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Lessons from China's history

Lessons from China's history
Wee Kek Koon draws parallels between current events and trends and episodes and attitudes in China’s past.
United States Representative and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Grace Meng stands jubilant at a podium outside the US House of Representatives in Washington on June 30, 2026, following the Supreme Court’s decision to rule against President Donald Trump’s proposed scrapping of birthright citizenship. Photo: AP
Chinese history

Reflections | Amid US birthright ruling, lessons from how foreigners once ‘became Chinese’

Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship comes amid rising xenophobia. A look at how premodern China offered varied paths to assimilation.

Chinese history

Reflections | A history of Chinese fans and how they kept people cool in summer

Chinese history

Reflections | As Europe bakes, how people in China kept cool before air conditioning

Chinese history

Reflections | How the Chinese language has long been shaped by foreign influences

From Buddhism’s arrival in China to European exchange in the 1800s, external forces have left a mark on Chinese vocabulary and grammar.

The Hong Kong Academy of School Managers holds an event on traditional Chinese costume and calligraphy at Maryknoll Secondary School in Sau Mau Ping on July 9, 2023. Some of the most significant changes in the Chinese language shaped by foreign influences have occurred not in vocabulary but in the grammar and sentence structures that shape how Chinese is written and spoken. Photo: Sam Tsang
Chinese history

Reflections | From Hong Kong to Singapore, how China’s Teochew have left an outsized mark

Hit Teochew family drama Dear You spotlights a Chinese community with a long, influential history and notable figures like Li Ka-shing.

Chinese history

Reflections | The history of weiqi, or go, Chinese board game dating back over 2,000 years

More popularly known as go – its Japanese name – weiqi has for centuries been embraced as a mark of cultivation and refinement.

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Diplomacy

Opinion | Norman Bethune’s story still holds lessons for China-Canada relations

The Canadian doctor, hailed a hero in China, was driven by personal conviction; there are others today, tilling the soil of Sino-Canadian friendship.

A sculpture of Norman Bethune, a Canadian surgeon and communist, at the Museum of the War of Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing on August 31, 2025. Photo: Eugene Lee
Chinese history

Reflections | Hong Kong principal’s Singapore disgrace highlights centuries-old standards

School heads in premodern China had to lead by example above all. More recently, principal Lee Cheuk-hing’s failure to do so cost him his job.

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Chinese history

Reflections | After the Shanxi disaster, how China’s coal mining industry evolved over history

From bamboo ventilation systems to steam power and beyond, China now leads the world in producing and consuming coal, but dangers remain.

Chinese history

Reflections | The earliest Chinese irons date back over 2,000 years. Here’s how they evolved

Long before electric irons, the Chinese had already developed sophisticated methods of pressing and smoothing garments.

Early Chinese irons used heated charcoal placed inside a bronze or iron container with a flat base. Photo: Getty Images
Chinese history

Reflections | How the Chinese did laundry before washing machines: ash ‘soap’, stone beatings

Before chemical detergents and modern equipment, Chinese people kept their clothes clean with little more than river water, wood and ash.

An elderly woman washes clothes the old-fashioned way in a river in Fenghuang Ancient Town in China’s Hunan province. Before the advent of washing machines and chemical detergents, laundry was a labour-intensive affair shaped by local environments and available materials, with clothes typically washed in rivers or streams. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese history

Reflections | Succession struggles in China’s past echoed in Malaysia’s 2026 royal crisis

Disputes over Negeri Sembilan’s next royal ruler recall how succession in China often fused dynastic legitimacy with aristocratic elections.

Chinese history

Reflections | Ancient Chinese sleep advice, from bedtimes and body positions to state of mind

For premodern Chinese people, sleep was much more than daily rest – it was a cultivated discipline and a medical necessity.

Chinese history

Reflections | The history of China’s hospitality industry and how its inns evolved over time

Private inns served travelling merchants in ancient China and grew in number and sophistication as the economy and infrastructure expanded.

