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Carl Zha

@CarlZha

8 Jan

Zhou Enlai passed away 45 years ago today. He founded the People’s Liberation Army in 1927 after Chiang Kai-Shek massacred Communist workers in Shanghai. He helped build CPC party organization that went on to win the Civil War and govern China. His protege Deng continued his work

Zhou Enlai came from scholar-official gentry family that may have descended frm Ajall Shams al-Din Omar al-Bukhari, Central Asian Muslim governor of Yunnan who had came to China w Kublai Khan’s Mongol Army. His family fortune waned as Qing Dynasty declined. His Uncle cared 4 him

In 1911 during last days of Qing Dynasty as 13 yr old Zhou was studying in Mukden (Shenyang), Manchuria, teacher asked his class “why do you study?”

Zhou replied: 為中華之崛起 For China’s rise!

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Carl Zha

@CarlZha

25 Dec 20

@TheWarNerd

.@TheWarNerd asked me if famous Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai was really born in Suyab, Kyrgyzstan. I thought I had an easy answer. Then I quickly went down the rabbit hole of explaining near impossible tale of how China’s most famous poet born in the heart of Central Asia. A thread

Turns out Li Bai’s family background shrouded in mystery. We only have brief accounts frm Li Bai himself and his close family and friends. All suggest Li Bai family moved to Sichuan from Central Asia in 705 AD before he was 5 yr old and he descends frm Royal house of Xi Liang西凉

Primary source on Li Bai family background: his writing, his Uncle’s memoir and his Tomb inscription. But details scant on how his family ended up settling in Central Asia. Famous scholar Chen Yinke 陈寅恪 thinks Li is non-Chinese origin.

Kyrgyzstan stamp commemorating Li Bai

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Carl Zha

@CarlZha

23 Dec 20

https://twitter.com/notxiangyu/status/1341773368769523717

True even for Mandarin dialects. Mandarin 官话 is a whole language family. What people usually refers to Mandarin in English is actually Standard Mandarin Putonghua 普通话

I grew up speaking Chongqing dialect 成渝话 of SW Mandarin 西南官话, lots Beijingers can’t understand it

https://twitter.com/notxiangyu/status/1341773368769523717

For thousands of years, Chinese writing is in Classical Chinese which is based on 雅语 Classical Chinese spoken around time of Confucius (551–479 BC).

But anti-traditionalist May 4th movement in 1919 as response to Western predation on China prompted switch to use of colloquial

The vernacular language 白话文 advocated to replace Classical Chinese文言文 in writing is based on Standard Mandarin 國語/普通话 which was created frm Beijing dialect of Mandarin 北京官话.

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Carl Zha

@CarlZha

16 Dec 20

US politician and Western MSM started new round of campaign accusing China using millions of #Uyghur slaves to work on #Xinjiang cotton "plantations". Reports source none other than Adrian Zenz, originator of million Uyghurs in concentration camp story. A thread debunking Zenz

@VoCommunism

Adrian Zenz, @VoCommunism “researcher” came out w new report purportedly w evidence of #Uyghur slave labor used to produce cotton in #Xinjiang.

‘Evidence’ 1: because Uyghur majority region in Southern Xinjiang employ local labor!!!

Zenz claims China replacing Han migrant labor in #Xinjiang with local #Uyghur in order to meet its local poverty alleviation program MUST mean Uyghurs are slaves!!!

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Carl Zha

@CarlZha

15 Dec 20

Trying to name my kid, I looked up Zha family generation names. Chinese families traditionally use a character from a poem to denote each generation. Poem for 查 Zha Clan: 秉志允大继嗣克昌，奕世有人济美忠良，传家孝友华国文章，宗英绍起祖德载光

Great-Grandpa is 查济眉. 济is his generation name. 4 generation frm him is covered by phrase 济美忠良. I am 良generation 良字辈, same generation as martial arts novelist Jin Yong 金庸, full name 查良镛, who is my 族兄 Clan brother.

What I realized that Grandpa didn’t strictly follow the generation naming rule. His children are 忠generation 忠字辈. But he swapped char 忠 (loyalty) to homophone 中 (China) and put it last, so Dad and Uncles would’ve patriotic name like 建中(build China) etc

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Carl Zha

@CarlZha

13 Dec 20

As someone who actually grew up in China in 1980s, I can actually talked abt how commemoration of Nanjing Massacre changed inside China. I will make a thread

I was born in Oct 1976. 1 month after Mao died. I went to elementary school in China in 1982. my 1st to 4th grade was during honeymoon period btw Japan and China. We learn abt horrors of Hiroshima bombing and how Japan was a victim of US Imperialism

1985 was a pivotal year in Sino-Japanese relations. On the 40the year of Japanese surrender, Japanese PM Yasuhiro Nakasone visited Yasukuni shrine for the 1st time after WW2 Japanese war criminals had been enshrined there in 1978.

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