It is a common trope in comedy that if a clumsy person enters an antique shop, they are bound to knock over a precariously positioned and priceless Ming vase. For centuries, collectors in the West have sought out the rarest Chinese antiquities, of which Ming vases are just the most famous. As China has boomed economically recently, the prices of Chinese artworks have exploded.

This has led to many cases where people who were about to throw away an old pot or donate a cracked plate to a junk shop have suddenly discovered they are actually in possession of something worth a fortune. Here are ten cases where Chinese antiques turned out to be a windfall.

Related: 10 Amazing Antiques Roadshow Discoveries

10 £1 Million Collection in the Attic

Clearing out the attic can be one of the most annoying tasks for any homeowner. It’s dusty and full of spiders, and then you have to decide which of the things you have stored over the years is worth keeping and which should be put in the trash. Sometimes, though, you might just strike gold.

Edward Radcliffe became an antiques dealer just before WWII, and during his career, he built up a nice collection of Chinese antiques. Some of them were so exquisite that he lent them out to museums around the world. But for some reason, after he died, this collection was dumped in the attic and forgotten for over 50 years before his family decided to get it valued.

Among the stars of the collection was an enamel box made for the Xuande emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century. Finding one is phenomenally rare, as just four are known to exist in the world. The family must have been pleased when it was valued at 10,000 pounds at auction. They must have been beyond belief when the hammer went down, and it was sold for £288,000. With the rest of the collection selling as well, the whole lot made nearly 1 million pounds.^[1]

9 “Teapot”

The British love a cup of tea, so it is not unusual to find an elderly relative who has a teapot or two stored in their home. In 2020, a man finally sorted through the things his parents had stored in their attic. He found a plastic bag containing a tiny metal and enamel teapot, brought from China in the 1940s by his father. He thought of taking it to a charity shop. Instead, it was taken to an auctioneer who valued it at £100-150.

It soon became clear that it was actually something more special than a teapot. It turned out to be an imperial wine ewer made for the Qianlong emperor in the 18th century and one of only three in the world. On the day of the auction, nine bidders from around the world competed to own the minuscule masterpiece, and eventually, it sold for £380,000.

The owner, a construction worker, was thrilled with his sudden fortune. Asked what he would do with the money, he suggested he might buy a metal detector. With luck like his, who knows what treasures he might find.^[2]

8 Imperial Vase

Familiarity breeds contempt, so something we see every day tends to get overlooked. When an auctioneer visited a friend’s house one day, he noticed that an old vase they had just in their kitchen looked quite special. The tall vase had been bought for a few hundred pounds and was a pretty piece of porcelain – but to the owners, it was nothing too exciting.

It was only years later that the piece, made at the Imperial Court of the Qianlong emperor, was put up for sale, and collectors began to get excited. The rich blue vase is decorated with gold and silver and depicts cranes and bats flying against a cloudy sky. A vase of this age, with this decoration and in this size, caused a stir, and it was valued at around £100,000.

Bidding was fierce, and the vase was sold for £1.2 million. Not bad for an old thing shoved in the kitchen.^[3]

7 Loose Change Bowl

Pottery is a sturdy material but easily broken and damaged. For collectors of antiques, even the smallest chip can destroy the value of a piece, so most will do everything possible to protect their treasures. One family inherited a bowl owned by a well-known collector of Chinese antiques but did not give it the same care as he might have liked. They placed it in a guest room where friends would drop their keys and coins while they stayed.

It was only out of curiosity that they took the 9-inch (22.9-cm) wide turquoise glazed dish to an open day at an auctioneer’s event. It was immediately seen to have been produced for the early Ming Imperial Court. Known as a narcissus bowl, the object caused the valuers’ hands to shake, and the owners were happy to put it up for auction.

The bowl sold for £240,000. Hopefully, the new owner doesn’t toss metal objects into it.^[4]

6 Cracked Umbrella Stand

Sometimes, we are given things and don’t know what to do with them, but we hold onto them anyway for sentimental reasons. One couple in England had come into possession of a blue and white vase as a gift and thought no more of it for 50 years. They relegated it to a spare room, and since it was about the right size, they placed their umbrellas in it. Needless to say, this was not the right way to treat the vase.

The vase turned out to have been made for the court of the Qianlong emperor and had survived centuries mostly intact. Unfortunately, the years of being an umbrella stand had left their mark on the vase, with it being cracked and scarred on the inside. Despite the damage, it was still valued at around £500,000.

Buyers seemed able to overlook the hard life the vase had endured and ended up paying £765,000.^[5]

5 Umbrella Stand

There must be something about priceless Chinese vases that makes people look at them and think, “That would make an excellent umbrella stand.” When an expert from Christie’s auction house was made aware of a large, blue and white dragon vase that had once been an umbrella stand, he asked the French owners whether he could inspect it in person. As soon as he looked at it, he knew that the vase was a perfect example of 15th-century Ming Imperial pottery.

The umbrella stand phase of the vase’s life had miraculously left no trace on the flawless glaze. The large dragon motif was as fresh as the day it had been painted by the imperial artisans. When the vase was put up for auction in Hong Kong, excited bidding led to it reaching $20,447,642.^[6]

4 Yard Sale Bowl

Everyone likes a bargain, and there is nowhere you can pick up an excellent deal as easily as at a yard sale. People use yard sales to get rid of the various stuff they have accumulated over the years and generally just want it out of the house. For $35, you can grab a pretty bowl for your home—or one that might make you a fortune at auction.

When a buyer saw a small blue and white bowl at a yard sale, they liked it so much they didn’t bother to haggle over the $35 price tag. Almost straight away, they suspected they had bought something special and alerted an auction house. It was found that the bowl was Ming porcelain made in the early 15th century in a form called a lotus bowl—with only six examples in museums around the world.

The bowl sold for $721,800, a mere 29,000 times more than it was bought for.^[7]

3 Qianlong Vase

Thrift shops are great places to browse for unusual things because you never know what people have donated. You get to buy things cheap and also help a good cause. Sometimes, you really do find something special.

One shopper spotted a somewhat gaudy-looking vase with a yellow glaze and Chinese characters painted on it. It was only marked at £1 so they decided to buy it. Thinking it might be worth a little more than that, they put the vase on sale on eBay. However, as the price started to skyrocket, they removed it from the site and showed the vase to an auctioneer.

The vase was made at the court of the Qianlong emperor, and a mark on the base stated that it was not meant to be exported from the country. How it came to be in a charity shop in England is not known. At auction, the vase sold for £480,000. ^[8]

2 Brush Pot Donation

Thrift stores do not always let valuable antiques slip through their fingers. Volunteers who sort through donated objects are often given advice on spotting potentially important pieces and having them shown to experts. When one worker at St. Peter’s Hospice charity shop in Bristol, England, picked up a cracked old wooden pot that had been handed in and, for some reason, suspected it might be special—despite it not looking very promising.

The pot turned out to be a brush pot used in calligraphy and was made from bamboo around 1700, which perhaps explained why it was so cracked. Not only did the pot have a charmingly carved landscape scene on it, but it was also created by Gu Jue, one of the foremost bamboo workers at the time.

Luckily for the charity, this precious little object did not end up on their shelves and sell for a pittance. It went to auction and sold for £360,000, far outstripping the estimate of £15,000.^[9]

1 Shoebox Vase

If this list does nothing else, it should make you consider clearing out your attic. The ultimate case of a treasure lurking in the attic comes from France and involves one of the finest Chinese vases ever to be offered for sale.

Sotheby’s auctioneer might well have missed out on this discovery as the owner of the vase simply sent them an email saying she had found some Asian objects in her attic as she prepared to move but would not be able to send them any photographs. Some other details she provided suggested they might be worth looking at, so they invited her to bring them in. Riding on the metro, she carried the vase in a shoebox. The owners had relegated it to the attic after deciding it was “too pink” for their tastes.

The vase, with its animal motifs, was so lovely that even if it had been a copy of what it looked like, it still might have been worth €100,000. However, the experts recognized it as genuine. It really was a vase made for the Qianlong emperor’s birthday and given an auction estimate of €700,000. It blew past this when bidding started and finally sold for €16,182,800.^[10]

The Chinese are said to be avid movie fans, so it is not surprising that Hollywood producers would be keen to distribute their films to China, with its 1.4 billion potential cinema goers.

