Oh, nice! Thanks for the video link EJE! I forgot about this show, I vaguely remembered it, but I watched both parts. It was neat. I was confused at first, wondering if Tom Paine was supposed to be a good guy or not, but I eventually understood that he did have a great influence on the Americans. I was always curious about how exactly he impacted the country.
Also, it’s cool that you have a copy of the pamphlet!
I suppose one person I would like to meet is my apparent ancestor, the great explorer (and unfortunately a eunuch) Zheng He - he shares my last name. To those who don’t know Chinese, his name is pronounced like “Jerng Herr”. There would obviously be the language barrier, but if I can meet a person who’s been dead for centuries, I suppose I can miraculously gain the ability to speak in Chinese!
Copypasta from Wikipedia:
He has many temples in his name, one of which is in Malacca, a town in my homeland, Malaysia.
It has even been suggested that he discovered America 70 years before Christopher Columbus did!
…
While we’re on the topic of historical shows, EJE, I’m aware that you like the WB cartoon “Histeria!”? I’ve been searching if it has been release on home video, but no dice on Amazon and Youtube has only clips. Is it available in any way, either through legal or non-legal means? 
No problem, I’m happy that you enjoyed it! I own the whole series on DVD. He is one of those characters who are extremely important, but is a founder often forgotten. And yep, my friend gave it to me! It’s a pretty fancy copy of it too.
Unfortunetly, I know next to nothing about Asian history. Or any history that’s not from the US and Europe. All my classes I’ve taken in college are about the history of those places, and in school we’re taught mostly that. I’m taking a World History class this semester though.
To the point, I have never heard of Zheng He. I’m glad that you could introduce me to him, however. Very facinating! Is it family lore that you’re related, or is because of your shared name?
And I am sad to say that Histeria! has never been released on home video, as far as I know. When I first discovered it, they had all the episodes on AOL circulating, then it was stopped. I don’t know of anywhere else one could view it besides youtube. Which is very sad, because it’s such a fun show.
Yeah, it’s okay, we’re all ignorant of things to an extent. Secondary school history here had a strong local focus too, which is only natural for education systems in most countries around the world. It’s good you’ll be learning about other countries’ histories this semester.
It’s the shared last name, according to my dad, who told me this when the book 1421: The Year China Discovered The World by Gavin Menzies was turned into a documentary a few years back. There’s no concrete proof I’m his direct descendent unless I run a geneology search or something, so I think it’s my dad going on an ego trip, haha.
My Chinese name is Zheng Yaoyang. Chinese people have their last names up front so, for example, Ang Lee, the famous director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Life Of Pi, should really be called Lee Ang (and in Singaporean newspapers, we credit him as such).
Most Chinese people try to avoid marrying people with the same surname, as they believe it would be like marrying your cousin. But that can be quite difficult when last names like “Lee”, “Wong”, and “Tan” are so common here!
Hey, you should tell us who’s the person you want to meet!
D’:
youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc
Somewhat off-tangent, I’ve wondered the same about Dreamworks’ Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (an interesting take on the American Wild West through the eyes of a horse voiced by Matt Damon), Road To El Dorado (a revisionist history of Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes’ quest for the fabled City of Gold) and The Prince Of Egypt (the story of Moses) not getting releases on Blu-Ray. It seems the studio wants us to forget about their 2-D flicks.
Well, thanks for explaining!
…
On the subject of historical education being slanted to their country of origin, a lotta history books, I find, focus on Western civilisation, like the Greeks, Romans, Tudors, etc. There’s precious few mainstream English books (to my knowledge) that cover history outside of the USA and UK.
While I was in Australia, I chanced upon a Horrible Histories-like series for Down Under called “Fair Dinkum Histories”, written by Jackie French. It’s pretty much in the same vein as Terry Deary’s series, with irreverant writing and funny comics that discuss the less savoury bits of a country’s history.
It is one of my dreams to write something like this for the kids of Singapore, since I have been exposed to its history through countless school field trips, personal visits to museums and science centres, and reading of local books. A lot the school textbooks are very parochial and politically-correct, so I hope that I (or someone else) can make the subject less boring and more entertaining than the way I experienced it.
