So, whether you call him Judge Dee or Detective Dee, Di Renjie, one of the great officials of the Tang Dynasty, has a place in the popular Chinese popular culture that's all his own. He served Empress Wu Zetian in many important positions, and managed to do a great many good things while in government service. He was also, as legend would have it, ( Read more... )

It's a Cast of Characters, because it amuses me to do this. Also, it's better for me to exercise my snark on mostly-fictional characters in a Chinese television series than on my co-workers. After all, they pay me twice a month here and I need the money.

Our Hero, and the people close to him

Xue Rengui Our Hero. He is brave. He is strong (as ( Read more... )

( And this one finishes the first DVD )

The game pieces are still being moved into position, but that doesn't mean Things Are Dull in Chang'an. There's plenty going on, ( and you can count on there being dirty work at the crossroads soon enough. )

Because it amuses me. ( Read more... )

It's early in the Tang Dynasty, and the subject nations are restless--which is. no doubt, why this show opens with the Emperor Taizong in peril. ( Read more... )

As anyone who caught any of the episodes of Dae Joyoung (or who was unfortunate enough to read one of my posts about that show--and yes, I do have a wrap-up post or two on the back burner) knows, one of the pivotal characters in that story was a veteran Chinese general named Xue Rengui; this character was played with great zest by the veteran actor ( Read more... )

Finally, AZN got around to re-showing "Uprisings", the first episode of the Stories of Han Dynasty series (movie version). And it's only two months after they started the re-run, too ( Read more... )

Alas, the 50 (count them--50!) DVD set of The Stories of Han Dynasty that arrived in the mail Wednesday appear to be non-compatible with the Americanocentric DVD player. Also, when fed into the computer in the living room, I am unable to locate any feature which would give me English (or English-like) subtitles. Woe ( Read more... )

up there in the Heaven of Historians, because the people who made The Story of Han Dynasty prostrated themselves before his shrine and then used his principal narrative technique. I suspected so after the episode where Zhao Gao sets things up to destroy the Qin Dynasty, and after watching this past weekend's (still out of order) episode, which was ( Read more... )