Captain Fred

I love Sportfishing

[Nury Vittachi @NuryVittachi]

12 MORE ICONS OF JAPANESE CULTURE WHICH HAVE CHINESE ORIGINS

12. Karate
NOT Japanese in origin, but Chinese.

This is one amazing story.

In the 1300s, experts in Chinese martial arts travelled to an island kingdom called Ryukyu and shared their skills. The Japanese samurai invaded the island in 1609 to create a puppet state—and banned the carrying of weapons.

The people of Ryukyu refined their Chinese martial arts skills to create a weapons-free way of combat with which to defend themselves. They called it kara-te 唐手, which translates to "Chinese hand". This was later changed to “empty hand”.

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QUICK NOTE: This is part two of a series. In the widely viewed first section last week, we featured ramen, bonsai, green tea, Zen Buddhism, the Kimono and so on.

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11. The Parasol
What could be more Japanese than the parasol, as used in countless images of women in kimonos? While umbrellas evolved separately in multiple places around the world, the delicate, collapsible oil-paper parasol to shield you from the sun was created in China and spread to Japan.

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10. Mochi and Manju
Mochi is a type of chewy cake made of pounded rice which is synonymous with Japan. But it was probably first imported from China in 300 BC, historians say. In Japan, the written character for 'mochi' is the Chinese word for 'cake', and Hong Kong still has an item called "loh máih chìh".

Then there’s the Japanese manju, a stuffed bun. A Japanese monk named Enni visited China and got the recipe for steamed buns. On his return to Japan in 1241, he went to see a teahouse owner who had been generous to monks, who had to beg for food.

He gave the recipe to the teahouse boss and wrote a sign saying “Place to eat Manju”—a sign now preserved in a Japanese museum.

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9. The Geisha
Geisha is the Japanese name for ornately dressed women who are officially entertainers, but many see the term has having sexual overtones. The modern tradition echoes the female entertainers tradition of the Heian-kyo period beginning in AD 794, which in turn appears to have been influenced by the Geji, women in China who provided musical entertainment and other sorts of entertainment to men from a long time ago, all the way back in 260 BC.

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8. Koi
Koi, the ornamental fish used in garden ponds, is actually a type of carp that has been raised in fish-farms for centuries. These aquaculture centers existed in Japan since the 19th century and in China since the fourth century BC. But it must be said, while both countries celebrate these beautiful fish, the breeding techniques developed to create varieties of multicolored koi are very much a Japanese skill.

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7. The Shamisen
The Geisha women, mentioned earlier, often played the shamisen, a three-stringed instrument structured like a banjo. It originated in China as the sanxian, and likely travelled to Japan via Korea and or the Ryuku islands in the 1560s.

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6. Noh theatre
Some readers asked whether Kabuki theatre had Japanese roots. The answer is no. But Japan’s other theatre tradition, called Noh, stems from a Chinese performing art called sangaku which included music, acrobatics and illusions. It crossed the waters to Japan in the eighth century.

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5. Miso and Soy
Miso is a savory Japanese seasoning made from fermented soy beans, often used as the basis of miso soup. While savory condiments were made in Japan since prehistoric times, the use of fermented soy foods developed in China in the third century BC. This processed food was introduced to Japan, along with Zen Buddhism, in the sixth century AD.

A closely related item is soy sauce. Today, because of the success of the Japanese Kikkoman brand, many westerners think soy sauce is Japanese. The taste is fine, but gourmands often note that the original soy sauce from China is simultaneously more savory and slightly sweeter. Try them both.

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4. Dragons
Japan is obsessed with dragons – military squadrons call themselves dragons, as do Yakuza groups, and there are dragon parades and entire mythologies about the mysterious ancient beasts. But the words used in Japanese reveal the concept's Chinese origins. The oldest reference to a dragon anywhere in the world is an image from China that is seven millennia old – yep, that’s not a misprint – it’s seventy centuries old.

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3. Gyoza
Many westerners love gyoza, which they think of as Japanese fried dumplings. But food historians know they are simply the Japanese version of the age-old Chinese dumpling known as Jiaozi.

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2. Bowing
For millennia, the Chinese used bowing as a common way to show respect, both in the temple to the ancestors, and in society to high-ranking people. It was adopted in Japan in the 7th century to become part of samurai etiquette. Gradually, it spread throughout Japanese society, where it became a common greeting.

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And now we come to number one: The name Japan.

The name Japan is actually from China.

From the Chinese point of view, the islands to the east are the place from where the sun appears every morning. So they called it “sun origin”. The pair of characters was pronounced something like this: jrr-bnn.

With regional variations, jrr-bnn became ja-pan, ni-pon, ni-hon, je-pang and so on.

It’s interesting to note that even the flags of Japan are based on the Chinese point of view—they show the rising sun.

