Thanks so much, Nathan for introducing me and thank you for this invitation. The title of my talk, The Unlikely Audiences of a Muslim King's Shrine in China, I broke today's lecture down into two major questions. The first is at the most broadest level, right? How did people in late Imperial China conceive of Islam and engage with Muslims? Relatedly, how did Muslims present their history to broader Chinese audiences? I think this is like the core question that I've been really interested in for many years. But specifically, in sort of the case study that I'll be dealing with today, is how does the case of the East King of Sulu, Paduka Pahala, who died during a diplomatic mission to China in 1417, help us answer those questions? So we'll have the broad sort of big picture question and then the kind of narrow question. Okay, and then this is what I'll do. I'll just get right into it. All right, so I'm gonna start, I'll give you a little bit on the state of the field of Islam in China, sort of where this intervention, I situated, and then I'll tell you the story of the King of Sulu and the community in Shandong province for the rest of the talk, okay? So let's just start with some really big picture stuff. Islam in China, Muslims in China, how many Muslims live in China? The really accurate answer to that question is we don't know because religious groups aren't counted. It's like asking how many Christians are in China? How many Catholics are in China? It's not something that's on a census. It's not something that you can count. What we can count is ethnic groups that are officially recognized by the state that are majority or tend to be Muslim, okay? Out of the 55 recognized people, minority groups in China, 10 of them are majority Muslim, okay? So I've listed them up here, you get a sense. The two biggest ones, which are probably the ones that are most familiar to you are the Uyghurs, okay, in Xinjiang and then the Hui. They're roughly commensurate populations. These are the numbers from the 2000 census. I wanna say I think the numbers of Hui are now over 12 million, maybe close to 15 million with Uyghur similar growth over that time. Now, one thing that I think you should know is you say what is the Hui? What makes them unique on that list is that the Hui don't have a particular language that's unique to their group or history. They don't have a particular region that's unique to their group or history. Basically, these are Muslims, Muslim peoples who over the course of the last thousand years give or take in China, move to China as it acculturated into various different parts of China. And today, largely speak by Putonghua, Mandarin. One thing that makes the Hui unique on that whole list of Muslims that I just showed you is, is that technically they live in every province of China today, right? I think it's one of the only groups that that applies to. And the very first censuses in PRC, between Muslims, Chinese Muslims, basically lived across the country. Now today, I'm mainly gonna be focusing on this province just south of Beijing, Shandong, this peninsula over here. And I'm gonna focus on Dojo. Okay, but I'll get into that a little bit later. Dojo is kind of funny because it's Chinese, Texas, literally. But so we'll talk more about that in just a bit, okay? There's Shandong province. Okay, the Hui in their historical records in China, which are long and pretty rich, are an amazing control population. For understanding what are the contours, for instance, of Confucian practice, what could you accept, what could you reject? What did you have to do? What did you not have to do? So one thing that really stood out to me in the sources when I first approached this question was that I had heard, because I had lived in China for some time, that Muslims, Hui Muslims, of course, don't eat pork. It's like this thing. There are special cafeterias at all the universities that are Qingzhen, that are Halal. They don't eat pork. In three 20th century sources, pork really didn't factor that much at all. And I think there was a very obvious reason for this, is that most people in China were vegetarian, basically. Maybe once or twice a year, the average family might consume pork or something like that. Most oils in the late imperial period were vegetable oils. So what really stood out about Chinese Muslims was not what they didn't eat. Again, many people did not consume meat products. And in fact, it's what they did is that they ate beef. They slaughtered cows and they ate beef. And that's significant because there was many legal prohibitions on the slaughter of cattle because of their importance for agriculture. So this is a really interesting Chinese dynasty source looking at the Lujo Garrison commander, Mayang. He's a Muslim. It just says he's a Hui Hui. His family's work is in butchering cattle and he has a liking for beef. It's a non-Muslim writer. It's a local Chinese gazetteer. But that's the detail they capture. Okay, that's what is surprising or interesting to the writer there. Another example that you might not think of if you mainly are working on modern sources is the question of rainmaking. It doesn't like ring a bell when you think of Islam or Islamic history. In fact, actually in the Middle East, there were many rainmakers. Rainmaking is