10 Of The Weirdest Things The Chinese Government Has Banned

And as they often do, Hollywood producers try to be aware of the different cultural sensitivities of the countries they distribute to. The communist Chinese censors are known to have particular likes and dislikes. They dislike talking animals and ghosts, for example. And they are so sensitive about their lack of tumble-dryers, that the makers of Mission Impossible III cut a scene where Tom Cruise runs through a line of washing in Shanghai. Here’s 10 of them.

10 Cut Cut Cut

The Chinese censors have a whole list of things that they don’t like, that might be surprise western cinema goers. Talking animals are out, for example, as is anything to do with ghosts.

Movie execs have started to make a different cut suitable to Chinese tastes. Take Django Unchained for instance. The Tarantino film was always going to be a difficult sell in China, because of their aversion to graphic violence and nudity. So a torture scene of a naked Django and his wife being tortured had to go, as did the flashback of a slave being mauled by dogs. Did it help? Not really. The movie did get a limited release, but was quickly pulled from theaters.

The Chinese censors also dislike any scene in which a Chinese character gets the worst of it in a fight. In Skyfall, the scene where James Bond kills a Chinese security guard is cut entirely, as is the Chinese prison scene.

9 Like Disney, But Without Chubby Bears

Normally, Disney movies are a certainty for distribution in China, with their family friendly films. However, the censors took exception to the movie Christopher Robin, a harmless fantasy, starring Ewan McGregor as the grown-up Christopher Robin who has forgotten his childhood companions, Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger too.

The reason for the lack of distribution may lie in the fact Winnie the Pooh is seen as a dangerous and subversive character in China. Pooh’s revolutionary tendencies came to light in 2013 when a picture of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping walking next to President Obama, was shared online, next to a picture of Pooh walking side by side with Tigger. Oh boy.

Since then, the Chinese president and Winnie the Pooh have featured in a number of memes and the bear has become a ‘symbol of dissent’.
Christopher Robin was a non-starter.

8 Change Nationality

One thing that is certain to get a movie on the no play list is any mention of Tibet. Censors operate a strict See no Tibet, Speak no Tibet, Hear not Tibet policy. This can be tricky for movie producers. Obviously, Seven Years in Tibet, had no chance of getting a release. That movie, however, caused China such offence that they banned the director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, of its stars, Brad Pitt and David Thewlis, and the entire Sony Pictures distribution company were banned from ever entering China again.

Sometimes, though, compromises are reached. Take Doctor Strange, for example.

In the graphic novels, on which the Marvel movie was based, The Ancient One is a Tibetan mystic, hailing from the fictional Himalayan region of Kamar-Taj. In the movie, TAO is a Celt. Ah yes, the Celts. Famous the world over for their mysticism and Himalayan ancestry.

7 Make the Chinese Guy the Hero

Flattery will get you everywhere, it seems. The Chinese are no exception. If you can show the Chinese as heroes, you are much more likely to get a distribution certificate, than if they are the villain.

In The Martian, for instance, the Chinese space agency comes to NASA’s aid, and helps rescue the American astronaut who has been left stranded on Mars, thus demonstrating that the Chinese Space Agency is superior to their American counterparts.

The decision certainly paid off, because The Martian took $50 million in its opening weekend in China.

6 Make It a Travel Show

Lots of films are glorified travel shows. Production companies can get financial incentives to film in certain countries, and generous tax breaks and cash rebates certainly influence the decisions about location shoots.

In return for the bucketful of cash, the director provides enticing backdrops and a 2-hour long showcase of the area. Most of the time these decisions have little effect on the audience and can even slide by unnoticed. After all, one beautiful old city is much like another, right?

Sometimes movies are a little less subtle. Take Looper, for example. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is learning French. ‘Why the fuck French?’ asks Jeff Daniels. Gordon-Levitt, in a beautiful Bruce Willis impersonation says, ‘I’m going to France.’ Which seems reasonable. But, says Daniels, “I’m from the future. You should go to China.”

The message is clear. “China may not be where it’s at now, but it’s where it’s going to be. Can we please have distribution rights?”

10 Reasons Why Communism Sucks

5 Gratuitous Product Placement Even When It Makes No Sense

Product placement has long been a feature of feature films. After all, it’s a great way to offset some of those pesky production costs, right? And, if you can use your product placement to ingratiate yourself into a closed market like china, so much the better.

So, in Iron Man 3 we see Dr Wu drinking some Gu Li Duo milk before he operates on Tony Stark. Which was timely, because China was, at that time, needed to restore confidence in its milk production after reports that it had been contaminated with mercury.

The film also opens with a question on a screen card. “What does Iron Man rely on to revitalize his energy?” After a 3 second blackout, the answer appears. Gu Li Duo, obviously.

If you are wondering how you missed that bit of product placement it is because, unless you are in China, you didn’t see it. Extra scenes were added to the film, around 4 minutes in total, all of which was used to increase the presence of Chinese actors, or peddle questionable milk drinks to a wary public.

The producers must have wanted to get into China real bad, because the film also features 2 Chinese supporting actors, a shot of some cheering Chinese schoolchildren, and product placements for a Chinese electronics company and a construction company. They also changed the movie’s bad guy from The Mandarin, as stated in the graphic novel, to an English guy pretending to be a mandarin. Come on.

But at least they didn’t make Tony Stark use a Vivo phone. Captain America, however, wasn’t so lucky. Iron Man 3 made $121,000,000 in China. That’s an awful lot of milk.^[]

4 Blame It On the Russians

The trouble with films based on comic books is that the source material is not always as commercially driven as the film industry. So they can blame China for, say, a killer virus, without a second thought.

Movie makers, however, have a different set of priorities. When Paramount Pictures hired Marc Foster to direct World War Z, they probably already had distribution rights in mind. So, they changed the origin of a zombie virus from China to Russia, because a) whoever heard of a virus emanating from China and b) the Russian market is much smaller.

But they might as well of not bothered, because they didn’t get a distribution in China. Or Russia either. Obviously.

3 Who’s That Army?

In 2012, MGM put out a remake of Red Dawn. The original 1984 film had starred
the unlikely combo of Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen as brothers who take a break from High School to organise a resistance against the impending Russian invasion.

OK, sure, it’s not the greatest movie ever made, and the final scenes are beyond cheesy, but, for some reason, someone thought a remake was a good idea.

This time the brothers are not high school kids, but a marine on home leave (played by Chis Hemsworth) and a football player (Josh Peck). Slightly less ridiculous.

And the army was not Russian, it was Chinese. I mean North Korean.

After principal photography was complete, the studio realized that having China as an aggressor might not play well in China, so they spent a ‘considerable’ amount of time, and money, to digitally alter the invading army’s uniforms and insignia.

Because North Korea does not distribute Hollywood movies, so who cares about them, right?

Didn’t work though. The film was never released in China.

2 Move Production to Hong Kong

One way to ensure that you get that all-important distribution deal is to work in partnership with the Chinese film industry, and even shoot the movie there.

The Transformers franchise was always popular in China, so when it came to making Transformers: Age of Extinction, they decided to collaborate with Chinese production companies to really make the most of their opportunities.

The movie financed in partnership with China, it was partly filmed in Hong Kong, and it included a ton of product placement, including for a soy-milk drink (in case you didn’t want to drink actual milk, for some reason), and the Chinese version of Red Bull.

Though the movie was terrible (no surprise there), it did make a lot of money. Most of it in China.

In fact, the movie made $300 million in China, $50 million more than in the US, and almost a third of its eventual $1 billion revenue.

Because doesn’t everyone want to see a movie in which autobots ask a mechanic (played by Mark Wahlberg) for help to defeat a bounty hunter who is out to catch Optimus Prime?

Er, no.

1 Change The Entire Film

Sometimes when you tinker with a film it makes little difference to the finished product. After all, who cares what brand of milk the hero drinks? Most audiences barely even notice that stuff.

Occasionally, however, the changes are so great that the film is barely recognizable. Take The Karate Kid, for instance. Not the 1984 awesome Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki Morita classic, but the crapola 2010 Jayden Smith, Jackie Chan remake.

The original film was set in Los Angeles, where new kid on the block Macchio falls foul of a black-belted karate chopping bully who happens to be the boyfriend of the girl Macchio likes. He recruits his caretaker-cum-karate-master to help him prepare to fight him.

