NEWS FROM WUHAN

To the classically educated, the news that Wuhan is the epicentre of the new corona virus outbreak is of course terrible news. Wuhan, a city of millions, an industrial hub lying at the confluence of the Yangtze and the Han rivers in Hupei, is best known for prominent mention in a famous football supporters' song, which is the first thing that came to mind. Football, called 'soccer' in America, is massively popular all over the civilized world. And in England.


武漢

This entirely changes the dynamic. Bans on traveling in and out of Wuhan will have enormous repercussions, especially for British soccer fans.
Chinese New Year just won't be the same.

Wuhan is also were China's first industrial haggis plant was established, by Scottish Presbyterian missionaries. Burns Day remarkably falls on the first day of Chinese New Year this time around. Plan accordingly.


我們愛長江

[SOURCE: We Love the Yangtze.]


We love the Yangtse, Yangtse-Kiang,
Flowing from Yushew down to Chingkiang,
Passing through Chungking, Wuhan, Woo-Kow
Three thousand miles, but it gets there somehow.
Oh! Szechuan's the province and Shanghai is the port,
And the Yangtse is the river, that we all support.

We love the Yangtse, Yangtse-Kiang,
Flowing from Yushew down to Chingkiang,
Passing through Chungking, Wuhan, Woo-Kow
Three thousand miles, but it gets there somehow.
Oh! Szechuan's the province and Shanghai is the port,
And the Yangtse is the river, that we all support.


Haggis is called 肉餡羊肚 ('yiuk haam yeung tou') in Chinese, and your Burns Supper would be incomplete without it.
There is no substitute.
Mercifully.



Please note that the intro voice-over is incorrect; the Yangtze (揚子江、長江; 'yeung ji gong', 'cheung gong') is NOT the Yellow River (黄河 'wong ho'), which actually lies much further north. Chinese civilization (and football) started in the Yellow River Basin nearly 4 millenia ago, but at that time the Yangtze region was not yet part of China. The river is associated with the Liangzhu Culture (良渚文化 'leung jyu man faa'), which may have been distantly ancestral to the realm of Chu (楚 'cho').
And that's a different kettle of fish.




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