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Exploring China's History and Culture through Film

This quiz explores China's history and culture through film, focusing on key characters and significant historical events.

#China #Film #History #Culture #Quiz

1 What role did Jesse Birdsall play in the movie China?

2 Most Chinese dynasties were based in the historical heartlands of China, known as ________.

3 What role did Iris Wong play in the movie China?

4 What role did Sheila Stewart play in the movie China?

5 What does the following picture show? Some of the thousands of life-size Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, ca. 210 BC. 10th–11th century Longquan celadon porcelain pieces from Zhejiang province, during the Song Dynasty. The traditional (top) and simplified (bottom) characters for 'China' in Chinese. The first character means 'middle' or 'center', and the second character means 'country'. Ethnolinguistic map of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China.

6 On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, heralding the end of the ________.

7 ________ dates to as early as the 7th or 8th century CE.

8 Who played Douglas Chan in the movie China?

9 [42] With the ________ in 1945, China emerged victorious but financially drained.

10 Who played Rudolph Jackson in the movie China?

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the Ever Victorious Army, consisting of Chinese imperial forces led by a European officer corps, was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion.
  • the Foguang Temple's East Hall is the third oldest wooden building in China, dating from 857 AD.
  • the Emin Minaret (pictured) in Turfan, Xinjiang, built in the 18th century during the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong, is the tallest minaret in China.
  • the Church of the East, originally the Christian church of Sassanid Persia, eventually established churches throughout Asia, including in Mesopotamia, India, Central Asia, and China.
  • the cabriole leg (pictured) is a furniture style occurring in ancient China and Greece that re-emerged in Europe around 1700.
  • the Chengziya Archaeological Site in China is thought to be the largest prehistoric settlement found to date.
  • the history of sushi shows that although sushi is famous for its use in the Japanese cuisine, it actually originated in China in the 3rd or 4th century BC, more than 900 years before its first known appearance in Japan.
  • the Kucheng Massacre was one of the worst outrages against foreigners in China prior to the Boxer Movement.
  • the Shanhua Temple (pictured) in Datong, China, contains a hall that is over 900 years old.
  • the Sun Ning Railway Company, South China's first significant railway, was dismantled in December 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War to deny its use by the Japanese military.
  • the Runyang Bridge and the Jiangyin Suspension Bridge are the two largest suspension bridges in China and the fourth and sixth largest suspension bridges in the world.
  • the Ordos culture includes some of the easternmost Scythians, who were settled for several centuries in an area about 300 kilometers from modern Beijing in China.
  • the Little Guilin in Singapore is given its name because of its resemblance to the scenery in Guilin, China.
  • the Mustagh Pass crosses the Baltoro Muztagh range in the Karakorams, from Pakistan to China.
  • the Beiyue Temple (pictured) has China's largest surviving wooden building from the Yuan Dynasty.
  • the idiopathic inflammatory lung disease diffuse panbronchiolitis has the highest incidence among Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Thai cases, indicating a genetic predisposition among East Asians.
  • merchants from ancient India brought Roman goods of styrax and frankincense to Han Dynasty China.
  • modern historians still debate on whether or not the Ming Dynasty of China had sovereignty over Tibet.
  • in 1866 Polish exilees to Siberia staged an uprising trying to escape to China.
  • in 1787, British merchant ship Imperial Eagle, commanded by Charles William Barkley, brought fur from the Americas to sell in China without legally required licences, while sailing under the Austrian flag.
  • immature specimens of the lantern stinkhorn fungus (pictured), with an odor of dog feces, sewage, or rotting flesh when mature, are considered an edible and medicinal delicacy in China.
  • in 1078 the Chinese statesman and poet Su Shi (1037-1101) wrote a memorial to the throne warning of the potential danger of bandits overrunning the iron industry of Xuzhou.
  • synthetic analogues of camptothecin, a cytotoxic quinoline alkaloid isolated from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata, are being used as anti-cancer drugs.
  • technology from 18th-century France and China was used to improve the economy of Mysore kingdom.
