More on the DPRK tests

Robert Kaplan reviews the possible scenarios of a DPRK collapse (violent or not) in this month’s issue of The Atlantic Online. (“When North Korea Falls” via Arts and Letters Daily) Kaplan argues that in the event of a DPRK implosion, the real winner, out of all the possible players, might just be Beijing.

“Although Japan’s proximity to the peninsula gives it the most to fear from reunification, Korean hatred of the Japanese makes participation of Japanese troops in an intervention force unlikely. Between 1910 and 1945, Japan brutally occupied not only Korea but parts of China too, and it defeated Russia on land and at sea in the early twentieth century. Tokyo may have more reason than any other government for wanting to put boots on the ground in a collapsed North Korea, but it won’t be able to, because both China and South Korea would fight tooth and nail to prevent it from doing so.

Whereas Japan’s strategic position would be dramatically weakened by a collapsed North Korean state, China would eventually benefit. A post-KFR Korean peninsula could be more or less under Seoul’s control—and China is now South Korea’s biggest trading partner. Driving along the coast,

On-line dictionaries and other ways to waste time in the Chinese language

(I jest. It’s amazing how much more productive we historians should–emphasize: should–be with all of the amazing tools now at our disposal.)Guoyu Cidian 国语词典 is a great on-line dictionary with multiple definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and decent examples. Not quite as good as the CD-ROM version of the Hanyu Dacidian 汉语大词典, but a nice site for quick checks of those hard to place phrases.The Dictionary of Chinese Idioms is a useful searchable database of chengyu and allows you to search for phrases containing a single character. The database is also searchable by English words if you’re writing that Valentine’s Card, Dear John letter, or nasty retort to your boss and you want to find just the right four-character phrase to drive the point home.

Converting dates between the Western and Chinese calendars used to give historians ulcers. Now, thanks to Academica Sinicia, it’s a website. Simply input your Chinese date (reign title/year/month/date — either numerically or according to the stem/branch system) and click and it will give you the corresponding date in the Western calendar. Below that is a converter that does the reverse, just in case you cared that on the 19th day of the 5th month of the 41st

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