A roundup of five notable stories from the past weekend includes a deadly coal mine accident in China, turbulence on a Cathay Pacific flight, and other news from across Asia.
Two women in ancient China, Zhang Xiugu and another unnamed figure, defied societal restrictions to make significant contributions to medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. Zhang Xiugu, living around 1500 years ago, is noted for early work in pathological anatomy.
In ancient China, water consumption was deeply intertwined with social status, health beliefs, and ritual practices, influencing elite preferences for specific water types.
In ancient China, ordinary people were not allowed to wear yellow as it symbolised the imperial power, apart from one exception: the emperor’s yellow jacket. Magua is a style of jacket worn by Manchu males during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). It was worn over the long robe as protection while riding horses. Huang magua, or the imperial yellow jacket, has a special meaning due to its colour. In Qing dynasty, only the emperors, empresses and empress dowagers could wear yellow. Ordinary people...
This feature explores how the panda evolved from an overlooked creature in ancient Chinese folklore—known as 'white bears' in the Three Kingdoms era and believed to eat iron—into a national treasure and defining symbol of modern China. Palaeontological evidence shows panda fossils with butchery marks dating back 8-9 million years, while the earliest written records appear in the Book of Documents from the pre-Qin period.