Now from the point of the indigenous people of that land, of course, it was NOT the place where the sun rose. From their point of view, the sun rose not from their island, but from somewhere distant in the Pacific Ocean.

So the concept of these islands as a place called Japan, as the Land of the Rising Sun, is in itself a Chinese concept.

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THE OTHER SIDE
Okay, that’s 12 more ideas on this theme. Want to add others? Or dispute the ones just mentioned? Go right ahead. I’m always willing to learn.

Some people asked for examples of trends which go the other way—I can immediately think of one. The lucky cat you see in shops in China are assumed to be Chinese but seem to have originated in Japan. If you have more examples, I’d like to hear them.

Peace.

[گۈلنار Gülnar @GulnarNorthwest]

Stop believing the lies spread by East Turkestan. You can never imagine how deeply we, the people of #Xinjiang , love our motherland 🇨🇳.

On June 7, a #Uyghur student expressed his wish to apply to a military academy and become a soldier who would defend the borders of motherland

[Chen Weihua （陈卫华） @chenweihua]

@Kate_OKeeffe This is stupid. Are GE, Boeing, Google, Qualcomm (the list is very long) not supporting US military?

[Godfree Roberts @GodfreeTrh]

Catch this load of codswallop—by RAND's top China analyst!?
• Economic growth slowing? GDP will grow more this year than in any past year.
• Population aging? More Chinese babies will be born in 2050 than all the babies born in the G7.
• Financial system stressed? Lowest debt burden of any major economy.
• Other countries tightening trade controls? China is a sole supplier; a decade of trade controls have not changed that.
• Economic expansion masked the country’s vulnerabilities? Such as?
• Leaders in Beijing acknowledge the country’s weaknesses? That's their fucking job.

When you've lost RAND you've lost America's last team capable of thinking clearly.

[StarBoySAR 🇭🇰 🇨🇳 🥭 @StarboySAR]

Brilliant piece from Pearls and Irritations. Finally, someone in Australia is saying out loud what the rest of us have been watching for the past five years

Let's be clear about what AUKUS actually is: the greatest military protection racket in modern history. Washington looked at its own crippled submarine industrial base—17 boats short, yards choking, Congress screaming—and found the perfect mark. A wealthy, eager, insecure middle power with a bipartisan fetish for great-power relevance and a defense minister who treats strategic questions like a classified state secret

The deal? Australia pays half a trillion dollars. In return, it gets used Virginia-class hand-me-downs—Block IV boats with a decade of wear already on the hulls, probably smelling faintly of its previous crew

Even more intriguing, the article confirms for what this overpriced second-hand Australian "sovereign" nuclear submarine fleet is actually for:

Hunting Chinese Jin-class and Type 096 SSBNs. Not to protect Sydney Harbour. Not to secure Australia's trade routes. To find, track, and if ordered, destroy the Chinese nuclear submarines that threaten continental America!

That's the job. That's the whole job. Australia just committed A$368 billion to be the US Navy's underwater security guard!

The comedy of "sovereign capability" is almost too rich. Sovereign? The reactors are American. The combat system is American. The weapons are American. The fuel is American. The intelligence feed is American. The maintenance schedule is American. Permanently tethering Australia to U.S. software, maintenance, and logistics, effectively ending any "sovereign" capability. The only thing Australian is the taxpayer—and the Prime Minister standing in front of a camera calling this independence

Australia is not buying a submarine; it is buying a node in a U.S. sensor network. The acquisition deeply integrates Australia into the U.S. military command structure, making Australia a tool for U.S. strategic objectives in the Indo-Pacific — while a massive amount of Australian wealth is transferred into the U.S. military-industrial complex

And the timing is exquisite. Washington just added another half-trillion to its own defense budget while Australia is told to hit 3.5% of GDP. America gets the money, the boats, the basing rights at HMAS Stirling, and a Pacific ASW auxiliary. Australia gets the bill, the dependency, and the warm fuzzy feeling of being taken seriously by the adults.

The U.S. 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) emphasizes "burden-sharing among allies" and "realist diplomacy." This submarine deal is the perfect execution of that strategy: the U.S. maintains its military overmatch against China by essentially "outsourcing" the financial cost of undersea surveillance to Australia 🤡

Paul Keating called this three years ago. He was mocked, of course. The press club gasped. The security establishment rolled its eyes. But he was right then, and this article proves he's right now. It is worse than he thought. It's not that AUKUS is of little military benefit to Australia. It's that AUKUS is of negative military benefit to Australia—actively diverting resources from actual defense needs toward a capability designed for someone else's homeland

https://t.co/f7lYAMf3JY

[GBX @GBX_Press]

🇺🇸🇵🇸🇮🇷 Brutal confrontation with Marco Rubio.
US citizens cornered him mercilessly before he fled:
"You're a criminal! Hear us with those big ears? You're Israel's cuck! War criminal! Blood on your hands! F*** you! Free Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and Cuba!"

