Nothing like a major global event to stimulate the “crap editorial” industry in China, and with the 2010 Expo around the corner (What? Oh, really? You hadn’t heard? Can’t imagine that!) the Shanghai Daily is cranking them out with astonishing energy.
Yesterday’s installment in “How the dung beetle turns crap and calls it writing” was called “Superpower Responsibilities” and after a luke-warm rehash of bad history, we come to this little turd nugget:
After the Roman Empire collapsed because of the massive migration of Germanic people, the spiritual legacies of its civilization were inherited by the succeeding European world. In comparison, even after the Chinese empire was conquered by other ethnic regimes, like the Yuan (1271-1368) and the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, those ethnic groups were eventually assimilated into the Chinese civilization and subsequently became the driving forces that carried forward that civilization.
The Mongols were actually one of the worst examples of “assimilation,” maintaining very specific ethnic distinctions, most notably a caste system with Mongols on the top, Central Asians second, Northern Chinese third, and Southern Chinese at the very bottom. When Zhu Yuanzhang and the boys got around to toppling their rule in the 1360s, rather than simply fade
A big thanks to author Michael Meyer
Michael Meyer, author of one of my favorite books about Beijing, was kind enough to spend some time on Sunday night talking with the students in my program. You could tell he’s given this talk a few times, and it was funny, polished, and informative. The students loved it. They’re all undergraduates from different colleges and universities in the United States, and for many of them this is their first time abroad. Not only did Michael give them some great background information on the transformations of Beijing over the past few years, but I think it was his enthusiasm to get out there and explore, to try and find new situations to practice Chinese, and to make friends in unexpected places that was just as important a lesson for the students.
It also helps that Michael is a helluva nice guy.