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George Orwell’s grandmother lived at Moulmein. In October 1922 he sailed on board S.S. Herefordshire to join the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. At the end of 1924 he was promoted to Assistant District Superintendent and posted to Syriam. In April 1926 he moved to Moulmein, where his grandmother lived. At the end of that year, he went to Katha, where he contracted Dengue fever in 1927. He was entitled to leave in England that year, and in view of his illness, was allowed to go home in July. While on leave in England in 1927, he reappraised his life and resigned from the Indian Imperial Police with the intention of becoming a writer. His Burma police experience yielded the novel Burmese Days (1934) and the essays "A Hanging" (1931) and "Shooting an Elephant" (1936).
Tokugawa Yoshinobu, also known as 'Keiki', was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful.<br/><br/> Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934) was a Japanese painter from Edo. He became a follower of the yōga (Western-style) of painting, and journeyed for a time through France and Italy. He aided in the formation of the Meiji Bijutsukai in 1889, the first art association in Japan championing western-style painting.
Tokugawa Yoshimune (November 27, 1684 - July 12, 1751) was the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.<br/><br/> Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934) was a Japanese painter from Edo. He became a follower of the yōga (Western-style) of painting, and journeyed for a time through France and Italy. He aided in the formation of the Meiji Bijutsukai in 1889, the first art association in Japan championing western-style painting.
Lee In-sung (1912 - 1950) was a Korean painter based in Daegu. He studied art in Japan, but was heavily influenced by Western Art. He has been dubbed the 'Gauguin of Korea'. Lee was accidentally shot dead by a policeman after returning home drunk one night during curfew.
Tan Ting-pho (Chen Chengbo; Peh-oe-ji: Tan Teng-pho; February 2, 1895 – March 25, 1947), was a well-known Taiwanese painter. In 1926, his oil painting <i>Street of Chiayi</i> was featured in the seventh Empire Art Exhibition in Japan, which was the first time a Taiwanese artist's work was displayed at the exhibition.<br/><br/> Tan devoted his life to education and creation, and was greatly concerned about the development of humanist culture in Taiwan. He was not only devoted to the improvement of his own painting, but also to the promotion of the aesthetic education of the Taiwanese people. He was murdered as a result of the February 28 Incident, a 1947 popular uprising in Taiwan which was brutally repressed by the Kuomintang (KMT).
Tan Ting-pho (Chen Chengbo; Peh-oe-ji: Tan Teng-pho; February 2, 1895 – March 25, 1947), was a well-known Taiwanese painter. In 1926, his oil painting <i>Street of Chiayi</i> was featured in the seventh Empire Art Exhibition in Japan, which was the first time a Taiwanese artist's work was displayed at the exhibition.<br/><br/> Tan devoted his life to education and creation, and was greatly concerned about the development of humanist culture in Taiwan. He was not only devoted to the improvement of his own painting, but also to the promotion of the aesthetic education of the Taiwanese people. He was murdered as a result of the February 28 Incident, a 1947 popular uprising in Taiwan which was brutally repressed by the Kuomintang (KMT).
Tan Ting-pho (Chen Chengbo; Peh-oe-ji: Tan Teng-pho; February 2, 1895 – March 25, 1947), was a well-known Taiwanese painter. In 1926, his oil painting <i>Street of Chiayi</i> was featured in the seventh Empire Art Exhibition in Japan, which was the first time a Taiwanese artist's work was displayed at the exhibition.<br/><br/> Tan devoted his life to education and creation, and was greatly concerned about the development of humanist culture in Taiwan. He was not only devoted to the improvement of his own painting, but also to the promotion of the aesthetic education of the Taiwanese people. He was murdered as a result of the February 28 Incident, a 1947 popular uprising in Taiwan which was brutally repressed by the Kuomintang (KMT).
Helene Bertha Amalie 'Leni' Riefenstahl (22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress, dancer, and propagandist for the Nazis.<br/><br/> Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German politician of Austrian origin who was the leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Fuhrer ('leader') of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.<br/><br/> As dictator of Nazi Germany he initiated World War II in Europe and was a central figure of the Holocaust.
