Radio War Nerd EP #240 — The Panthay Rebellion
Guest: Davide Melia, writer & researcher
Recorded: July 28, 2020
Yunnan-based David Melia tells the incredibly story of the Panthay Rebellion, led by local Hui (Han Muslims) in mid-19th century Yunnan province. The story is almost too cinematic, starting with the leader of the rebellion, the amazing Du Wenxiu ("Sultan Suleimani"), radicalized against the Qing Dynasty after his family and fiancée had been murdered by local Qing-aligned pogromists...
Maps & Illustrations:
*Yunnan Province & East Asia
*Yunna Province
*Capture of Dali
Support Davide Melia's project Southwest China at patreon!
Total time: 1:59:33
Comments (19)
Such a Fantastic Episode ! Great infos !
Great episode! Could you possibly do an episode on the Dungan revolt and Yaqub Beg?
Could someone recommend a biography of Mao? This was a great episode. I was never that interested in history until RWN, and it's been a great introduction. Love hearing these stories that show there are no rules of history (sectarianism, religious commitment, ideology, etc) that can't be broken.
Philip Short's Mao: A Life. A remarkable book.
Yunnan province has the best food I have ever eaten in my life.
You can see photos of in-progress Yunnan cuisine on Davide Melia's patreon site https://www.patreon.com/southwestchina
The easiest way to tell that Du Wenxiu took a very non-sectarian approach is that he didn't declare himself or imply himself to be the Mahdi, and that he was comfortable granting formal recognition to Yi animism. He would probably have been educated enough to draw on a pretty deep well of apocalyptic hadith literature if he wanted to, and it seems pretty clear that he didn't. The white banners thing is interesting, because traditionally the dichotomy is white banners for the Umayyads, and black banners for the Abbasids (whence the contemporary black banners of Sunni radicalism—the Umayyads have a reputation as wine-bibbers and monkey-fondlers).
I hate to ask but is 'monkey-fondler' some kind of slang?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/31/americas-wars-on-democracy-in-rwanda-and-the-dr-congo/#gsc.tab=0 Haven't listened to the episode yet, will tomorrow. However saw this article about a new book coming out on Rwanda and DRC, seems to be highly critical of the RPF. Remember how angry John was at the suggestion of equivalency between RPF and Interamhwe and wanted to know ya'll thoughts on this.
The Yak poem is from The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts by Hilaire Belloc.
A-ha! Thanks! The yak has the distinction of having at least two good poems in English written about it. The other is Corso's "The Mad Yak".
Mkay? It annoyed me in the beginning, but grew on me as the interview went on. Another great guest.
What was annoying? (I'd like to know so I can not do it in future!)
A a friend to the children commend me the Yak. You will find it exactly the thing: It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back, Or lead it about with a string. The Tartar who dwells on the plains of Thibet (A desolate region of snow) Has for centuries made it a nursery pet, And surely the Tartar should know! Then tell your papa where the Yak can be got, And if he is awfully rich He will buy you the creature—or else he will not. (I cannot be positive which.)
That's good!
Great episode, especially the Myanmar bits. Those drugs and covert action stories are my historical comfort food. South West China is often overlooked nowadays, glad I could learn more about it. I visited the region a few years ago. Shangri La has become a bit of a chinese hippie hotspot. As for Dali, well I'll let you look up Dali's reputation! Even though it's not really on topic and Tibetans were only mentionned in passing, I feel like a bit about Tibet's feudal horrors would have been alright. Will take a look at Davide's Patreon! This made me miss living in China. One more thing.. Okay? Okay!
A new episode? Already? God what a wonderful day
lol, John and Mark stole a march on me. I had invited Davide to do a dry run on Silk and Steel for this appearance on Radio War Nerd. But John was too fast!!! It was great episode! esp fascinating are the talks abt Opium and heroine trade. Golden Triangle and CIA coordinating drug trade with KMT in the area deserves its own episode, as are PRC sponsored Burmese Communist Insurgency from 1960s to 1988 and subsequent collapse of Communist forces along ethnic lines into ethnic militias.
We beat the illiberal China bot! The Rules Based International Order is saved!