Mandalay, Myanmar

choi

Jane Perlez, 中国商人，缅甸曼德勒的 '闯入者.' 纽约时报中文网, Nov 29, 2016
http://cn.nytimes.com/asia-pacif ... hina-myanmar-trade/

, which is translated from

Jane Perlez, Chinese Traders, and Their Wealth, Deepen Animosity in a Burmese Hub. New York Times, Nov 28, 2916.

Note:
(a) Rudyard Kipling "wrote a poem that captured the palm trees, pagodas and temple bells of Burma during colonial rule.  The romance of that verse, 'Mandalay,' became a refrain for the exotic East, and of this city, in particular, once a royal capital with a stunning palace. Written in 1890, it has resonated ever since:

On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin' fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer [out of] China ’crost [across] the Bay!"

(i) Rudyard Kipling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling
(1865 – 1936; born Joseph Rudyard Kipling; his parents "had met in 1863 and courted at Rudyard Lake in Rudyard [presently a village], Staffordshire, England"/ In 1907, at the age of 42, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature)
(A) Staffordshire should not be confused with Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire -- the birthplace of William Shakespeare.
(B) origin of Rudyard:

Rudyard Lake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Lake
("The village of Rudyard was named after Ralph Rudyard, a local man reputed to have killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field" in 1485)
(C) The English surname Kipling came from a minor place of the same name in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
(ii)
(A) Burma's capitals: Mandalay (1857-1885), Yangon/ Rangoon (two English spellings of the same Burmese word; 1885-2005), Naypyidaw (2005- ).
(B) A king of last dynasty (1752–1885) of Burma founded Mandalay (so that he could move the capital to the new site) in 1857 at the foot of Mandalay Hill (after which the new capital was named).  Mandalay served as the last royal capital of Burma.  en.wikipedia.org
(iii) Mandalay (poem)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandalay_(poem)
(section 1 Background to the poem: "Burma, * * * was part of the British India from 1886 to 1937 [thus under purview of Viceroy of India; see (B) below], and a separate British colony from 1937 to 1948. * * * Maung Htin Aung [a Burmese writer (1909 – 1978)], in his essay * * * notes: 'Even that proud conqueror of Ava, Lord Dufferin, although he was received with dark looks by the Burmese during his state visit to Mandalay early in 1886, wrote back to a friend in England, extolling the grace, charm and freedom of Burmese women' ")
(A) The "Ava" in the Wiki quotation referred to "Ava Kingdom, in upper Burma from 1364 to 1555," whose capital was also Ava.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVA
(B) Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood,_1st_Marquess_of_Dufferin_and_Ava
(1826 – 1902; Viceroy of India (1884-1888) )

He was a diplomat, not a general -- so he did not "conquer" Ava (that kingdom had been long gone anyway). Why "Ava" then?  Good question.
(C) Anonymous, The Voice of India. Vol 6. "published before 1923," at page 653
https://books.google.com/books?i ... f%20ava&f=false
("The Phoenix (English Bi-Weekly), Karachi, October 27[, 1888]  Marquis of Ava and Earl of Ava!  That is fairly enough to take one's breath away. Her Majesty the Queen-Empress is incapable of perpetrating a joke, especially against her Viceroy, or otherwise it would be regarded as an excellent joke. But why Marquis of Ava and not of Mandalay?  One of Lord Dufferin's admirers in the Town Hall meeting of Calcutta designated his Lordship Duke of Mandalay, and the prophecy has been very nearly fulfilled.  We congratulate His Excellency on the very novel and very appropriate honor conferred upon him and we trust that this precedent will be followed.  It would have been even more appropriate if Lord Dufferin had been styled Marquis of Mandalay and Earl of Ava. That would have been a clear and specific distinction")
(D) When was title Earl of Ava conferred?

S Rivett Carnac, The Presidential Armies of India. Lancer, 1890, at page 351
https://books.google.com/books?i ... 0ava%22&f=false
("Chapter XII Ava, City of the New Marquisate [:]  Towards the end of October 1888, the following announcement was published in London: -- 'The Queen has conferred the dignity of a marquisate upon the Earl of Dufferin, who will take the titles of Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and Earl of Ava. The title of Ava after the ancient capital of Burma has been assumed by Her Majesty's special command' ")
(iv) John McGivering and John Radcliffe, Mandalay. Kipling Society, Jaan 18, 2010 (under the heading "Readers' Guide")
www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_mandalay1.htm

Quote:

"The Theme  A British soldier [Rudyard Kipling imagined himself in the shoes of that soldier], now discharged and back in London, looks back with nostalgia at his life in Burma with sunshine and a charming girl

"Lookin' lazy at the sea  'lookin' eastward at the sea' in the original version but corrected by Kipling when it was pointed out to him that Moulmein had no view of the sun rising over the Bay of Bengal, still less over China.

(v) On The Road To Mandalay; Sinatra Song of the Century #20. Steyn's Song of the Week, Mar 23, 2015.
http://www.steynonline.com/6870/on-the-road-to-mandalay
(A) Come Fly with Me (Frank Sinatra album)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Fly_with_Me_(Frank_Sinatra_album)
(1958, including the song titled "On the Road to Mandalay" whose music was by Oley Speaks and lyrics by Rudyard Kipling)
(B) On the Road to Mandalay Lyrics - Frank Sinatra.
https://lovequotese.com/lyrics/O ... natra-XusTRR66.html

choi

(b) "Kipling never visited Mandalay, having imagined it from a brief sojourn in a city called Moulmein, now Mawlamyine, several hundred miles to the south."

Mawlamyine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawlamyine
(formerly Moulmein; VIEW MAP ONLY)
(c) "Chinese traders have been coming to Mandalay since before the mid-19th century, when the city was created on the banks of the Irrawaddy River as the royal redoubt. Records show a Chinese temple from 1773."

See (a)(ii).
(d) "When remnants of China's Nationalist Army fled to northern Burma after the Communist victory in 1949, they settled in Mandalay with their large families. By then, the royal palace — wooden pavilions with gabled roofs and richly painted pillars — had been burned to the ground by Japanese bombardment in 1942.  A replica [of the palace] was built in 1989 by the junta, which handed the vast sward of green that surrounds the palace to the military for use as a headquarters. (The last king and queen of Burma fled to India in 1885, pushed out by the conquering British four years before Kipling composed his poem.)  After World War II, Mandalay was a backwater — a place where the new Chinese settlers made themselves at home, took Burmese names and learned the language.  The children of the Nationalist Army veterans are now in their 60s."

Thibaw Min
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thibaw_Min#Life_in_exile
("His reign ended when Burma was defeated by the forces of the British Empire in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, on Nov 29, 1885, prior to its official annexation on 1 January 1886. * * * After abdicating the throne, Thibaw, his wife Supayalat and two infant daughters were exiled to Ratnagiri, India")