iniquity is one of the perks

ali-kay:

siterlas:

meanwhileelsewhere:

China - Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) by 123@123

Finally got around to updating Without a Map on AO3 with the final version that includes August’s awesome art. Clicking on the pictures will take you to their larger originals.

Photo is relevant. :)

There’s a brief moment (or several, maybe several, he loses track) when Dean thinks the clouds are going to choke him, laughing, you silly hunter, you don’t belong here - but then he emerges to see Castiel at the top, head tilted back as he smiles. He curls his fingers around the smoke, then flexes, the smoke scurrying away.

“Come here,” Castiel says, extending his hand, the soft smile still dancing on his lips. “Come see.”

Dean doesn’t talk, he almost doesn’t think he’s allowed to, and when he makes his way up, Castiel takes his hand.

They breathe together, and Dean sees.

yerawizardharry:

Nüshu (literally “women’s writing” in Chinese) is a syllabic script created and used exclusively by women in the Jiangyong County in Hunan province of southern China. Up until the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) women were forbidden access to formal education, and so Nüshu was developed in secrecy as a means to communicate. Since its discovery in 1982, Nüshu remains to be the only gender-specific writing system in the world.

Read more here.

(via asianhistory)

gondoleia:

According to popular explanation, Chinese cultural traditions are mainly preserved in Taiwan, Hong kong and overseas Chinese communities, and the mainland is where the tradition is at the thinnest. This is to the degree where Singaporean academics suggested that china should “Import Chinese tradition from overseas”, and people like Du Weiming and others wanting to investigate “after the Cultural Revolution, is there any news of re-emerging traditional culture”.

please god no

culture is an evolving thing and it is coloured by separate histories

chinese indonesian culture is not the same as hong kong culture is not the same as taiwan culture is not the same as chinese american culture is not the same as chinese singaporean culture is NOT the same as chinese chinese culture.

“importing” aspects of our culture from overseas (or from hk) dismisses the fact that we mainlanders have undergone 20 years of constant systemic destruction of our culture and while i agree it’s good to go back to some of the old practices (of which i am especially fond — including the baoquan, etc) i don’t agree that the way to do it is to take culture from places that are more “pure” (if culture can be pure because culture is not a stagnant thing that never ever ever changes of course it changes it changes with contact it changes with history it changes with time and modernisation and technological progression/retrogression)

and i am never a fan of reviving culture if it entails erasing/burying/forgetting history — especially history that has brought about so much destruction and so much tragedy. further, the idea that mainland chinese culture is somehow less legitimate and/or less authentically “chinese” than other forms of chinese culture/huaxia/whatever you want to call it found in taiwan and xianggang and aomen and singapore and malaysia and indonesia and australia and america is just

ridiculous. because 1) those chinese cultures have also been changed either by virtue of colonisation (taiwan, aomen, xianggang) or through living in a cultural context where chinese is not the majority (southeast asia, australia, the us) but also because mainland china is the source of mooooost of the chinese people in the world and how could the chinese culture practiced by most of the chinese people in the world be less legitimate than the culture practiced by chinese people who are not chinese (that is to say that their family is indigenous to/originates from china but they are not a citizen of the prc)?

tl;dr - i am of the persuasion that as long as you are ethnically chinese in some way (and i use this term synonymously with “originating from china” not with “han chinese”) any form of “chinese culture” you practice is absolutely legitimate

(via rubato)

Homosexuality in Ancient China

fuckyeahchinesemyths:

Guys, if I posted a picture for this entry I would totally have to make this blog NSFW, and you’ll kinda see why. Since it’s February, the month of loooove, we’re gonna talk about all kinds of love and relationships, including homosexual ones. (This is so I can introduce a god to you later.)

