26 Jia Lijun’s Fatal Walrus Selfie
In May 2016, businessman Jia Lijun took a selfie with a walrus at China’s Xixiakou Wildlife Park. The animal then pulled him into its pool. Onlookers and staff initially mistook the attack for play, but when the walrus’s longtime trainer, Duan, jumped in to help, it dragged him under too. Both men drowned.
27. At China’s “Giant Panda Kindergarten,” 18 cubs born in 2018 had a joint birthday party in July 2019. The center had earlier struggled to breed pandas after keeping adults isolated in small dens. Researchers mistakenly believed that pandas preferred a solitary life, so they kept each panda in a tiny den; as a result, the pandas became depressed and lost their desire to mate. This situation all changed when researchers began giving potential mates time to become familiar with each other’s scent, alongside other changes to breeding and cub care.
28. In 2015, Cards Against Humanity paid for a week off for workers at the Chinese factory that printed its cards. The printer had no formal paid-vacation procedure, so the company bought the factory’s entire production capacity for a week and paid it to produce nothing. This was every worker’s first vacation.
29. The world’s largest fast-food chain by number of locations is China’s Mixue, which sells ice cream and tea drinks. A 2026 ranking lists about 53,000 Mixue outlets, ahead of McDonald’s 45,356 restaurants at the end of 2025.
30. During World War II, Chinese resistance commander Yang Jingyu fought alone for five days after Japanese forces killed the last two soldiers with him. Yang was encircled and killed after five days of fighting alone in the wild. An autopsy found only bark and grass roots in his stomach. His desecrated body was later given a proper burial due to fear of his ghost.
31 Shi Jianqiao’s Pardoned Warlord Assassination
In 1925, warlord Sun Chuanfang had Shi Jianqiao’s father, a rival military officer, beheaded and his head displayed in public. Shi found Sun in Tianjin ten years later and shot him during a Buddhist prayer session. Her act of filial revenge drew widespread sympathy; after a lengthy court process, the Nationalist government pardoned her in 1936.
32. Since 2013, the US has allowed chickens from the USA to be shipped to China for processing and then shipped back to the USA without notifying consumers the chicken came from China.
33. Since 2011, U.S. law has restricted NASA from bilateral cooperation with China, and China is not a partner in the International Space Station. Therefore, Chinese astronauts are officially banned from visiting the International Space Station.
34. Wealthy Chinese collectors have bought artifacts taken from China during the 19th century, hoping to bring them home. European museums holding such objects have also suffered targeted thefts. In one Norwegian case, police believed the thieves were hired but could not identify who hired them.
35. Chinese internet users have called June 4 “May 35th” to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown while evading censorship of the actual date. The invented date itself was later added to blocked search terms.
36 Jiang Qing’s Li Lili Persecution
Before marrying Mao Zedong, Jiang Qing acted under the name Lan Ping alongside film star Li Lili. Decades later, during the Cultural Revolution, Jiang personally ordered attacks on Li and her filmmaker husband, Luo Jingyu, according to an account by Li’s grandson-in-law. Both were tortured; Li survived, but Luo died.
37. In China, some unemployed people pay 30 to 50 yuan (about US$4 to US$7) a day to use a “pretend work” office. They can sit at a desk and follow a workday routine without an employer. Some use the space to conceal their unemployment; others search for jobs, study, or work on their own projects.
38. In 2012, 68 students who had spent four years attending classes on the Shandong Institute of Light Industry’s campus learned they were not enrolled there and would receive no diplomas. An outside training organization had recruited them and run their classes using space at the institute; its instructors were not institute employees. One student reported paying 11,000 yuan in the first year and 8,900 yuan in each of the next two.
39. Qian Xuesen earned a master’s degree from MIT and a doctorate from Caltech, helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and reportedly contributed to the Manhattan Project. During the Red Scare, U.S. authorities accused him of Communist sympathies and restricted his movements for five years. He returned to China in 1955, helped build its missile and space programs, and became known as the “Father of Chinese Rocketry.”
40. In one Chinese legend, the mythical pixiu defecated on the floor of Heaven. The Jade Emperor spanked it so hard that its anus was permanently sealed. It could still eat gold, silver, and jewels but could never expel them, making it a symbol of acquiring and keeping wealth.