It’s basically Rocky for kids (John G Avildsen directed both). The 2010 version saw Jayden Smith move to Beijing.

The film should have been easy for the censors. It was filmed on location in Hong Kong. It had a load of Chinese actors, and as much product placement as you could eat. It was heavy on Chinese scenery, even showing Jayden and Chan doing their Rocky style training on the Great Wall itself.

But the censors didn’t like it. The Hong Kong setting meant that the movie’s bully was Chinese. An older Chinese kid beating up a scrawny American kid did not play well.

So, after all that effort, it looked as though The Karate Kid might not make the cut.

In order to get it through, the film underwent some rather brutal cuts, which changed the story entirely. The gladiatorial element of the film was cut, and instead it became a nice coming of age, getting in touch with your feelings, type movie.

Oh, and it was given a new name too. The karate kid was now a Kung Fu Dream.

10 Bizarre Aspects of Chinese Culture

The Chinese coronavirus (COVID-19) is now impacting virtually everyone on earth in some way, whether it be for medical reasons or economic. In times past we have done occasional “Your View” posts in which our awesome readers share their opinions with each other. This has typically enriched us all. Our readers are typically smarter than average and have a very broad and interesting perspective on life.

So this is your chance to tell us: how is the Wuhan flu affecting you or your family? What impact is it having on you and what changes in your daily life has it brought about?

This is a time of great concern for all of us. No matter how well the governments we have chosen respond to this event on our behalf, the world is changed and will be changed for good. The economic impact of this pandemic is extraordinary and far reaching, and many of the effects of the massive worldwide bailouts and currency inflation are still to be seen.

What do you think the world is going to look like once this is all over? Will things seek to return to the “norm” as we have known it or is this “the turning”? Are we about to enter a new age of man?

Top 10 Essential Facts About The Coronavirus, The Only Article You’ll Ever Need About COVID-19

The Wuhan flu, Chinese coronavirus, Covid-19 virus, or simply coronavirus as some prefer to call it, needs no introduction. It is the latest nuisance we all have to deal with. The virus first appeared in China and in less than two months, has spread to every continent in the world. It has killed over 4,000 people so far and another 113,000 people are confirmed to be infected.

Most people agree that the virus first appeared in a seafood market in Wuhan, China. It appears, however, that some conspiracy theorists do not believe this story. They say it is just another sham story someone made up to cover-up the true origin of the virus.

Top 10 Essential Facts About The Coronavirus, The Only Article You’ll Ever Need About COVID-19

10 The United States government

There are rumors that the United States government created the Chinese coronavirus. This claim was first made by the Russian news network, Channel One, during a live news broadcast. A news presenter said the US government created the virus to destroy China’s economy. He added that the US might have also created it so they could sell vaccines to the Chinese government.

The presenter based his claim on the fact that corona means crown in Russian and Latin. As we all know, President Trump used to be a judge on beauty pageants and was sometimes in charge of crowning the winner. The presenter said this was the reason the virus was named after crowns. Meanwhile, scientists say they named the virus after its crown-like shape.^[1]

9 Bill Gates

If you are struggling to understand how Bill Gates fits into all these, we will need to go back to October 2019. That month, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation collaborated with the World Economic Forum and the John Hopkins Center for Health Security to test how well we were prepared to deal with an epidemic.

In a curious twist of fate, the Covid-19 virus showed up two months later.

Conspiracy theorists say the program was a prelude to the upcoming epidemic, which all three organizations had planned all along. Meanwhile, the John Hopkins Center for Health Security has denied any link between the event and the Covid-19 epidemic.

Conspiracy theorists backed their claims with the fact that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had earlier provided funding for the UK-based Pirbright Institute, which has a patent on a coronavirus vaccine. They say Bill Gates teamed with the institute to start the epidemic so he could sell the vaccines.

The Pirbright Institute denies any link between their organization and the Covid-19 virus. A spokesperson said they only researched into coronaviruses that affected birds and not humans. Their vaccines do not work for humans either.^[2]

8 5G internet

Wuhan was one of the first Chinese cities to get 5G internet. It is the same city where the Covid-19 virus first appeared. Is that a coincidence? Dana Ashlie says it is not.

Ashlie believes the Covid-19 virus is caused by radiation waves released by 5G internet. She based her claims on a two-decade-old research paper that revealed 5G was dangerous to human health. Ashlie says the so-called coronavirus is actually radiation poisoning. She says it weakens the immune system, leaving a person vulnerable to diseases.

People on the other side of the fence say Ashlie is just another conspiracy theorist. They say the 2000 study she quoted was discredited by a 2005 study that proved 5G was not dangerous to humans. They also pointed out the fact that Wuhan was just one of the 16 Chinese cities that got 5G internet at the same time.^[3]

7 The Chinese government

Some people believe China created the Covid-19 virus as part of its biological weapon program. They say the virus later leaked from a lab, causing the epidemic.

The lab in question is the National Biosafety Laboratory. It is the only Chinese government-owned facility capable of conducting research into deadly viruses. It is part of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is located in Wuhan. If you recall, Wuhan is the same city where the epidemic broke out.

These claims arose over a statement President Xi Jinping made right after the epidemic broke out. He said the safety of laboratories was a national issue. The following day, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology released instructions on how to secure laboratories to prevent the escape of viruses.

Conspiracy theorists back up their claims with the fact that viruses have earlier leaked from Chinese labs. The deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus escaped twice.^[4]

6 The Canadian government

Some people believe the Canadian government led by social studies teacher Justin Trudeau (pictured) created the Covid-19 virus at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada. The lab is a Canadian government-owned facility that conducts research into deadly viruses, just like the one in Wuhan, China.

Conspiracy theorists say two Chinese spies stole the virus and sent it to the Wuhan Institute of Virology where it ended up causing the epidemic. The spies in question are Dr. Keding Cheng and his wife, Dr. Xiangguo Qiu. The couple worked at the lab until they were suddenly laid off in 2019.

Conspiracy theorists said the duo were fired for stealing samples of the virus and sending it to China. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they were expelled over policy and administrative issues. Who is telling the truth?^[5]

Top 10 Crazy Facts About The Coronavirus Outbreak

5 The October 2019 meteorite explosion

Something incredible happened in northeast China in the early hours of October 11, 2019. A meteorite exploded in the sky just after midnight, causing an intense flash that made the night sky as bright as day.

Conspiracy theorists have now jumped on that incident. They say the meteorite brought the Covid-19 virus from space.

Scientists say this is unlikely since the meteor did not land on the ground. Even if it did, they do not think the virus could have survived the extreme temperature of the landing. Meteors that do not burn up in the atmosphere can reach up to 1,198°F by the time they touch the ground. That is more than enough to kill the virus several times over.

Infectious diseases specialist, Dr. Dominic Sparkes, added that the Covid-19 virus most likely originated here on earth since it shares a lot in common with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

All three viruses belong to a group of viruses called coronaviruses. We know SARS and MERS originated here on earth, but Covid-19? Only time will tell.^[6]

4 A Chinese woman eating bat soup

There are speculations that humans got the Covid-19 virus from bats. While scientists are yet to verify this claim, some people believe it spread to humans after someone munched down on an infected bat. That “someone” is Chinese travel blogger, Wang Mengyun.

Mengyun became a victim of a conspiracy theory after a video of her eating a bat went viral. She was accused of contracting the virus and spreading it to other people.

Mengyun was later forced by the socialist Chinese government to apologize for eating the bat. She added that the video was shot in 2016, three years before the Covid-19 virus appeared. It was not shot in China but in Palau, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean.^[7]

3 Some unknown person or group created it from HIV

Not all conspiracy theories have a name pinned on them. Like this one proposed by a group of Indian researchers. The researchers say the Covid-19 virus bears some semblance to the HIV-1 virus. They said this was enough evidence to prove that someone had modified HIV to create this new virus.

They published the paper on bioRxiv, a website for research papers awaiting review. The researchers did not mention names, so we do not know the people responsible. The paper caused a controversy, causing the researchers to withdraw it.^[8]

2 Corona beer

Corona Extra is a brand of beer brewed in Mexico. It is unrelated to the coronavirus and does not cause or spread it. The beer got its name from the Spanish and Latin word for crown. The virus was named for its crown-like shape.

