, a bystander, who does not have a direct stake in any of these conflicts, and would prefer peace and stability as its primary goals, is somehow framed as the threat in a conspiracy against the West. This is the game the US plays, and everyone should wake up to it.

Anything Taiwanese exists in a quantum state of Chinese for anglos. If it's bad it's Chinese, if it's good then it's not Chinese lmao.