Lonely Planet China

by Lonely Planet

  1927

  The Kuomintang leader Chiang Kaishek turns on the communists in Shànghǎi and Guǎngzhōu, having thousands killed and forcing the communists to turn to a rural-based strategy.

  1930s

  Cosmopolitan Shànghǎi is the world’s fifth-largest city (the largest in the Far East), supporting a polyglot population of four million people.

  1930

  Chiang’s Kuomintang government achieves ‘tariff autonomy’: for the first time in nearly 90 years, China regains the power to tax imports freely, an essential part of fiscal stability.

  1931

  Japan invades Manchuria (northeast China), provoking an international crisis and forcing Chiang to consider anti-Japanese, as well as anticommunist, strategies.

  1932

  War breaks out in the streets of Shànghǎi in February–March, a sign that conflict between the two great powers of East Asia, China and Japan, may soon be coming.

  1935

  Mao Zedong begins his rise to paramount power at the conference at Zūnyì, held in the middle of the Long March to the northwest, on the run from the Kuomintang.

  1937

  The Japanese and Chinese clash at Wanping, near Běijīng, on 7 July, sparking the conflict that the Chinese call the ‘War of Resistance’, which only ends in 1945.

  1938

  Former prime minister Wang Jingwei announces he has gone over to Japan. He later inaugurates a ‘restored’ Kuomintang government with Japan holding the whip hand over government.

  1939

  On 3–4 May Japanese carpet bombing devastates the temporary Chinese capital of Chóngqìng. From 1938 to 1943, Chóngqìng is one of the world’s most heavily bombed cities.

  1941

  In the base area at Yán’ān (Shaanxi), the ‘Rectification’ program begins, remoulding the Communist Party into an ideology shaped principally by Mao Zedong.

  1941

  The Japanese attack the US at Pearl Harbor. China becomes a formal ally of the US, USSR and Britain in WWII, but is treated as a secondary partner at best.

  1943

  Chiang Kaishek negotiates an agreement with the Allies that, when Japan is defeated, Western imperial privileges in China will end forever, marking the twilight of Western imperialist power in China.

  1946

  Communists and the Kuomintang fail to form a coalition government, plunging China back into civil war. Communist organisation, morale and ideology all prove key to the communist victory.

  1949

  Mao Zedong stands on top of the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Běijīng on 1 October, and announces the formation of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), saying ‘The Chinese people have stood up’.

  1950

  China joins the Korean War, helping Mao to consolidate his regime with mass campaigns that inspire (or terrify) the population.

  1957

  A brief period of liberalisation under the ‘Hundred Flowers Movement’. However, criticisms of the regime lead Mao to crack down and imprison or exile thousands of dissidents.

  1958

  The Taiwan Straits Crisis. Mao’s government fires missiles near islands under the control of Taiwan in an attempt to prevent rapprochement between the US and USSR in the Cold War.

  1962

  The Great Leap Forward causes mass starvation. Politburo members Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping reintroduce limited market reforms, which lead to their condemnation during the Cultural Revolution.

  1966

  The Cultural Revolution breaks out, and Red Guards demonstrate in cities across China. The movement is marked by violence as a catalyst for transforming society.

  1972

  US President Richard Nixon visits China, marking a major rapprochement during the Cold War, and the start of full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

  1973

  Deng Xiaoping returns to power as deputy premier. The modernising faction in the party fights with the Gang of Four, who support the continuing Cultural Revolution.

  1976

  Mao Zedong dies, aged 83. The Gang of Four are arrested by his successor and put on trial, where they are blamed for all the disasters of the Cultural Revolution.

  1980

  The one-child policy is enforced. The state adopts it as a means of reducing the population, but at the same time imposes unprecedented control over the personal liberty of women.

  1987

  The Last Emperor, filmed in the Forbidden City, collects an Oscar for Best Picture, and marks a new openness in China towards the outside world.

  1988

  The daring series River Elegy (Héshāng) is broadcast on national TV. It is a devastating indictment of dictatorship and Mao’s rule in particular, and is banned in China after 1989.

