Q 01/05

Which hairstyle, a shaved forehead and a long braid, did the Qing force on Han Chinese men?

A) The topknot

B) The queue

C) The chonmage

D) The tonsure

Answer · why

B) The queue

The queue was compulsory, and refusing it was punished as treason, by execution. After the 1911 revolution, the hairstyle vanished almost overnight.

Q 02/05

Which island did the Qing cede to Britain in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking after the First Opium War?

A) Zhoushan

B) Hainan

C) Chongming

D) Hong Kong

Answer · why

D) Hong Kong

Hong Kong Island was handed over 'in perpetuity' as a harbour where British traders could refit their ships. It went back to China only in 1997.

Q 03/05

Which former concubine ruled Qing China from behind a curtain for nearly half a century until 1908?

A) Cixi

B) Ci'an

C) Longyu

D) Xiaozhuang

Answer · why

A) Cixi

Cixi entered the palace as a teenage concubine, bore the emperor a son in 1856 and took power as regent in 1861. She later installed her own nephew on...

Q 04/05

Which uprising in Qing China was crushed by an Eight-Nation Alliance sent to lift a siege of foreign legations?

A) Miao Rebellion

B) Red Turban Rebellion

C) Boxer Rebellion

D) Nian Rebellion

Answer · why

C) Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion takes its English name from the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Its fighters were convinced that foreign weapons could ...

Q 05/05

Which last Qing emperor took the throne as a toddler and later worked as a gardener in Beijing?

A) Guangxu

B) Puyi

C) Tongzhi

D) Xianfeng

Answer · why

B) Puyi

Puyi was not yet three when he was enthroned in 1908, and he was made to abdicate in 1912. A loyalist general put him back on the throne for twelve da...