Going Postal at the Qiaopiju
The Chinese Qiaopiju, or “overseas letter offices,” lasted for a century, ending only when the foreign governments implemented anti-communist banking controls.
Lai Teck, International Man of Mystery
A Vietnamese double agent who infiltrated and led the Communist Party of Malaya in the 1930s, Lai Teck also spied for the British and the Japanese.
Buddhist Pacifists at War
In the early centuries of Vajrayāna Buddhism in India, practitioners worked to reconcile the religion’s teaching of nonviolence with the realities of warfare.
Building the Olympic Games
A close connection between architecture, athletics, and the urban fabric is central to the idea of the modern Olympic Games.
The French Historian Who Invented the Olympics
Pierre de Coubertin harnessed an enduring fascination with ancient Greece to create a new institution that blended national pride with global unity.
Black Freedom and Indian Independence
Activists including W. E .B. Du Bois in the United States and Lajpat Rai in India drew connections between Black American and Indian experiences of white rule.
Matilda Tone, Historian of Irish Republicanism
Through the work and writing of Matilda Tone, her late husband, Theobold Wolfe Tone, was constructed as the hero of Irish republicanism.
A Utopia—for Some—in India
In 1968, an international group led by an Indian freedom fighter and a French spiritualist formed a utopian—and problematic—community called Auroville.
Wooden Kings and Winds of Change in Tonga
The island nation of Tonga is home to the last Polynesian monarchy.