The New York Times ran an article, “China, Shy Giant, Shows Signs of Shedding Its False Modesy” about the way that China is embracing a larger global role. What’s most interesting for European / British history is the way that the Chinese government is studying other past and present “great powers” in order to chart their nation’s course. A 12 part documentary recently aired on Chinese television about great powers:

In the past several weeks China Central Television has broadcast a 12-part series describing the reasons nine nations rose to become great powers. The series was based on research by a team of elite Chinese historians, who also briefed the ruling Politburo about their findings.

The original article included a screen shot from this documentary that would be interesting to show in a History 5 slideshow. It is an image of Queen Elizabeth I with the Armada in the background, covered with Chinese characters (e.g. caption). Unfortunately there was no high resolution version available on the web so far.