I’m writing a fantasy fic set in a fictitious empire, based on ancient China. Even though it’s fantasy, I hope that the empire mirrors ancient China as closely as possible. I prefer to borrow details from the Tang, Song or Ming Dynasty, and I’m worried that I might include any detail that is exclusive to pre-Tang Dynasty China by mistake.

I googled ( Read more... )

Setting: 1890 - 1900, on an ocean liner travelling from England to China. AU.
Googled: Travelling in Victorian times, passenger liner, ocean liner, steamboat, 1890 travel, SS City of Peking, RMS Empress of China, RMS Empress of Japan...

So, I have a few questions and I'm hoping that someone can provide some answers or point me to the right direction.

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I'm writing a story in which one of the characters is a young man from Beijing who has been alive, in a sort of alternate plane, since about 1750. He was from a wealthy merchant family and was studying for the imperial examinations when he was kidnapped and brought to the aforementioned alternate plane. He has kept up with the changes in written ( Read more... )

So I'm writing about a young Chinese man, born and raised in an unspecified part of the country (I realize China is a big region but this is fanfic and there's no canon for where he's from), most likely in the 1870s. The character lives in England now and is noted for his peculiar habit of always wearing open-toed slippers rather than normal ( Read more... )

Setting: a fantasy-like Ancient China. To be specific, I'm writing a fanfic for Jade Empire, if it helps clarify any ( Read more... )

A mishmash of questions here, all have been searched using a mixture of terms on Google ("mental hospitals china/shanghai", "asylums shanghai", "mental health" etc.) and checking them out elsewhere, but they're all either very vague or non-existent ( Read more... )

I found this while trying to find floor plans of a traditional Korean house, and I think it's awesome:

Asian Historical Architecture: A Photographic SurveyIt has selections from many Asian countries, but its Japanese, Chinese, and Korean sections are the best. There's historical information, photographs of interiors and exteriors, and even floor ( Read more... )

Setting: Kaoshiung, Taiwan
Time: 1935-1953, 1968
Googled terms: "history Chinese abortion," "history attitudes Chinese abortion," "Chinese attitudes abortion"
Read: Behind the Silence: Chinese Voices on Abortion (book), various websites about the one-child policy ( Read more... )

For a fantasy world based on ancient China, I was doing research on foot binding, and I stumbled across a little tidbit of information on wikipedia that I've been trying to find out more about, with no sucess ( Read more... )

Hi, I'm looking for a good info site on the history of small-scale or private industry in ancient China. The timescale doesn't really matter as it's for a fantasy world based on China, so I can fudge it. Google gives me a lot of info on the 20th century, but not much else. Wikipedia informs me that paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods were the ( Read more... )