'Summer Airing'. Oil on canvas painting by Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934), c. 1890.<br/><br/> Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934) was a Japanese painter from Edo. He became a follower of the yōga (Western-style) of painting, and journeyed for a time through France and Italy. He aided in the formation of the Meiji Bijutsukai in 1889, the first art association in Japan championing western-style painting.
Sergei Mironovich Kirov was a prominent early Bolshevik leader in the Soviet Union. Kirov rose through the Communist Party ranks to become head of the party organization in Leningrad.<br/><br/> On 1 December 1934, Kirov was shot and killed by a gunman at his offices in the Smolny Institute. Some historians place the blame for his assassination at the hands of Joseph Stalin and believe the NKVD organized his execution, but any evidence for this claim remains lacking.<br/><br/> Kirov's death served as one of the pretexts for Stalin's escalation of repression against dissident elements of the Party, culminating in the Great Purge of the late 1930s in which many of the Old Bolsheviks were arrested, expelled from the party, and executed. Complicity in Kirov's assassination was a common charge to which the accused confessed in the show trials of the period.
William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.<br/><br/> Among his short stories, some of the most memorable are those dealing with the lives of Western, mostly British, colonists in the Far East. They typically express the emotional toll the colonists bear by their isolation. 'Rain', 'Footprints in the Jungle', and 'The Outstation' are considered especially notable.<br/><br/> Maugham was one of the most significant travel writers of the inter-war years, and can be compared with contemporaries such as Evelyn Waugh and Freya Stark. His best efforts in this line include 'The Gentleman in the Parlour', dealing with a journey through Burma, Siam, Cambodia and Vietnam, and 'On a Chinese Screen', a series of very brief vignettes that might have been sketches for stories left unwritten.
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German politician of Austrian origin who was the leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer ('leader') of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.<br/><br/> As dictator of Nazi Germany he initiated World War II in Europe and was a central figure of the Holocaust.
The Padaung or Kayan Lahwi or Long Necked Karen are a subgroup of the Kayan, a mix of Lawi, Kayan and several other tribes. Kayan are a subgroup of the Red Karen (Karenni) people, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Burma (Myanmar).
Akagi was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), named after Mount Akagi in present-day Gunma Prefecture. Though she was laid down as an Amagi-class battlecruiser, Akagi was converted to an aircraft carrier while still under construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was rebuilt from 1935 to 1938 with her original three flight decks consolidated into a single enlarged flight deck and an island superstructure.<br/><br/> Akagi's aircraft served in the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s. Upon the formation of the First Air Fleet or Kido Butai (Striking Force) in early 1941, she became its flagship, and remained so for the duration of her service. With other fleet carriers, she took part in the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the invasion of Rabaul in the Southwest Pacific in January 1942. The following month, her aircraft bombed Darwin, Australia, and assisted in the conquest of the Dutch East Indies. In March and April 1942, Akagi's aircraft helped sink a British heavy cruiser and an Australian destroyer in the Indian Ocean Raid.<br/><br/> After a brief refit, Akagi and three other fleet carriers of the Kido Butai participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After bombarding American forces on the atoll, Akagi and the other carriers were attacked by aircraft from Midway and the carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. Dive bombers from Enterprise severely damaged Akagi. When it became obvious she could not be saved, she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. The loss of Akagi and three other IJN carriers at Midway was a crucial strategic defeat for Japan and contributed significantly to the Allies' ultimate victory in the Pacific.
The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west.<br/><br/> The most well known is the march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934. The First Front Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of annihilation by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops in their stronghold in Jiangxi province. The Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed some 12,500 kilometers (8,000 miles) over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi.<br/><br/> The Long March began the ascent to power of Mao Zedong, whose leadership during the retreat gained him the support of the members of the party. The bitter struggles of the Long March, which was completed by only one-tenth of the force that left Jiangxi, would come to represent a significant episode in the history of the Communist Party of China, and would seal the personal prestige of Mao and his supporters as the new leaders of the party in the following decades.
Helene Bertha Amalie 'Leni' Riefenstahl (22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress, dancer, and propagandist for the Nazis.
