Students in HIST 1505 already know this, but I thought others would be interested.On Thursday I was talking about the difference between offically sponsored religious cults and local cults in Ming China. Our textbook referred to the example of Guan Yu, a legendary warrior and Buddhist saint who was honored in both ways, officially and unofficially, with the difference being that even the imperial officials thought the unofficial cult was more worthy of support. I threw in the fact, which I'd learned by exploiting my subtle research skills (Google!) that Guan Yu went on to be the hero of a famous romance novel, then operas, and in recent times, video games.
And sure enough, several students had played some of those games and knew old Guan Yu well.
Good thing we started this World History survey a few years back, or we'd be seriously behind our students...
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