My China book - anyone want a free chapter?

[killarney_sailor]

I mentioned some time ago that I was writing an idiot's guide to China with me being the idiot who needs to be educated about the place. i asked for input from you folks and got some good ideas.

The project is actually going pretty well and I have the first chapter in final draft form. It needs a final edit and a few illustrations finalized but it is basically complete. If anyone would like to see a .pdf of the chapter send me a PM and I will send it to you.

Other chapters are at various stages. The history chapter is a bit overwhelming as it is a) long and b) complex. If anyone has nominations for this chapter, I am looking for
-- the 10 most important people in Chinese history - so far, I have Genghis Khan, Sun Yat-sen, Mao and Deng Xiaoping (guy who introduced the idea of "market socialism" in 1979.
-- the 10 most important events in Chinese history - haven't thought too much about that one although there will be overlaps with the previous one so may end up being the same list
-- the 10 most fascinating people (note that they may not be all that important) -- this will include the eunuch who developed and led the Chinese treasure fleets in the 15th century and the three Soong sisters ( will count as one person) who married well - one married Sun Yat-sen the father of the republic of China, one married the richest man in China and one married Chiang Kai-shek. By the way, they were all educated at a Methodist college in Georgia. Chou En-lai may make this list since it is fascinating how he survived all the intrigues for so many years - almost no other of Mao's early contemporaries did. He also was universally loved and respected by the people. I have yet to hear a Chinese person say anything bad about him.

Two interesting facts that I found out the last few days:

1. the province of Guangdong (in behind Hong Kong) is where most of the jobs went to. Since the economy of China was liberalized the gross provincial product of Guangdong has gone up 146 times (not a 146%, but 14,600% in 30 years). Guangdong has a population of about 100 million people including 30 million temporary workers from interior provinces. We in the west are fiddling while they are continuing the conquest. How many women did Cain diddle and where was Obama born anyway.

2. I knew about the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in 1942 and vaguely remembered that the planes continued on to China because they could not land on the Hornet as they were too large. What I did not know was that the Chinese helped the airmen and virtually all of them got home safely, BUT the Japanese then killed 250,000 people in reprisal for helping the Americans and to frighten them from helping future American flyers. What the Japanese did in China (and this is only one incident) is way beyond criminal.