quite known across Islamic cultures. In China, there's no exception to this. Many Muslims communities became noted by their ability to make it rain. Basically by performing prayers or certain rituals. And again, you can see here, this is a Chinese gazetteer, local gazetteer, talking about this particular place in this ahong, this Muslim religious figure who's quite talented at rainmaking. That's a non-Muslim source. Here's a Islamic text from the 19th century written in Chinese, in Arabic, that's for rainmaking, okay? Rainmaking prayers and rituals. So this is all stuff that, again, if you're mainly going as an anthropologist out to the field, it wouldn't hit you because rainmaking is not like mainstream in China today. Okay, but in the late imperial period, these are things that definitely matter. Let me say something about the state of the field as it exists today in historiography. So many of you might have heard of these sort of very big Muslim rebellions of the 19th century. And this really goes back to Marshall Broomhall's Islam in China. I think the full title of that, if I'm not mistaken, is Islam in China a neglected problem? It's quite a tated title, because the book was written in about 1910. But if you look, Broomhall was connected with missionaries, many, many Western missionaries in the late 19th, early 20th century, got interested in Muslim populations of China because of the Christianity and the ties, Muslims in China knew some of the key players like Jesus and such. So he writes really one of the first books devoted to the history. And right, it's not surprising if you look at this sort of timeline here that Broomhall provides, that rebellions factor very, very big in his history. It's not surprising because they had just occurred. Okay, literally, Gonsu was still in ruins, major parts of Qinghai, parts of Yunnan province. These all had seen major ethnic and religious unrest during the 19th century. So then we've had a series of very, very good books by very good historians, sort of lay this out, flesh this out. But again, mainly talking about the rebellions of the 19th century, right? So Atwell's very good book on Yunnan, Jonathan, Litman, Holy War in China, all really on these conflicts. So this is kind of like, if you were to go into a library and say, Islam in China and look up what books are available, you'd see a lot of books about these rebellions. Okay, then there's another kind of strand, okay? And this strand has really come into being in probably the last 20 years. And this is a focus on the Han Kitab literature. In a way, this body of scholarship is kind of a response. Implicitly, it's kind of a response to the rebellion folks. And what it is, is really, this is the quote unquote, Confucian Islam, the Huiru movement, okay? These are basically, by the 17th century, you have a sinophone Islamic elite emerging in China. And they're gonna write some really, really interesting texts that basically are projected or are directed at a few audiences. For instance, Leo Zhu, one of the great sort of scholars of the 17th, 18th century, is early 18th century, writes the norms and rights of Islam in 1710. This is something that I think he intends for Muslim readers and non-Muslim readers. Ma Zhu, another great, he's a, I believe, Jew-ren degree holder from Yunnan province in the late 17th century, writes the guide for Islam. And there were even some texts published that were not directed to Muslim audiences, that were directed towards non-Muslim Chinese to try to explain Islam, right? So Jing Tian Zhu's right there, Qin Zhen Shui, the explaining doubts about Islam, okay? Now this is all very well and good. Much of the scholarship, I'd say, you know, almost all of it, right? About these texts in particular are intriguing, are important, have made major contributions. But if you look at the sort of state of the field, you can't help but feel that on one side, you got these like really, really weighty rebellions of the 19th century, and then you have this really sort of like intellectual movement among the elite of the Han Qitans. And I think you can point out that, you know, while it's understandable that the state of the field is developed in this way, both of these things are quite exceptional, right? Muslims have been in China for very, very long time, and it just so happens that the 19th century, it happened to see a lot of rebellions when there were a lot of rebellions across all of China. Okay, it's not particularly, you know, just Muslim rebellions happening at that time. Likewise, the Han Qitab literature is very important. It's interesting when and where it developed, but at the same time, it's not ethnographic. It's not giving you insight into how Muslims were actually practicing their religion. It was idealistic or it was apologetic, okay? So, you know, in other words, I think when we take a look at this, either they're anti-state rebels or they're elite Confucian scholars. And I think that it's kind of time to break that deadlock. And there's a way that I think we can do that and we can do that by looking to the history of Christianity, specifically Catholicism in China with some really, really great books by Henrietta Harrison, Eugenio Menagon, that are looking at Catholicism as a local religion in China, right? Enough