  • the Chinese beverage suanmeitang is made with ingredients such as sour plums, sweet osmanthus, licorice root, rock sugar, and rose petals.
  • the gorge in China's Flaming Mountains, near the ruins of the once busy oasis city of Gaochang, was an important pass on the ancient trade route, the Silk Road, skirting the deadly Taklamakan Desert.
  • the Chinese regent Sima Daozi (364-403) was described by historians as spending too much of his time drinking and feasting.
  • the 6th-century Songyue Pagoda (pictured) is the oldest extant large pagoda in China and the earliest multiple-eave pagoda known.
  • the 17th-century Chinese world map Shanhai Yudi Quantu was derived from the work of Father Matteo Ricci of the Jesuit China missions.
  • the Tarim mummies indicate that Caucasoid populations lived in Xinjiang in western China during the 1st millennium BCE.
  • the Temporary Constitution of the Republic of China was the first ever constitution in China.
  • the spread of Christianity in Asia is believed to have reached China during the Tang Dynasty, where it was known as the Luminous Religion.
  • the success of the Lifeline Express in providing medical services to remote places in India has seen similar projects being initiated in other countries including China, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh.
  • the song created for The Coca-Cola Company's marketing campaign Open Happiness peaked at the number one spot on record charts in China.
  • the seeds of Capparis masaikai found in Yunnan, China contain mabinlins, sweet-tasting proteins more than 100 times sweeter than sucrose on a weight basis.
  • the pieces of dougong, an ancient Chinese structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, are cut to fit so perfectly that no glue or fasteners are needed.
  • the recent Typhoon Neoguri was the earliest tropical cyclone on record to affect China.
  • the surrender of Japanese troops in China was first announced in a Chinese language by Dr. Ernest B. Price (pictured) in October 1945.
  • the three-month Great Tea Race of 1866 to bring tea to London from China almost ended in a tie.
  • with a height of 154 m (505 ft), the wooden pagoda of Tianning Temple in Changzhou, China (pictured) is the tallest Buddhist pagoda in the world.
  • with over 80 mosques and several important gongbei shrine complexes (example pictured), Linxia City is known as "China's little Mecca".
  • upon completion in 1151, Anping Bridge in present-day Fujian was the longest bridge in China till 1905.
  • the world's tallest concrete-faced rockfill dam is Shuibuya Dam on the Qingjiang River in China.
  • the unsuccessful, day-long Rebellion of Cao Qin within Beijing, China in 1461 forced the Tianshun Emperor to blockade the gates of the Forbidden City with debris stripped from the Imperial Waterway.
  • the willow-leaved cotoneaster, Cotoneaster salicifolius, is a woody plant which is native to Western China, with over 30 cultivars which range from tiny groundcovers to large shrubs.
  • the militants of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang were given training in Yunnan in China by the Kuomintang, but then went on to engage in robbery on KMT territory.
  • the history of the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore dates back to the arrival of Lutheran Hakka refugees following the Taiping Rebellion in China.
  • the Hungarian-born Jew Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln was successively a Presbyterian missionary in Canada, a British Member of Parliament, an international double agent, a German right-wing politician, and a Buddhist abbot in China.
  • the ancient Chinese sect known as the Way of the Celestial Master established a theocratic state in Sichuan province during the 2nd century CE.
  • the Anemone hupehensis is often called the Japanese anemone, but is actually native to China.
  • the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in Zigong, Sichuan Province, China, established in 1987, was the first specialized dinosaur museum to open to the public in Asia.
  • the White Horse Temple (pictured) is, according to tradition, the first Buddhist temple in China, established in Luoyang in 68 AD.
  • the Yantai, blackish, and Chinese stingrays are the three most commonly sold stingrays in China.
  • the award-winning Chinese film Cell Phone, with its box office profit of over ¥50 million, was the highest-grossing film made in China in 2003.
  • the dinosaur Lufengosaurus, whose remains were found in China, was the first dinosaur to appear on a commemorative postage stamp, in 1958.
  • the final twenty minutes of the 1941 documentary film Kukan shows an air attack by Japanese bombers against Chongqing, the World War II capital of China.
  • the high-profile recalls in 2007 and 2008 of China-manufactured toys led the U.S. to enact stricter limits on the amount of lead in paint on children's products.