41 Agricultural Bank Managers’ Lottery Robbery
In 2007, vault managers Ren Xiaofeng and Ma Xiangjing stole about US$4.3 million from an Agricultural Bank of China branch in Handan and spent nearly all of it on lottery tickets. They hoped to replace the money with their winnings and keep the profit. Instead, they had to steal more, bringing the total to about US$6.7 million, while winning only about US$13,000. They fled, were caught, and were executed in 2008.
42. In the earliest published version of Aladdin, the boy lives in China, where most of the story takes place. The North African magician is a visitor. The tale became part of The Arabian Nights through Antoine Galland’s French collection, although it was absent from the earlier Arabic manuscript he translated.
43. In premodern China, tongyangxi was a practice in which a family adopted a young girl and raised her to marry one of its sons. The children grew up together in the same household, often from an early age, and married when they were older. The arrangement helped poorer families secure a bride for a son while relieving the girl’s birth family of the cost of raising her.
44. China has a 26-story pig farm on the outskirts of Ezhou in Hubei province. The facility began taking in sows in 2022 and uses automated feeding, ventilation, and waste systems to raise pigs across its floors. It is part of a two-building complex designed to produce up to 1.2 million pigs a year.
45. In 2005, a Chinese man named Wang Diange was thought to have died from a lightning strike in Inner Mongolia. When his body exploded during cremation, investigators found a piece of metal in the furnace. They traced it to an unexploded weather shell fired to prevent hail; it had fallen through Wang’s roof and struck him. The local weather bureau later paid his family more than 80,000 yuan in compensation.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Shih Tzus’ Fourteen Founding Dogs
After the 1949 Communist revolution, Shih Tzu dogs associated with China’s imperial elite were killed, and the breed disappeared from the country. Modern Shih Tzus trace their ancestry to 13 dogs imported into England and Scandinavia between 1928 and 1952. Breeders also crossed a Pekingese into the line, bringing the recorded founding stock to 14 dogs.
47. In China, jump rope scores count toward school fitness assessments and, in some places, high school entrance exams. To improve their children’s scores, some parents pay for coaching that costs as much as $50 an hour. Some parents enroll children as young as 3 in jump rope classes.
48. Chinese warlord Zhang Zongchang ruled Shandong from 1925 to 1928 and earned the nickname “Three Don’t Knows.” People claimed he did not know how much money he had, how many soldiers served in his army, or how many women lived in his harem. At the height of his power, he reportedly kept 30 to 50 concubines and numbered them because he could not remember all their names.
49. In Yiwu, eastern China, diners wondered how the same couple seemed to run a restaurant from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. every day. Locals nicknamed it the “robot couple restaurant.” In fact, identical twin brothers had married identical twin sisters, and the two couples worked alternating shifts to keep the restaurant open for 21 hours.
50. In 2018, a tiny convenience store opened on a cliff at Shiniuzhai in China’s Hunan province. Nicknamed the “most inconvenient convenience store,” it sits about 120 meters (393 feet) above the ground and sells water and snacks to climbers. One worker staffs the booth at a time and restocks it before dawn; bottled water cost just 2 yuan when the store drew widespread attention in 2022.
RE: Fact #28 (Cards Against Humanity’s Factory Vacation) – I wonder how many of them just sat at home totally stumped, not knowing what to do with themselves.
RE: Fact #37 (China’s Unemployed Rent Pretend Offices) – I would never pay to cosplay as an office worker, but I don’t have Asian parents to please or social media followers to impress.
RE: Fact #27 (Panda Kindergarten’s 18-Cub Birthday Party) – That’s so sweet. Despite everything going on in the world, it’s nice that there are people dedicated to animal welfare. It isn’t easy work, and I have a lot of respect for them.
RE: Fact #4 (PLA’s 10, 000 Backup Messenger Pigeons) – “Military communications” is their excuse. We don’t stand a chance.
Birdy, birdy, in the sky, what’s that landing in my eye? Just hope elephants don’t start flying too!
RE: Fact #19 (Huang Heqing’s Greek Sculpture Conspiracy) – Amateurs! We have a conspiracy theory in Russia that claims almost all history before the printing press was made up, ancient, medieval, Eastern, Western, the whole lot.
Do they actually believe it’s fake, or just that the records are inaccurate? History is really just our best estimation, after all.
This Chinese theory is based on the same “New Chronology” ideas from Anatoly Fomenko. You should check out his art, it’s pretty wild.