of the big picture stuff with the Jesuits. What was really going on in the villages? And I think that this is really where the field of Islam in China is right now, right? We're ready for this kind of local term and really, you know, flesh out what, how do people understand this? How do Muslims practice their religion every day? So let me just bring you now into the sort of second part of the talk where I talk about this case study, okay? I'm gonna get you this case study. It's gonna happen in the early Ming dynasty, but to get to the early Ming, I need to give you just a little bit of background, okay? Cause I know I didn't wanna overwhelm you with information, but hopefully this will be helpful. If you were to pick up a source written by a Muslim in China from prior to the 20th century, chances are his genealogy or the mosque inscription will claim that the community originates in the Tang dynasty. Sometimes you even get people who claim the Sui dynasty, which is just totally incredible considering the life of the Prophet Muhammad and when he died, it would be that Islam got to China with the speed of light. But, you know, Tang dynasty, there's like a kernel of truth in this. There certainly were Muslims living in the Tang dynasty as there were many, many people living in the Tang dynasty. You then of course have the Song, there are some mosques and I believe there might even be a few inscriptions in Arabic that are thought to date from the Song in Southern China. But the reality is that most, or let's say really, the biggest portion of this population that will be known as the Hui entered China during the Mongol Empire, okay? Most of these communities realistically, historically date to the Mongol Empire. As I'll show you briefly, there are reasons why nobody where people would not wanna play up that fact, right? Considering sort of like where the Mongols were kind of controversial, but many of them date from this era, the Muslim population of China city swells during the Mongol era where Muslims were brought in as tax collectors, as soldiers and sort of all different roles under the Mongols. So this brings us now until the Ming, this really, really fascinating dynasty. Here you have Zhu Yanjiang, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty overthrowing the Mongols, kicking the Mongols out and then finding themselves with a very large Muslim population living in their borders, okay? Zhu Yanjiang is, we don't exactly know what this guy believed. I know Zhiba and Dor Benit wrote a really wonderful article about how Muslims, some Muslims in China claim that he was a Muslim. Some Muslims in China claim that some of his descendants are Muslims. There's a whole sort of folklore behind that. But, you know, he writes, we do know he writes a sort of an elegy to an elegy to the Prophet Muhammad. He seems to really kind of make peace with this community. They're gonna be part of our fabric. And so this creates a really interesting moment in the early Ming dynasty where the Mongols are kind of gone but these Mongol legacies are very much, very much present. And one way that you can see that is in the foreign relations of the dynasty. What we have is there was a whole sort of office of foreign affairs that was staffed by Muslims set up in the early Ming. We even have a surviving dictionary of Persian and Chinese dating from around this time, early Ming dynasty. And I'll just say there's so many cool stuff. I put that up there for Nathan, the Sifan, the Tibet in Persian, that's there. Some really interesting also stuff. I draw your attention to Yunnan and Shanxi and draw your attention to the fact that these at that time have Persian names. That's how big the Muslim communities were there. That's like how sort of prominent this was what the imperial state actually knew. These are part of the empire. It's not like they're foreign places, okay? But they're in this dictionary with those other groups. I'll just say also pretty interesting here. All these kind of fun words that they translate in that dictionary. These are the dates of the Ming in total. These are the dates of the early Ming, this reign of the first emperor and then his son, the Yola emperor, the second emperor. Okay, this Muslim community is still there in the Ming and the early Ming after the Mongols had left. They're Muslims who are staffing in the diplomatic offices of the imperial government.  Some of them might also know Arabic and all of that. So they're gonna play really important roles in Ming statecraft. I have here, for instance, the Zhenghe voyages. I know many of you probably know about Zhenghe. This is the big sort of voyages that occur during the Yola emperor, the second emperor of the Ming dynasty in the voyages between 1405 and 1433. And Zhenghe was Muslim. Okay, we have that on good authority during one of his voyages. He goes to Mecca, makes Hajj pilgrimage. And it's not surprising that the Muslims played these roles in the early Ming because they knew languages, they had geographic knowledge, they were playing important roles. So I'd point out many Muslims hold high positions of power. They're staffing on the board of astronomy, translation bureau, the military. And another interesting point that I just wanna draw your attention to, and it's something