Bread, wine, beer … all civilizations have fermented foods using "Saccharomyces cerevisiae", brewer's yeast or baker's yeast. But who started? Most likely the Chinese. This is what a large study of the evolution of its genome recently revealed. By sequencing more than a thousand complete genomes of yeast strains collected...
A miracle during the WW II thanks to a Chinese woman
This week, the Belgian Maurice Doclot passed away in his sleep, at the venerable age of 106. Who was he ? This former WWII soldier is one of 96 survivors of a terrible execution that should have happened if a great Chinese heroine, Qian Xiuling, had not put her connections...
SERIES: HOT SPRINGS, NEW TREND IN CHINA !
Chapter 1 : Tengchong in Yunnan Soaking in hot springs on the edge of the volcano, watching the sea of clouds, or soaking in the « soup" in the towering snow-capped mountains : the body and mind are healed. Regardless of how the epidemic prevention measures of European countries are decided...
Do the Japanese, Turkish, Korean languages come from the north of China?
A recent study by the prestigious scientific journal Nature tracked the origins of the language family including modern Japanese, Korean, Turkish, and Mongolian. In short, Altaic or “trans-Eurasian” languages. The results demonstrate a shared genetic ancestry for the hundreds of millions of speakers of these languages believed to have originated...
SERIES: Books to better understand China (VII)
"Sexual life in ancient China" by Robert van Gulik Part 7: Ming dynasty and the end of Spiritual sexuality ? Even if mentalities have changed a little among young Chinese, there is still a certain discretion, reservations about talking about the subject. And so much the better. In the West,...
A Belgian Passage to China (1870-1930)
50th anniversary of friendship between Belgium and the People’s Republic of China 1971-2021 The China Platform at Ghent University is announcing the publication of a new book “A Belgian Passage to China (1870-1930). This new book brings a forgotten episode of Belgium’s overseas history into the limelight. It highlights the projects...
SERIES: Technology and Sciences in Ancient China
Miniature hot-air balloons Joseph Needham's immense encyclopedia, "Science and Civilization in China" (Cambridge, 1954), reminds us every day of how the Chinese are a people of brilliant inventors and also great scientists. And this, for 3000 years! For example, did you know the famous first physical Law of Motion of...
“Sexual life in ancient China” by Robert van Gulik (VI)
SERIES: Books to better understand China Part 6 : The dark times of Yuan dynasty (1279-1367) Even if mentalities have changed a little among young Chinese, there is still a certain discretion, reservations about talking about the subject. And so much the better. In the West, the subject goes beyond...
Europe, the Arab peoples and China.
Does France have a short memory ? Many cultural and political tensions are linked in France to the place of the Arab people within it. The media criticize China for its treatment of minorities, but it seems that part of France does not respect people of immigrant background. France and...
Why do heavyweights in the scientific world want to go to China ?
« Brain drain" alone is not enough to explain this status quo… Recently, news of some Japanese scientists joining Chinese universities has become a hot topic. Akira Fujishima, the 79-year-old former president of Tokyo Institute of Technology, is a leader in Japan's "photocatalyst" research. Not long ago, he led a research...