No good Manchu puns . . .
by Caroline. . . Thank god.
My dear friend Tony is in a far northeastern Chinese city for the next several months. He is a brilliant fancypants and Washington gave him a Fulbright for it. I delight in the irony of using U.S. government money to research and better understand the Chinese!
The province of 黑龙江省, Hēilóngjiāng, is one of China’s least densely-populated, though of course that’s relative. Reasons for this include harsh northern temperatures and, well, not a whole lot happening. It sits in an odd cultural place for China, smushed up against Russia (sharing its architecture and people) while also the original home of the Manchu people.
Way back, the Manchus descended into China proper and took over. They were the royal lineage for many, maaaany years, but remain a tiny minority (2-3%) of China’s population, with an even smaller number speaking their pretty-much-dead language. They had unique customs and a totally different culture, and are even considered a different race in China’s demographics. When the Manchu royals vacationed, they went back to Manchuria, which was annexed to China but retained its unique cultural identity.
Of course, as Tony recently explained, all of China is in the same time zone even though it geographically spans four. This means Manchuria and Tibet and all points in between say the same time of day, when it’s pitch black on the east side and afternoon in the west. Interesting!
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