askhistorians

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Of the four classic novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms seem to be much better known outside of China than Dream of the Red Chamber and Water Margin. How did this situation come to pass?	254
Although he's incredibly popular with Western audiences familiar with the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, Lu Bu seems to be an ultimately fairly minor figure who dies early on after achieving fairly little. How did he come to have such a notable cultural cachet in the present day?	116
So it's generally accepted that things were going extremely poorly in America and large swathes of Europe during the Great Depression. How were things going in Asia? Did Japan have a severe economic downturn? What was the effect on their politics? How about in China?	85
Compared to the other countries in East Asia, South Korea has a proportionally larger minority of Christians. What factors led Christianity to become much more prevalent in South Korea than in other countries in the region like China, Japan, and Taiwan?	38
Despite not being considered to be one of the Great Works of Chinese Literature, the story of Mulan is arguably the best known Chinese story in the world today. How did this come to be? Is it entirely because of the animated Disney movie, or was it gaining in global recognition before then as well?	34
I've read before that the US Navy was engaged in low scale conflict against the German submarine force prior to the formal declarations of war in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Was this true, and if so, what was happening in the diplomatic channels between the two countries because of this?	28
Why is it that, in the English language, the word county continues to remain in use today, while similar words, such as barony and duchy, do not?	24
How has the greater emotional distance to World War I shaped the way historians have looked at the conflict?	20
Modern portrayals of the Chinese Three Kingdoms period have generally made Cao Cao more sympathetic and less of a mustache twirling villain. What is the impetus behind this shift in how Cao Cao is depicted?	18
What would post-battle pursuit have looked like in the American Civil War?	17

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