that is sometimes missed by historians. The way that people refer to these communities differs between the Ming and the Qing dynasties. In the Ming, most of the times that you see these Muslim communities referenced, even those living in China, they're hui hui. By the Qing dynasty, by around the 17th century, the term hui ming has come into use. And there is a subtle political difference there with Ming referring to imperial subjects, okay? So in other words, hui hui can refer to a foreign Muslim or a Muslim who lives in China during the Ming dynasty. That's not a clear distinction made in the sources. On the other hand, in the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty, that distinction is clear. There are Muslims from abroad and there are Muslims from within the empire who are imperial subjects. I flag that to you, we might talk about it later. So just realize to a degree that's often overlooked, the political and legal status of Muslims in the Ming was not equivalent to that of the Qing. This is something that we really have to talk about because the unique geopolitical circumstances of the Ming dynasty, really the history of Muslims, the history of Islam during that dynasty needs to be taken on its own terms. Now, right during this whole history with Zhengbo, right in the middle of that, there's other stuff going on with the early Ming state. And this is where this story comes in. Here it is, I'll just give you this story in brief. In 1417, Paducah Pahala, the Eastern King of Sulu, dies while on a tribute mission to Ming China. So in other words, he's coming from Sulu. I'll have a map show you where that is. It's now part of the Philippines. He goes to Beijing, which is basically the newly relocated capital of the Yongle Emperor. Remember, he moves from Nanjing to Beijing. And then he's on his way back home and he tragically dies in the middle of Shandong Okay, not a good scene. Due to Islamic burial requirements, he needs to be buried quite quickly. And the emperor gives him permission for an imperial burial site at the rank of equivalent of a Ming prince. So just realize there's the emperor and then he's got all these sons and they have royal burial tombs under the title Wang. This is given to this Sulu king. He's given one of these official burial sites. Some of the king's family stay behind in Dojo. That's Chinese Texas, right? In Shandong province, right in North China. I have a map of the next slide. And by the end of the dynasty, we know by the end of the Ming dynasty, his descendants have assimilated into the local Hui community. Okay, so a Hui Muslim community is gonna basically be growing around this shrine. Okay, finally, here's my map. You can see where Shandong province is there. And you can see Dojo there. It's along the Grand Canal. The Sulu Sultanate, okay, has a very, very long and fascinating history. The Eastern King of Sulu lived at sort of the beginning of the Sultanate. The Sultanate existed for hundreds of years, but was eventually annexed by the Spanish and the Philippines. Okay, that's why Sulu today is part of the Philippines. The Muslim majority part of the Philippines today. You can see where it is, right? And they came up kind of from Southeast Asia. This is a photo of the outside of the Mausoleum. This is Dojo government seat, the Grand Canal. And I give this to you just to show you how central this shrine really was in the administrative seat of Dojo. It's right there. So it's like, this is not like, oh, out of the boondocks, you gotta take like a 20 minute drive to get to it. It's like right there. And then this is an imperial mission mosque for the descendants of the king. And that's put up when we think, I believe in the 16th century, also Ming dynasty. So there's the shrine. There's a mosque right next to it. And you can see his descendants are sort of integrating into the Hui community. If you do pay attention to China, Filipino news, you will hear about this shrine. This shrine has had a really, really big publicity starting in the 1980s, basically. Starting from the time of the establishment of PRC, Philippine relations, the king of Sulu's mausoleum in Shandong province has come to kind of represent 600 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. And so there's sort of like diplomatic envoys have been like sent to Dojo to go check up the shrine. There's been a movie that's been made about the king. It's a Chinese-Philippine cooperative film made in the 1980s, Harah Sahari, Lahisa Lahi. Okay, if you wanna go see that, I think it's on YouTube. It's quite interesting. The king is like visiting Yongle. They have Yongle there. It's all very, very dramatic. There's also been a documentary just a couple of years ago on this. If you were to like pay attention to this kind of contemporary moment, you would think that, well, maybe there were 600 years of continuous relations between China and the Philippines. But the truth of the matter is, aside from the fact that Sulu really wasn't part of the Philippines until the modern era, it really isn't the case. What happens after the king of Sulu dies in 1417? Not much. Okay, not much. There are no more diplomatic missions from Sulu to the Ming over the 1500s or 1600s. Into the 1700s, let me see, I have it on here. Yep, there are no more