The Historical Record for April 26: The 21 Demands

On this date in 1915, the Japanese government submitted a list of “21 Demands” to the government of Yuan Shikai.

As is well known, Yuan Shikai had esteem issues and he needed money, basically the two reasons anybody becomes a stripper, but unlike Candi at Crazy Girls Yuan had a whole country to sell out not just his charming physique and delightful company.

You can see a list of the demands here, as well as an ultimatum from the Japanese government giving Yuan and his cronies until 6:00 p.m. on May 9th to respond and accept the terms or face the consequences.

For the purposes of visualizing this historical moment, it might be helpful to picture Yuan Shikai as Ned Beattie and the Japanese government as a group of moonshine-soaked demonic hillbillies.

And…scene.

April 26th, 2010

Confessions of a Fen(way)qing

I want to come clean: I am a Red Sox fenqing.  Mao may have had his Red Guards but I’m a card-carrying armband-wearing brainless slogan-chanting member of the 红袜兵.*  Hey, we’ve got our catchy songs and marching anthem too.

You have a problem with that? Didn’t think so, because there’s a bleacher full of guys behind me who will find your ass, pull you out of your seat and get all Dropkick Murphys on you…

You can hold me down, prop open my eyelids with rusty nails and make me watch video of David Ortiz plunging needles into his body like he’s filming the last 15 seconds of  Kurt Cobain: The Movie and I still won’t believe that Papi was juiced on steroids even though he went from hitting 20 home runs a year with Twins to bashing 50 home runs only after joining the Red Sox and making the acquaintance of one Manuel Ramirez.

The cover of Sports Illustrated with Nomar Garciaparra that caused every red blooded New England male to question their sexuality for .000001 seconds? Yeah, nothing going on there.  Oh sure…right AFTER steroids became a big deal Nomar started breaking  down like a decade-old Xiali, but

April 24th, 2010

Sinica Podcast: The Eulogy and the Aftershocks

Kaiser Kuo has started Sinica, a much-needed podcast series bringing together people from academia, media, business, and other corners of the Sinosphere to discuss the issues of the day.   This week’s episode featured Gady Epstein from Forbes Magazine, Tania Branigan of The Guardian, and I me talking a bit about Hu Yaobang, earthquakes, and, apparently, Song Zuying.

People new to the blog and who are interested in reading more on these topics might want to check out the following posts from the past:

“The Historical Record for April 15, 2009: The Death of Hu Yaobang” (April 15, 2009)

“List of possible embarrassing revelations in Ζhao Ζiyang Memoirs due out this summer (May 15, 2009)

And for those interested in earthquakes…

“The Historical Record for March 1: Zhang Heng’s Seismometer”

Enjoy and thanks to Kaiser for inviting me on the show.

April 23rd, 2010

Image of the Week: View from the Summer Palace in Beijing

April 17th, 2010

Deja vu all over again...

Of course the big story this week in China is the earthquake that hit rural Yushu County in Qinghai province yesterday morning.  The remoteness of the region means that information is only now starting to trickle out as rescue workers struggle to get in and begin the process of reaching those trapped in the rubble.  So far over 500 people have been confirmed killed with several thousands of others injured.   Sadly, with some reports estimating that 80-90% of structures in some areas having collapsed or been seriously damaged by the quake in some areas, these numbers are likely to climb steadily in the days and weeks  to follow.

China of course has lived through this before, most recently in 2008 in Sichuan.

So far, YJ hasn’t gotten the call to head out west.  She was on the ground in Sichuan 24 hours after the quake and spent a week sleeping outside or in a camping tent while her paper covered the story in 2008.  Fingers crossed she doesn’t have to go this time.

More importantly, I’m sure the world’s thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their rescuers on this day.  Let us hope for  the best.

April 15th, 2010
 
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