Adam Driver was born in California, and has a Scottish, English, Irish, German and Dutch heritage. He made waves last year for his brilliant performance as a man going through a painful divorce, opposite Scarlett Johannson, in Netflix’s drama Marriage Story. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for the performance; it was his second Academy Award nomination.
Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor, born in Beirut, Lebanon, with an interesting heritage. His mother is English, from Essex, and his father is a Hawaiian-born American with Portuguese, Irish, English, Chinese & Native Hawaiin heritage. Keanu has a career that is still going strong. He first got noticed by Hollywood in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, was the handsome detective in Point Break, and finally reached cult status as Neo in The Matrix trilogy.
Both Adam and Keanu have Irish and English blood and take the lead in their films. They certainly look similar, and they’re almost the same height – Adam is 6 foot 2” and Keanu is 6 foot 1”.
It looks like they both have long careers ahead of them, and it’s nice knowing there’s a Keanu lookalike who is such a brilliant actor!
The Invention of the Crossbow
While crossbows may often be associated with the wars fought in medieval Europe, they were actually invented hundreds of years before that. A Chinese text, estimated be from 200 B.C., credited a man by the name of Ch’in of Ch’u with the invention of the crossbow in 700 B.C.
The crossbow was considered such an advanced weapon at this time, that a law was passed that prohibited people from taking crossbows out of China- this way, enemies couldn’t get their hands on this technology. Crossbows were developed so drastically over the years that by the eleventh century, they could shoot 20 arrows in 15 seconds! Crossbows continued to be frequently used by the Chinese military until 1895, when the usage of firearms rendered crossbows obsolete.
The Forbidden City
Founded in 1420, the Forbidden City is one of the largest and most well-preserved imperial palaces in the world. It was constructed to be the residence of the Imperial Emperor during the reign of the Ming Dynasty and went on to house 24 emperors- 14 from the Ming Dynasty and 10 from the Qing Dynasty.
In ancient China, the emperor was viewed to be a heavenly presence, with powers that were bestowed to him from heaven. For this reason, commoners were forbidden from entering the palace, with the death penalty awaiting anyone who disobeyed this rule. In fact, even members of the government and the imperial family had limited access to certain areas- only the emperor could roam wherever he willed.
The Terracotta Army
In 1974, a group of farmers in the province of Shaanxi were digging in a well when they uncovered thousands of life-size figures that were modelled after soldiers, horses, and chariots. This army was made of terracotta and seemed to be guarding what looked like a tomb. After further research was conducted, it was determined that this tomb belonged to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the united China that exists today.
The Meaning of Mirrors
In ancient China, mirrors possessed a number of symbolic meanings. First and foremost, mirrors are believed to affect feng shui- in fact, Chinese people still take great care in where they place mirrors in their homes to this day. Secondly, mirrors are believed to be able to direct the flow of qi (energy). The third purpose of mirrors stretches back to thousands of years.
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