Defector / Traitor (2/4)

August 5, 2010

One of the few defector/traitors I discovered was Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese diplomat, who defected to Australia in 2005. He was a university student in Beijing during the so-called “pro-democracy” movement that led to the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. (also discover What is the Truth about Tiananmen Square?)

Some of the student leaders were Chen’s friends. However, the Tiananmen Square incident did not start as a “pro-democracy” movement as many in the West believe.  It started as a protest by Chinese workers over political corruption in the government.  If you want to learn more about the Tiananmen Square incident, I recommend seeing all nine parts of China’s Capitalist Revolution.


The Communists say that  Shen Yun is a political tool of Falun Gong

Another Chinese defector was Hu Na, a former professional tennis player, who defected to the United States in 1982, which kicked off a Cold War era diplomatic incident between the US and China.

In July 1982, while touring California with a Chinese government-sponsored tennis team, Hu Na sought refuge in the home of friends. In April 1983, she requested political asylum, claiming that she feared the Chinese government would compel her to join the Communist Party of China against her will under threat of persecution.

That is a strange excuse to defect, since the rulers of China, the members of the Communist Party, are the elite. Of course, in 1982 at the beginning of Den Xiaoping‘s “Getting Rich is Glorious” capitalist movement, the benefits hadn’t arrived yet. Maybe Hu Na didn’t want to wait like the 1.3 billion left behind who had no choice.

Return to Defector/Traitor – Part 1, go to Part 3 or discover more about The Falun Gong Machine

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, capitalism, China, Chinese Culture, Communism, cultural differences | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Defector / Traitor (1/4)

August 4, 2010

Merriam-Webster’s Online dictionary says that to defect means to forsake one cause, party, or nation for another often because of a change in ideology.

Other reasons for defecting not mentioned in the dictionary might have more to do with greed and selfishness, and one country’s defector/hero is another country’s traitor.

Benedict Arnold is considered a traitor to most Americans. He defected to the British during the fight for independence. What most don’t consider is that Arnold left the rebels to join the British and prior to the success of the rebellion, the King of England was the ruler of the colonies. In England, Arnold was rewarded for his act and treated as a hero. In the colonies, he was a traitor.

If George Washington and the Founding Fathers had lost the American revolution, who would be the traitors?

Cultural differences also play a role in what happens when an individual defects. That’s why I decided to learn more about Chinese defectors to the West.

Discovering a list of Chinese defectors was not easy. I did a Google search and found two, short lists on Wikipedia. However, there have been more defectors than those I found on Wiki. In fact, I had a recent conversation about one defector who doesn’t appear on any of the lists I researched for this post.

Learn about Mao Zedong, the Poet or go to Defector/Traitor -Part 2

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, capitalism, China, Chinese Culture, Communism, cultural differences | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Han Dynasty (3/3)

August 4, 2010

In one king’s tomb, there is a dining room and living room before reaching the inner-most chambers where the king’s casket was discovered. The casket is decorated on the outside with more than one-thousand jade pieces from Xianjiang, which is in the far northwest of China and was part of the Han Empire.

The king’s body was still intact and was dressed in a gold-threaded jade suit. Small pieces of jade were stitched together with solid gold threads/wires.  These suits were made for the highest-ranking Han nobles. The kings even took music with them into the afterlife along with terra-cotta dancers.

A tour of Xuzhou shows that the citizens are proud of their heritage.  It was during the Han Dynasty that the Silk Road and trade with the West was started.

Return to Part 2 of the Han Dynasty

_______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese food, Chinese history, history | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Han Dynasty (2/3)

August 4, 2010

In Xuzhou, there is an underground tomb for a Han king and his wife.  An entire mountain was hollowed out to build this tomb, and it is open to tourists.   It is still unknown how the Han Dynasty constructed the tomb.  Experts say that it would take 300 workers ten years to build it but there wasn’t room for that many workers.

The tomb has two entrances.  One entrance faces Xian, the ancient capital of the Qin Dynasty one thousand miles from Xuzhou. How the architects managed that, no one knows.

In 1984, hundreds of Han Dynasty terra-cotta warriors were discovered at the foot of the Lion Mountains. These figurines were there to guard their lord in the afterlife.  These terra cotta troops are smaller than the ones build for the first emperor near Xian, but they are just as detailed.

In the museum for one Han king is a hand-carved jade cup with a cap that screws on to seal the liquid inside.  Even today, no one can carve a jade cup with such detail and craftsmanship

Return to Part 1 of the Han Dynasty

_______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, history | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Han Dynasty (1/3)

August 3, 2010

In this three-part series you will take a tour of Xuzhou, which was the capital of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 219 AD) and is situated between modern day Shanghai and Beijing. In the third century BC, The Roman Empire was at its peak. At the same time, China’s Han Dynasty was more powerful than Rome.

Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu province is one of China’s best showcases of the art and historical relics of the Han Dynasty. At its height, the Han Dynasty stretched from the Pacific Ocean to Central Asia and as far south as Vietnam. Its culture had a great influence on Central and Southeast Asia. 

In the center of Xuzhou on top of a mountain stands the famous horse-training terrace where the first Han emperor trained his troops. At age 23, Emperor Gaozu (202 – 195 BC), then known by his common name Liu Bang, fought the Qin and defeated China’s first dynasty.

To honor the first emperor of the Han dynasty, China rebuilt his palace in Xuzhou with many ancient Han stone sculptures displayed.

See The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, history | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »