THE LAST EUNUCH OF CHINA: THE PAINFUL LIFE OF SUN YAOTING

Only two memories brought tears to Sun Yaoting's eyes in old age -- the day his father cut off his genitals, and the day his family threw away the pickled remains that should have made him a whole man again at death. 

Sun Yaoting was 8 when his father castrated him with a single swoop of a razor. Unlike many eunuchs in the Ottoman Empire, Chinese eunuchs had every bit of their genitals removed. It was an operation that caused not only excruciating pain, but led to a lifetime of sexual frustration, impotence and incontinence. The year was 1911, and China was in turmoil. Just a few months later rebels deposed the emperor, overturned centuries of tradition and established a republic. 

Emperor PuYi in 1922

"Our boy has suffered for nothing," his father said, weeping and beating his breast, when he learned that the emperor had been overthrown. "They don't need eunuchs anymore!" 

Little did he know that the child nevertheless would earn a place in Chinese history. The imperial court was resuscitated long enough to give Sun a chance to serve the wife of the boy emperor Puyi -- a position that gave him the distinction of being the last eunuch to the last Chinese emperor.

The Forbidden City

Emperor Puyi had more than 1,000 eunuchs, many of whom wielded positions of great influence. The emperor rarely left the inner recesses of the palace, meaning that the eunuchs became crucial intermediaries between the outer bureaucratic world and the inner Imperial one. Puyi himself would later write of these ‘slaves’, who attended him day and night. ‘They waited on me when I ate, dressed and slept. They accompanied me on my walks and to my lessons; they told me stories and had rewards and beatings from me, but they never left my presence. They were my slaves and they were my earliest teachers.’

 After the Communists came to power in 1949, Sun and other surviving eunuchs were despised as freakish symbols of the feudal past. He was nearly killed during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, and his siblings were so fearful of persecution that they threw away his bao, or treasure: the severed genitals that eunuchs kept pickled in a jar so they could be buried as complete men. 

It was not until the final years of his life that Sun was recognized as a rare living repository of history. A biography based on hours of interviews in the years before his death in 1996 was translated into English in 2009. 

Whether the interest is prurient or scholarly, the curiosity is definitely there. Emasculation was thought to render eunuchs nonpersons, without ambition or ego, so their presence in the innermost sanctum of the imperial palace did not violate the emperor's privacy. 

Sun's fellow eunuch

"The eunuchs were very mysterious and in some ways more interesting than the emperors themselves," said Jia Yinghua, Sun's biographer. Jia met Sun when he was researching a book about Puyi, and recorded 100 hours of conversations with him. The biography, "The Last Eunuch of China: The Life of Sun Yaoting," contains everything you might want to know about the gruesome particulars of becoming a eunuch, along with much you probably would not want to know. 

Suffice it to say the boys went through excruciating pain without benefit of anesthesia (other than chile peppers in some cases). In addition to a lifetime of impotence, they often suffered incontinence in exchange for entry to the palace. Sun was unusual: Inspired by an older eunuch from his village who had become rich, he decided for himself that he wanted to follow this path. But then the emperor was deposed and the castration had left him too weak for farm work. 

Puyi first wife: she prefered eunuch!

The emperor retained the trappings of power in the Forbidden City, however. Sun came to Beijing at age 14, still wearing the pigtail of Chinese boys at the time. He got a job with one of the emperor's uncles, and later with Puyi's wife. He followed the imperial family to Manchuria after Puyi was installed in 1932 as puppet emperor of a Japanese colonial state known as Manchukuo. 

Emperor Puyi of Manchukuo

Sun was privy to the court's most intimate secrets, the opium addiction and out-of-wedlock pregnancy of the emperor's first wife, Wanrong, and the emperor's ambivalence about his own sexuality. Sun later told his biographer that Puyi was less interested in his wife than in a particular eunuch who "looked like a pretty girl with his tall, slim figure, handsome face and creamy white skin." He recalled that the two were "inseparable as body and shadow." 

 After the Communists came to power, many of the eunuchs became penniless outcasts. A few drowned themselves in the moats of the Forbidden City. Sun, one of the few who was literate, got a job as caretaker of a temple, where he lived until his death. The recollections of an adopted son and a grandson, together with the biography, make him one of the most documented eunuchs of modern times. 

