The English version of the People's Daily website has published a surreal list of fifty foreigners who have been influential in China's modern history. The list is introduced with the following paragraph, which I felt merited reprinting in its entirety:
Throughout China's time-honored history, the era that began in 1840 was characterized with the biggest, fastest, most fierce and complicated changes. There were many foreigners that could have influence upon China in this very period, but generally speaking, 50 of them could doubtlessly best demonstrate the epochal features that China collided with the world.
Indeed. In fact, the list is not bad at all, and features a mix of influential historical and pop culture figures ranging from Marx to Otto Braun to Henry Kissinger to Steven Spielberg. At first I was inclined to laugh when I saw Harland Sanders --of KFC fame--listed alongside Stalin, but, honestly, you can't turn a corner in China without bumping into a KFC. You have to go all the way to Harbin to find Stalin Park.

Two things stood out about the list.

First, it's devastatingly uninformative. It lists who these people were but says nothing about what it was they did to influence China. Thus, if you don't already know that Nixon was responsible for American rapprochement with China, tough luck for you. Similarly, Norman Bethune is described simply as a "Canadian internationalist", which doesn't entirely do justice to the role he played in China.

Second, although the article lists several Jewish people (Freud, Einstein, Spielberg, etc.) only one is explicitly identified as being Jewish:
Silas Aaron Hardoon (1849 - 1931): Richest Jewish businessman specialising in real estate through plundering China's wealth before national liberation in 1949;
Hardoon is the only person described pejoratively on a list that includes Hirohito and Okamura Yasuji, the officer who oversaw the Japanese occupation. I'd like to thank the People's Daily for making Hardoon's Jewish roots extra clear. Nice work, everybody.

Imagethief looks forward to being on the version of this list that recalls influential foreigners from the 21st century. He can be identified as Imagethief (1967 - ?): International spin doctor and wiseass Jewish blogger.

Thanks to Steve Schwankert --another influential foreigner in China-- for pointing out the article.


  Your average Canadian internationalist.
  From Stefan Landsberger, as usual.