Thanks, appreciate the support!

Same, just subscribed with the quickness yesterday!

​@@gatesofkilikien New subscriber here.👍

While I generally agree with your statement, the term "naked orientalism" engenders some strange visions of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres paintings or Sir Richard Burton in the nude. This is probably a bad joke, I suppose...

Thanks, appreciate the support!

Thanks, I'm glad to hear you've found it helpful. I think with Chinese history especially there's been a long tradition of studying the geography and terrain, but it also means that so much of the narrative is linked to this knowledge, and especially for political history there's a basic assumption that the readers already know these things. It also doesn't help that so much information is lost with romanization. Chinese is a very descriptive language, and a lot of times when reading in Chinese the readers can make very good guesses on the geography simply by the etymology of the place names.

The non Chinese materials you find are often inaccurate, which can make learning history more difficult. I know some Chinese channels, but they are not friendly to non Chinese users (involving a lot of Chinese professional vocabulary). As a history enthusiast, I feel regretful about this situation.

Thanks, yeah history and geography, both for Chinese history and the rest of the world, are such intertwined subjects that we'd be missing out on a lot of context without the historical perspectives.

Glad you enjoyed it! I'm working on part 2 right now and have gotten lots of helpful feedback in this comment section, so am working on updating some of the earlier draft for it too.

Same. I’m so grateful to the algorithm 😂

Even native Chinese people have issues with names: sometimes people believe "A is the ancient name of B", but in fact the center of A is far away from the center of modern B.

Thanks, glad you've found it helpful. Chinese historical geography names can be a ridiculously complicated subject, especially since it seems like educated people both past and present like to outsmart each other by naming ever more obscure ancient names for a place. It also doesn't help that romanization gets rid of the characters, which contain a ton of context in themselves.

Thanks, glad you've found it helpful. To be fair there's virtually no sources I can find in English that talk about a lot of these concepts, and my initial motivation for starting the channel was just to explain some of this geography.

Thanks for the kind words, and glad you've found the video helpful! Some of this geography can be quite complicated to explain, and I feel like the video format on KZfaq, especially with topographical maps, works very well to illustrate these concepts.

Glad you've found it helpful! I've watched a few episodes of the Qin Empire series, and IIRC they have a map in the series, albeit in Chinese and very simplified.

Thanks, glad you've liked it!

Wow, thank you, glad you enjoyed it! This channel has been a big passion project for me and it's very meaningful for me to be able to share these concepts that I'm very interested in with a broader audience, so I look forward to doing a lot more in the future.

Thanks, glad you've found the info helpful!

Thanks, very happy to hear that!

Welcome aboard, and thanks for the support! My goal is to post more than once/month too, just lately things have been busier than usual and I'm working to improve my maps and production workflow, so things are backed up more than I'd like.

Thanks! And yes Chinese texts, especially ancient ones, tend to throw these words around assuming the readers already know about them on a map.

Appreciate the kind words, and enjoy your time in China too!

Thanks. I'm looking forward to talking about that period too, just have to get through the Northern and Southern Dynasties in the meantime.

Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!

Thanks, will do!

Thanks, glad you've found it helpful! You must be Tunisian then? I'm looking forward to making videos on the Mediterranean too, and Roman Africa is definitely on the list.

Yes indeed, i'll be waiting with much anticipation for your next videos.@@gatesofkilikien

Glad you like them! I feel like with geography, it definitely helps to have topographical maps and a video format to show things.

Haha to be fair plenty of Chinese people get them confused too.

Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed this video. Yes I eventually want to do a chronological series on ancient Chinese history (to the fall of the Han Dynasty) and would want to cover these rulers in detail. For now though I'll try to go around the main cities in China doing geography/history videos on them to explain their significance, and may also be helpful for people who are traveling to those places.

The non Chinese materials you find are often inaccurate, which can make learning history more difficult. I know some Chinese channels, but they are not friendly to non Chinese users (involving a lot of Chinese professional vocabulary). As a history enthusiast, I feel regretful about this situation.

Oh yeah there's quite a few more, I'll be talking about them starting in the Chang'an Part 2 video and then in other videos too.

Thanks, appreciate the support!

Thanks, glad you've enjoyed it!

Glad you like them!

Awesome, thank you! Looking forward to uploading it too once it's all done.

Thanks! I'm working on future videos right now, looking forward to uploading them when they're done.

My pleasure!

Thanks, looking forward to finishing it and uploading too!

Thanks, glad you've enjoyed it and found it helpful!

Welcome aboard, hope you find the info here helpful!

Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!

right? I feel Ive learned more about world history from YT creators then I did in 16 years of school!

Glad you've enjoyed it, and I'm glad I can help share some of that wonderment about the past which I also feel when I read history. Chang'an and Constantinople at their heights were two of the most splendid cities ever built, and I'm looking forward to writing more about the heights of Chang'an in Part 2.

Thanks, glad you've found these videos helpful!