The Padaung or Kayan Lahwi or Long Necked Karen are a subgroup of the Kayan, a mix of Lawi, Kayan and several other tribes. Kayan are a subgroup of the Red Karen (Karenni) people, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Burma (Myanmar).
The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west.<br/><br/> The most well known is the march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934. The First Front Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of annihilation by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops in their stronghold in Jiangxi province. The Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed some 12,500 kilometers (8,000 miles) over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi.<br/><br/> The Long March began the ascent to power of Mao Zedong, whose leadership during the retreat gained him the support of the members of the party. The bitter struggles of the Long March, which was completed by only one-tenth of the force that left Jiangxi, would come to represent a significant episode in the history of the Communist Party of China, and would seal the personal prestige of Mao and his supporters as the new leaders of the party in the following decades.
'Founding of the Nation / Le Coq Blanc (The White Rooster)'. Oil and gold on textile painting by Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934), 1929.<br/><br/> Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934) was a Japanese painter from Edo. He became a follower of the yōga (Western-style) of painting, and journeyed for a time through France and Italy. He aided in the formation of the Meiji Bijutsukai in 1889, the first art association in Japan championing western-style painting.
Helene Bertha Amalie 'Leni' Riefenstahl (22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress, dancer, and propagandist for the Nazis.
Tan Ting-pho (Chen Chengbo; Peh-oe-ji: Tan Teng-pho; February 2, 1895 – March 25, 1947), was a well-known Taiwanese painter. In 1926, his oil painting <i>Street of Chiayi</i> was featured in the seventh Empire Art Exhibition in Japan, which was the first time a Taiwanese artist's work was displayed at the exhibition.<br/><br/> Tan devoted his life to education and creation, and was greatly concerned about the development of humanist culture in Taiwan. He was not only devoted to the improvement of his own painting, but also to the promotion of the aesthetic education of the Taiwanese people. He was murdered as a result of the February 28 Incident, a 1947 popular uprising in Taiwan which was brutally repressed by the Kuomintang (KMT).
Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi (7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), of the Manchu Aisin Gioro ruling family, was the last Emperor of China.<br/><br/> He ruled in two periods between 1908 and 1917, firstly as the Xuantong Emperor from 1908 to 1912, and nominally as a non-ruling puppet emperor for twelve days in 1917. He was the twelfth and final member of the Qing Dynasty to rule over China proper.
Tokugawa Iemochi (July 17, 1846–August 29, 1866) was the 14th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office 1858 to 1866. During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan's first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854, and of the subsequent 're-opening' of Japan to western nations. Iemochi's reign also saw a weakening of the shogunate.<br/><br/> Kawamura Kiyoo (1852-1934) was a Japanese painter from Edo. He became a follower of the yōga (Western-style) of painting, and journeyed for a time through France and Italy. He aided in the formation of the Meiji Bijutsukai in 1889, the first art association in Japan championing western-style painting.
Helene Bertha Amalie 'Leni' Riefenstahl (22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress, dancer, and propagandist for the Nazis.
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev (September 23 1883 – August 25, 1936), born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky, known also under the name Hirsch Apfelbaum, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician.<br/><br/> Zinoviev is best remembered as the longtime head of the Communist International and the architect of several failed attempts to transform Germany into a communist country during the early 1920s. He was in competition against Joseph Stalin who eliminated him from the Soviet political leadership. He was the chief defendant in a 1936 show trial, the Trial of the Sixteen, that marked the start of the so-called Great Terror in the USSR and resulted in his execution the day after his conviction in August 1936.
Elijah Muhammad, son of a sharecropper, was born into poverty in Sandersville, Georgia, on October 7, 1897. After moving to Detroit in 1923, he met W. D. Fard, founder of the black separatist movement Nation of Islam.<br/><br/> Muhammad became Fard’s successor from 1934-75 and was known for his controversial preaching. His followers included Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. He died February 25, 1975, in Chicago.
