Good morning, just wanted to share a (not so fun) Chinese culture fact real quick. Y'all might know 2020 is the Year of the Rat. What you might not know is the cycle of 12 Chinese Zodiac signs also cycle with the five elements (water, wood, metal, fire, earth) (1/5)
That makes this year's zodiac sign 庚子 (metal rat). 12 signs times 5 elements means that this combination occurs every 60 years. In Chinese superstition, 庚子 years are *super* bad omens. (2/5)
Let's walk it back to 60 years ago to the last 庚子 year. 1960 was the apex of the Great Chinese Famine. The deadliest famine in human history, over 15 million Chinese died from a nightmare combination of drought and Mao's disastrous Great Leap Forward. (3/5)
The 庚子 year before that was 1900. This was the year the British, French, Germans, Russians, Japanese, Americans, Italians, and Austria-Hungarians besieged Beijing as part of the Boxer Rebellion. (4/5)
Winding it back 60 more years is 1840: a year every Mainlander has burned into their mind from the first day of history class -- the First Opium War.
So 2020 is just another awful year in Chinese history... now the rest of the world can participate too. Thanks, Metal Rat!
So 2020 is just another awful year in Chinese history... now the rest of the world can participate too. Thanks, Metal Rat!