tribute missions. In the 18th century, the 1700s, representatives from Sulu returned to Beijing to ask the then Qing emperor for help resisting Spanish colonial encroachment. And that help is denied. Qianlong basically is aware of what's going on with the sort of Sulu's under threat, but turns it down, but they do repair the shrine in Dujia. They do, money is offered. So I just want to let you know, during the 18th century, official diplomatic relations sort of restarts for a few decades. And you get this. And I just threw this out of the archive this morning. This is from Taiwan, Qianlong reign, official letter from the Sulu Sultan to the Qianlong emperor. And these sources, I have to say, are really, really exciting because very few of them have actually been used in historical research. So I think that we're gonna be able to really tell you some new things about this stuff before long. In terms of an official history, a diplomatic history, there's not all that much here, but yet what's really interesting about this shrine, why am I telling it to you today? Why are we even talking about it? It's because it did matter. Who cared about this shrine? Who wanted it to be there? First, I think the Muslims of Qianlong province, right? Certainly the Muslims of Dujia and also the Muslims of the province, they wanted it to be there. It's not just Muslims who come to appreciate the King of Sulu's burial shrine. Also, some really famous Chinese literati find reasons to appreciate this site. And then Chinese merchants along the southeastern coast, I probably won't have that much time to talk about this group today, but I'll mainly focus on the Muslims and they'll give you a little bit about the literati, okay? Because I think they sort of reinforce each other those points. Right around the time that we see the emergence of that sinophone, quote unquote, Confucian literature, the political tides start to change in China generally and for Muslims living in China. This is of course the era of the Ming Qing transition. And during the era of the Ming Qing transition, you got rise and tensions. And all of a sudden you get literati, we'll encounter one of them not too long from now who start to say, I don't trust these Muslims. There's something fishy about this community. They don't practice our rights, our rituals. They have a religion that's sort of inscrutable to us. Actually, Shandong becomes a site of kind of officials who call for even Islam to be banned in the early 1700s. There's definitely some officials who are not into this community. Around this time, you get the publication of Muslim genealogies, okay? These are family genealogies that any Chinese family might compose. Some might even print if they're really big families. And this is one, I believe it's from Dojo. It's from Shandong for sure, the Zhao family. And they're really, really fascinating because of course these genealogies are a way for families to tell their history. For Muslim families to say, where did we come from? How did we get to China? Who are we related to? You can see this one is really fascinating because it goes back to the first ancestor of Muhammad. You'll find actually that many, many Muslims in China claim the scent from the Prophet Muhammad. Probably if that's not historically accurate, but it's pervasive in the genealogical literature. You'll also see these genealogies, as I previously mentioned, emphasize not a Mongol-error arrival. If you can avoid that, it'd be probably best to avoid it. And instead, talk about the Tong, how we arrived in the Tong dynasty. The reason I bring this up to you is because as I started to read these genealogies, I started to realize how important the theme of tribute was. It's so important that the great Muslim scholar of the late 17th, early 18th century, Neil, I mentioned him before, he's one of the Islamic Confucian guys, really devotes a whole section of his biography of the Prophet Muhammad to this topic. This book, the Tangfeng Zhuxiang Shilu, that sort of veritable records of the great sage of the West, of Muhammad basically, this is the first, I believe, Chinese language biography of Muhammad. Oftentimes, when you see this mentioned in scholarship, that's all that people say, oh, it's about Muhammad and where he was born and Mecca Medina, all of that. But there's a whole section that he devotes to the kind of Muslim countries that have tributary relations with China, including, for instance, Brunei. Now, it will be really interesting for you to know that he goes in, this is Buonigua, and Liu Jie talks about how in the early Ming dynasty, Brunei also sent ambassadors to China. And just like the Sulu Wang, believe it or not, if I'm not mistaken, one of them passed away as well and was buried in Nanjing. The Sulu King is not the only foreign king who died on Chinese soil during a tribute mission. There were at least two Muslim kings, both of them were buried. Sulu is the only one that really survived into the early 20th century. But the point is, I raise this to your attention because why is Liu Jie, this great Islamic scholar of early modern China, making such a big deal out of this? Because he wants to make the point, beyond the life of the Prophet Muhammad, there's a next chapter, there's a next chapter in the history of