  • the extinct hazel species Corylus johnsonii (fruit pictured) resembles three modern hazels found in China.
  • the exact location of the city of Cialis, where Bento de Góis became convinced in 1605 that Cathay is China, has been a subject of debate among later historians.
  • the earliest Roman glass found in China comes from a 1st-century-BC tomb in Guangzhou, dated to the Han Dynasty.
  • famed Japanese literary critic Kobayashi Hideo toured China as a guest of the Imperial Japanese Army, with future Nobel-prize winner Kawabata Yasunari.
  • during his Eastern journey Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovitch of Russia visited Egypt, India, China and Japan travelling a distance of more than 51,000 km (31,500 mi).
  • Lê Chiêu Thống, last king of the Vietnamese Lê Dynasty, died in China.
  • Lantian Man, who was discovered in China in 1963, preceded Peking Man by several hundred thousand years.
  • Kazakhstan Temir Zholy is building a transshipment railway to connect China with Europe using standard gauge.
  • Huangshan Pines are venerated in China for their unique rugged shapes, and are frequently portrayed in traditional Chinese paintings.
  • Geyuan Temple's Wenshu Hall (pictured) is the earliest extant wooden building dating from 966 CE during China's Liao Dynasty.
  • Henri Pinault, the last Roman Catholic bishop of Chengdu, was imprisoned and expelled from China by the Communist Party of China in 1952, but retained his title until 1983.
  • Layman Pang, a wealthy merchant and Zen Buddhist in Tang Dynasty China, once put all of his possessions in a boat and sank them in a river.
  • Lingyan Temple in Shandong, China features a nine-storey Song Dynasty pagoda, named the Pizhi Pagoda (pictured) from the Sanskrit word pratyeka.
  • merrilactone A, a natural compound found in the fruits of some star anise trees indigenous to Myanmar and China, is neuroprotective and promotes the growth of neurons.
  • Michał Boym was one of the first Westerners to explore China and an author of many scholarly publications about the Far East.
  • Luo Binwang wrote a sharply worded accusation against Empress Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor, that impressed her so much that after his death she collected his writings and published them.
  • Louis Merrilat played football with Dwight Eisenhower at West Point, trained Iran's Persian Guard, and served as a soldier of fortune in China and with the French Foreign Legion.
  • Liu Heita was a Xia general during China's transition between the Sui and Tan dynasties in the 7th century.
  • Liugong Island is considered the "birthplace of China's first navy" and is also the site of its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War.
  • foxtail millet has the longest history of cultivation among the millets, having been grown in China since between three and four thousand years ago.
  • Empress Zhang Yao'er refused to hand over control of China's Chen Dynasty until threatened with violence, as she hoped her captive son would be freed to take the throne.
  • Imperial Japanese Army general Takaji Wachi attempted to create a collaborationist state in Guangxi, China in the mid 1930s.
  • Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516.
  • genderbending Chinese spy Shi Pei Pu, inspiration for M. Butterfly, had a sexual relationship with a French diplomatic worker who believed that he was a she and had given birth to their "son".
  • Chinese immigration to the Russian Far East has led to fears of Chinese irredentism in Russia, even though there are less than 35,000 Chinese in all of Russia.
  • China and Peru are expected to sign a free trade agreement during the 2008 APEC summit.
  • China sought to strengthen Sino-Nepalese relations by supplying arms to the Nepalese monarchy against the country's Maoist insurgents.
  • Japan's entomological warfare program in China during World War II used plague-infected fleas and cholera-coated flies to kill nearly 500,000 people.
  • New Zealand currently has free trade agreements with Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Chile and China.
  • Maj. Gen. Charles Bond was credited with shooting down nine-and-a-half Japanese planes and was himself shot down twice while serving with the Flying Tigers in Burma and China.
  • Chin Gee Hee (1844–1929) was a successful labor contractor in the United States and later a railroad entrepreneur in his native China.
  • Beijing opera did not originate in Beijing but in the Chinese provinces of Anhui and Hubei.
  • Russian painter Alexandre Jacovleff (pictured) participated in trans-Saharan and trans-Asian (from Syria to China) expeditions organized by the French car manufacturer Citroën.
  • Polish Jesuit and missionary Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki introduced the knowledge of logarithms to China in the mid-17th century.
