Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The Chinese government has not seen fit to unblock blogspot, so I am sending this to my son in the hope that he will post it for me.

On the 19th May we visited the Taiping Museum. Here is a bit of history about the Taipings.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644AD to 1911AD) a Hakka called Hong Xiu Quan (1814AD to 1864AD) founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851AD to 1864AD). He titled himself Tian Wang (Heavenly King), the Second Son of God and the
Younger Brother of Jesus Christ.

Hong Xiu Quan (1814-1864) was the son of a farmer and an aspiring Chinese bureaucrat. He came under the influence of Christian missionaries, and reached the conclusion that he was the younger son of Jesus sent to found the Heavenly Kingdom on earth. Faced with the collapse of Qing dynasty rule (under Western onslaught), Hong tapped into the deep millenarianism (belief in a coming ideal society and especially one created by revolutionary action) of the Chinese peasantry (previously expressed in Buddhist terms) and began a rebellion - the Taiping Rebellion.

Lasting from 1851 to1864 the rebellion took control of large areas of south and central China, including the southern capital of Nanjing. There a theocratic ¬military government was established.

Although it was millenarian in form, the Taiping leaders adopted many policies which would later become the marks of modernizers in China: prohibition of opium ¬smoking, gambling, the use of tobacco and wine, polygamy, the sale of slaves, and prostitution. They promoted the equality of the sexes: they abolished foot-binding and appointed women as administrators and officers in the Taiping army. They also tried to abolish the private ownership of land and property, and they developed a program for the equal distribution of land.

As the movement developed Hong became more and more an Emperor and less and less a religious leader.

The impetus of the movement suffered greatly as Hong withdrew from active control of policies and administration in 1853. His sanity progressively eroding he devoted himself to meditation and more sensual pursuits, including his private harem. The failure of the movement to secure European support or that of the middle classes was another blow. The Heavenly Kingdom was eventually defeated by the imperial forces who were helped by Europeans. The imperial army consisted of 2 million to 5 million regulars along with hundreds of thousands of regional militias and foreign mercenaries operating in support. Among the imperial forces was the elite “Ever Victorious Army”, consisting of Chinese soldiers led by a European officer corps (Frederick Townsend Ward and Charles Gordon).

The museum did not have much to say about the religion behind the Heavenly Kingdom and emphasized the military conquests.

Welcome Rain

Starting on Thursday the 8th May we had above 30 degree C. weather for four straight days. The following Monday about 9:00 p.m. it started to rain and for the next few days the temperature was down in the 20 degree C. Range. It rained a bit. By Friday again it was getting very hot, but during the night it started to rain and rained all day Saturday and the temperature was much more comfortable.

On the 8th and 9th we heard many firecrackers in the mornings because there were weddings those days. The 8th is considered a good day for a wedding because in Chinese eight sounds like wealth. Nine sounds like long so the 9th is also considered a good day for marriages. A Chinese would not get married on the 4th because it is considered unlucky. Four sounds like death in Chinese. The Friday before was a national holiday so there were also quite a few weddings then.

On the wedding morning the groom goes to the bride’s home and carries her back to his home (actually he piggybacks her out to the car and drives). Her feet aren’t allowed to touch the ground between her home and his. They set off firecrackers when they go to the bride’s home and maybe when they get to the groom’s home. Weddings used to be at the groom’s home and were very small but now often the marriage takes place at the restaurant where they hold the reception.

Red is the colour for marriages. Both families decorate their homes in red and the bride is often married in red. Pictures are taken in the weeks before the wedding and for the pictures the bride often wears the typical white western wedding dress.

A wonderful thing happened this week. We found the foreign bookstore in Nanjing. I bought four paperbacks.

Tuesday we went out for Mexican food and Friday to Poppa John’s Pizza (American ingredients and American prices).

Saturday I was the deputy chairman for a model UN conference. It was interesting. I have never had anything to do with MUN before.

The Chinese government blocked out youtube starting in March and this week they blocked Blogspot, so if this gets posted it will be because of one of my children did the posting for me.

Here are a couple of pictures of the campus that we teach at:

The hill behind the Campus

A square in the middle of the building

The view from the bus stop Rocks with uneven surfaces are considered attractive in China.

Working Methods

Hauling Away Branches Trimmed from Trees

Load of Branches from the Back

Scaffolding

Crane Above the Scaffolding

Tree Support

Take Time to Smell the Roses

In the spring a young man's fancy

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Campus Fountain

In the center of NJU campus there is a fountain which is turned on a couple of times a day. Music is played and in the evening there are coloured lights along with the spray. Surrounding the fountain is a cement wall and a hedge. During the week many grandparents bring the pre-preschoolers to the fountain to play. On the week-ends the parents and older children come.

Labour Day - May 1st

Today is Labour Day in China. It is a national holiday and there are no classes (not that I have any classes on Friday anyway but Bob does). This is the first year there hasn't been a seven day holiday for Labour day. It was called Golden Week, but the government saw fit to change Golden Week into several long week-ends instead, so this year we had Tomb Sweeping Day and Labour Day and will have Dragon Boat day at the end of May. Many people are upset about the change and there have been petitions about changing it back to a week, but no luck. We chose not to go travelling this week-end. There are very few students around the campus.

Last Friday we celebrated Bob's birthday a couple of weeks late by going out for Mexican Food with some friends. They came to our apartment after for brownies and ice cream.

Sunday night we had to do English Corner again. Does anybody have any suggestions for some good games to play with a group in a classroom? We have one more English Corner left. We did a get acquainted game, twenty questions and a guessing game where they had to draw pictures on the board for their group to figure out a word.

Summer and very hot weather has arrived in Nanjing. Many girls have their parasols or umbrellas out so they won't get a sun tan. I keep hoping it won't get any warmer until we leave at the end of June, although I am told it rains all May in Nanjing, so maybe it won't get too hot. The roses are out and are beautiful and the winter cabbage plants have all been changed. There are big lanterns hanging at the gate.

Since Times Grocery store is out of Dr. Pepper and we heard that they sometimes have it at a store in Aqua City (a new mall that opened last November) we decided to visit the Mall this afternoon. It is a big mall built around a dome with a round courtyard in the center. It is several stories high with two basements. Most of the stores are foreign such as Dockers, Lee, Polo etc. and the goods are very expensive. A pair of dockers would cost over half a months salary. The nice thing about the mall was that it wasn't crowded. Unfortunately we didn't find any Dr. Pepper. There are fountains all around the building.

We can buy the most delicious pineapple here in Nanjing and the nice thing about it is it is peeled when we buy it. We just have to slice it up.