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Thousands of workers and students pictured in Tiananmen Square. Many of the people above would be dead soon after, victims of the PRC's effort to wipe out dissent. (People's World) On this day in 1989, thousands of Chinese student activists and workers gathered in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in a massive display of civil disobedience. Site…
PRC player Zhuang Zedong, at right, in 1961. On his bus ride with Glenn Cowan, Zedong hesitated before speaking to the American as he remembered a lifetime of anti-Western propaganda. His curiosity got the better of him, however, and "the rest is history". (Timetoast) On this day in 1971, the American Ping-Pong team began a…
An illustration of the development of the Reef. Prior to 2012, much of the reef was underwater; now, it is an artificial island . (South China Sea - WordPress.com) On this day in 1988, a gunfight broke out on a small island in the South China Sea. In late 1987, Chinese troops of the People's…
Tibetan resistance members - including monks - handing over weapons to PLA authorities in the wake of the failed 1959 uprising. (The Telegraph) On this day in 1959, protests began in the Tibetan Autonomous Region in defiance of Chinese military occupiers. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was slated to attend a theatrical performance at…
A Han-era bathing scene in mural form. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 202 BCE, former police officer Liu Bang was crowned emperor of China. Henceforth he was known as Emperor Gaozu, and his accession kicked off the Han Dynasty, which remained in place for over 400 years. The new emperor had served within the…
A crowd gathers in Manchuria, near North Korea, in 1978. They are fascinated to see Michael Arth, a white American photographer, in their village. During the Cultural Revolution, anything Western - from books to people - was hard to come by in the PRC. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1978, the People's Republic of…
"Advance Courageously Under the Guidance of the Red Flag of Mao Zedong!": a poster encouraging Chinese citizens to support Mao and, presumably, to forget the horrors of the Great Leap Forward. (source: Flickr) In January of 1958, the People's Republic of China (PRC) began the Great Leap Forward, a series of economic, political and social…
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