About the Red Turbans
Rene Ritchie, February 4th, 2008
There seems to be some confusion about as to what the Red Turban Rebellion was, and who wore the Red Turbans. This has been a particular area of interest of mine ever since the 2nd Wing Chun Friendship Seminar in Dayton, Ohio, where I gave a short talk on the Wing Chun connection between Red Junks and Red Turban Rebellion. I also handed out printed copies of a work-in progress article on the subject, which later appeared on Kung Fu Magazine Online, and can be seen in its updated form right here on W1NG.com.
In essence, the Red Junk Opera members, including their leader, Lee Man-Mao (Li Wenmao) wore full opera costumes as they marched into Foshan (an unimaginable sight, no doubt), while the common people of Foshan who rose up to support them tied on the Red Turban as symbol of that support.
However, this being a real, historical event, involving real, historical people, the real historians have obviously done the real work here already (mirrored locally due to intermittent problems with the originating servers, though linked-back within):
http://www.w1ng.com/lee-man-mao-li-wenmao-of-the-red-boat-opera/
[Li Wenmao] himself and the other general officers wore the opera clothes. Later as the insurrectionists increased radically, the opera clothes fell short. So they used the red kerchief instead of the helmets, hence they were called Red Kerchief Army.
http://www.w1ng.com/history-of-the-red-boat-opera/
In 1854, Fenghuangyi Cantonese Opera performer Li Wenmao and Chen Kaihe, the leader of Guangdong Tiandi Assembly, rose up in Guangzhou, changing the members of several thousand red boats into soldiers, wearing opera costumes and red muffle, called “Red Muffle Army”.
Strangers at the Gate by Wakeman is also an invaluable source of information on this topic.
Very interesting, RR! I would believe the historians of Foshan, China. Thanks for providing the information!
I only believe PRC historians when their info agrees with non-PRC historians, and with info from related subjects — which in this case it seems to.
The thing sis that it is much better than “Sifu Sez…”.
For certain.