Via Danwei:
The Beijing News October 7, 2008
Yan Chongnian (阎崇年), a scholar specializing in Qing history and Manchu culture, was attacked on October 5 when he was in Wuxi to promote his new book, The Kangxi Emperor. The prolific author was smacked twice in the face, allegedly because the attacker disagreed with his historical views.
While it was unclear from the report which views got Professor Yan slapped by another dude (what kind of a guy slaps someone, anyway?), Danwei did some digging and came up with these little nuggets of Qing wisdom by searching the internet for “Yan Chongnian” and “traitor”:
Wu Sangui, the general who has usually taken the blame for the collapse of Ming Dynasty (the last Han Chinese Dynasty) by virtue of his surrender to the Manchu invaders, should be reevaluated for avoiding mass bloodshed that may have resulted had he not surrendered; Censorship and crackdown on dissenting views by the Qing ensured social stability despite certain limitation; The Manchu invasion promoted the integration of different ethnic groups, and the human loss it caused was inevitable.
The Qing can be a touchy subject. I’ve occasionally riled people by (tongue ever so slightly in cheek) correcting their assumption that