Recap | Taylor Swift and Elon Musk were foreshadowed in ancient China

From the rise and fall of a Tang dynasty singer whose fame was as great as that of Taylor Swift to a wealthy merchant who played kingmaker and China’s own Salman Rushdie moment, the ancient world provided unsuspected precedents to events and personalities today.

Chosen from his Reflections column, which ran in PostMag from 2015 to 2024, Wee Kek Koon mines China’s history to discover how societal norms, cultural sensitivities and the enduring struggle with fame, fortune and power resonate across time.

Here are five of his most-popular pieces.

1. Taylor Swift’s rise mirrors that of a Chinese singer who dazzled an emperor and became a celebrity - only to lose it all

Yongxin was a singer who rose to fame during the Tang dynasty, only to lose everything after a rebellion. The fate of the chanteuse, whose voice captivated an emperor until events led her to sing on the streets, demonstrates the ephemeral nature of fame and fortune. Taylor Swift beware!

2. Wealthy businessmen were looked down on in ancient China, although there was one notable exception

Merchants were viewed as being near the bottom of society in Confucian China, below scholars, officials, farmers and artisans, but at least they were above entertainers and criminals. The Elon Musk of his time, Lu Buwei defied these norms by becoming a financial backer to an impoverished royal, a trusted adviser and eventually a regent, playing a pivotal role in the rise of the Qin dynasty.

3. Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year? Beware whom you may upset with your choice of phrase

The growing trend of using “Lunar New Year” instead of “Chinese New Year” can spark debate, with some arguing for inclusivity while others feel it erases the festival’s Chinese origins. Context matters when choosing the appropriate term as the holiday is loaded with historical and cultural significance.

4. Chinese history book sparked mass executions, some involving ‘death by a thousand cuts’, echoing Salman Rushdie’s peril

Introduction to the History of the Ming was a Qing-era book that sparked China’s most notorious literary inquisition, during which more than 1,000 people were punished, be they relatives of the man in whose name it was published, editors, scholars who had written the preface, printers, book sellers, or buyers of the book. Seventy were executed, including 14 who suffered the excruciating lingchi, or “death by a thousand cuts”. Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed on stage in 2022 -after having endured a decade in hiding into the mid 1990s - isn’t the first literary figure to have suffered for his work.

5. San Francisco’s fentanyl crisis mirrors ancient China drug epidemic, when ‘five-rock powder’ was all the rage

There are parallels between the modern fentanyl crisis in the United States and the ancient Chinese use of wushisan, a drug made from five minerals. The 2,000-year-old concoction induced euphoria, heightened senses and altered perceptions but, as with all substance abuse, there were many unpleasant side effects.

Part of this article was produced with the assistance of generative AI.