Asian Origins Of Gaming Exhibited

Posted by simoniker on Wednesday August 11, 2004 @04:16AM from the back-in-the-day dept.

thrashor writes "A major upcoming exhibit of the Asia Society in New York City explores the Asian origins of games - including many of the favorite board games in the English speaking world. The exhibition looks at how games have been as important as trade and religion in transmitting cultural ideas. Backgammon, dice games, chess, and of course (my favorite), Go/Weiqi/Baduk are explored, among many others." The exhibition preview mentions: "Illustrating the importance of games in early societies, mastery of weiqi was considered by Chinese people to be one of four essential cultural accomplishments along with music, calligraphy and painting."

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Re:Asia does not equal Orient by Anonymous Coward · 2004-08-11 05:53 · Score: 5, Informative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia

Southwest Asia

It can also be called the Middle East, although that term is occasionally used to also refer to countries in North Africa. Southwest Asia can be further divided into:
Anatolia, which includes the nation of Turkey
The island nation of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Levant or Near East, which includes Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
The Arabian peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen and occasionally Kuwait.
The Caucasus region, including the nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Iranian Plateau, containing Iran and parts of other nations.

Also see Gulf States, for a different grouping involving several of the above countries.