Hachikō (ハチ公, November 10, 1923 – March 8, 1935) was an Akita dog born on a farm near the city of Ōdate, Akita Prefecture, who is remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner which continued for many years after his owner's death.<br/><br/> In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo, took in Hachikō, a golden brown Akita, as a pet. During his owner's life, Hachikō greeted him at the end of each day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died, never returning to the train station where Hachikō was waiting. Each day for the next nine years Hachikō awaited Ueno's return, appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.<br/><br/> Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. After the first appearance of the article about him on October 4, 1932 in Asahi Shimbun, people started to bring Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.<br/><br/> Hachikō died on March 8, 1935, and was found on a street in Shibuya. Hachikō's stuffed and mounted remains are kept at the National Science Museum of Japan in Ueno, Tokyo. His monument is in Aoyama cemetery in Minatoku, Tokyo.<br/><br/> In 2009, Hollywood produced 'Hachi: A Dog's Tale', starring Richard Gere and Joan Allen, based on the life of Hachiko.
Aram Yerganian (Armenian: Արամ Երկանեան; May 20, 1900 — August 2, 1934) was an Armenian revolutionary who was noted for his assassination of Bahattin Sakir and Fatali Khan Khoyski as an act of vengeance for their alleged roles in the Armenian Genocide and the massacre of Armenians in Baku respectively.<br/><br/> He is considered an Armenian national hero.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Tōgō engaged the Russian navy at Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea in 1904, and destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, a battle which shocked the world.<br/><br/> Tsushima had broken the Russian strength in East Asia, and is said to have triggered various uprisings in the Russian Navy (1905 uprisings in Vladivostok and the Battleship Potemkin uprising), contributing to the Russian Revolution of 1905.<br/><br/> Togo was termed by Western journalists 'The Nelson of the East', after the British admiral who defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar.
This is one of the few guides to Old Shanghai in English. It presents Shanghai in the mid-1930s, almost at the height of its development, before the Sino-Japanese war broke out and stifled the city.<br/><br/> The cover design is in the familiar contemporaneous 'sexy China girl' style attributed initially to Carl Crow. Carl Crow (1884-1945) was a Missouri-born newspaperman, businessman, and author who managed several newspapers and then opened the first Western advertising agency in Shanghai, China, which he ran for 19 years, creating much of what is thought of today as the sexy China Girl poster and calendar advertisements.
Khun Sa, aka Chang Chi-fu (pinyin: Zhāng Qífú; Thai: Chan Jangtrakul (17 February 1934 – 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army.<br/><br/> Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels.<br/><br/> When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government.<br/><br/> It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73.
The Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet (commonly called the Jiangxi Soviet) was the largest component territory of the Chinese Soviet Republic (simplified Chinese: 中华苏维埃共和国; traditional Chinese: 中華蘇維埃共和國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Sūwéi'āi Gònghéguó), an unrecognized state established in November 1931 by Mao Zedong and Zhu De during the Chinese civil war. The Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet was home to the town of Ruijin, the county seat and headquarters of the CSR government.<br/><br/> The Jiangxi-Fujian base area was defended ably by the First Red Front Army but in 1934 was finally overrun by the Kuomintang government's National Revolutionary Army in the Fifth of its Encirclement Campaigns. This last campaign in 1934-35 precipitated the most famous of the grand retreats known collectively as the Long March.
Lu Xun (or Lu Hsun), was the pen name of Zhou Shuren (Chou Shu-jen), September 25, 1881 – October 19, 1936. He was one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the founder of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in baihua (the vernacular) as well as classical Chinese. Lu Xun was a short story writer, editor, translator, critic, essayist and poet. In the 1930s he became the titular head of the Chinese League of the Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai.
Kusakabe Kimbei (1841 - 1934) was a Japanese photographer. He usually went by his given name, Kimbei, because his clientele, mostly non-Japanese-speaking foreign residents and visitors, found it easier to pronounce than his family name.
Khun Sa, aka Chang Chi-fu (pinyin: Zhāng Qífú; Thai: Chan Jangtrakul (17 February 1934 – 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army.<br/><br/> Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels.<br/><br/> When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government.<br/><br/> It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73.
Khun Sa, aka Chang Chi-fu (pinyin: Zhāng Qífú; Thai: Chan Jangtrakul (17 February 1934 – 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army.<br/><br/> Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels.<br/><br/> When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government.<br/><br/> It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73.