RE: Fact #6 (China Eastern’s 300 Lounge Meals) – He only got caught because the airline’s system struggled to handle his ticket. There were so many logs from constant cancellations that it took forever to load. Staff eventually pulled a supervisor, but he realized what was happening, ran to a different counter, and cashed in his refund before they could stop him.
So, could he have just canceled the ticket entirely every week or month and started a brand new booking?
RE: Fact #41 (Agricultural Bank Managers’ Lottery Robbery) – Aren’t bank managers supposed to have at least some basic financial sense?
RE: Fact #8 (Xiao Yun’s Ten-Year Gaming Disappearance) – Was she actually sleeping in those cafes? Wouldn’t staff kick her out for that?
Internet cafes in Asia often have private rooms with beds and showers. Many people actually live in these cubicles, they’re tiny, usually under 4×6 feet, and there is basically zero privacy or quiet.
RE: Fact #41 (Agricultural Bank Managers’ Lottery Robbery) – They really do not mess around with theft there. Have people ever been executed for stealing in the US?
RE: Fact #4 (PLA’s 10, 000 Backup Messenger Pigeons) – Just strap a few microSD cards to them and they’d be faster than my home internet connection.
People have actually tested that, it really is faster than the internet in most places.
RE: Fact #31 (Shi Jianqiao’s Pardoned Warlord Assassination) – And she pulled all of that off with bound feet.
RE: Fact #11 (Lanmaoa Asiatica Mushroom’s Miniature Hallucinations) – I’m fairly certain the show ‘Common Side Effects’ is about these mushrooms.
RE: Fact #36 (Jiang Qing’s Li Lili Persecution) – Just a reminder that most dictators have the emotional maturity of a toddler.
RE: Fact #23 (China’s Court-Ordered Visits to Parents) – Singapore has something similar. It doesn’t apply if you can prove you were neglected or abused as a child.
It is tough to prove abuse and neglect decades later. How can you legally show what parents did to you 30 or 40 years ago?
RE: Fact #23 (China’s Court-Ordered Visits to Parents) – Some places in the US and Canada have similar laws on the books. It is unclear how often they are enforced, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out in China.
Those are filial responsibility laws, often used to help the state recover nursing home costs. Also, check out “Medicaid clawback” in the US, if a senior applies for coverage, the state reviews their last five years of spending. If they helped their parents in certain ways, adult children can sometimes get stuck with huge bills.
RE: Fact #27 (Panda Kindergarten’s 18-Cub Birthday Party) – > Pandas were placed in dens with members of the opposite sex so they would become familiar with each other’s smell, in an attempt to encourage mating. Can confirm. That method works for me every time.
So the whole problem was that they were just trying to breed pandas from same-sex pairs?
RE: Fact #21 (Tiananmen’s Disputed 10, 000 Death Estimate) – Good to keep this in mind whenever you see official reports from China regarding COVID deaths. Also, claiming “only 200” speaks volumes.
Do people actually believed the death toll numbers coming out of China? My wife is Chinese, and both she and our Chinese-Australian friends were convinced the CCP was lying through their teeth.
RE: Fact #35 (Tiananmen’s Censored May 35th Code) – I checked the estimated death toll for the Tiananmen Square massacre, and Wikipedia lists the range as between 180 and 10, 454. How on earth is the gap that massive?
RE: Fact #9 (Ming Dynasty Smallpox Scab Inoculation) – Back then, people accepted a 0.5-2.0% mortality rate from inoculation because they knew it was safer than the alternative. Now, we have vaccines that are incredibly safe, and yet some people still refuse to take them.
RE: Fact #37 (China’s Unemployed Rent Pretend Offices) – Do people treat this as a remote work or coworking space? It seems like it would be really helpful to have a place outside the house to get work done or apply for jobs, especially since a day pass at a coworking space in the US is like $30.
You can pay to just sit around and pretend to be busy, but it sounds like most people actually use the space to job hunt or get a startup off the ground.
RE: Fact #35 (Tiananmen’s Censored May 35th Code) – Just to be clear, nobody is actually tricked by the term May 35th. It is just a way to talk about the larger issue of navigating automated, blanket censorship.
RE: Fact #8 (Xiao Yun’s Ten-Year Gaming Disappearance) – I can buy that she lived on handouts, but internet cafes aren’t free. Was she dating the manager or something? How did she afford to stay there and game?
If by dating you mean performing sexual acts, then yes, that is probably how she managed it.