Homosexuality in China (Sharing the Peach and Cutting the Sleeve)

So we’re gonna talk about the first figure of speech, and this totally happened wayyy back, during the Three Kingdoms era. See, there was this dude, called Duke Ling of Wei, and he and this official, Mizi Xia were obviously having the sexytiemz with each other, and apparently Mizi Xia had a face that was “as pretty as that of a blossoming maiden.” (Oooooh.) So anyways, they were like, walking and holding hands in the Duke’s Eastern Garden, and Mizi Xia picked up a peach and started nomming, and after he was done, he pushed the leftovers into Duke Ling’s mouth. Errbody who saw that like, totally gasped, ‘cause it was so damned rude! But All Duke Ling did was say, “This tastes good ‘cause it was in yo’ mouth,” so that’s how this scandal started, and that’s how ‘sharing the peach’ meant that two men were totally gettin’ it on.

Now for the second figure of speech. See, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty also had it goin’ on with Dong Xian, who was like, also one of his court officials. And they were pretty cute, too, ‘cause one day, they took a nap together (awwwww) and like, Emperor Ai was called to do some shit, ‘cause Emperors never really rest. And the thing is, Emperor Ai totally didn’t wanna disturb his beau, so he cut the part of the sleeve which Dong Xian was lying on, and went to do his official duties. Hence, the term ‘cutting the sleeve’ also meant that two people were in a homosexual relationship. 

Homosexual Relationships (Manchu Style!)

So we’re gonna fastforward stuff a little, towards the end of the Ming Dynasty and the start of the Qing, yo. Aaaanyways, durin’ this period of time many scholars and poets were like, totally havin’ sexytiemz with boys, and these boys were called “shu tong” （书童）, or book carryin’ boys. And y’know, since these poets and scholars had no wimminz when they went on long journeys, guess who ‘accompanied’ them - yes, that’s right. These boys.

Homosexuality was also like, totally allowed in the Qing court. Why? ‘Cause the Manchus were like, rulin’, yo, and if a Manchu married a Han Chinese it was like, a super no-no ‘cause they wanted their blood to be pure, and so sodomy was allowed between two Manchu males.

Emperor Xianfeng also liked them boys, and durin’ that period of time, Peking Opera was like, the trend, and all the women’s parts were like, played by boys who were kinda effeminate. Hmmm… Backstage, these boys totally had to please the court officials if they totally wanted their careers. Emperor Xianfeng liked this man, Chu Lianfeng (not too sure about the spelling). This man really looked like a woman on stage, and of course Emperor Xianfeng took a fancy to him. But the thing is, Chu Lianfeng already had a bf, called Lu Maozhong (again with the spelling!) and so when Lu learned that his bf was like, having the sexytiemz with the Emperor, he was so upset that he said, “His Majesty should totally concentrate on rulin’ and not having so much sexytiemz, yo.” Of course the Emperor was like, real pissed and banished Lu. Chu was so upset he committed suicide (he was suffering from TB anyways) and had to renounce his association with his now ex-bf.

Sigh.

Emperor Tongzhi, the son of Xianfeng, also loved them males, too. The thing is, this happened when the Emperor was like, a teenager, and after he got married, he was like, “Oh man, women are boring. Imma go look for men,” and that’s what he did. See, he pretended to be a son of a rich merchant, and met this young scholar in a restaurant. So the thing is, they had an affair for quite some time, and then Prince Kung heard about it, and so errbody went on this search for him. The totally found the Emperor and the scholar making out in some wine shop. So like, the general found him and said, “Uh, your majesty, you kinda needa go home now.” The scholar heard, flipped his shit, and went back to Hunan and totally didn’t bother to sit for the Imperial exams, LOL.

Thing is, there were like, many male prostitutes around, too, and yes, many court officials loved them ‘personal attendants’ and took them errwhere, hint hint, and some generals even had ‘personal aides’ wearin’ make-up. Hmmm. But yes, gays did exist, and the Han Chinese didn’t like them, and so called them ‘mock women’ or ‘rabbits,’ which was like, super derogatory ‘cause it meant that they had a lower status compared to female sex workers. 

