h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: China's fate, another Taiping Rising? - A2257670
Author: HNM Chaiwallah. Take Action for Tibet F19585?thread=363119 - U219914


More about China's blood-soaked recent history.

Hi Chai,

Another interesting entry and on a subject I know only a little about - the Falun Gong part.

My feeling is that this entry needs a bit of reshaping and some more information. I think it needs a bit more information about Falun Gong and maybe a link, eg: http://www.falundafa.org/eng/index_en.htm.

It also seems to me to assume that the reader knows something already about Falun Gong - I do, but other people may not.

It also needs a bit more saying about Taiping and what the actual numbers were who perished, together with numbers for Falung Gong.

I would also suggest a slight change of title. I'm not certain quite what would include all the aspects. Maybe something like:

China: Falun Gong and Taiping - a comparison

Killing to the 9th degree of consanguinity is quite frightening in its thoroughness!

Another interesting peice, Chai. I'd heard of the Taiping rebellion, but that was about it.

A few suggestions. Lose the first heading - or better still, incorporate it in the title.

The first sentence in the Taiping Rising section needs the first "was" shifted to after the first comma to make it mean what's intended.

The text of footnote 1 also appears in the body of the article.

And the mindset alluded to in the "discuss this entry" posting could usefully be included in the article itself.

Otherwise, excellent

Noggin

Very interesting indeed! More than once I caught myself saying, 'Yes, but...' and 'Oh, I see.' in the same breath.

I did notice what I take to be a typo in paragraph 5: 'ethic' should be 'ethnic', should it not?

JTG

Hi Zarq,

Given that almost the entire piece is about the Taiping Rising, what more do you want to know about it? Furthermore, the numbers of deaths in the Taiping Rising are right there in the first paragraph.

I'll do a quick h2g2 search and see what's available about Falun Gong, and either provide a link to it, or fill in the gap, as necessary.

Title, yes, needs thinking about. It's not really intended as a comparison of Falun Gong and the Taipings, which are dramatically different cults, but more about the two of them as portents of the end of the respective dynasties, hence the subtitle. Maybe the title should be "Dynasty's End: Falun Gong and the Taiping Rising."

I assumed most people would be familiar with Falun Gong and the terrible atrocities being carried out against them. I assumed fewer people would be familiar with the Taiping Rising.

The idea for the piece arose out of a discussion thread on war casualties.

JtG, "ethic" has been corrected to "ethnic," as you so rightly spotted, it was a typo.

Chai,

Apologies, yes, the numbers are there, however what the entry doesn't seem to give is how and when when people were slaughtered. The bit about whe winning faction at the end perhaps needs bolstering a bit.

The bit about how the Chinese deal with internal enemies is repeated - it's in the text as well as in a footnote.

I'm not entirely sure that everyone reading the piece will be familiar with Falun Gong and the almost hysterical reaction to it. I have to admit that I find it incomprehensible why the Chinese government appears to feel so threatened by it.

Maybe a companion piece?

I liked this entry but also felt it needed a little restructuring - it seemed to jump about a bit.

The duplication between the footnote and the entry is unecessary - might as well just have it in the entry.

sprout

Clear and chilling history. A separate entry on Falun Gong is definitely in order, then link to that (once it's edited).

You spell it Daoism, but the official sites treat that as a secondary spelling; headings mostly say Taoism.

Erm, yes, well, both Tao and Dao ( Mandarin "path" or "way,") are mere transliterations of Chinese sounds. Dao is closer to the actual sound, and is in fact the correct contemporary Pinyin spelling in my Oxford Chinese Dictionary.

Here's a link it might be good to add, Chai. http://www.asiawind.com/hakka/

It might be good to explain the pronounciation of the letter 'q' in Pinyin too.

Fnny thing Chinese pronunciation. I heard a chap on the radio a while back say that the way the locals pronounce Beijing it sounds for all the world just like "Peking".

Hmm... makes you wonder, in that case, why we took it into our heads to start saying 'Beijing'.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done, Chai.

More power to your elbow

congratulations!




Bossel