Scholars also will tell you about other eunuchs: Cai Lun was credited with inventing paper in AD 105. Zheng He became one of China's greatest explorers in the 15th century. But eunuchs are generally depicted in Chinese literature as conniving and greedy, the stock villains of many a palace intrigue. 

 The eunuch museum is in an overgrown cemetery with stone guardians and a tomb for the Ming dynasty eunuch Tian Yi, who died in 1602. Eunuchs were not permitted to be buried with their families, so several other favored eunuchs found their final resting place in Tian Yi's compound in the foothills of west Beijing. 

Hidden behind what had been an elementary school, the tombs somehow escaped destruction during the Cultural Revolution and were opened to the public in 1999. The expanded museum is to display paintings of eunuchs, a photo collection about Sun's life and other 20th century eunuchs, and items such as the curved knives used to castrate them. 

Sun Yao Ting - The last Eunuch of China

"The eunuchs are part of a long Chinese tradition that continues to this day in which the regular people had to do anything to serve the all-powerful central government," said Cui Weixing, a literary and cultural critic who has written about eunuchs. "Maybe that's why the Chinese government isn't so anxious to publicize anything about eunuchs. 

Sun was to live another three decades after communist came, dying in 1996 at the age of 94. He never recovered from the loss of his pickled ‘treasure’. ‘When I die,’ he said sadly, ‘I will come back as a cat or a dog.’

Woman that inspired 6,000 step 'Stairway Of Love' dies

The woman in one of China's most touching real-life love stories, "Stairway Of Love", has died at age 87. Xu Chaoqing passed away peacefully on 30th October, five years after her husband Liu Guojiang breathed his last at age 72. She was buried next to him.

Liu and Xu's love affair was so moving that it inspired director Zhang Xianglin's movie Noble Love, while TVB Hong Kong filmed a 25-episode series called The Last Steep Ascent, starring Moses Chan, Maggie Cheung and Kenny Wong, which started broadcasting in September to high ratings.

They were also the inspiration for the song Stairway Of Love, written and performed by Hong Kong group C Allstar, winning them the 2011 Jade Solid Gold Top 10 award. Julian Cheung also recorded the tune.

More than 1,000 fans paid their last respect to Xu by visiting her home in the jungles of Chongqing, where she lived with Liu for over 50 years, and hiking up the 1.5km Banpotou Mountain, climbing over 6,000 steps on the actual "Stairway Of Love". One mourner scattered 10,000 white roses along the way.

Liu spent his whole life building the "Stairway Of Love", using tools made from stone and wood, so that Xu could climb up and down the mountain, although she rarely left home in the end. One of their kids, Ming Sheng, said, "My parents loved each other so much. They were never apart for a single day."

Liu and Xu's story began in the '40s when Xu arrived in Liu's village as the intended wife of another man. Liu, then only six, followed Xu's wedding entourage to her husband's home where he approached the 16-year-old bride for a blessing.

He wanted her to touch the space when he had knocked his tooth out because the locals believed that a new tooth would grow after that. But he was so nervous that he bit her finger—and when their eyes met for the first time, he fell in love.

Liu and Xu in one of their last photographs together.

He kept his secret until Xu's husband died 10 years later and her in-laws cast her and her four kids out, saying that they brought bad luck. Seeing her forced to weave and sell grass shoes and survive on wild mushrooms, Liu supported her by taking over her heavy chores and looking after her kids.

She eventually fell in love with him, but his family and friends frowned upon their relationship because she was an older woman and a widow with kids. 

Then in August 1956, the lovers and her children disappeared from the village. They remained hidden from the world until 2001 when an expedition group chanced upon the family.

"We eloped to escape the gossip and the scorn," Liu told reporters then.

He said that life in seclusion was harsh at first as they had no electricity or food. They lived in a cave and fed on grass and roots from the mountain, but the couple stayed together and eventually had four more children. Then a year after moving to the mountain, Liu began craving out the stairs.

After Liu's death, Xu's son brought her down from the mountain to live with him, but she soon returned up to her own home as she didn't want to leave Liu alone where he was buried.