Between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Japanese graphic design as represented in advertsing posters, magazine covers and book covers underwent a series of changes characterised by increasing Western influence, a growing middle class, industrialisation and militarisation, as well as (initially) left wing political ideals and (subsequently) right wing nationalism and the influence of European Fascist art forms.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamiyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated 230 km (143 miles) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,202 ft).<br/><br/> Built in 507 CE, the larger in 554 CE, the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art. The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which was worn away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors. The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts.<br/><br/> The rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs which served to stabilize the outer stucco. They were intentionally dynamited and destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that they were ‘idols’.<br/><br/> International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which was viewed as an example of the intolerance of the Taliban. Japan and Switzerland, among others, have pledged support for the rebuilding of the statues.
Shifting sands, sandstorms, extreme heat, bitter cold, an almost total lack of water and immense distances all contributed to the death of Silk Road pack animals (as well as, sometimes, their masters) during the interminable crossings. It was common practice to use bones or parts of animal skeletons to point the way to other travellers, or to indicate dangers.
Suzuka is a city located in Mie Prefecture. During the Edo period, the modern-day area around Suzuka was part of the Tōkaidō and had two post stations: Ishiyakushi-juku and Shōno-juku.
Tsuchiya Koitsu was an artist of the Shin Hanga movement. Shin hanga ('new prints') was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized traditional ukiyo-e art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century).<br/><br/> The movement flourished from around 1915 to 1942, though it resumed briefly from 1946 through the 1950s. Inspired by European Impressionism, the artists incorporated Western elements such as the effects of light and the expression of individual moods, but focused on strictly traditional themes of landscapes (fukeiga), famous places (meishō), beautiful women (bijinga), kabuki actors (yakusha-e), and birds and flowers (kachōga).
Ke Pauk, sometime 'Brother number 13', was secretary of the Northern Zone and a member of the Standing Committee of the Khmer Rouge Central Committee (Party Centre) during its period of power (1975-1979). He died, apparently of natural causes, at Anlong Veng in 2002.
The Spanish Civil War was fought from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939 between the Republicans, who were loyal to the democratically elected Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco. The Nationalists prevailed, and Franco ruled Spain for the next 36 years, from 1939 until his death in 1975.<br/><br/> The Nationalists advanced from their strongholds in the south and west, capturing most of Spain's northern coastline in 1937. They also besieged Madrid and the area to its south and west for much of the war. Capturing large parts of Catalonia in 1938 and 1939, the war ended with the victory of the Nationalists and the exile of thousands of leftist Spaniards, many of whom fled to refugee camps in southern France.
Heng Samrin (born 1934) is a Cambodian politician. He was the chairman of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia (1979-1993), and later vice chairman (1998-2006) and chairman of the National Assembly of Cambodia since 2006.
Darjeeling is a town in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in the Mahabharat Range or Lesser Himalaya at an average elevation of 6,710 ft (2,045.2 m). It is noted for its tea industry and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Darjeeling is the headquarters of Darjeeling district which has a partially autonomous status within the state of West Bengal.<br/><br/> The development of the town dates back to the mid-19th century, when the colonial British administration set up a sanatorium and a military depot. Subsequently, extensive tea plantations were established in the region, and tea growers developed hybrids of black tea and created new fermentation techniques. The resultant distinctive Darjeeling tea is internationally recognised and ranks among the most popular of the black teas.<br/><br/> The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway connects the town with the plains and has one of the few steam locomotives still in service in India.
Vishnu (Viṣṇu) is the Supreme God of Vaishnavism, one of the three main sects of Hinduism. Vishnu is also known as Narayana and Hari. Laksmi is the wife of Vishnu. The Vishnu Sahasranama declares Vishnu as Paramatman (supreme soul) and Parameshwara (supreme God). It describes Vishnu as the all-pervading essence of all beings, the master of—and beyond—the past, present and future, the creator and destroyer of all existences, one who supports, preserves, sustains and governs the universe and originates and develops all elements within.<br/><br/> Though he is usually depicted as light blue, as are his incarnations some other depictions of Vishnu exist as green-bodied, and in the Kurma Purana he is described as colorless and with red eyes.
