Apparently, Confucius (孔夫子) was born on September 28, 551 BC/BCE. That would make him a Virgo…and now something like 2560 years old.
As China’s arguably most famous philosopher, thinker, and sporter of long wispy white beards, Confucius’ influence throughout Asia is well-known and well-documented. A minor bit of silly controversy even revolves around Koreans allegedly claiming Confucius was Korean, with multitudes of Chinese scoffing. Xinhua, the PRC state news organ, even claims that Confucius’ descendants number around 3 million. Nowhere near Genghis Khan territory — that stud — but kinda nifty nonetheless.
So far, the custom Confucius Google logo has been sighted on Google’s China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand websites, but strangely not on their Korean website. The main Google.com page doesn’t show it yet either and if it well, it may take a few more hours before September 28 hits Mountain View, California.
Hat tip to Japan Probe.
“but strangely not on their Korean website. ”
Damn right. And I bet Confucius didn’t use simplified script.
Ask I noted at the time, Google whimped out on on the Tiananmen anniversary. I guess this was the least they could do.
“Nowhere near Genghis Khan territory — that stud — but kinda nifty nonetheless.”
When chatting about the Khan era I’ve often suggested to Han Chinese that they must have a little Mongol blood coarsing through their veins – which for some reason doesn’t usually go down very well. At least they can be comforted by the fact that they may have a touch of the confucian about them as well. Unless, of course, he really was Korean.
I’m still waiting for a joke about Google using it as an opportunity to introduce a name change: “Si hai zhi nei, jie Da Ge”–”Within the four seas, there is Big Brother”…