From Rabbit to Prime Minister, yo

One ‘rabbit’ was also lucky enough to be like, Prime Minister ‘cause he was basically sexing up the Emperor Qianlong, yo. His name was He Shen, and basically, well, when the Emperor saw that He Shen looked like a very beautiful woman, and he was like, “Oh my god! This totally reminded me of my dad’s concubine, which I totally tried to seduce when I was a kid.” So he also found out that He Shen was born on the day his the concubine was executed, he was like, “Yeah, this is the concubine I tried to seduce!” (Funny, wikipedia states otherwise.) So anyway, He Shen thought the Emperor had a few screws loose, but whatevs, ‘cause he was in the Emperor’s favour, which was awesome.

So basically, He Shen would go to the Emperor’s chamber to talk about ‘state affairs,’ and pretty soon he was like, promoted to handle all state funds, which he took a lot of. Anyway, to pretend that they were totally not sexing each other, the Emperor made He Shen get married, and He Shen’s son was like, totally betrothed to the Emperor’s youngest and fave daughter. Too bad his luck ran out, ‘cause Qianlong abdicated and Jiaqing took over, ready to suss him out, ‘cause they knew he totally embezzled state funds. So, after Emperor Jiaqing tried him in court, he realized that He Shen’s accumulated funds was worth more than the state treasury. And the thing is, since Chinese people were all about face, he made He Shen hang himself.

Nearly all of this info is from the book, The Dragon and the Phoenix by Eric Chou, which is very educational but also super smutty!

And now, since we know all of this, Imma introduce you to the god of homosexuality, so hang tight!

(via yiduiqie)

feministhistorian:

nativethoughts:

Chinese Woman of the Labouring Class.

I wonder what she was looking at and thinking about.

(via fragmentsshoredagainstmyruin)

cold-autumn-rain:

Yi woman, Yunnan, China by Eric Lafforgue on Flickr.

(via st-andrei)

ethnoworld:

 Manchu Woman 19th century

(via st-andrei)

asianhistory:

A female KMT soldier from around the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Apparently there were many women soldiers who openly served in the KMT army. If you click the link there are more photographs.

jhameia:

ouyangdan:

goddessofcheese:

asianhistory:

Qiu Jin (November 8, 1875 - July 15, 1907) was a Chinese anti-Qing Empire revolutionary, feminist and writer. She was executed after a failed uprising and today is considered a hero in China.

“The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake.”

Born in Minhou, Fujian Province, Qiu grew up in Shanyin Village, Shaoxing Subprefecture, Zhejiang Province. Married, Qiu found herself in contact with new ideas. In 1904 she decided to travel overseas and study in Japan, leaving her two children behind. She was known by her acquaintances for wearing Western male dress and for her left-wing ideology. She joined the Triads, who at the time advocated the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and return of Chinese government to the Chinese people. She joined the anti-Qing societies Guangfuhui, led by Cai Yuanpei, and the Tokyo-based Tongmenghui led by Sun Yat-sen. She returned to China in 1905.

She was an eloquent orator who spoke out for women’s rights, such as the freedom to marry, freedom of education, and abolishment of bound feet. In 1906 she founded a radical women’s journal with another female poet, Xu Zihua, in Shanghai. In 1907 she became head of the Datong school in Shaoxing, ostensibly a school for sport teachers, but really intended for the military training of revolutionaries.

After an uprising led by her cousin Xu Xilin failed in July 1907, Qiu was arrested in her school. She was tortured by Qing officials in order to make her reveal secrets but did not succumb; a few days later she was publicly executed in her home village, Shanyin, at the age of 31.

Qiu was immortalized in Republican China’s popular consciousness and literature after her death. She is now buried beside West Lake in Hangzhou. The People’s Republic of China established a museum for her in Shaoxing City.

Badass motherfucker of the day.

There are so many badass women in Chinese history.

Did you know there is a movie about this badass lady??

(via yiduiqie)