Liu and Xu's tale became one of China's Top 10 Love Stories after Chinese Women Weekly ran their tale in 2006. Meanwhile, the local government has begun drafting plans to preserve the stairs and turn their home into a museum.

Teen with 24/7 erection attempts to detach penis

A teenager in China found himself with a constant erection, but instead of taking advantage of his predicament, he took matters—and a knife—into his own hands and tried to detach himself from his penis! Sounds pain even though I am just reading...

Use a knife to cut it off ?!! Ouch!

Since he reached puberty, 17-year-old Xiao Jun from Anxi in Fujian Province has been ashamed and embarrassed by his easily excitable manhood, even the least likeliest and sometimes very public places. Unable to deal with his penis, he locked himself up in his bedroom and cut himself off from the world.

But by last week he had had enough of his hard-on, so he grabbed a knife and attempted to cut his penis off himself. He would have succeeded, too, if he hadn't screamed out in pain. Rushing to his room, his parents found him lying on the floor in a pool of blood with his severely severed genitals.

"I don't know why he did this to himself. He's a good boy. He cooks for the family. He's just very shy. He doesn't talk to anyone," said his mother Wang Lin, adding he stopped going to school when he was 14 after failing his classes.

She added that Xiao Jun did sign up for computer classes in the city, but returned home last year quite suddenly and started staying in for long periods of time.

The distraught teen told doctors at the hospital, "I hate it. I don't want it to be like this." That's when his mum knew of her son's suffering over the last few years. "He must have felt it was very humiliating," she said.

Doctors at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University who performed a 10-hour operation to stitch Xiao Jun's penis back assured his family that the organ would work as planned after a full recovery.

Ye Yanqi, a lecturer of psychology at Liming Vocational University, said unintentional erections are normal for teenagers and anyone disturbed by that fact should talk to their parents or seek advise from medical experts on how to control it.

courtesy from: Daily Chili

The Real Life Invisible Man

      Liu Bolin is the amazing artist who paints himself into any background. He has been disguising himself to blend in urban or nature backdrops, creating the illusion of a human chameleon or a ghost. Bolin spends about 10 hours being painted for each work so he perfectly matches the background.

      One of Bolin's recent projects includes painting fashion designers to visualize how other creative people – such as Angela Missoni and Jean Paul Gaultier – get lost in their work. But Bolin's most famous project is 'Hiding In The City' with installments in Beijing, New York and Venice. Featured is also Bolin's new work and some of his classic pieces in this blog. 

Bolin's art of blending in the background has earned him the nickname 'The Human Chameleon'

He paints himself all over to blend into the background of city scenery

The invisible man

Bolin recently painted famous designers in their work. Here is Angela Missoni

And Jean Paul Gaultier

And Alber Elbaz for Lanvin,

And Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli for Valentino.

Bolin brought his art to the streets of New York City for a new installment of his 'Hiding In The City' project.

Hiding in New York – Tiles for America

          38-year-old Liu Bolin, from Shandong, China, manages to camouflage himself in any surroundings, no matter how difficult they might be. Liu works on a single photo for up to 10 hours at a time, to make sure he gets it just right, but he achieves the right effect: sometimes passers-by don’t even realize he is there until he moves. 

 The talented Liu Bolin says his art is a protest against the actions of the Government, who shut down his art studio in 2005 and persecutes artists. It’s about not fitting into modern society. Despite problems with Chinese authorities, Liu’s works are appreciated at an international level. 

Faster than a Bullet: China New Super Train

China has produced a super-rapid test train capable of travelling at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour - 100mph faster than the current record-holder....whoa!!!

The train, made from plastic materials reinforced with carbon fibre, is designed to resemble an ancient Chinese sword and 'will provide useful reference for current high-speed railway operations', according to train expert Shen Zhiyun.
  

Although not yet operational, the new bullet train has achieved speeds of 300mph


Earlier this year, the Communist regime unveiled its fastest operational locomotive which was able to cover the 824-mile trip between Beijing and Shanghai in five hours - reaching record-breaking top speed of 200mph and maintaining an average speed of 165mph.