  1989

  Hundreds of civilians are killed by Chinese troops in the streets around Tiān’ānmén Sq. No official reassessment has been made, but rumours persist of deep internal conflict within the party.

  1997

  Hong Kong is returned to the People’s Republic of China. Widespread fears that China will interfere directly in its government prove wrong, but its politics become more sensitive to Běijīng.

  2001

  China joins the World Trade Organization, giving it a seat at the top table that decides global norms on economics and finance.

  2004

  The world’s first commercially operating Maglev train begins scorching a trail across Shànghǎi’s Pǔdōng District, reaching a top speed of 431km/hr.

  2006

  The Three Gorges Dam is completed. Significant parts of the landscape of western China are lost beneath the waters, but energy is also provided for the expanding Chinese economy.

  2008

  Běijīng hosts the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and Paralympics. The Games go smoothly and are widely considered to be a great success in burnishing China’s image overseas.

  2008

  Violent riots in Lhasa, Tibet, again put the uneasy region centre stage. Protests spread to other Tibetan areas in Gānsù, Sìchuān and Qīnghǎi provinces.

  2008

  A huge 8.0-magnitude earthquake convulses Sìchuān province, leaving 87,000 dead or missing and rendering millions homeless.

  2009

  July riots in Ürümqi leave hundreds dead as interethnic violence flares between Uighurs and Han Chinese. Běijīng floods the region with soldiers and implements a 10-month internet blackout.

  2010

  A huge 7.1-magnitude earthquake in the Qīnghǎi region of the far west flattens the remote town of Yùshù in April, killing thousands.

  2011

  Two high-speed trains collide in July near Wēnzhōu in Zhèjiāng province, killing 40 people, the first fatal high-speed rail crash in China.

  2012

  After the heaviest rainfall in 60 years, Běijīng is inundated with epic summer floods; 77 people are killed by the floodwaters and 65,000 evacuated.

  2013

  In December the total length of China's national high-speed rail network reaches a staggering 10,000km, the world's longest.

  2014

  Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Běijīng, with 152 Chinese passengers on board (of a total of 239 people).

  2015

  Satellite imagery reveals that China has been rapidly constructing an airfield at Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly (Nánshā) Islands, part of territory also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan.

  People of China

  The stamping ground of roughly one-fifth of humanity, China is often regarded as being largely homogenous, at least from a remote Western perspective. This is probably because Han Chinese – the majority ethnic type in this energetic and bustling nation – constitute over nine-tenths of the population. But like Chinese cuisine, and of course the nation’s mystifying linguistic Babel, you only have to travel a bit further and turn a few more corners to come face to face with a surprising hodgepodge of ethnicities.<
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  Ethnicity

  Han Chinese

  Han Chinese (汉族; Hànzú) – the predominant clan among China’s 56 recognised ethnic groups – make up the lion’s share of China’s people, 92% of the total figure. When we think of China – from its writing system to its visual arts, calligraphy, history, literature, language and politics – we tend to associate it with Han culture.

  Distributed throughout China, the Han Chinese are however predominantly concentrated along the Yellow River, Yangzi River and Pearl River basins. Taking their name from the Han dynasty, the Han Chinese themselves are not markedly homogenous. China was ruled by non-Han Altaic (Turk, Tungusic or Mongolian) invaders for long periods, most demonstrably during the Yuan dynasty (Mongols) and the long Qing dynasty (Manchu), but also under the Jin, the Liao and other eras. This Altaic influence is more evident in northern Chinese with their larger and broader frames and rounder faces, compared to their slighter and thinner southern Han Chinese counterparts, who are physically more similar to the southeast Asian type. Shànghǎi Chinese for example are notably more southern in appearance; with their rounder faces, Běijīng Chinese are quite typically northern Chinese. With mass migration to the cities from rural areas and the increased frequency of marriage between Chinese from different parts of the land, these physical differences are likely to diminish slightly over time.

