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Lessons from China's history

Lessons from China's history
Wee Kek Koon draws parallels between current events and trends and episodes and attitudes in China’s past.
Chinese actress Sun Li plays Xiang Yu during a stage production of Farewell My Concubine in New York in 2008. Xiang Yu is known for his demolition of the Qin dynasty capital in 206BC, during which his forces destroyed libraries and the thousands of books within them. Photo: Getty Images
Poland

Reflections | When centuries of Chinese knowledge were destroyed by warlord who burned a city

Xiang Yu’s razing of the Qin capital Xianyang, which left libraries full of vital texts in ruin, was echoed centuries later in Warsaw.

Chinese culture

Reflections | A Polish priest’s perilous mission to save a doomed Chinese dynasty

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Chinese history

Reflections | Amid ‘Lake America’ stink, the Chinese emperor whose renaming campaign backfired

Chinese history

Reflections | From prison and poverty to Chinese emperor: rags-to-riches tale of Liu Bingyi

Spared execution as a baby, imperial family member Liu Bingyi grew up a palace outcast, but this served him well after taking power in 74BC.

Liu Bingyi, who later became Emperor Xuan of the Western Han dynasty, rose to power after being spared execution as an infant. Photo: Baidu
Chinese history

Reflections | How Chinese emperors’ birthdays became national holidays celebrated by all

In 729, Emperor Xuanzong marked his birthday with official ceremonies and festivities across China in a tradition that endured for centuries.

Chinese history

Reflections | Like Trump, China’s first emperor survived various assassination attempts

Would-be assassins came close to ending Ying Zheng’s life on at least four occasions, including one whose weapon was a musical instrument.

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Chinese culture

Reflections | How Chinese society’s resilient moral framework has lasted nearly 3,000 years

The Zhou-dynasty ideals of family responsibility, propriety and self-cultivation remain woven into the very fabric of China today.

The family has long lay at the centre of Chinese society’s moral universe, with respect for parents, harmony between siblings and the fulfilment of family obligations elevated from private virtues to the very foundations of society. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese history

Reflections | Even Confucius was buff? How ancient China prized strength and fitness

The gentle philosopher was said to possess extraordinary strength, while Chinese military officers long had to pass tough physical tests.

Chinese history

Reflections | As Jolie-Pitt kids change their surname, why ancient Chinese did the same

From an emperor who demanded no one share his surname to personal protection and punishment, the reasons for name changes in China were many.

Chinese culture

Reflections | When Chinese emperors and prime ministers fell out, the results could be deadly

Imperial China relied on officials to run government affairs under the emperor, but as history shows, this power dynamic was a fragile one.

Emperor Shenzong, who ruled during China’s Song dynasty, came to feel threatened by his prime minister, Wang Anshi, who subsequently fell from power. The power balance between those at the top of a country’s hierarchy and those who run its government causes problems in parts of the world now as it did then. Photo: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Chinese history

Reflections | Amid US birthright ruling, lessons from how foreigners once ‘became Chinese’

Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship comes amid rising xenophobia. A look at how premodern China offered varied paths to assimilation.

United States Representative and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Grace Meng stands jubilant at a podium outside the US House of Representatives in Washington on June 30, 2026, following the Supreme Court’s decision to rule against President Donald Trump’s proposed scrapping of birthright citizenship. Photo: AP
Chinese history

Reflections | A history of Chinese fans and how they kept people cool in summer

Fans have long been used in China for cooling and cooking and as artistic status symbols. We look at the tool’s reinvention over 3,000 years.

Chinese history

Reflections | As Europe bakes, how people in China kept cool before air conditioning

As temperatures soar, our columnist takes his cue from premodern Chinese, who used clothing, food and even a Chinese mantra to beat the heat.

Chinese history

Reflections | How the Chinese language has long been shaped by foreign influences

From Buddhism’s arrival in China to European exchange in the 1800s, external forces have left a mark on Chinese vocabulary and grammar.