  • Peter Parker, the first Protestant medical missionary to China, introduced Western anesthesia in the form of sulphuric ether in 1835.
  • Quoc An Temple in Huế was founded by a Zen monk from China, whose disciple lineage covers most of the Buddhists in southern Vietnam.
  • The Kinship of the Three is the earliest book on theoretical alchemy in China and is the earliest source to have mentioned the compositions necessary to create gunpowder.
  • Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, the first feature film in Hong Kong cinema, was the first ever Chinese film to be shown abroad.
  • Ororaphidia and Styporaphidia are the oldest snakeflies known from China, dating from the Middle Jurassic.
  • Keying was a three-masted Chinese junk, which sailed from China to the United States and England between 1846 and 1848.
  • Circle of Chalk, a Yuan Dynasty play, is still being performed in European versions set in 14th-century China, Soviet Georgia and East Germany.
  • Gigantic, a film about a single man deciding to adopt a baby, was inspired by writer–director Matt Aselton's childhood wish for his parents to adopt a baby from China.
  • Dr. Jo Riley explored Chinese exorcism and ancient animation rites at the tomb, to better document actor performance (example pictured) in Chinese theatre.
  • Italian Jesuit priest Sabatino de Ursis moved to China in 1607 to assist Matteo Ricci in his astronomical research, and attempted to reform the Chinese calendar.
  • although allies during the Vietnam War, bilateral relations between China and Vietnam deteriorated due to disputes over the Gulf of Tonkin and Cambodia, resulting in the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.
  • despite the scar literature after the Cultural Revolution in China contributing to Deng Xiaoping's return to power, he later suppressed it.
  • according to anthropologist Stanley Marion Garn, Neanderthal in China and Java were killed off by the more intelligent hominid Sinanthropus pithencanthropus, contributing to the Neanderthal extinction.
  • a team of archaeologists discovered a fossilized Han Solo in the rocks of China.
  • Jiang Rong was inspired to write his 2004 novel Wolf Totem during China's Cultural Revolution after a failed attempt to domesticate a wolf.
  • Sir Christopher Chancellor was selected to lead the Reuters news agency in 1944, after keeping the agency's reporting from China operating during the seven years following the Japanese invasion.
  • Tien Ang Tong is the first Methodist church built in China that provided services in the English language.
  • Agilisaurus was first discovered when construction workers were excavating a site for a new dinosaur museum in China.
  • USS General S. D. Sturgis was the transport ship assigned to deliver officials of the United States, Australia, Canada, Dutch East Indies, China and the Philippines to Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender ceremonies at the end of World War II.
  • World Chocolate Wonderland, the first chocolate theme park in China, showcases the world's biggest chocolate model of the Great Wall of China.
  • Tung Hua Lin led a team that designed and built China's first twin-engine aircraft in a cave to avoid detection by the Japanese during World War II.
  • Tui bei tu, a banned 7th century prophecy book about China which has been compared to the work of Nostradamus, became a bestseller in the 1990s.
  • Captain Robert Waterman set three speed records for sailing from China to New York in the 1840s.
  • Sandouping, China, has not only the world's largest power plant, but also 1,000 hectares of citrus orchards.
  • Wu Cheng'en is thought to have written the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West anonymously, because writing in the vernacular language was considered vulgar.
  • Wushan Man, a species of Homo, was identified from a fossil jaw found south of the Yangtze River but is now thought to come from an extinct ape that lived in China two million years ago.
  • Zhang Yanshang, his father, son, and father-in-law were all Tang Dynasty Chinese chancellors.
  • Zhang Zhenshi created a widely reproduced image of Mao Zedong which is known as China's Mona Lisa.
  • Zhang Chengzhi, who formed China's first group of Red Guards while a student at Tsinghua University Middle School, converted to Islam.
  • Yishan Yining, a Zen master who pioneered Gozan Bungaku literature in 14th-century Japan, was originally a Buddhist monk on a diplomatic mission from China.
  • Xianxingzhe, China's first bipedal humanoid robot was satirized in Japan for having a joint that resembles a "crotch cannon".
  • China supported the Zimbabwe African National Union's fight against British rule in the country and recognized it right from independence day on April 18, 1980.
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