  The Han Chinese display further stark differences in their rich panoply of dialects, which fragments China into a frequently baffling linguistic mosaic, although the promotion of Mandarin has blurred this considerably. The common written form of Chinese using characters (汉字; Hànzi – or ‘characters of the Han’), however, binds all dialects together.

  Overseas Chinese frequently refer to people of Chinese blood from China or abroad as Huárén (华人; ‘people of China’. Conversely, foreigners are always called lǎowài ('outsiders' or 'foreigners'); the term is constantly used and does not respect geography – Chinese visitors overseas refer to local people as lǎowài, despite they themselves in context being lǎowài. Very rarely, Westerners may be called yángrén (洋人; ‘people of the ocean’), although down south you might encounter the slurs guǐlǎo (‘foreign devils’) and hēiguǐ ('black devil'; for black people).

  The Naxi created a written language more than 1000 years ago using an extraordinary system of pictographs – the only hieroglyphic language still in use today.

  The Non-Han Chinese

  A glance at the map of China reveals that the core heartland regions of Han China are central fragments of modern-day China’s huge expanse. The colossal regions of Tibet, Qīnghǎi, Xīnjiāng, Inner Mongolia and the three provinces of the northeast (Manchuria – Hēilóngjiāng, Jílín and Liáoníng) are all historically non-Han regions, some areas of which remain essentially non-Han today.

  Many of these regions are peopled by some of the remaining 8% of the population: China’s 55 other ethnic minorities, known collectively as shǎoshù mínzú (少数民族; minority nationals). The largest minority groups in China include the Zhuang (壮族; Zhuàng zú), Manchu (满族; Mǎn zú), Miao (苗族; Miáo zú), Uighur (维吾尔族; Wéiwú'ěr zú), Yi (彝族; Yí zú), Tujia (土家族; Tǔjiā zú), Tibetan (藏族; Zàng zú), Hui (回族; Huízú), Mongolian (蒙古族; Ménggǔ zú), Buyi (布依族; Bùyī zú), Dong (侗族; Dòng zú), Yao (瑶族; Yáo zú), Korean (朝鲜族; Cháoxiǎn zú), Bai (白族; Bái zú), Hani (哈尼族; Hāní zú), Li (黎族; Lí zú), Kazak (哈萨克族; Hāsàkè zú) and Dai (傣族; Dǎi zú). Population sizes differ dramatically, from the sizeable Zhuang in Guǎngxī to small numbers of Menba (门巴族; Ménbā zú) in Tibet. Ethnic labelling can be quite fluid: the roundhouse-building Hakka (客家; Kèjiā) were once regarded as a separate minority, but are today considered Han Chinese. Ethnic groups also tell us a lot about the historic movement of peoples around China: the Bonan minority, found in small numbers in a few counties of Qīnghǎi and Gānsù, are largely Muslim but show marked Tibetan influence and are said to be descended from Mongol troops once stationed in Qīnghǎi during the Yuan dynasty.

  China’s minorities tend to cluster along border regions, in the northwest, the west, the southwest, the north and northeast of China, but are also distributed throughout the country. Some groups are found in just one area (such as the Hani in Yúnnán); others, such as the Muslim Hui, live all over China.

  Wedged into the southwest corner of China between Tibet, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam and Laos, fecund Yúnnán province alone is home to more than 20 ethnic groups, making it one of the most ethnically diverse provinces in the country.

  Despite Manchu culture once ruling over China during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), possibly fewer than 50 native speakers of the Manchu language survive today, although the closely related Xibo language is spoken by around 20,000 descendants of Xibo tribes resettled in Xīnjiāng in China’s northwest in the 18th century.

  David Eimer’s The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China (Bloomsbury, 2014) is a riveting journey through China's periphery, from the deserts of Xīnjiāng and the mountains of Tibet, to the tropical jungles of Xīshuāngbǎnnà and the frozen wastes of far northern Heīlóngjiāng.

