The Cinematic Themes and Visuals of Ancient China - Part 4 | Video Essay

You know something's gone terribly wrong when the Austro-Hungarian army is colonially exploiting you, when it could barely establish a foothold just over its own border

Qing dynasty is most easiest to spot. For one they are villains in many movies. Their hairstyle, armour, official helmet with peacock feather, and beads.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the biggest visual indicator of the Qing Dynasty: the queue. The iconic men's hairstyle. Fantastic video, as always.

I gotta go for the Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy featuring Jet Li as my favorite Qing Dynasty-centric movies because they don’t simply display impressive martial arts stunts but it tells a story of China slowly changing with the times and the ways people embrace the change surrounding their country with folks either embracing change or stubbornly defying it.

You've made many great videos over the years, but this series has been my favorite work of yours. History, culture, and comedy, edited together in a compelling multi-part story covering thousands of years of media. What a series!

This might be the best sponsor spot I've ever seen on youtube.

White Snake and Chang'An (about the famous poets during the Tang dynasty) are both excellent animated features in recent years, not to be missed, both made me shed tears.

The Yuan period is absolutely fascinating to me because as you said it was a strange time. The conquered people fearing extermination or assimilation, the conquerors trying not to become assimilated themselves, the fact that China was merely the easternmost point of the largest empire on the planet but also was sort of its own khanate; there's a lot of conflict and jumbling and contrasts to dig into. It's probably also oft neglected as a setting since it was a pretty brief dynasty, barely a century when others lasted millennia.

Hey, I enjoyed the history lesson, but I think the visual themes that were presented in in the previous videos of the series aren't talked about so much here. For example, Ming could mention the basket-style hats or the circular helmets. Tbh, I still can't identify quickly the difference between Song and Ming. Qing dynasty could've definitely talked about the Manchu queue, the women's broad hairdresses, and the distinct cone-shaped hats with red tassels that even foreigners know. Growing up with Pearl Princess and Kangxi, I thought those were the definitive traditional Chinese look. I even made Qing mandarin costume for my 3rd grade halloween (which was really hard to explain to my friends).

The schedule part absolutely killed me. Genghis and Conan would be proud.

I was on the brink of tears after I listened to the afterword. This is so well made and well written. Thank you.

Please make an additional video on the depiction of the warlord era, Republic of China and People's Republic of China in Chinese movies also. Love this whole series ❤❤

I grew up in the Philippines, and we had a high school class about Asian history, with Chinese history being a feature. I've learned much from your four-part series than I had in my high school classes. Amazing videos!

I'm sad the series is over. I love ancient Chinese history. It's fascinating to see how society is shaped by changing values, evolving art forms, and outsider involvement. I would love to see more videos focusing on specific stories of unique individuals in Chinese history, strange or interesting events, or regional festivals and customs throughout the ages.

i enjoyed this series throughout part 1 to 4...it's like reviewing my junior history textbooks. i love this so much and i just hope more people can see it

I'mma be honest, I spam watched this "History of China" series and flexed my new found knowledge to my mom (I'm Chinese born Canadian). Safe to say she was incredibly impressed. Actually matter of fact all the movies I watch with my parents are Accented approved films (She thinks I'm a Chinese scholar now). Keep up the good work so I can keep up the facade of being a good Chinese son :3

I laughed and spat part of my breakfast out at the start of the Squarespace ad. Thanks for posting such a well-written and entertaining introduction to Chinese history through cinematic themes.

Hello, Mongolian fan here. Another informative and well-structured essay, as always. This time as a Mongolian it was interesting to see how my culture influenced Chinese's history and its films, keep up the good work!

Will you do a series on Jin Yong's novels & adaptations? And also how Jin Yong's 3rd edition novels were heavily based on his views in Buddhism.

I will never forgive Netflix for cancelling Marco Polo just before we got to see Prester John. Also for making Nayan a Catholic convert rather than a Nestorian by birth, that just felt like a huge middle finger to the Church of the East's long history of missions into Asia.