Beijing opera: Facts

Facts on topics related to Beijing opera

Beijing Communist Party chief Li Ximing was a leading supporter of military action against the Tiananmen Square protests that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people?
French Sinologist Paul Pelliot was caught up in the Boxer Rebellion and trapped in the siege of Peking?
British cyclist Simon Richardson won two gold medals and one silver at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing?
Ireland's former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern presented an episode of GAA television programme The Road to Croker when the usual host was at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing?
a Cossack community existed in Beijing as early as 1685?
Bailin Temple in Beijing was not pillaged by Anglo-French forces in 1860 or by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900 because of the superstitious fear that Tibetan Buddhism inspired in the invaders?
Beijing opera did not originate in Beijing but in the Chinese provinces of Anhui and Hubei?
James Bennet was set to become Beijing correspondent for The New York Times when he instead was appointed the fourteenth editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly in March 2006?
Meng Xuenong was sacked as mayor of Beijing during the SARS crisis, but has now made a comeback as governor of Shanxi province?
Tim Morehouse, a member of the U.S. fencing team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, originally took up fencing in order to be excused from his high school gym class?

Admiral Clarence S. Williams, commander in chief of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, directed a 1926 military intervention to protect foreign nationals in Shanghai at the start of the Chinese Civil War?
Mao Anqing, the last known surviving son of Mao Zedong, suffered from a mental illness often attributed to a severe beating received from a policeman while living on the streets in Shanghai in the 1930s?
murdered Australian designer Florence Broadhurst opened a performing arts academy in Shanghai before she became famous for her wallpaper designs?

Ming Hsieh, whose parents were persecuted under the Cultural Revolution, began learning electrical engineering from his father and went on to develop biometric technology that made him one of the richest people in the world?
Sir Percy Cradock was manhandled by the Red Guards when he was stationed at the charge d'affaires office, Peking, during the Cultural Revolution?
Jiang Rong was inspired to write his 2004 novel Wolf Totem during China's Cultural Revolution after a failed attempt to domesticate a wolf?
despite the scar literature after the Cultural Revolution in China contributing to Deng Xiaoping's return to power, he later suppressed it?
during the Cultural Revolution, after the crosses of St. Michael's Cathedral (pictured) in Qingdao were cut from its steeples by the Red Guard, they were buried by loyal Catholics to protect them?

Kjell Heggelund has translated poems by Mao Zedong, as well as the French surrealists Paul Éluard and Robert Desnos into the Norwegian language?
Mao Anqing, the last known surviving son of Mao Zedong, suffered from a mental illness often attributed to a severe beating received from a policeman while living on the streets in Shanghai in the 1930s?
Zhang Zhenshi created a widely reproduced image of Mao Zedong which is known as China's Mona Lisa?

Admiral Clarence S. Williams, commander in chief of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, directed a 1926 military intervention to protect foreign nationals in Shanghai at the start of the Chinese Civil War?

Chai Trong-rong, a Taiwanese legislator, was unable to return to Taiwan while studying abroad because he was placed on the Kuomintang's black list?
the author Pai Hsien-yung's father was Kuomintang general Pai Chung-hsi?
the Northeast Flag Replacement in 1928 ended the Chinese Warlord Era, in which Zhang Xueliang announced the replacement of all flags in Manchuria with the Nationalist Government's flag, thus nominally reuniting China?
the militants of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang were given training in Yunnan in China by the Kuomintang, but then went on to engage in robbery on KMT territory?

following the 1886 Seattle anti-Chinese riot the United States Congress paid the Chinese government $276,619.15 in compensation, but the victims received nothing?
the erstwhile capital of the Qing Heilongjiang was built on the site of a town formerly belonging to the Ducher people, whose ethnic identification remains controversial?
the Emin Minaret (pictured) in Turfan, Xinjiang, built in the 18th century during the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong, is the tallest minaret in China?
the Ever Victorious Army, consisting of Chinese imperial forces led by a European officer corps, was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion?
the first railway locomotive in China was in service for only 15 months between 1876 and 1877 before being purchased and deliberately destroyed by the ruling Qing Dynasty?

eunuch admiral Yishiha is credited with constructing the only two Ming Buddhist temples ever built in modern-day Russia?
Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516?
Ming Dynasty general Gang Bing castrated himself and placed his severed organs under Emperor Yongle's saddle to avoid being accused of sexual improprieties?
modern historians still debate on whether or not the Ming Dynasty of China had sovereignty over Tibet?
the Joseon Korean official Choe Bu wrote a travel diary about his shipwrecked stay in Ming China that eventually became widely printed in Korea and Japan during the 16th century?