RE: Fact #11 (Lanmaoa Asiatica Mushroom’s Miniature Hallucinations) – It is quite difficult to find outside of specific Asian food and mushroom markets. The hallucinogenic compound hasn’t been identified yet, but it’s not psilocybin.
RE: Fact #15 (China’s Three-Inch Lotus Foot Binding) – I still struggle to understand how this ever started. The process was so incredibly brutal, and girls constantly died of infection. And for what?
That’s how fashion often works, it started because an emperor had a foot fetish. The story goes that he was obsessed with a dancer whose feet were so small he could hold them in his palm. I assume she just had naturally small feet, but it turned into a huge trend.
The women who went through it said their feet would smell so awful they couldn’t even stand to take the wrappings off.
RE: Fact #3 (88888 License Plate’s Eight Stops) – Does that make Google’s DNS server the luckiest one on the web then?
RE: Fact #4 (PLA’s 10, 000 Backup Messenger Pigeons) – The Swiss army kept their pigeon service until 1995 and had 40, 000 birds. For a country as massive as China, 10, 000 seems really low.
The point is that in an emergency, you already have trained pigeon experts who can be made into officers and teach others. Trying to start a program like that from scratch would take way too long.
RE: Fact #5 (Lady Gaga’s Dalai Lama Blacklisting) – New personal goal: get banned from China as a hostile foreign force.
All you have to do is be in China on vacation when one of their wealthy residents gets put on house arrest for corporate espionage by your home country. Then they’ll throw you in prison and torture you. So yeah, that is a pretty realistic goal.
RE: Fact #43 (Tongyangxi Girls Raised as Brides) – My grandmother was actually one of those girls. But it was pretty informal, she was sent to my grandfather’s household when she was about 5, but she cried so much that the great-grandmothers decided to send her back to her mom. She lived in her own home until she was old enough to marry. She was born in 1919 and left China in 1947 with one kid, so she was in her early twenties when she had her first child. She ended up living to 101.
RE: Fact #30 (Yang Jingyu’s Bark-Filled Final Stand) – The guy was basically unkillable, and even that was probably not enough to finish him off. We should definitely be careful not to make him any angrier.
According to the wiki, the Japanese troops killed him but were nervous about getting close because he was such a legendary sniper. Even after they surrounded and killed him, they were worried his body might be a trap. He was a truly intimidating figure.
RE: Fact #13 (Shandong Physicians’ Family-First Cancer Disclosure) – This is still a pretty common practice in many parts of the world. It was also standard in Europe and the U.S. until the 1970s.
I worked as a floor nurse in the 70s. Keeping the diagnosis from patients was standard procedure. The family doctor was seen as an authority who was never questioned. People barely used the word cancer; they just called it the Big C. Patients would sit in the hospital for weeks or months, getting morphine or Dilaudid every four hours without ever being told what was actually wrong. There was no hospice and no real pain management, just a fear that patients might get addicted before they passed away. It was a brutal way to handle things.
RE: Fact #32 (American Chicken’s China Processing Detour) – It’s a massive problem when shipping food halfway across the world is cheaper than just processing it here in the States.
RE: Fact #19 (Huang Heqing’s Greek Sculpture Conspiracy) – It’s a nice reminder that the West doesn’t have a monopoly on people who believe in fringe conspiracies.
RE: Fact #25 (Qin Er Shi’s Forbidden Face) – He was honestly pretty naive. Zhao Gao manipulated him into staying isolated under the guise of needing rest, which kept the emperor in the dark while civil wars raged. When he finally realized the country was falling apart, he asked why nobody warned him, only to be reminded that he’d executed anyone who brought bad news. Zhao Gao eventually forced him to kill himself, and the next emperor took out Zhao Gao as soon as he realized what a traitor he was.
RE: Fact #24 (Zhong Zhong, Hua Hua Cloning) – They were doing gene-edited babies back in 2018, too. It was shady enough that China jailed the scientist involved, though he has been released since.
RE: Fact #45 (Wang Diange’s Exploding Cremation Mystery) – Why did they assume it was lightning? If he died in his own home, there should have been some evidence of a lightning strike. And wouldn’t they have noticed the wounds from the shrapnel?
RE: Fact #46 (Shih Tzus’ Fourteen Founding Dogs) – They did the same thing with Russian Wolfhounds following the 1918 revolution. That breed only survived because of the dogs already in America at the time.