WUZHEN, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA - 2014/11/05: A small inn is renovated from an ancient civil house. Located in the centre of the six ancient towns south of Yangtze River, Wuzhen displays its two-thousand-year history in its ancient stone bridges floating on mild water, its stone pathways between the mottled walls and its delicate wood carvings. It gives a unique cultural experience for tourists. (Photo by Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Chinese culture

Reflections | What an old Chinese snack can teach people about the ‘proper’ way to eat dishes

The evolution of ‘biluo’ in Tang-dynasty China highlights how there is no unchanging way in which a dish ought to be prepared and enjoyed.

Cherry Biluo. Photo: Sohu
Chinese culture

Reflections | Cremation was frowned upon in ancient China, so why was it so widespread?

Though seen as barbaric, cremation was a common, practical choice for families in China’s Song dynasty that reflected their economic reality.

Chinese history

Reflections | History of Chinese flatbreads reflects how food has echoes of faraway places

How ‘hubing’ came to China is reflected in Hong Kong’s Jenny Bakery cookies smelling like Malaysia’s Rotiboy coffee buns, Wee Kek Koon says.

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Chinese culture

As I see it | Why China is always misunderstood and misrepresented

By insisting on the superiority of its own standards of judgment and experience, the West distorts the realities of other societies.

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A man walks past a large sculpture of the Communist Party flag at the Chinese Communist Party History Exhibition in Beijing, on March 1. Photo: AP
Chinese history

Reflections | Imperial China’s armed escort services solved logistical problems – with swords

In imperial China, services of armed martial artists, or biaoju, ensured delivery on risky routes. Their image has since been romanticised.

Chinese history

Reflections | How the Hakka spread in China and beyond, their cuisine reflecting hard lives

A people shaped by centuries of migration, Hakka communities are found across China and are prevalent in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Chinese history

Reflections | What an exiled royal’s plea to Chinese emperor can teach Iran’s Reza Pahlavi

A Persian prince’s attempts to restore his family’s throne from abroad highlight how political legitimacy is tough to forge in faraway lands.

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former crown prince of Iran, calls for regime change in Iran in Washington in 2026. For years, he has sought to cast himself as a unifying figure for opponents of the Islamic Republic. Photo: EPA
Chinese history

Reflections | Modern Singapore knows that vigilance is key. So did an ancient Chinese minister

Wei Jiang of the state of Jin epitomises the Chinese idiom ‘in times of peace, think of danger’ – something Singapore follows closely today.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan attends the 57th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Vientiane, Laos, on July 27, 2024. Balakrishnan said in a recent interview that Singapore’s response to ongoing geopolitical tensions would be to engage all major powers constructively, widen networks among middle powers and deepen ties with immediate neighbours, among other measures. Photo: Reuters
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Reflections | After Andrew’s arrest, how high-born criminals were treated in ancient China

The long-spoken Chinese maxim that nobles were punished like commoners when breaking the law is not upheld by history.

Chinese history

Reflections | As Kim Jong-un grooms daughter to rule, a Chinese princess’s fatal ambition

Princess Anle’s radical petition to inherit the throne set in motion a chain of events that would see her decapitated in her own boudoir.

Chinese history

Reflections | Visit to Singapore’s Chinatown reveals the surprising roots of Buddhist deities

Many Chinese might not know that Buddhist deities like Ne Zha, Sun Wukong and Yanluo Wang are reimaginings of Hindu gods.

A statue of Hanuman, the revered monkey god central to the Hindu epic “Ramayana”. In China, he is best known as the mischievous and much-loved Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King - a companion to the Buddhist monk Xuanzang on his legendary journey to India and back immortalised in the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West”. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese history

Reflections | What do common Lunar New Year snacks in China, Singapore and Malaysia symbolise?

Lunar New Year treats in China vary from those in Singapore and Malaysia, for which some question whether they are truly ‘Chinese’.

A tray of Lunar New Year snacks. Many Chinese communities enjoy the same festive favourites at this time of year, but places such as Singapore and Malaysia also gorge on regional treats shaped by foreign influences and migration. Photo: Getty Images
Chinese history

Reflections | How Chinese new year cards went from elites’ greetings to bribery instruments

Wishing someone a happy new year was a highly formal affair among people of status in imperial China and some cards were even collected.

Chinese history

Reflections | Was Chinese princess sent to marry a Malaysian sultan a real person?

Hang Li Po’s 15th-century marriage allegedly sealed Malacca and China’s friendly relations. Proof of her existence is scant. Does it matter?

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