The Hong Kong Academy of School Managers holds an event on traditional Chinese costume and calligraphy at Maryknoll Secondary School in Sau Mau Ping on July 9, 2023. Some of the most significant changes in the Chinese language shaped by foreign influences have occurred not in vocabulary but in the grammar and sentence structures that shape how Chinese is written and spoken. Photo: Sam Tsang
Chinese history

Reflections | From Hong Kong to Singapore, how China’s Teochew have left an outsized mark

Hit Teochew family drama Dear You spotlights a Chinese community with a long, influential history and notable figures like Li Ka-shing.

Li Ka-shing meets the media at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai in January 2019. The multibillionaire tycoon is arguably the most well-known Teochew person in Hong Kong. Photo: Felix Wong
Chinese history

Reflections | The history of weiqi, or go, Chinese board game dating back over 2,000 years

More popularly known as go – its Japanese name – weiqi has for centuries been embraced as a mark of cultivation and refinement.

Diplomacy

Opinion | Norman Bethune’s story still holds lessons for China-Canada relations

The Canadian doctor, hailed a hero in China, was driven by personal conviction; there are others today, tilling the soil of Sino-Canadian friendship.

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Chinese history

Reflections | Hong Kong principal’s Singapore disgrace highlights centuries-old standards

School heads in premodern China had to lead by example above all. More recently, principal Lee Cheuk-hing’s failure to do so cost him his job.

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A still from a viral video shows Hong Kong principal Lee Cheuk-hing exchanging heated words with security guards outside a venue during a school trip to Singapore. Lee tendered his resignation to the San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong, after the incident sparked online outrage, but it was rejected; the school has instead opted to fire him.
Chinese history

Reflections | After the Shanxi disaster, how China’s coal mining industry evolved over history

From bamboo ventilation systems to steam power and beyond, China now leads the world in producing and consuming coal, but dangers remain.

Chinese history

Reflections | The earliest Chinese irons date back over 2,000 years. Here’s how they evolved

Long before electric irons, the Chinese had already developed sophisticated methods of pressing and smoothing garments.

Chinese history

Reflections | How the Chinese did laundry before washing machines: ash ‘soap’, stone beatings

Before chemical detergents and modern equipment, Chinese people kept their clothes clean with little more than river water, wood and ash.

An elderly woman washes clothes the old-fashioned way in a river in Fenghuang Ancient Town in China’s Hunan province. Before the advent of washing machines and chemical detergents, laundry was a labour-intensive affair shaped by local environments and available materials, with clothes typically washed in rivers or streams. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese history

Reflections | Succession struggles in China’s past echoed in Malaysia’s 2026 royal crisis

Disputes over Negeri Sembilan’s next royal ruler recall how succession in China often fused dynastic legitimacy with aristocratic elections.

Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir, the royal ruler of Negeri Sembilan, speaks during the opening of the Negeri Sembilan state assembly in Seremban, Malaysia, on April 23, 2026. Photo: YouTube
Chinese history

Reflections | Ancient Chinese sleep advice, from bedtimes and body positions to state of mind

For premodern Chinese people, sleep was much more than daily rest – it was a cultivated discipline and a medical necessity.

Chinese history

Reflections | The history of China’s hospitality industry and how its inns evolved over time

Private inns served travelling merchants in ancient China and grew in number and sophistication as the economy and infrastructure expanded.

Chinese culture

Reflections | What an old Chinese snack can teach people about the ‘proper’ way to eat dishes

The evolution of ‘biluo’ in Tang-dynasty China highlights how there is no unchanging way in which a dish ought to be prepared and enjoyed.

Cherry Biluo. Photo: Sohu
Chinese culture

Reflections | Cremation was frowned upon in ancient China, so why was it so widespread?

Though seen as barbaric, cremation was a common, practical choice for families in China’s Song dynasty that reflected their economic reality.

Despite burial being the preferred way of final disposition in Chinese tradition, cremation was widespread during China’s Song dynasty, as many families couldn’t afford to bury their dead. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese history

Reflections | History of Chinese flatbreads reflects how food has echoes of faraway places

How ‘hubing’ came to China is reflected in Hong Kong’s Jenny Bakery cookies smelling like Malaysia’s Rotiboy coffee buns, Wee Kek Koon says.

Chinese culture

As I see it | Why China is always misunderstood and misrepresented

By insisting on the superiority of its own standards of judgment and experience, the West distorts the realities of other societies.

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