It was the same story with Vizslas in Hungary
RE: Fact #31 (Shi Jianqiao’s Pardoned Warlord Assassination) – That must have been a fascinating time in China, with the country caught between old traditions and new ideals.
Unfortunately, the more you read about Chinese history, the more you realize that the revolution just meant trading one dictator for the next.
RE: Fact #25 (Qin Er Shi’s Forbidden Face) – The “Son of Heaven” title was used by Chinese emperors for over 2, 000 years, not just this one ruler. It was a standard political tool used to justify their power and claim divine right all the way until the end of the Qing dynasty.
European monarchies claimed divine right too. This definitely wasn’t unique to Chinese culture.
RE: Fact #34 (Chinese Collectors’ Looted Artifact Hunt) – The British Museum has dealt with similar criticism from Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. We really need to talk openly about them holding onto artifacts that were stolen years ago. Some of those old-school anthropologists definitely crossed the line.
The British Museum even has amazing stone carvings from the Americas that were looted from Mayan cities centuries ago. There’s no debate needed, taking goods from underdeveloped countries is just looting, plain and simple.
RE: Fact #39 (Qian Xuesen’s Red Scare Return) – USA: Spends all its time terrified of every secret communist trying to destroy the country. Also USA: Deports a guy who can build ballistic missiles to a communist state.
Also USA: You have to love how they brought in all those German scientists who just happened to be unemployed after 1945. At least they weren’t communists!
RE: Fact #47 (China’s Paid Jump Rope Lessons) – To pass the exam, you need 17 skips per minute, but an “Excellent” score requires much more. Boys need 99 jumps, while girls need 103.
103 in a minute? That sounded like a lot to me, but then I looked it up and saw the world record is 739 jumps in a minute! Incredible.
RE: Fact #15 (China’s Three-Inch Lotus Foot Binding) – If a family bound their daughter’s feet, it was a cruel display of status, a way to show they were rich enough that their daughter didn’t need to work in the fields.
Not entirely. Three inches was the extreme and considered the ideal, but poorer girls did it too, though they might aim for four or five inches since they still had to stand. It was more popular in certain areas, which were also the most competitive. Women had to rebind their feet daily just to keep the bones in place.
RE: Fact #17 (Tao Huabi’s Chili Sauce Fortune) – I love this stuff. We’ve always called it “Angry Chef” because of the expression on the jar.
RE: Fact #11 (Lanmaoa Asiatica Mushroom’s Miniature Hallucinations) – What if these mushrooms actually let you pierce the veil and see something that’s really there?
RE: Fact #8 (Xiao Yun’s Ten-Year Gaming Disappearance) – In Japan, internet cafes are basically unlicensed hotels for drunk men. That is how I use them, at least.
I was looking for cheap hotels in Osaka for a three-day trip, and when a friend suggested staying in an internet cafe, I thought he was joking at first. Then I realized he was serious.
RE: Fact #44 (Ezhou’s 26-Story Pig Farm Complex) – People are really out of touch with where their food comes from. Even in the US, most factory farms keep pigs in cramped indoor pens with no access to the outside. You can look it up; they don’t even try to hide how bad those conditions are.
But wait, have you considered that because it is a Chinese farm, it is automatically mysterious and sinister?
RE: Fact #5 (Lady Gaga’s Dalai Lama Blacklisting) – China won’t even let Tibetans discuss him, keep photos of him, or teach their children the Tibetan language. It is total cultural annihilation.
RE: Fact #29 (Mixue Surpassed McDonald’s Restaurant Count) – Mixue has 45, 000 locations and McDonald’s has 41, 800. Since they’re both global, I’m curious to see the breakdown between domestic and international growth.
Boba and ice cream shops are usually pretty small. It doesn’t seem like a fair comparison to a full-sized McDonald’s.
RE: Fact #43 (Tongyangxi Girls Raised as Brides) – > … and the children would be raised together. I bet that caused a lot of issues for the couple later on because of the Westermarck effect, where people aren’t naturally attracted to those they grow up with like siblings.
RE: Fact #35 (Tiananmen’s Censored May 35th Code) – > “In Taiwan I told a reporter, ‘You need to wear gloves when you shake hands with politicians here, because they are always out canvassing and shaking hands with people. You don’t need gloves on the mainland, because our politicians never have to press the flesh. You won’t find many germs on their fingers.” The Chinese government is going to need some serious ointment for that burn.