Heng Samrin (born 1934) is a Cambodian politician. He was the chairman of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia (1979-1993), and later vice chairman (1998-2006) and chairman of the National Assembly of Cambodia since 2006.
In 1926, Young Companion Pictorial (Liang You, literally 'good friend') was established in Shanghai as the first colored variety magazine. During the 1920s and 30s, when printed news was rare and precious, Companion was already a pioneer in providing pictorial reports to the public. It quickly became the publication that chronicled and provoked China’s passion for decades to come.<br/><br/> Throughout the epic of war and peace, readers could see and read from Companion the faces and thoughts of influential politicians such as Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen), Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek), Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Xueliang, Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Zhou Enlai. Influential thinkers and writers such as Lu Xun, Lao She, Yu Dafu and Lin Yutang all contributed their works to Companion.<br/><br/> In addition, Companion published a series of autobiographies, written exclusively for its readers by the celebrities themselves. They inspired many Chinese not only with their successful stories but also their wisdom and attitudes towards life.
Ke Pauk, sometimes known as 'Brother Number 13', was secretary of the Northern Zone and a member of the Standing Committee of the Khmer Rouge Central Committee (Party Centre) during its period of power (1975-1979). He died, apparently of natural causes, at Anlong Veng in 2002.<br/><br/> The Khmer Rouge, or Communist Party of Kampuchea, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan. It is remembered primarily for its brutality and policy of social engineering which resulted in millions of deaths. Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the deaths of thousands from treatable diseases (such as malaria). Brutal and arbitrary executions and torture carried out by its cadres against perceived subversive elements, or during purges of its own ranks between 1976 and 1978, are considered to have constituted a genocide. Several former Khmer Rouge cadres are currently on trial for war crimes in Phnom Penh.
Jakob Rosenfeld (1903-1952), more commonly known as General Luo, served as the Minister of Health in the 1947 Provisional Communist Military Government of China under Mao Zedong. Rosenfeld, a Jew born in Lemberg, the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Lviv, Ukraine), was raised in Wöllersdorf near Wiener Neustadt. He graduated in medicine with a specialization in urology from Vienna University. After the Anschluss, Rosenfeld was deported to Dachau concentration camp and later to Buchenwald. In 1939 he was released and had to leave the country within two weeks. Since China did not require Jews to apply for a visa, he fled to the Shanghai ghetto. From 1941 he served the Chinese Communist force as a field doctor for the New Fourth Army, the Eighth Route Army and the Northeast People's Liberation Army during the outbreak of Second Sino-Japanese war and Chinese civil war. He chose to remain in China after the fall of the Nazi regime and participated in the People's Liberation Army's march on Beijing before returning in 1949 to Europe to search for relatives, most of whom had perished in the Holocaust.
Lin Yurong, better known by the nom de guerre Lin Biao ( December 5, 1907– September 13, 1971) was a Chinese Communist military leader who was instrumental in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China, and was the General who led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing in 1949. He abstained from becoming a major player in politics until he rose to prominence during the Cultural Revolution, climbing as high as second-in-charge and Mao Zedong's designated and constitutional successor and comrade-in-arms. He died in a plane crash in September 1971 in Mongolia after what appeared to be a failed coup to oust Mao. After his death, he was officially condemned as a traitor, and is still recognized as one of the two 'major Counter-revolutionary parties' during the Cultural Revolution, the other being Jiang Qing (Madame Mao).
The First Eastern Turkestan Republic (ETR), or Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET), also Republic of Uyghurstan, (Sherqiy Türkistan Yislam Jumuhuriyiti or Sarki Turk Islam Cumhuriyeti) was a short-lived breakaway would-be Islamic republic founded in 1933. It was centered on the city of Khotan in what is today the People's Republic of China-administered Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Although primarily the product of the independence movement of the Uyghur population living there, the ETR was Turkish-ethnic in character, including Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in its government and its population.<br/><br/> With the sacking of Kashgar in 1934 by Hui warlords nominally allied with the Kuomintang government in Nanjing, the first ETR was effectively eliminated. Its example, however, served to some extent as inspiration for the founding of a Second East Turkestan Republic a decade later, and continues to influence modern Uyghur nationalist support for the creation of an independent East Turkestan.