Islam. Islam spread to the countries around China, and then those countries around China have diplomatic relations with China, and they came to China, and that's where we came from. So we can be here. Our ancestors came with good intention, with good reason. And so the key points for now that I'd like you to think about is, Liu Jie was trying to unite Islamic historical sources with Chinese imperial documents of tribute missions to explain why Muslims lived in China and practiced their minority faith. The early Ming tribute missions or even earlier time era ones were ubiquitously cited in Muslim writings of the late empire, Ming Qing transition in the Qing dynasty. So the Sulu King Shrine, one thing that makes it such a powerful site, it makes it worth paying attention to for this community is it's living evidence of the idea that Muslims had arrived in China bringing tribute to the emperor. It's not just something that we say. It's not just something that appears in a few history books. There it is. There's the evidence. That's where we came from. We can be here, right? And I think we should not underestimate how important such a message is, okay, for a community like this. Now I mentioned that there were some literati who were not Muslim who had something to say about the shrine. Now, Gu Yanwu is one of the great, probably the great philologist scholar official, like the name, the big name that everybody knows of the 17th century, right? Ming Qing transition. He's born in the Ming dynasty and he's famous because he remains loyal to the Ming dynasty throughout his life. He lives through the Manchu conquest, but he never serves the Manchus. He kind of refuses. And of course he doesn't say that directly. He does it in sort of the way that literati is supposed to do it. One way that he does it is that he goes on like this trip around China. And he wants to visit all these great sites associated with Ming rule. He is attracted to Dojo and he's attracted to the Sultan's tomb. Now, just a quick note about Gu Yanwu. He, in this very writings, he is one of the people of the late imperial era who starts to say, I don't particularly care for these Muslim peoples. I don't trust them. They practice religion that's absolutely foreign to our ways of life. He's got very, very harsh things to say about Muslims, but he loves this shrine. And he totally ignores the mosque that's right next to it. He totally seems to totally ignore the stewards of the shrine. Instead, what does he say? He says, if I may, from a distance I can see the imperial seal and the autographs, the famous signatures on this great monument and recall that the splendor and favor of the previous dynasty, the Ming, has now dimmed. But the people of our country still sweep and attend the tomb and many literati stop here to leave words of praise. So Gu Yanwu is gonna be like one of the first big names among the literati to visit this shrine, but he won't be the last. In fact, over the coming decades and centuries, many, many, many, many, many people visit this shrine and write about it in part because it's not because they're Muslim necessarily, it because Gu Yanwu had written about it. He had visited it. And so I wanna go and I wanna add my own poem to it. That's what shows that everybody that I mean business, okay? So just to kind of tell you, just to give you a little sense here, this is like all of the primary sources that I've collected that mention the king of Sulu in his burial shrine. And I think I've collected over about 30, but there are probably more that exist. And you'll see that the earliest sources, the Ming sources, tend to be empire-wide imperial sources. But by the time you get to the Qing sources, you get these local sources. You get really local stuff, even like Taiwan's Gazetteer. Taiwan is not close to Shandong province, but Taiwan's Gazetteer mentions the king of Sulu, mentions this whole story. Why? Because of course people in Taiwan were most likely trading with Sulu and they wanted to be able to sort of justify that in their writings, right? So there's a whole audience for this mausoleum and for the story among many, many people. So now let me just give you this key points to the second section of the talk. The king of Sulu shrine became important not because of a continuous diplomatic relationship between China and Sulu, but rather because there wasn't one. That's the irony of this whole history, right? There wasn't a continuous relationship between the two, but that's in a way why the shrine could take on a larger than life significance for many people. Most literati, I don't think we're even aware of the Islamic connections to the site. They don't mention it at least. Even people who spoke out against Islam or Muslims found reasons to associate themselves with the site. This is that kind of real complexity, that granular complexity that I think we really need to get into if we wanna understand the position of Muslims and Islam in the late imperial period. I think this final point is something I'd like to say a little bit more about. So keep these key points in mind. And now, if I may, I'd like to just kind of get you into my concluding remarks. I started with two questions. One really broad question about how did Muslims tell their stories? How did people in China