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The site of the Communist Party’s First Congress - the row of red-and-black brick shikumen with bright ornamental gateways, on the corner of Xingye and Huangpi Roads - looked quite different back in 1951, when local historians scouted the city in search of Communist landmarks. The rediscovered building was then a combination of a sauce-and-pickle ( Read more... )

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“China’s population amazes the traveler. Here you never lose sight of a person, a person’s house or a person’s grave.” Egor Kovalevsky, Travels in China (1853).

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Continuing the topic of changing linguistic standards, here is an excerpt from Vladimir Slobodchikov, O sudbe izgnannikov pechalnoi [On the sad fate of exiles]:

В нашей семье речи всегда уделялось много внимания. Бабушка была особой ревнительницей чистоты русского языка. Она любила беседовать с нами о русской речи, сама не допускала отклонений, ( Read more... )

...warns The National Review in summer 1909:


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This obscure memoir traces a circus performer’s travels in Asia, including several visits to Shanghai in the 1860s:


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