RE: Fact #27 (Panda Kindergarten’s 18-Cub Birthday Party) – It’s 2040 now. We made the mistake of letting pandas hang out in large groups and they’ve taken over. The remaining humans are just working the bamboo fields, and the entire global economy is based on bamboo and cuteness.
RE: Fact #1 (Sun Yaoting China’s Last Imperial Enuch) – After his family lost their home and land, they saw an older eunuch from their village get rich and hoped for the same, plus some revenge on the landlord, so they decided to castrate him. He was only eight, and they did it at home on their bed with a razor and no anesthesia. He was unconscious for three days and couldn’t even move for two months. Just horrific.
RE: Fact #1 (Sun Yaoting China’s Last Imperial Enuch) – If I remember right, they believed they couldn’t be reincarnated intact unless they were buried with their genitals. Many kept them on their person, while others left them with family for safekeeping. It is heartbreaking to think about, your own family being the ones to perform the castration, only to discard something so significant later.
during the Cultural Revolution, people could be killed just for being associated with anything linked to the old imperial regime. Any mark on your record was enough to get you persecuted.
RE: Fact #16 (Asia’s 12, 000 Bile Farm Bears) – I’m shocked it’s only 12, 000. And honestly, the catheter isn’t the worst part, don’t look it up if you have a weak stomach. These bears are kept in cages smaller than my 80-pound dog’s crate, and she only uses that when we have guests over. These bears are forced into that life 24/7. I usually try to be open-minded about different cultures, but some practices are just inexcusable.
RE: Fact #6 (China Eastern’s 300 Lounge Meals) – That seems like way too much effort. Going to the airport constantly just to cancel and rebook tickets and clear security… he could have just gotten a job and eaten at a normal restaurant for all that trouble.
RE: Fact #49 (Yiwu’s Twin Couples Worked Shifts) – So… if two sets of identical twins get married, their children are cousins but genetically siblings, right?
RE: Fact #18 (Guo Gangtang’s 24-Year Son Search) – That’s truly admirable. I really hope no father ever has to go through that kind of experience.
RE: Fact #23 (China’s Court-Ordered Visits to Parents) – Singapore has a similar law called the Maintenance of Parents Act. It is not perfect, but children with a history of abuse can apply to a tribunal for permission to opt out.
RE: Fact #10 (Tu Youyou’s Cold Artemisinin Extraction) – It is incredible that they figured out an effective way to treat malaria over a thousand years ago without any modern equipment. It really makes you wonder how much other ancient knowledge has been lost to time.
RE: Fact #22 (Chinese Tech Company’s Programming Cheerleaders) – You finally pushed your code? Time for the cheerleaders to come dance by your cubicle!
RE: Fact #12 (China Tobacco’s 2.4 Trillion Cigarettes) – That tracks. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in China, with rates significantly higher than many other nations. It’s roughly twice as common in men than women, which is largely driven by those high male smoking rates and air quality issues.
RE: Fact #10 (Tu Youyou’s Cold Artemisinin Extraction) – She also became the most famous person with a name that is nearly impossible to fit into the “Happy Birthday” song.
RE: Fact #5 (Lady Gaga’s Dalai Lama Blacklisting) – I have said it a million times: we can’t let Lady Gaga reach her final form. We need to stop her from doing yoga, especially the hot version, since it just acts as an accelerator.
RE: Fact #7 (Beijing’s Olympic Protest Permits Denied) – This reminds me of when my dad worked at Coca-Cola years ago. There was a union drive, and the company acted supportive, acting like they wanted employees to vote on it. They held the vote, and everyone at the plant who voted yes was laid off.
RE: Fact #42 (Aladdin’s China Setting in Print) – Hey, I actually know something about this. Calling it ‘set in China’ is a major stretch. The writer was a Syrian Christian who had no idea what China was like; it was just a name he picked for a far-off, romantic place. Nothing else in the story is Chinese, like the ruler being a sultan.
RE: Fact #20 (Coco Passed Chinese Censorship Uncut) – The themes of family and honoring your ancestors in Coco probably resonated strongly with audiences in China.
RE: Fact #31 (Shi Jianqiao’s Pardoned Warlord Assassination) – She shot him in the back three times. I was hoping for some kind of Kill Bill-style fight, so that was a letdown.
RE: Fact #13 (Shandong Physicians’ Family-First Cancer Disclosure) – Diagnosis? You’re totally fine. But you should probably start taking these meds, just for the fun of it.