Word: manchu
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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China's Manchu Emperor Ch'ien-lung, 64, who likes to spend his afternoons writing poetry and practicing calligraphy, has just won another smashing victory on the battlefield. After five years of struggle against rebellious tribes in the mountains of Szechwan, the Emperor's troops laid siege to the rebels' main stone fortress, constructed cannons on the spot and in March forced it to surrender. Ch'ien-lung's armies, which earlier defeated the Mongolians and Tibetans, have by now expanded his empire by some 600,000 square miles, notably in Sinkiang. He thus...
...pinnacle of his power, after a reign of 40 years, the Manchu ruler is engaged in an enormous program of cultural improvements. Some 15,000 calligraphers have been engaged to make handwritten copies of 10,000 books for the nation's half-dozen main libraries. (No books critical of the Manchus are permitted, however.) The Emperor is also subsidizing hundreds of poets and painters to exalt Chinese achievements...
...assured, Chiang Kai-shek (the name means "firm rock") was one of the century's major figures. As a revolutionary and ardent nationalist, he had an epic career embracing both triumph and tragedy. Sixty years of his life were consumed by bitter uphill struggles: first against the crumbling Manchu dynasty, then against the warlords who flourished in its ruins, next against invaders from imperial Japan and finally against the Communist peasant army that foreclosed his dream of dominance in China and chased him to an unhappy exile on Taiwan...
...town salt merchant in Chekiang province on China's central coast, Chiang trained as a soldier, spoke like a revolutionary, and seemed destined for power. His climb began with an introduction, through a friend, to Sun Yatsen, the zealous revolutionary whose nationalistic movement brought down the already doddering Manchu empire in 1911. Cadet Chiang, a 24-year-old student at a military school in Japan, rushed home to join Sun's fledgling revolution. Chiang rose steadily through the military ranks of Sun's Canton-based Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). At 31, he was a general-and a powerful...
...masterminds a gang of bank-robbing thugs with monikers like "the Professor," "the Reverend" and "Mammy" (Jeremy Geidt), who are all kept in line by Dr. Nakamura. Made up to look like Dr. Fu Manchu and with an accent to match, Alvin Epstein plays this role with hysterical finesse. Enter a Salvation Army lassie, "Hallelujah Lil" (Stephanie Cotsirilos). She falls for Bill, and redeeming social values ensue...