Corona Extra has been suffering a naming crisis since the epidemic broke out. While no one has actually claimed it causes or spreads the virus, it appears that people already nurse such beliefs. Google has been flooded with searches for “corona beer virus”, “beer virus” and “beer coronavirus” since January.

The market share of Corona Extra has actually grown according to the company. Lucky them! In the 1980s, a diet candy called Ayds suffered a 50% drop in sales after people thought it caused AIDS.^[9]

1 Samuel Hyde

Samuel Hyde is a famous actor and comedian. Some people, however, think he should also be famous for starting the coronavirus epidemic. This claim is believed to be part of a running joke of blaming Hyde for every unfortunate incident that occurs in the United Sates.

As it happens, Hyde has been blamed for almost every mass shooting in the US. The accusations have sometimes gotten a bit more serious, like it did after a deadly shooting in Texas in 2017. Rep. Vincente Gonzalez told CNN the name of the shooter was Sam Hyde. He later apologized after discovering he had fallen for an ongoing prank and conspiracy theory.^[10]

Top 10 Things You Need To Do To Prepare For The Coronavirus

Chinese medicine has been around an extremely long time. Systematic records of medical techniques first appeared in China around the second century BC. Since then, hundreds of thousands of doctors have worked their magic, eventually giving birth to the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) of today.

TCM is well-known for its bizarre and unorthodox approach to medicine. We are only just beginning to understand how it works from a contemporary scientific perspective. Although few comprehensive studies exist to make sense of everything, there is just enough research to let us put together a list of interesting, sometimes scary, and downright weird TCM treatments.

10 Cupping

If we take a look past the bruise-covered Michael Phelps, a whole new world of cupping promises a lot more than a little placebo. Beyond aiding athletic performance, cupping is generally used to help chronic pain. It may also be a treatment for cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and high blood pressure.

According to recent research, cupping can increase vasodilation and blood circulation, allowing your body to get rid of waste and toxins faster. Although there might not be evidence that cupping will rid you of your heart condition anytime soon, it may be an effective treatment for relieving all sorts of aches and pains with minimal side effects.^[1]

With the pain out of the way, you’ll be ready to hit the pool again. But you may want to take a lesson from Phelps and keep your shirt on.

9 Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a tried-and-true practice that is becoming more accepted around the world. Historically, it was thought to be able to stimulate life force and heal a myriad of diseases. Today, it is a common treatment for chronic pain. In China, it is even used as a form of anesthesia during surgery.

Studies have shown that patients have a good response to acupuncture as a treatment for chronic pain and fibromyalgia. Its effectiveness as a supplemental therapy is becoming more apparent as time goes on.^[2]

Although not for the faint of heart, acupuncture gets the job done with a deceptively little amount of pain—as long as you can get past the idea of being simultaneously stabbed in multiple places in the name of health.

8 Ginseng

One of the most iconic ingredients in any TCM concoction, ginseng is translated as “person plant root” for its stark resemblance to a human with limbs. The obvious visual similarities shared with the human body have made ginseng a symbolic cure for all human ailments in Chinese medicine. However, beyond the mysticism, this root is known to have many beneficial effects that can promote well-being in the long run.

Due to its potent antioxidant effects, ginseng is thought to reduce inflammation. Research has shown its potential to reduce oxidative stress in the human body. This reduction of inflammation may significantly affect your health, with links being drawn to improvements in brain health, erectile dysfunction, and even cancer prevention.^[3]

7 Seahorses

One of our favorite sea-dwelling creatures, seahorses are defined by their unique ability to have male pregnancy. They are used worldwide as pets in aquariums and even as food, with TCM finding a myriad of potential health benefits in the majestic little creatures.^[4]

Seahorses are touted for benefiting the kidneys as well as sexual performance and libido, with links drawn to general well-being and vigor. Practitioners claim that seahorses bolster kidney strength as well as stimulate nerve activity.

6 Softshell Turtles

Softshell turtles are an expensive ingredient thought to have cooling properties. It is believed that a soft turtle shell can moisturize skin, nourish blood, treat diarrhea, and boost the overall immune system.

According to some research, soft turtle shell promotes the production of immune globulin, which can prolong the existence of certain antibodies. This boosts the immune system and protects us from disease.^[5]

Beyond medical practice, softshell turtles are considered a delicacy in certain areas of China as they are full of minerals and collagen.

5 Cockroaches

Cockroaches have really taken off in TCM over the last decade. Many farms all over China house billions of the hair-raising crawlers for use in medicine. In 2013, there was even a disaster where millions of cockroaches escaped from a cockroach farm.

Cockroaches are thought to help with burns and are used in many cosmetic products in China and South Korea.

They are also believed to help gastroenteritis, duodenal ulcers, and pulmonary tuberculosis. In fact, a Sichuan-based pharmaceutical company is developing a medicinal syrup that promises just that.^[6]

4 Deer Sinew

Another medicinal staple in Chinese households, deer sinew is thought to potentially benefit everyone with its ability to strengthen bones and tendons, reduce muscle spasms, and even bring temporary relief from arthritis. These effects are believed to be related to the high level of collagen peptide and proteins contained inside the sinews. Studies show the ability of this tissue to reduce bone loss and the progression of osteoporosis in rats.

Should you ever decide to invest in some deer sinew for bone health, do try to find a reliable source as there have been many reports of pharmacies selling cheap cattle tendons in place of the real deer.^[7]

3 Sea Stars

Sea stars (aka starfish) are also known for their potent anti-inflammatory properties. With inflammation linked to many ailments such as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, allergies, asthma, and even cancer, it’s easy to see how an ingredient with anti-inflammatory effects would be sought-after.

These effects are even being explored in Western medicine. There, the slimy goo of a particular sea star is being investigated for its application in treating inflammation-related illnesses.^[8]

2 Caterpillar Fungus

Known as “worm grass” in China, caterpillar fungus goes by the name Cordyceps in the scientific community. It is a scary fungus that starts life as a little spore infecting the backs of moth caterpillars that live high in the mountains.

Once the unsuspecting caterpillars die, the fearsome fungus grows out of the hosts’ bodies in the form of stringy, alien-like fingers. Thankfully, the infectious properties of the fungus don’t affect humans.^[9]

Cordyceps is known to help kidney and liver problems, and some athletes use it to boost performance. New research is even showing activity against cancer cells that could reduce the size of tumors, particularly in lung and skin cancers.

1 Gecko

Geckos are used to fight coughs and colds with their supposed ability to affect the lungs and kidneys (both of which are linked to coughing in TCM). By nourishing the kidneys and strengthening the lungs, your cough will be gone in no time—and all with a simple pinch of dried lizard. Practitioners commonly prescribe it as a cure for impotence and premature ejaculation, too.

If you’ve ever wondered what that gross dried creature hanging ominously from the window of your local Chinese pharmacy is, now you know exactly what it does and just how magical its effects are.^[10]

I’m a first-year student recovering from myalgic encephalomyelitis. Looking forward to writing again and excited about learning lots of weird and cool new facts.

China is a powerhouse that thrives on progress. One multipurpose field seeing great strides from this country is genetics. In recent years, China’s studies have included many world firsts and incredible medical advances.

There exists a strange side, too. Scientists are creating things never seen in nature, rewriting the rules on reproduction, and keeping the rest of the world nervous with their penchant for controversial human editing.

10 Biggest Genetic Study

In 2018, a genome sequencing company based in Shenzhen was given access to a massive database. The genetic information of around seven million pregnant Chinese women was gathered while testing for a disorder linked to Down syndrome.

Only about 141,000 women were chosen, but it remains the biggest project examining Chinese genetics. The mothers represented nearly all provinces and even 36 of the 55 ethnic minority groups.

The findings were interesting. Certain genes were linked to height and body mass, the ability to have twins, and how severely herpesvirus 6 manifests. Even migrations left their mark on the Chinese genome. The largest wedge of the population is made up of the Han (92 percent).^[1]

The study found that this group had the same genetic structure, but differences hinged on where they lived. Their northern and southern origins reflected in migrations known to have happened after 1949, when work became more available to the east and west. Gene variations also cause different immune responses from northern and southern Han. Intriguingly, certain minority groups had more genetic diversity than the Han.

9 Unknown Giant Panda

The giant panda is iconic to China. Although these creatures are the subject of considerable studies, researchers still know very little about how they evolved. The only sure fact is that giant pandas split from other bears 20 million years ago.

