Cathay

SIUC was closed yesterday and today because of a severe winter storm, and I was forced to stay at home for two days. What a waste of my time! Whenever I am busy working, I desire vacations; but whenever I rest for too long, I want to go back to work again ...

The word "Cathay" is never strange in the eyes of Hong Kong citizens, because Cathay Pacific Airways is the flag carrier of Hong Kong and is often voted as one of the best airlines in the world. However, what does the word "Cathay" mean? I've had no idea until today from a history book "China: A Macro History" written by the famous Chinese historian Ray Huang. "Cathay" was actually the name for China in the Middle Ages, popularized by its use in Marco Polo's book. The word "Cathay" originates from the word "Khitan". The Khitan people were the people who founded the Liao Dynasty (i.e. Khitan Empire in western sources) in the northern part of modern day China in the 10th century. "Cathay" was first used by Central Asians to refer to the Khitan Empire, and later on this name was spread to Europe.

However, the Central Asians and Europeans (as well as modern-day people without much knowledge about Chinese history) did not recognize one fact: at that time Khitans were not Chinese. The Chinese ruled its own empire, Song Dynasty, to the south of Khitan Empire. The Khitans were originally nomadic people located at Mongolia and Manchuria, although later on the empire that they founded was heavily influenced by Chinese culture and became just like Chinese. Cultural assimilation was a repeated pattern for all nomadic tribes from the north of China who conquered and settled in China in the entire history of China.

The way we were

Happy New Year! This year is an extremely important year to me. I am looking forward to it.

What was I doing at 12:00am? I was singing Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were". For some reason I was obssessed with this song in the past few days. The movie was a classic, but I'd never had a chance watching it. I am going to watch it definitely.





I've just learnt from a history book that Timur wanted to conquer China, but "fortunately" he died before it happened. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty of 15th century China could suffer a defeat. I always desire to learn any interaction between China and the rest of the world in history.