Rubio had no answer — ran off visibly shaken.
The American people aren't silent anymore. More citizens are directly confronting politicians who serve the Zionist lobby and fund genocide. 🔥✊💥🎯

[Captain Fred @Captfredfishing]

@GBX_Press @davidkersten Wow!

[The Honourable Victor Oh @SenatorVictorOh]

🌹🇨🇦🇨🇳🌹 Canadians are finally getting a chance to see what has made Chinese EVs one of the biggest success stories in the global auto industry.

Today at the Chinese Embassy’s Doors Open Ottawa event, I saw Geely’s latest electric vehicles up close. The technology, design, and overall quality were remarkable.

What stood out most was the breadth of the lineup—from affordable family vehicles to sophisticated premium models. These vehicles demonstrate how quickly Chinese automakers have evolved from competing on price to competing on innovation.

With Geely recently becoming the first Chinese automaker to ship EVs to Canada under the new tariff framework, Canadians can now see firsthand what consumers in many parts of the world are already embracing.

As I recently observed in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, high standards and consumer choice can go hand in hand.

The global EV race is moving fast. Canadians deserve the freedom to decide which vehicles earn their business.

#Geely #EV #ElectricVehicles #ConsumerChoice

[Sharing Travel @TripInChina]

@elonmusk It's located in Wuxi County, Chongqing, and this is the part that has just begun.

[Sy. Gunson 🎒8647 Pacific Viking @SyGunson]

@TrevorJ24567534 @chrisluxonmp @chrishipkins @dbseymour @_chloeswarbrick @AmbChina2NZ History lesson. Ming Chinese general Koxinga chased the Dutch out of Taiwan in 1662 ...and then out of Manila which was then a large thriving Chinese city.
When the Spanish arrived in 1521 they found a Chinese city in the Philippines.

[Kathleen Tyson @Kathleen_Tyson_]

UK, EU, Japan, and South Korea are in decades long decline because every time we use our R&D to develop a breakthrough technology we are coerced, sometimes blackmailed, into selling it to US rentier owners by IPO or M&A so the profits of our innovation and R&D flow to US (Nokia, Skype, Alstom, etc). US bleeds its vassals whenever they excel.

John Bolton tried this on Huawei (cooperatively owned by employees) which refused US IPO listing by ordering the 2018 arrest of COO Meng Wanzhou. China stood up to the blackmail. Huawei remains employee owned and has massively expanded its range of operations to eliminate all US dependency in the Chinese tech stack.

It is refusal to be subjugated that distinguishes China’s rise to challenge US primacy and hegemony.

[Robert Barwick @RobbieBarwick]

What has the US done since 1989?
* Highway of death Iraq 1991
* Bombed Serbia 1999
* Invaded Iraq 2003
* 20-year war in Afghanistan
* Bombed Libya 2011
* Unleashed ISIS on Syria 2011
* Used neo-Nazis to run coup and start civil war in Ukraine 2014
* Armed Israel's slaughter of kids 2023-26
* Attacked Venezuela 2026
* Bombed Iran 2026

[𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 @OopsGuess]

🇨🇳 China: AI should be open, inclusive, people-centered, and a force for good for all.
🇺🇸 America: AI should be led by us, secured by us, and placed in the hands of “trusted defenders.”

That is the difference.

One sees AI as part of human civilization.
The other sees AI as a strategic asset of empire.

No wonder Chinese people are becoming more comfortable with AI, while Americans are taught to fear it.

You don’t love a weapon.
You fear the day it stops obeying.

[Captain Fred @Captfredfishing]

@RepOgles @SenRickScott Remind yourself how the First Nation people were genocided and had their land stolen from them.

[Captain Fred @Captfredfishing]

@SenRickScott @RepOgles Americans never show remorse after they genocided the First Nations people and still didnt return the land they stole from the First Nations people.

[Captain Fred @Captfredfishing]

@urbanleg3nd2 @OopsGuess Do you mean it WAS making 45% of the drug discovery but not any more?

[Master | 最強打野(穢土轉生) @CryptoMaster_70]

Jensen:
Asian parents' culture, toxic😟
I know they love me, I usually “alright, alright..."

黃仁勳今天說了內心話 一路過來真不容易
“亞洲父母有毒 總是會糾正你“
"我63歲了 他們依然覺得我不夠好“

[Captain Fred @Captfredfishing]

@ReadyPlayer003 @cutoffs_io The Chinese should not have taken over the bankrupt factory and let it die. The Chinese don’t need this. Too many dumb people around