Then, in 2018, a fossil turned up in Cizhutuo Cave in China. The creature died 22,000 years ago and looked a lot like a giant panda. To gauge what exactly it was, researchers accomplished an amazing feat—they pieced together 148,329 fragments of its DNA.

When the ancestry became clear, two things made the fossil unique. The DNA was the oldest ever found from a giant panda, but it also revealed a lineage nobody even knew existed. This panda split from its living cousins about 183,000 years ago. Its genetic code also revealed a great number of mutations that probably helped this species to survive the Ice Age in which it lived.^[2]

8 Dogs With More Muscle

In 2015, the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health saw the birth of several puppies. These were no ordinary beagles. They started their existence as 60 genetically modified embryos from which a single gene was removed.

Myostatin blocks muscle growth. Scientists deleted it to create what they claim are the world’s first designer dogs. Only 27 puppies were born, but not everything went according to plan.

Myostatin has two copies, and both were gone from only a single female pup. Another male puppy had one copy deactivated. He was more bulky than the rest but not as much as the female, which was designed to develop twice the normal amount of muscle. The project’s aim was to produce test animals on which to study diseases affecting human muscles, including Parkinson’s and muscular dystrophy.^[3]

The Chinese may have many firsts to their credit, but in this case, nature beat them. Belgian Blue cattle have jaw-dropping muscles, thanks to a natural lack of myostatin. In addition, a genetic disorder occasionally deletes the gene in whippets, producing freakishly muscled dogs.

7 Spider Silkworms

Upon learning that scientists tweaked the silkworm’s ability to produce silk, most would think of worms spinning better, more copious amounts. However, in the world of this satiny material, the silkworm is not king. Spiders beat them on several levels.

Arachnid silk promises incredibly useful applications in medicine, including microcapsules that deliver cancer drugs as well as the potential to fix damaged nerves. Researchers also discovered that it could strengthen bulletproof vests.

Unfortunately, spiders do not play along with idea of having their silk commercially farmed. Unlike the predictable silkworm, the arachnids are territorial and, worse yet, cannibalistic.

In 2018, a team affiliated with several Chinese institutions used gene editing and succeeded where many others have failed. They replaced a segment from the silkworm’s genetic code with DNA from a golden orb-web spider.^[4]

When the altered worms spun their cocoons, the silk was analyzed. It was 35.2 percent spider, the highest purity ever achieved. (Past attempts lagged at 5 percent.) The silk was ready to use the moment the silkworms released the threads, something no other team could manage.

6 First Blue Rose

Among the most sought-after things in the world of gardeners is the blue rose. It does not exist in nature, and for hundreds of years, rose enthusiasts failed to breed this ultimate color.

During a more recent project that lasted 20 years and involved selective breeding and genetic engineering, biotechnologists came the nearest. However, even this prize rose was more mauve than blue.

Chinese scientists found a novel way to reach the dream. They started with the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, often used in bioengineering because it easily transfers foreign genetic material into plant DNA.^[5]

From another bacterium, the researchers picked two bacterial enzymes capable of turning the L-glutamine in rose petals into a blue pigment called indigoidine. A special strain of A. tumefaciens was created to carry the enzymes.

The bacteria were then injected into a white rose. The pigment genes entered the plant’s genome and caused blue to pool around the injection spot. The world’s first blue rose is not perfect as the technique only produces temporary blotches. However, Chinese scientists are already busy with the next step—engineering a rose that naturally produces the two enzymes and causes itself to turn blue.

5 The SARS Cave

In 2002, the world followed the lethal outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). It first bloomed in South China, infected 8,000 people, and killed nearly 800.

What caused the epidemic was never solved. In late 2017, scientists disclosed an unnerving clue in a cave in China’s Yunnan Province. For the past five years, they had investigated multiple SARS viruses present in the cave’s bats. There were 11 new strains, but none showed the genetic traits of the 2002 outbreak. SARS in bats has never been proven to cross the species barrier to humans, either.

However, a thorough analysis found something frightening. Together, the new strains carried enough genetic blocks to theoretically build a virus that could evolve to jump from bats to people. Secondly, three of the new strains showed a genetic predisposition to infect humans.^[6]

If the 2002 epidemic rose from the cave, it still does not explain how it traveled to Ground Zero in Guangdong Province 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) away.

4 China’s First Monkey Clones

In late 2017, two long-tailed macaques were born in the same Shanghai laboratory. Even though their births happened weeks apart, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were identical “twins.”

They were created with the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique (SCNT), the same one that produced the historical sheep clone, Dolly, 20 years ago. The monkeys may be the first nonhuman primates created with SCNT, but the feat was not applauded by the entire international community.

Critics fear that the project might bring human cloning closer to reality without giving much regard to serious ethical concerns. Some researchers are entirely against SCNT, calling it “a very inefficient and hazardous procedure.”^[7]

Indeed, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua only happened after 79 previous failed attempts. Despite the criticism, Chinese scientists insist that identical monkeys can be a valuable way to study gene-based diseases in humans, including certain cancers.

3 HIV-Resistant Embryos

Gene editing in humans is the new frontier. While most governments stall to agree on protocols for ethically modifying human tissue, China went ahead and did it a few years ago.

The historic breakthrough just added more fuel to the debate. Perhaps to no one’s surprise, this did not stop Guangzhou Medical University from doing it again in 2016. They wanted to create HIV-resistant embryos.

Operating under strict guidelines, they used 26 fertilized human eggs. All had been donated to research because they were no longer viable and would not develop into living babies.

The next step involved a specific genetic mutation. People who naturally carry this mutation are immune to the HIV virus. Using a gene editing tool called CRISPR, the gene was inserted into the embryos’ genomes.^[8]

The tweak was successful, but only four became HIV-proof. The others showed why the rest of the world was slow to jump on the bandwagon. Unexpected mutations showed up—and not the good kind.

It would be impossible to predict the long-term effects on a CRISPR-created human (should it ever go that far). If anything, this second attempt showed that this type of gene editing was not safe. CRISPR was also used during the first modification years ago and also produced unwanted mutations.

2 Cancer-Fighting Robots

The dream of creating nanorobots capable of fighting cancer within the body is nothing new. It was in the way Chinese researchers recently managed this that bordered on the ingenious.

Tumors can only live for as long as they are fed by a person’s blood vessels. To create something to block the vessels, scientists began by borrowing DNA molecules from a virus called a phage. An origami-like technique folded the strand into a rectangular sheet. The “tumor killers” were added, which were basically molecules of the clotting enzyme thrombin.

Four were rolled up inside the sheet to form a tube-shaped nanorobot. Special proteins locked the four molecules inside. After injection, the nanorobot entered the blood vessels. There, tumors opened the proteins and released the enzyme thrombin. A clot formed in the vessels and starved the tumor.

Tests on mice showed that the robots were effective. The rodents suffered from cancers of the skin, lung, breast, and ovary. In a group of eight animals with melanoma, the tumors vanished completely in three mice. Their life expectancy also increased.^[9]

1 Mice With No Father

In 2018, Chinese scientists successfully bred two female mice. The 29 pups are the first mammals born from two mothers with no male involvement. The study tried to find out why two genders are essential for most species to reproduce. The answer rewrote the rules of reproduction.

As it turns out, during mammalian conception, there are about 100 genes where only genes from the female or male are switched on. Both genders are needed to activate all 100. The male covers the ones not switched on by female genes, and vice versa.^[10]

If two females could breed in nature, certain genes would stay dormant. Using gene editing on mouse stem cells, researchers bypassed this barrier by removing a small piece of genetic code in three places. The altered cells were injected into an egg from a second female mouse. Successful fertilization followed. The babies grew up healthy and had pups of their own.

A similar experiment with two fathers (and a surrogate mother) produced 12 pups, but they all died within 48 hours. The research offers a distant hope for same-sex human couples wanting their own families.

Many in China like to claim that their country has seen 4,000 years of continuous civilization. In truth, new evidence hints that Chinese civilization may even be older than that.

For those in the West, Chinese history is either completely unknown or only vaguely identified. However, in many mandatory Western civilization courses, professors like to joke that Western history is a string of endless wars and genocides. When you get those same professors in private, they will readily admit that Eastern civilization is no different, especially when it comes to China.

