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This is an archive article published on August 5, 2006
Middle Kingdom, Top 50
Stalin coexisting with Trotsky; Rockefeller and Col 8220;KFC8221; Sanders sharing space with Marx and Engels; Kissinger next to Kim Il-Sung.
August 5, 2006 12:00 AM IST
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4 min read
Stalin coexisting with Trotsky; Rockefeller and Col 8220;KFC8221; Sanders sharing space with Marx and Engels; Kissinger next to Kim Il-Sung. The eclectic gathering is of 8216;50 foreigners shaping China8217;s modern development8217;, a list published recently in China8217;s People8217;s Daily Online. The list, which includes two Indians, Tagore and Nehru and refers to the latter only as 8216;former president of the INC8217;, has a mix of the obvious and the frankly inexplicable 8212; Sir Henry McMahon, for example, whose line dividing India and China is disputed by the latter.
A subsequent article explains the idea saying 8216;8216;China8217;s looking forward naturally bears the shadow of the past8217;8217;. It notes the heavy US presence after reforms began yet stating that China could learn more from Europe in building a harmonious society. The list is produced verbatim below:
Throughout China8217;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.
Arranged according to the date of birth, the 50 foreigners are
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778: Swiss-French philosopher, writer, political theorist and thinker
George Macartney 1737-1806: British diplomat
Thomas Robert Malthus 1766-1834: British political economist and founder of population theory
Charles Elliot 1801-1875: Chief Superintendent of the trade of British subjects to China during Opium War
Hans Andersen 1805-1875: Well-known Danish writer of fairy tales
Charles Darwin 1809-1875: Famous British Naturalist
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Karl Marx 1818-1883: German philosopher, thinker, social scientist and political theorist
Friedrich Engels 1820-1895: German philosopher, thinker and political theorist
John Glasgow Kerr 1824-1901: Follower of Presbyterian Church USA
William Alexander Parsons Martin 1827-1916: U.S.8217; Protestant missionary to China
Henrik Ibsen 1828-1906: Great Norwegian playwright
Alfred Graf Von Waldersee 1832-1904: German army man and Commander in chief of Eight-Power Allied Force in August 1900
Hobert Hart 1835-1911: General Commissioner of Customs to China for half century
Ito Hirobumi 1841-1909: Japanese statesman
Timothy Richard 1845-1919: British missionary
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Arthur Henderson Smith 1854-1932: American Congregational Church missionary to China
Silas Aaron Hardoon 1849-1931: Richest Jewish businessman specialising in real estate through plundering China8217;s wealth before national liberation in 1949
Sigmund Freud 1856-1939: Austrian originator of psychoanalysis
Rabindranath Tagore 1861-1941: One of India8217;s greatest poet, writer, artist as well as social activist
McMahon 1862-1949: British officer who took part in Simla Convention in early 20th century with an aim of separating Tibet from China
Marie Curie 1876-1934: First woman Nobel Prize winner
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Maksim Gorky 1868-1936: Great proletarian writer of former Soviet Union
Vladimir Lenin 1870-1924: Founder of former Soviet Union and Communism
John D. Rockefeller, Jr 1874-1960: Son of the creator of Standard Oil and philanthropist
Stalin Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili 1879-1953: Great former Soviet Union leader
Albert Einstein 1879-1955: German-born American physicist
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Leon Trotsky 1879-1940: One of the earliest leaders of Russia and Soviet Union
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882-1945: 23rd U.S. president
Yasuji Okamura 1884-1966: Commander in chief of Japanese troop stationed in China
Mikhail Markovich Borodin 1884 8211; 1951: Envoy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to China
Nehru 1889-1964: Former chairman of India National Congress
Norman Bethune 1890-1939: Great internationalist from Canada
Harland Sanders 1890-1980: Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC
Nikita Khrushchev 1894-1971: Former premier of the Soviet Union
Matsusita Kounosuke 1894-1989: Founder of Panasonic, world8217;s renown household appliance in Japan
Armand Hammer 1898-1990: President of America8217;s Occidental Petroleum
Hirohito 1901-1989: Emperor of Japan
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Otto Braun Li De in Chinese 1901-1974: Military advisor Communist International of Germany to China
Ivan V. Arkhipov 1907-1998: Vice minister of Metallurgy in former Soviet Union
Kim Il Sung 1912-1994: Founder of Democratic People8217;s Republic of Korea
Richard Milhous Nixon 1913-1994: One of the most influential presidents in American history
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Kakuei Tanaka 1918-1993: Former Japanese prime minister and most powerful and aggressive faction leader in the LDP
Juan Antonio Samaranch 1920-: Former IOC president and social activist from Spain
Henry Alfred Kissinger 1923-: Former U.S. National Security Advisor and Secretary of State
Alvin Toffler 1928-: American sociologist
Ken Takakura 1931-: Famous Japanese actor
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev 1931-: President of former Soviet Union
Steven Spielberg 1947-: Famous Hollywood movie director
Bill Gates 1955-: Founder of software giant Microsoft
Michael Jordan 1963-: American basketball legend
8212; People8217;s Daily Online
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