But future Chinese trains will not necessarily run at such high speeds. CSR chairman Zhao Xiaogang said: 'We aims to ensure the safety of trains operation.'

The latest test model has a maximum tractive power of 22,800 kilowatts, compared with 9,600 kilowatts for the Beijing-Shanghai CRH380 trains.

China is home to the largest network of bullet-train track in the world, with 8,000 miles of track linking up the vast country at a cost of 700billion yuan (£66billion). Another 8,000 miles of line is expected to be added by 2015.

When the new train is on track, it will officially be the fastest train in the world, surpassing the CRH380A.

Below are the current World Top 5 Fastest Train.

5. KTX 2, South Korea: 352.4 km/hour (218 mph)
KTX II or KTX-Sancheon is high speed train built in South Korean by Hyundai Rotem. It is now operated by KOrail since March 2009. The train was designed and tested can run at the speed of 352.4 km/hour (218 mph) but for safety reason the top speed of this train become 305 km/h (190 mph). The electric system by this train is 25 kV/60 Hz AC catenary. The train serve several route in South Korea and can bring 363 passengers.

KTX 2

4. TGV Réseau, France: 380 km/hour (236.12 mph)
The TGV Réseau (TGV-R) are high speed trains SNCF and were built by Alstom between 1992 and 1996. These TGV trainsets are based on the earlier TGV Atlantique. The train basically can run up to 380 km/hour (236.12 mph). But the approved top speed is 320 km/h (199 mph) while it’s in service. The electric system used by this train is 25 kV AC, 1500 V DC and 3000 V DC. The train can bring 377 passengers.

TGV

3. Shinkansen, Japan: 443 Km/hour (275.3 mph)
The Shinkansen or bullet train of Japan is a network of high speed railways in Japan. It’s connected several cities in Japan and still expanded to more cities. The test run of the train can reach the speed of 443 km/h (275 mph). The Shinkansen are using 25,000 V AC overhead power supply. The latest version of Shinkansen E5 Series are running at the top speed of 320 km/h (200 mph) while it’s in service.

Shinkansen

2. TR-09, Germany: 450 km/hour (270.3 mph)
Transrapid or TR is a German high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. The current application-ready version, the Transrapid 09, has been designed for 500 km/h cruising speed but it’s somehow will be 450 km/hour (270.3 mph) for safety reason. The normal energy consumption of the Transrapid is approximately 50–100 kW per section for levitation and travel, and vehicle control.

TR-09

1. CRH380A, China: 487.3 km/hour (302.8 mph)
The CRH380A is a Chinese high speed train manufactured by CSR Qingdao Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co., Ltd. This train was replaced CRH2 foreign technology. This train is designed to operate at the speed of 380 km/h while in operation and 480 km/h while it’s in testing. The train use 25 kV AC Overhead electrical system while can bring 494 passengers. The main route served are Shanghai–Nanjing and Shanghai–Hangzhou.

CRH380A

 

This is the future number one fastest train in the world when on track.



'Gymnast' piglet born without hind legs learns to walk on two front trotters

If you think pig is lazy and would always sleep...you will need to think twice now! In China, a two-legged pig born without its hind legs has amazingly been taught to walk on its own!
The handicapped beast was born in July in eastern China's Anhui Province and could have struggled to make it through its first few weeks as a piglet, according to its owner.
But farmer Ge Xinping said he managed to nurse the piglet through its early life before helping it stand on its own (and only) two feet.

The piglet carefully balances itself while walking on its two front legs

The young pig can carefully balance itself on its front two trotters and can walk around unaided.
The pig now also weighs a healthy 30kg, accoring to its owner.

Farmer Ge Xinping gives the piglet a helping hand at the farm in China's Anhui Province

Farmer Ge Xinping said: 'Villagers all love it as it walks like an upside down gymnast.'
The amazing sight is not the first time a Chinese farmer has managed to train a young pig with no hind legs to walk on its own.
Last year a 10-month-old animal, known by villagers in Henan Province, China as Zhu Jianqiang, which means Strong-Willed Pig, was born with only two front legs, which it now uses to walk on. This proves that pig is after all a strong willed animal as well and they don't just sleep and eat..