In those thousands of years of civilization, China has been the scene of several genocidal bloodbaths. Some of these were due to outside invasions, while others were the result of civil wars and imperial politicking. Either way, the following incidents featured mass slaughter on a scale unprecedented until the horrors of World War II. Some even exceeded the body count of the Bolsheviks, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler.

10 January 28 Incident

Long before Hitler’s tanks rumbled across the border into Poland, Japanese soldiers, ships, and planes were pressing in on China. At that time, China was hardly in a position to defend itself. Following the revolution of 1911–12, the former Qing Empire had become a fractured state controlled by several different warlords.

Even after the successful Northern Expedition of 1927, the Kuomintang Party and its National Revolutionary Army (NRA) only had a tentative hold on the coast. Making matters worse was the fact that following the Kuomintang takeover of Shanghai, the violent assaults against the communists led to the Chinese Civil War, which would not end until Mao’s takeover of power in 1949.

The power in the best position to exploit this situation was Japan. The Japanese Empire had been expanding into Manchuria since 1895 when, following the Japanese victory over the Qing, Japan won certain rights in the region. The Kwantung Army, which had been established in Manchuria following Japan’s defeat of the Russian Empire in 1905, wanted more Chinese land.

The Kwantung Army was virtually independent of Tokyo and full of junior officers who belonged to the “Imperial Way” faction. They believed in overthrowing parliamentary politics in Japan to create a vast Japanese empire ruled by an autocratic emperor. In September 1931, a bombing on a Japanese-owned railroad provided the excuse needed by the Kwantung Army to occupy all of Manchuria and claim it for the new pro-Japanese state known later as Manchukuo.

On January 28, 1932, another “incident” brought Japan and the Kuomintang to the brink of open hostilities. Following the Kwantung’s takeover of Manchuria, Chinese citizens began a boycott of all Japanese goods. In response, Japanese soldiers and sailors were deployed to Shanghai, the most important port in Asia and the biggest city in China, to ostensibly protect Japanese lives and property.

At dawn on the 28th, the Japanese ship Notoro launched seaplanes that dropped flares all across Shanghai to obscure a landing of the elite Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF). The SNLF soon began skirmishing with the NRA’s 19th Route Army.

The following day, even more seaplanes flew over Shanghai. They were ordered to bomb military targets. However, due to poor weather, the Japanese planes bombed mostly civilian targets. Respected historian Barbara Tuchman would later describe this event as the world’s first “terror bombing,” which means that Tuchman believed that the Japanese seaplanes deliberately targeted Shanghainese civilians.

Tuchman and other scholars have put the death toll at 10,000–20,000 Chinese civilians. Other historians have cast doubt on these figures. They have noted that the seaplanes used during the battle, the E1Y, only carried 200 kilograms (441 lb) of bombs and had a lone 7.7mm machine gun, thus making it hard to believe that they could do that level of damage.

Whatever the true cost, no one questions that thousands of Shanghainese civilians died during the undeclared war in Shanghai. Japanese raids into Shanghai occurred until February, but the SNLF kept getting bogged down by the surprisingly determined 19th Route Army.

However, it was all over on March 1, 1932, when the SNLF defeated their Chinese foes. A ceasefire was declared, Shanghai was demilitarized (except for Japanese and Western forces), and Manchukuo was secured.^[1]

9 Dzungar Genocide

Few parts of today’s China have seen as much bloodshed as the far western province of Xinjiang. Today, the province is the home of state-run concentration camps designed to purge the Muslim Uighur majority of their religion.

Beijing is also using a “soft genocide” of demographic replacement to make Xinjiang less Muslim and less Turkic and more Han Chinese. Already, by 2010, Uighurs were less than 50 percent of the total population, while the Han Chinese population had grown considerably since the 1990s.

The Chinese state, even when it was not controlled by the ethnic Han, has always sought to bring Xinjiang to heel. This was done not only to expand imperial control and increase tax revenue but also to deny Russia another Central Asian possession.

In the 17th century, the biggest power in Xinjiang was the Dzungar Khanate, a state ruled by a federation of nomadic Mongol tribes. At the khanate’s height, the Dzungar warlords reached trade agreements with Russia, made an alliance with the Dalai Lama in Tibet, and instituted a law code (“Great Code of the Forty and the Four”) that only applied to ethnic Mongols.

The Buddhist Dzungars began to irk the Qing dynasty when they invaded Tibet in 1717, which required a Qing army to respond. In 1720, Qing Emperor Kangxi sent a large expedition to expel the remaining Dzungars from Tibet. The Tibetans greeted the Qing as saviors, while the Qing installed Kelzang Gyatso as the seventh Dalai Lama.

Fearful that the Dzungars would ride again into either Tibet or one of the isolated Qing provinces in the west, the Qianlong emperor sent numerous military expeditions into Dzungar territory in the hopes of conquering the khanate. This was achieved in 1757 thanks to a combined army of Manchu and Mongol horsemen. Prince Amursana, the last Dzungar prince, found refuge in Russia.

The Qing conquest and pacification of the Dzungar Khanate wiped out 80 percent of the total Dzungar population. That amounted to a death toll between 480,000 and 500,000. The remaining 20 percent of the Dzungars were forced into slavery, while the lands of the former khanate were settled by Manchu, Mongol, and Han migrants.^[2]

8 Warlord Civil Wars

As already mentioned, the Warlord Period was a time of great instability in China. It was also a time of endless warfare, with warlord “cliques” battling each other constantly to gain money, land, and prestige. These wars include the Zhili-Anhui War of 1920, which pitted the Zhili Clique of Hebei Province against the Anhui Clique of Anhui Province.

This was the first of the warlord wars and began when the Anhui attacked the Zhili on July 14, 1920. The whole purpose of this was to grab control of the government in Beiyang (Beijing). Despite receiving support from the Japanese Army, the Anhui would eventually fall to the combined Zhili and Fengtian forces that captured Beijing on July 19. In total, approximately 35,000 soldiers died in this war.

Following their short-lived truce, the Zhili and Fengtian cliques fought each other in 1922 and 1924. The Fengtian forces, based in what is today Liaoning Province, won the second war thanks to support from the Japanese as well as White Russian mercenaries commanded by Konstantin Petrovich Nechaev.

The Zhili-Fengtian conflicts killed tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. A later conflict known as the Anti-Fengtian War saw the early incarnation of the Kuomintang try to overthrow the Fengtian government in Beijing with Soviet support.

The Fengtian Clique—with material, financial, and military support from Japan, White Russian volunteers, and the Zhili Clique—managed to win the war. The war, which lasted from 1926 until 1927, only served to weaken the battle-weary warlord armies and increase distrust among the Chinese population.

Also not helping the warlord cause were the warlords themselves. While some proved to be excellent administrators (the best example was Yan Xishan of the Kuomintang), most were cynical brutes who made money by exploiting misery. Most warlords had been bandits before becoming soldiers, and thus criminal operations were natural to them.

Feng Yuxiang, the “Christian Warlord,” publicly denounced narcotics while simultaneously making a yearly income of $20 million in opium-related taxes. Muslim warlord Ma Hongkui of Ningxia Province was one of China’s greatest generals but also a tyrant.

After becoming governor of Ningxia in 1932, Ma reportedly carried out one execution a day. One of his first moves as governor was to decapitate 300 bandits. Ma’s strong anti-communism also meant that communists and suspected communists in Ningxia often wound up dead.

However, the most colorful and vile warlord general was Zhang Zongchang (aka the “Dogmeat General”). Based in the wealthy coastal province of Shandong, Zhang’s army, like all armies in China (including the Nationalists), made money from opium and forcing captured women into prostitution. However, Zhang excelled at this trade and was dubbed China’s “basest warlord” by Time magazine.

Zhang was notoriously lecherous. During the height of his power, he had 30–50 concubines who hailed from China, Korea, Japan, Russia, France, and the United States. Besides being a playboy who constantly bragged about the size of his penis as well as being a known gambler and opium addict, Zhang was a poet whose most famous piece of doggerel ends with the line, “Then I’ll have my cannons bombard your mom.”^[3]

7 Panthay Rebellion

China’s current war against Islamist insurgents is nothing new. Way back in the days of the Manchu Qing dynasty, Beijing constantly found itself at war with Muslim armies, which originated both from within China and outside of China’s borders. Between 1856 and 1873, a large Hui Muslim revolt in Yunnan Province required the Qing to put down the insurgency with force.