Glad you liked it!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for your support, and yes this lack of information on Chinese history and geography was what motivated me to start the channel. I feel like the Chinese history stuff available in English tend to focus on vague descriptions of culture or be very in-depth explorations of certain socioeconomic themes, all of which are definitely important, and are areas even Chinese historians often feel don't get emphasized enough in traditional Chinese historiography. But at the same time, I grew up reading Chinese history in Chinese, and so much of it is centered on learning key events, culturally significant stories, and geography. I feel like Chinese history is some of the most story-driven history around the world, and so much of it is quite exciting and dramatic, but also not well-accessible in non-Chinese circles given the language barrier and the large amounts of background information needed, so I hope I can help demystify some of that.

@@gatesofkilikien Now that you mention it, your heavy focus on interweaving the cultural and linguistic elements was the main thing that convinced me you were delivering a non-Western-biased account. I don't actually have a sound way to determine that myself, I can't check your work because I don't read Mandarin. I have no choice but to trust you to a certain degree, really, as far as I can determine. Incidentally, I determined you weren't delivering a Chinese-biased account simply because your account is not flattering enough. That was actually pretty easy to figure out. And don't get me wrong, I do have a lot of appreciation for things like Kings and Generals covering the Three Kingdoms period, but I know that without direct access to scholarship in Chinese, their accounts can never be fully trusted to not have some (possibly important) details incorrect. They're missing that ability to draw the whole, cohesive picture together into that gigantic, socio-historical milieu that is China. btw, looking forward to your Warring States Period coverage. For years now my brain has been getting Chinese Warring States Period (which I know nothing about but periodically hear) and Japanese Warring States Period (which I know a little bit about) crossed.

Thanks, appreciate the support! I've definitely learned a lot since I started this channel 1.5 years ago, and looking forward to sharing a lot more in the future too.

@@gatesofkilikien no problem! Thank for sharing your knowledge, it's very helpful. I've gotten a better idea of China thanks to your videos.

This is a really neat analogy - never thought of it like this before, will have to use it in the future sometime!

Glad you enjoyed it. I'm working on part 2 now, and incorporating some additional stuff based on the feedback for part 2. Looking forward to releasing it when it's done.

Thanks, appreciate the kind words! Working on this channel has been very rewarding for me, albeit something tiring too lol, and looking forward to making a lot more in the future.

Thanks, glad you found it helpful!

Thanks, glad you like them!

Glad you've enjoyed it! I'm starting to work on Part 2 now too and looking forward to sharing that as well.

Haha thanks appreciate the support :)

Thanks for the feedback, and yes I plan to talk about the Han Dynasty Hangu Pass in part 2. I couldn't find any information on any Hangu Pass fortifications prior to the state of Qin, and it looks like even though people have been traveling through it long before Qin conquered the region, the eastward facing fortifications started under Qin.

@@gatesofkilikien According to this video here the scholar mentioned Taolin fortress (桃林塞) dated back to the Shang: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/g7eAfJdztJfMop8.html

ABSOLUTELY! Geography plays a vital role in history and culture

My pleasure!

秦Qin -221-207 BC ...+1000more years +... 清 Qing Dynasty 1616-1912 AD😅

Thanks, appreciate the support!

Thanks for the kind words, and glad you've enjoyed watching the video. Yeah it helps me a lot when making the videos that I'm bilingual, so at least pronunciation hasn't been an issue.

Awesome, thank you!

Thanks!

Thanks, appreciate the support! I'm working on part 2 right now along with a few other videos, hoping to publish all of them soon.

Thanks, appreciate the support!

Thanks!

I will do so eventually - planning to do a series on ancient Chinese history in addition to the current one I'm working on for medieval Chinese history.

Thanks, appreciate the support!

Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!

Thanks, appreciate the support, and will definitely keep it up!

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thank you! Will do!

Thanks, hope it was enjoyable!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

Hope you enjoyed it! Things have been busier than usual lately and I've been spending a lot of time improving my maps and production technique, so haven't been able to upload as much. Working to speed up things in the future though.

Thanks!

Thanks, glad to hear you've enjoyed the videos, and I'm looking forward to writing about those topics too. I should be able to introduce Gorguyeo slowly in my videos on 400s-500s AD China and then build the narrative from there.

Thanks! :)

Thanks, glad you've found it helpful. I visited Xi'an in 2016, including the Terracotta Army of course, and it's definitely quite impressive, although don't forget Mt. Li nearby which also has lots of famous sites. I'm working on part 2 right now along with a few other videos, it's just taking longer than expected since I'm also incorporating feedback from Part 1, but hopefully the pieces fall together for it soon.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks, appreciate the support. I have noticed that since I write a script and then read it out loud, it seems like it takes more exaggerated pronunciations to avoid sounding stilted, far more than is necessary for day-to-day speech, so it's something I'm working on adapting. I also tend to write longer sentences, so that may contribute to sounding like run-on sentences too.

Thanks!

Thanks, glad you've enjoyed it!