The Treaty of Nerchinsk established a border between Manchu China and Romanov Russia. It was negotiated in a remote region between two sides that distrusted each other and with deeply different conceptions of both diplomacy and politics — and somehow withstood the test of time.
A French sneak attack in 1884 led to a fundamental misunderstanding of Qing technological prowess. It’s time to reexamine the popular — but simplistic, if not outright wrong — idea that China’s military losses to Europe (and, later, Japan) were due to its inability to modernize.
The Yellow Flower Mound Uprising, also known as the Second Guangzhou Uprising, may have failed, but its legacy is now celebrated in mainstream Chinese culture. Here's how it happened.
All the great European powers (plus the U.S.) got a slice of China in the late-19th century. All but Italy, that is.
The Empress Dowager Cixi was only 26 when she took over as China's ruler. She remained on top for the next half-century. How did she navigate the perilous halls of imperial power to become known as the most powerful woman in Chinese history?
In the summer of 1884, French forces, frustrated by Qing refusal to comply with their colonial wishes in Indochina, attempted to demonstrate their power by taking Taiwan. Neither the landing nor the war went to plan.
In 1908, Qing customs officials boarded the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru to seize weapons allegedly earmarked for revolutionaries. The ship's captain objected. The drawn-out diplomatic dispute that followed made international headlines.
Who was Ma Xinyi? A governor-general born to a Muslim family and one the most powerful officials in the realm, Ma coordinated the exchange of technology and methods from Western advisers to the Qing army. On the morning of August 22, he was assassinated in Nanjing — for reasons that remain unconfirmed to this day.
"Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768," by the late Philip A. Kuhn, tells of a hoax gone wrong in the spring of 1768. The Qianlong emperor, believing that rumors of witchcraft were an existential threat to his rule, ordered his bureaucrats to root out sorcerers using any means possible. Much torture and death ensued.
A video showing “Princess” Der Ling from the Qing dynasty making a speech in fluent English went viral on the Chinese internet...