According to historian David G. Atwill, the traditional explanation that the revolt came about because of Hui Muslim hatred of the Han Chinese is not totally true. Rather, what the Chinese know as the Rebellion of Du Wenxiu began as a socioeconomic protest against Qing meddling.

In particular, between 1775 and 1850, Han Chinese migration to Yunnan saw the province’s population increase from 4 million to 10 million. This migration caused a sharp culture clash between the Han and Hui and led to environmental deterioration and an unsuccessful Qing attempt to establish direct imperial control over Yunnan.^[4]

According to Atwill, the rebellion began when Han Chinese societies and Han Chinese landowners began targeting Hui citizens during well-coordinated riots in the cities. Muslim leaders Ma Dexin, Ma Rulong, and Du Wenxin formed militias to avenge the Muslim deaths during these riots. But their armies later became multiethnic movements aimed at fighting against the Qing government.

Du (aka Sultan Sulayman) became the rallying point for an independence movement. Du received weapons and encouragement from British Indian officials in Burma, while the Qing received support from French officials in Tonkin.

The Qing defeated the rebellion and cruelly punished the rebels. Millions of Hui Muslims and other Yunnanese immigrants flooded into the Shan State of British Burma. Many of these immigrants would later become the movers and shakers of the region’s drug trade. Those rebels who did not surrender to the Qing were put to death. All told, approximately one million Hui Muslim and non-Muslim rebels and civilians died. The Qing lost one million as well.

6 Dungan Revolt

While the Muslims of Yunnan Province were in revolt, the Muslims of the central and western provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Xinjiang were also in open rebellion against the Qing. Between 1862 and 1877, Qing armies, Han Chinese locals, and Muslims of every background went to war with each other all across China. Tragically, the cause of the war was downright stupid.

Sometime in 1862, an argument began between a Han merchant and a Hui Muslim buyer of bamboo poles. When the Hui customer refused to pay the entire price asked by the merchant, the two ethnic groups began fighting one another.

What happened in the immediate aftermath is unclear, but in that year, the Hui people on the western bank of the Yellow River in the Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia provinces declared an independent Muslim state. At the same time, the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang broke out in rebellion against Beijing. In 1864, the province’s capital of Urumqi was in rebel hands.

As with every conflict during the late Qing Empire, the Dungan Revolt was international. The Qing government received support from Hui loyalists as well as the Khufiyya Sufis. The Hui Muslims of the central plains were alone and very disorganized.

Meanwhile, the Xinjiang cause and its leader, Yaqub Beg, received support from Russia, the British Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Yaqub Beg was responsible for turning the revolt into a tripartite war when, in the 1860s, the Turkic Muslims declared war on Han Chinese settlers and “jihad” against the Hui Muslims (Dungans).

The war had few set battles, but this did not stop the Dungan Revolt from becoming one of history’s most genocidal conflicts. By 1877, in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, two million Hui Muslims were dead while roughly six million Han had also been killed. These deaths represented almost 50 percent of the entire population of the three provinces.

It took the Qing Army two years to retake Xinjiang. When they did, millions of Hui Muslims fled to Russia while the Uighur, Uzbek, and Afghan soldiers of Yaqub Beg’s army were either arrested or executed. The total death toll from this rebellion may exceed 12 million.^[5]

5 Yellow Turban Rebellion

Although 19th-century China was a place of unremitting horror, ancient China was no better. In fact, the AD 200s were the apex of Chinese brutality until the coming of Mao. Between AD 184 and 205, Chinese peasants rose in rebellion against the Han dynasty. Known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion, this devastating war may be the only war in history inspired by the teachings of Taoism.

Zhang Jiao, the rebellion’s first leader, tapped into the economic malaise of the Later Han dynasty to make himself a fearsome warlord. The peasants’ complaints were many: high taxes, high debts owed to landowners, and the growth of a tenant farmer system that included mandatory peasant labor (corvee) for noble families and mandatory military service.

Making the situation worse was the weak leadership of the Han dynasty. Since the death of Emperor He, it had fallen into the hands of court manipulators, empresses and their families, and eunuchs. Corruption became the norm, with the buying and selling of government positions.

The peasants suffered the most, especially during droughts and floods. When these appeared, the incompetent men in charge of the state granaries often had to admit that there was no food.

Driven by starvation and anger, the peasants formed militias. Zhang, a master of the Taoist religion, was named as the rebellion’s first leader because he was a beloved healer among the peasants of Hebei Province. Zhang’s slogan was “the Blue-Gray Heaven (representing the Han) is dead, the Yellow Heaven (the color of Taoists) will be established.”^[6]

The peasant army, which was known for wearing distinctive yellow scarves, proved to be effective fighters. Early in the rebellion, the province of Shandong, the home of Confucius, Mencius, and Zisi, was captured by the rebels.

From there, Zhang and his brothers attempted to spread the message of Taoism, which included equal rights for peasants and land reform. These messages, along with the supposed healing powers of the Zhang family, saw rebel victories above the Yellow River and in and around Beijing.

To put down the rebellion, the Eastern Han organized a large army and began offensives in the areas where rebellion activity flourished. In AD 184, Zhang Jiao was killed during the defense of Guangzhou. The leadership of the rebellion then fell into the hands of the other two Zhang brothers, while smaller bands of Yellow Turbans turned to banditry to keep the war alive.

Although the Han managed to win the war, the cost of quashing the rebellion weakened the dynasty to the point that General Cao Cao, a warlord and bureaucrat of the Eastern Han who first tasted battle against the Yellow Turbans, leveraged Han weakness to establish a separate state known as Cao Wei. It is believed that the Yellow Turban Rebellion resulted in between three million and seven million deaths.

4 War Of The Three Kingdoms

The Yellow Rebellion led directly to the collapse of the Han dynasty. Since power vacuums invariably lead to bloodshed, it was only a matter of time before a civil war broke out in China. That is exactly what happened in 220. Three rival kingdoms—Wei, Shu, and Wu—went to war with each other to unify China. The war ended in 266 when the Jin dynasty of Northern China conquered the Eastern Wu.

When the Eastern Han state collapsed, Cao Pi, the son of Cao Cao, took control of the Wei state in Northern China. The Wei Kingdom included several former Han generals. Other Han generals used the chaos to set up their own kingdoms. General Shu-Han created the Shu Kingdom in what is today Sichuan Province, while another former Han general established the Wu Kingdom at Nanjing. These kingdoms almost immediately fell into fighting one another.

In either 263 or 264, the Wei defeated and conquered the Shu. Two years later, Sima Yan/Wudi, one of the Wei generals, took the Wei throne and established the Jin dynasty. In 280, the Jin defeated the Wu and briefly united all the lands of the former Han dynasty. China would continue to be controlled by the Jin until 420.

The Three Kingdoms period is best known in China as the inspiration for The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a classic of Chinese literature and one of the world’s first novels. Written by the Shaanxi native Luo Guanzhong, the novel was published in the 14th century. The beauty of Luo’s words and several infrastructure improvements (including new irrigation and shipbuilding programs fueled by the Silk Road) have served to obscure the awful realities of this time period.^[7]

The true horror of the war is captured by this statistic: During the Han dynasty, China’s population stood at 54 million. When the Jin took power, China’s population was 16 million. This means that 36–40 million people died during the 60-year conflict.

3 Taiping Rebellion

Religious fervor gripped the late Qing Empire. Specifically, between 1850 and 1864, a rebel general named Hong Xiuquan proclaimed himself the brother of Jesus Christ and the prophet of a new era for the Chinese people.

Within the usual strictures of Chinese history, Hong should never have amounted to much, let alone led a rebellion that commanded a major city and almost brought down an empire.

Hong was born in 1814 in the southern province of Guangdong (Canton). As a young man, he took the civil service exam that was required of all aspiring bureaucrats. He failed this test multiple times. Defeated, Hong decided to head home.

On the journey in 1847, Hong had several fevered visions for 30 days, including one where he and his brother fought the demons of the Kingdom of Hell. To stop demons from destroying the world, Hong declared himself the “Heavenly King, Lord of the Kingly Way.”^[8]

His vision drew recruits from the poor and destitute classes of southern China. Hong’s Taiping Tianguo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Harmony) promised Heaven on Earth, the removal of hated Qing, and the removal of foreign powers (specifically the British and French) from China.