  The Chinese Character

  Shaped by Confucian principles, the Chinese are thoughtful and discreet, subtle but also pragmatic. Conservative and rather introverted, they favour dark clothing over bright or loud colours while their body language is usually reserved and undemonstrative, yet attentive.

  The Chinese can be both delightful and mystifyingly contradictory. One moment they will give their seat to an elderly person on the bus or help someone who is lost, and the next moment they will entirely ignore an old lady who has been knocked over by a motorbike.

  Particularly diligent, the Chinese are inured to the kind of hours that may prompt a workers’ insurrection elsewhere. This is partly due to a traditional culture of hard work but is also a response to insufficient social-security safety nets and an anxiety regarding economic and political uncertainties. The Chinese impressively save much of what they earn, emphasising the virtue of prudence. Despite this restraint, however, wastefulness can be breathtaking when ‘face’ is involved: mountains of food are often left on restaurant dining tables, particularly if important guests are present.

  Chinese people are deeply generous. Don’t be surprised if a person you have just met on a train invites you for a meal in the dining carriage; they will almost certainly insist on paying, grabbing the bill from the waiter at blinding speed and tenaciously resisting your attempts to help out.

  The Chinese are also an exceptionally dignified people. They are proud of their civilisation and history, their written language and their inventions and achievements. This pride rarely comes across as arrogance, however, and can be streaked with a lack of self-assurance. The Chinese may, for example, be very gratified by China’s new-found world status, but may squirm at the mention of food safety or pollution.

  The modern Chinese character has been shaped by recent political realities, and while Chinese people have always been reserved and circumspect, in today’s China they can appear even more prudent. Impressive mental gymnastics are performed to detour contentious domestic political issues, which can make the mainland Chinese appear complicated, despite their reputation for being straightforward.

  For an idea of local urban salaries, a chef or wait-staff in a Shànghǎi restaurant can expect to earn between ¥2500 and ¥3500 (about US$380 to US$535) per month.

  China’s ‘One-Child Policy’

  The ‘one-child policy’ (in effect a misnomer) was railroaded into effect in 1979 in a bid to keep China’s population to one billion by the year 2000 (a target it failed to meet); the population is expected to peak at around 1.5 billion in 2028. In a momentous reversal, in 2015 it was announced that the policy would be abolished and in January 2016 the regulation was officially amended to a two-child policy.

  The policy was harshly implemented at first but rural revolt led to a softer stance;
nonetheless, it generated much bad feeling between local officials and the rural population. All non-Han minorities were exempt from the one-child policy; Han Chinese parents who were both single children could have a second child and this was later expanded to all couples if at least one of them was a single child. Rural families were allowed to have two children if the first child was a girl, but some had upwards of three or four kids. Additional children often resulted in fines, with families having to shoulder the cost of education themselves, without government assistance. Official stated policy opposed forced abortion or sterilisation, but allegations of coercion continued as local officials strived to meet population targets. In 2014 the film director Zhang Yimou was fined US$1.2m for breaking the one-child policy.

  Families who abided by the one-child policy often went to horrifying lengths to ensure their child was male, with female infanticide, sex-selective abortion and abandonment becoming commonplace. In parts of China, this resulted in a serious imbalance of the sexes – in 2010, 118 boys were born for every 100 girls. In some provinces the imbalance has been even higher. By 2020, potentially around 35 million Chinese men may be unable to find spouses.

  As women could have a second child abroad, this also led to large numbers of mainland women giving birth in Hong Kong (where the child also qualified for Hong Kong citizenship). The Hong Kong government eventually used legislation to curb this phenomenon, dubbed ‘birth tourism’, as government figures revealed that almost half of babies born in the territory in 2010 were born to mainland parents. In 2013, the Hong Kong government prohibited mainland women from visiting Hong Kong to give birth, unless their husband is from the territory.

  Another consequence of the one-child policy has been a rapidly ageing population, with over a quarter of the populace predicted to be over the age of 65 by 2050. The 2016 abolition of the one-child policy has sought to adjust these profound imbalances, but some analysts argue it has come too late.