The young pig had struggled in early life but has grown up and learned to walk on its own

New pet of the Chinese super rich

Duolang sheep – dubbed the "Treasure of Xinjiang" with only around 1,000 left in the world – has become the latest pet of the super-rich in China.

Duolang sheep

Its extraordinary features – a curved nose, long floppy ears and twin tails – have made the animal very special for the "taiko" who want something different from the others to show off their status.

The sheep, bred in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, can be sold for up to 14mil yuan (RM7mil) each! RM 7million for a sheep!!
Also known as Maigaiti by the locals, it is a crossbreed between a local sheep species and a fat-rumped one introduced from Afghanistan.

The more curved the face, the better

Duolang breeder Liu Fenghua said the price of the sheep depends on its pedigree.

The darker the fleece, the bigger the ears, the better. The more curved the face, the better, like an eagle's beak, he said.

"The best ones have a dark body and white tail," said Liu, adding that he fed his Duolang with dates and walnuts, along with other grains.

Duolang is easy to raise. A mature animal weighs around 150kg, and its meat can be eaten.

It is highly resistant to disease and can adapt to different environments. Moreover, their meat is juicy and does not have the usual smell of mutton.

Liu said he bought a pair of Duolang for 25,000 yuan (RM12,450) in 2009, and was offered 10 times the original price for them a year later.

"The price keeps rising," he said, adding even Duolang semen can fetch up to 300,000 yuan (RM149,400) per dose.

China's sudden wealth has produced bubbles in all sorts of commodities, from tea to fine wine to jade.

Tibetan Mastiff

Last year, a Tibetan Mastiff puppy became the world's most expensive dog when it was sold for nearly £1mil (RM5mil) in Qinghai.

Boy dies trying to fly like Superman

A four-year-old boy died after jumping down from the fourth floor of a building in China.


His elder brother, six, who also jumped and was seen falling down with his hands outstretched like Superman, was saved.

According to a shop owner on the ground floor of the building, she heard a loud bang at around 3.30pm.


When she walked out of the shop, she saw a boy lying in a pool of blood.


"I did not know how he fell but one minute later the people who had gathered there and I saw another boy on a fourth-floor balcony.


"We shouted to him not to jump but it was too late," she said, adding that the boy jumped down with his arms outstretched like Superman.


She said the witnesses tried to catch the boy but failed.


It is believed the boys were mimicking the comic-book superhero Superman.


The boys were sent to a local hospital where the elder brother was saved after emergency treatment.


The younger one died about two hours later.

World's longest sea bridge opens in China

China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge - which stretches five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais.


The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao. Mind you, Penang bridge is only 8.4 miles long!

The immense £1billion structure which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars stretches for 24 miles along China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao

The road bridge, which is 110ft wide and is the longest of its kind, cost nearly £1billion to build.


Chinese TV reports said the bridge passed construction appraisals on Monday and it, along with an undersea tunnel, would be opened for traffic today.
It took four years to build the bridge, which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars across the bay, and it is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder - the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana.

The bridge stretches into the distance further than the eye can see 

That structure features two bridges running side by side and is 23.87 miles long.
The three-way Qingdao Haiwan bridge is 174 times longer than London's Tower Bridge, spanning the River Thames, but cuts only 19 miles off the drive from Qingdao to Huangdao.

The vast bridge, the largest cross-ocean bridge in the world, cost £960million and took four years to build

Two separate groups of workers have been building it from different ends of the structure since 2006.
After linking the two ends of the bridge on December 22, one engineer said: 'The computer models and calculations are all very well but you can't relax until the two sides are bolted together.

Even a few centimetres out would have been a disaster.
The engineering feat will only hold the record as the longest sea bridge for a few years - it will be beaten by another Chinese bridge in the next decade.


Last December officials announced workers had begun constructing a bridge to link southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau.
Set to be completed in 2016, officials said the £6.5billion bridge will span nearly 30 miles.
It will be designed to cope with earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0, strong typhoons and the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel.
But both structures will still be dwarfed by the longest bridge in the world, also in China.
The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is an astonishing 102 miles in length.