The Taiping vision of a new China included one where Christianity was wedded with Confucianism, land reform and common property shared among peasants was the norm, women were given an equal status with men in society, and abstinence from alcohol and opium would be encouraged.

By the late 1850s, the Taiping controlled the important port city of Nanjing (renamed Tianjing) and a third of China. At the height of Taiping power, its army stood at a million men and women.

Beginning in 1853, the Taiping army began making expeditions northward in the hopes of capturing Beijing, the Qing capital. Although the Taiping scored several victories near the Yellow River, they never managed to capture Beijing. The movement soon became fratricidal when Yang Xiuqing, the Minister of State, tried to replace Hong.

Hong had Yang and his followers executed. Then, when General Wei Changhui began to grow “haughty,” Hong had him murdered as well. These killings inspired several Taiping generals to switch sides and convinced Western powers to form their own armies to stop the Taiping.

The best-known anti-Taiping force was the Ever Victorious Army (EVA). This army was raised in Shanghai by British, American, and French merchants. The army’s Chinese foot soldiers were commanded by an odd assortment of military adventurers, mercenaries, and professional soldiers.

Frederick Townsend Ward, a 29-year-old experienced sailor from Salem, Massachusetts, and Charles “Chinese” Gordon, a British Army officer who would later die in the Sudan, led the EVA with pluck and plenty of Western weapons. The EVA and the regular Qing Army, itself well-supplied with British and French weapons and ships, ended the rebellion in 1864.

The devastation of the Taiping Rebellion was so great that certain Chinese provinces did not recover from the damage until well into the 20th century. It is believed that 20–30 million Chinese soldiers and civilians died during the war.

2 An Lushan Rebellion

The worst military rebellion in Chinese history was led by a man who once pledged his loyalty to the emperor. Between 755 and 763, An Lushan, a former general of the army of the Tang dynasty, brought down the Tang dynasty, captured two of the most important cities in Chinese history, and nearly eradicated entire populations as a result.

An Lushan did not begin as a rebel. In fact, he was a hero for much of his life. An Lushan (aka Xiongwu) was neither Han Chinese nor a member of an East Asian ethnic group. His father’s family came from Bukhara in today’s Uzbekistan. An’s father was a Sogdian, an Indo-European people noted for their red hair and artistic creativity.

It was the Sogdians who dominated the Silk Road trade long before the Chinese emperors. An’s mother was an Eastern Turk (Gokturk) whose noble family had been involved in the Turkic takeover in Mongolia in the fifth century AD.

An Lushan’s ethnicity did not hurt him. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty encouraged non-Chinese groups to join the Tang bureaucracy, specifically the army. Like the Late Roman Empire, the Tang dynasty valued these foederati for their battle prowess and excellent horsemanship. These soldiers were also desperately needed by the Tang, who found themselves in the eighth century unable to protect their borders from outside invasions.

At the Battle of Talas in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad defeated a Tang army supported by Sogdian and Turkic mercenaries. After this battle, Central Asia fell into the Muslim, rather than Chinese, sphere of influence. The only bright spot for the Tang dynasty was their minor victories in Tibet.

On December 16, 755, General An Lushan, who had been appointed the commander of a 150,000-strong army by Emperor Xuanzong, marched against the Tang court. An justified this rebellion because he claimed that he had suffered insults at the Tang court from Yang Guozhong, his political rival.

In no time, An’s force captured the city of Luoyang in Henan Province. At the time, Luoyang was the eastern capital of the Tang Empire. At Luoyang, An declared the creation of the Great Yan dynasty with himself as the first emperor. General An’s forces then moved to capture southern China as well as the Tang capital of Chang’an (Xi’an). An made sure to treat captured Tang troops well so that they would defect en masse.^[9]

It took the Great Yan army two years to capture Henan Province. In the meantime, the Tang hired 4,000 Arab mercenaries to defend Chang’an. The Yan looked unable to take the city.

However, Yang Guozhong decided to fight the Great Yan on the flat plains outside of Chang’an. An’s men easily defeated this Tang force, and thus, Yang Guozhong and Emperor Xuanzong had to flee to Sichuan. Xuanzong eventually abdicated, and Chang’an became the Great Yan’s capital.

An Lushan’s rebellion faced its first setback in 757. In that year, a Tang army made up of 22,000 Arab and Uighur recruits retook Chang’an. These Muslim troops would intermarry with local Han women, thus creating today’s Hui Muslim minority.

In that same year, An Lushan’s son, An Qingxu, killed his father and then was killed by An Lushan’s friend, Shi Siming. Siming would also be murdered by his son, and the instability of the Great Yan court led to the defection of hundreds of generals back to the Tang court.

By 763, internal strife and renewed Tang offensives ended the rebellion. The final death toll was staggering. In 754, the recorded Chinese population stood at over 52 million. By 764, only 16.9 million Chinese were left alive. That means that 36 million people perished as a result of An Lushan’s quest for power.

1 The Manchu Conquest Of The Ming Dynasty

The last Han Chinese dynasty of China was the Ming dynasty, which lasted from 1368 until 1644. The Ming are celebrated today not only because of their beautiful artwork, especially their use of porcelain, but also because they overthrew the yoke of the Mongol Yuan dynasty while also establishing protectorates in Vietnam and Myanmar.

The successor to the Ming, the Qing dynasty, would last for 276 years and would increase the imperial holdings of China to its largest extent. The Qing Empire conquered Tibet, Mongolia, and parts of Siberia.

Today, many Chinese celebrate the Qing for their expansion of Chinese territory. However, if these praises come from the Han Chinese, then they are tragically ironic. After all, under the Manchu Qing, Han Chinese people were officially second-class citizens and suffered one of history’s worst conquests.

The Manchu people of Northern China, who are ethnically related to other Tungusic peoples like the Evenks of Siberia, the Orochs of Russia and Ukraine, and the Sibe of Xinjiang, were led in the 17th century by the Jurchen warlord Nurhaci. For 30 years, Ming China enjoyed relative peace because Nurhaci was too busy militarily uniting the five Jurchen tribes of Northern China. Once this was accomplished, Nurhaci established the Eight Banners, a patrilineal system for military and civilian governance.

In 1616, Nurhaci declared himself the khan of the reconstituted Jin dynasty (aka the Later Jin). To show his wealth and status, he created a dazzling palace at his capital in Mukden (today’s Shenyang). Two years later, Nurhaci declared war on the Ming after commissioning a document entitled “Seven Great Vexations.”^[10]

In it, Nurhaci blamed the Ming government for favoring the Yehe tribe, one of the northern tribes that Nurhaci had gone to war against. Until his death in 1626, Nurhaci went from victory to victory, defeating Ming armies, Mongol tribes, and Korea’s Joseon dynasty.

Despite the formidable Jurchen/Manchu military, the Ming dynasty collapsed from within. Owing to financial instability and endless peasant rebellions, Han Chinese officials asked Nurhaci’s successor, Hong Taiji, to name himself emperor. On April 24, 1644, Beijing was captured by a peasant army led by Li Zicheng, who in turn declared the formation of the Shun dynasty.

A little over a month later, at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, Wu Sangui of the Ming Army allied himself with the Manchus and opened the Great Wall of China at the Shanhai Pass to let Prince Dorgon’s Manchu army enter the Central Plains. From this point until 1662, the Qing dynasty of the Manchus slowly defeated the Shun and Xi dynasty of the peasant leader Zhang Xianzhong. This war of conquest more than likely killed over 25 million people. The conquest exposed the Qing aptitude for cruelty, too.

Qing judges instituted a punishment known as “death by a thousand cuts” (lingchi). Criminals sentenced to this punishment suffered innocuous cuts for hours before being strangled and decapitated. Although this punishment was rare, far more common was the queue haircut.

This haircut, which featured a completely shaven head except for a long pigtail, became a part of Han Chinese life when Qing Emperor Shunzi ordered all Han men to adopt it as a sign of submission. When Han Chinese men revolted against this order, the Qing instituted a policy of decapitation. Namely, if any man refused to wear the hairstyle, then he’d lose his head.

The fear of the Qing and the Manchus was so great that, even as late as the 1920s, long after the overthrow of the last Qing emperor in 1911, many Han Chinese men still refused to cut their queues.

Benjamin Welton is a freelance writer based in Boston.