Oh wow! I never knew that. That’s really fascinating. I’m interested in naming practices, actually! Thanks for sharing that fact with me.
Oh wow. That is so amazingly difficult. There are so many people. What comes to mind is Theodore Roosevelt, The Marquis de Lafayette, Abigail Adams, Napoleon Bonaparte, Buster Keaton. But if I had to choose on it would be American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, who is on the US $10 bill.
He was a bastard child born on a Caribbean island, who moved to the American colonies as a late teenager and became a lawyer. He was an aide de camp to General Washington, and became his Secretary of the Treasury. He is also one of the fathers of the Constitution.
He was in the center of the first major s*x scandal in the nation, enemies with Thomas Jefferson, and died famously in a duel with Aaron Burr.
It’s also worth noting that he was one of the only of the main founding fathers to not own a slave as an adult. (He did as a child, however. But I don’t truly count this, because what little kid would object to this, when seemed so natural and expected in his Caribbean lifestyle. As an adult he was very much against slavery).
omfg I laughed too long at that video. I forgot all about it!
It’s a bummer those films aren’t on DVD. They are all beautiful really. (I’m not a crazy fan of Spirit, but I do love the score). RTER and POE are two of my favorite films. I hope Dreamworks reconsiders and releases them. I would be so happy.
That is an amazing dream. I hope you end up doing something like that! Breath life into history. Shows like Animaniacs and Histeria definitely inspired me as a child to love history. Why not continue that tradition?
Ah, what d’ya mean by he was at the centre of the first major s*x scandal of America? Was he a party in it? Interesting that he was the only founding father not to own a slave, that means the rest did!
Actually, they are! 
I was lamenting about them not being on Blu-Ray, with all its High-Definess and whizzbang special features like pop-ups during playing, etc. Regarding Spirit, Hans Zimmer’s stirring Run Free is one of my favourite tracks of any film soundtrack - I even used it for my Rio parody trailer dub!
Thanks, I hope to achieve that someday. There’s a book I had a few years back (I don’t know if my folks have given it away or if it’s lying around in a box somewhere, we’ve moved so many times) that is in this vein. Morgan Chua draws important Singaporean events (with the figures caricaturised and doing silly things) with accompanying summaries. The mascot, a miniature bull (he should’ve used a merlion, I reckon) is like a one-man Greek chorus with witty commentaries.
…
Speaking of illegitimate children, here’s another excerpt from Horrible Histories USA:
President Grover Cleveleand (1885-89 and 1893-97)
Cleveland was accused of having a girlfriend who had a baby son, but he didn’t marry her. Shocking thing in those days.
His enemies made up a song: ‘Ma, ma, where’s my pa?’ to disgrace him. The idea was that shocked Americans would not vote for him.
But they did!
After Cleveland won the election, his friends changed the words to…
“Ma, ma, where’s my pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!”
It’s a long story, but Alexander Hamilton was blackmailed by a man for sleeping with his wife. (It was a set up). And for reasons he published details about it in a pamphlet.
And sorry, I meant Blu Ray not DVD.
And you know, i never knew that about Grover Cleveland!
He as in Hamilton or the man whose wife he slept with? If the former, he must be pretty honest!
Haha, you should read the Horrible Histories series of books if you don’t! They’re the next best thing to Histeria!, from what I can tell. And because they’re aimed at young adults, the author Terry Deary can get away with a lot more PG-13 violence and adult themes, like the one I quoted. There was also an animated series (which I watched one or two episodes as a kid) and a live-action one (which is available in scenes on YouTube). I think there’s even a play coming to my town of The Terrible Tudors, I saw a pamphlet at my local theatre when I went to watch the play God Of Carnage with my family (which coincidentally starred John C. Reilly in the film adapation).
…
Some samples of Horrible Histories (the live-action series):
History of the British Empire*
Horrible Histories - Causes of WW1
Horrible Histories French Revolution report
And one of my favourite segments, Stupid Deaths.
This is why Malaysia celebrates its independence day on 31 August, and Singapore on 9 August, even though the latter was once a state of the former.