understand Islam and Muslims in the late empire? And then a more specific question about the King of Sulu. So, of course, I am of the opinion that Islam in China can't be defined by the rebel scholar binary that I mentioned in historiography earlier. And we need to focus on how spaces of Islamic practice and community were negotiated locally. There are and will be, I think, a lot of surprises when we do that. It'll be really rewarding. And this is, I hope, a case study that gives you a little insight into what that can look like. There's a source paradox that as historians of Chinese history, we need to deal with. Which is that, you know, one thing that I think historians have grappled with is you go into the official histories. You go into the veritable records. And when is Islam mentioned? When it's a problem? You know what I'm saying? It's not mentioned when it's not a problem, right? You see what I mean? So in other words, the sources in a sense may be lying to us. Because if we look for them and we look for them by these key words, we only hone in on those moments where it's like an official thought they had to say, oh, there's an issue with the Muslim community here. There's an issue with Islam. But most of the time, that absence of such records does not imply that there was not communication or engagement going on. So this is a source issue that I have to deal with. I think other historians have to deal with, but it's important we deal with it to really get into the bottom line of this history. I think also, although I didn't say so much about this, I'd like you to kind of keep this in the back of your mind. Is that the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty as historians of China, we often lump them together and say the late imperial era. We often, if we make a distinction between them, we often think the Ming is some Han dynasty, right? The Han Chinese dynasty and the Manchus were sophisticated cosmopolitans. But if we look at the history of Islam in China and we look at the roles that Muslim played in Chinese society and how their status in Chinese society changed across the centuries, I don't think that actually the Ming comes out looking that bad, quite the contrary, quite the contrary. So there's something that I think to really revise here about the history of the Ming in particular and its relationship to Islam. And then I think finally, this is kind of the point that I think is the core point of this Sulu, King of Sulu case study, which is that a lot of people in Chinese society, whether they were Muslims, whether they were famous literati, they were invested in government records, imperial institutions like the tribute system and official histories. Those things offered protection to people in Chinese society. We need to take them seriously. What I mean by that is that it's all well fine to say Fairbank was wrong. I understand why people say that. There are many legitimate critiques to make a Fairbank's thesis. And it's also, I think at this point, everybody would agree that this idea of China as the center of the world and that there was this tribute system, nobody really buys that anymore. But there's a nuance that we really need to make here, which is to say a lot of people in China wanted there to be a tribute system. Muslims in China wanted there to be a tribute system. It's not the state imposing it on the people. It's there's a lot of pressure from bottom up. So in order to, again, approach that history with this in mind, I think we'll see the history of Islam in China and the history of late imperial China in a different way. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.


Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of AWS Public Sector Summit live in Washington, D.C. A face-to-face event. We're on the ground here is theCUBE coverage. I'm John Furrier, your host. Got two great guests, both CUBE alumni, Shannon Kellogg, VP of Public Policy for the Americas and John Wood, CEO of Telos. Congratulations on some announcements on stage and congratulations, John, for being a public company. Last time I saw you in person. You were private, now you're an IPO. Congratulations. Totally virtually. Didn't meet one investor, lawyer, accountant, or banker in person. What a great experience. It's all done over Zoom. It was amazing. Oh, I know, I'll go back to that. Kellogg, Shannon, great to see you. You had great props here earlier. You guys got some good stuff going on in the policy side. Acor, Max on stage, talking about this Virginia deal. Give us the update. Yeah, hey, thanks, John. It's great to be back. I always like to be on theCUBE. So we made an announcement today regarding our economic impact study for the Commonwealth of Virginia. And this is around the Amazon Web Services business and our presence in Virginia, or AWS, as we all call Amazon Web Services. And basically, the data that we released today shows over the last decade the magnitude of investment that we're making and I think reflects just the overall investments that are going into Virginia in the data center industry of which John and I have been very involved with over the years. But the numbers are quite something. And just to clarify, this is not part of the whole H2O, HQO, whatever they call it, HQ2. HQ2, yeah. So Virginia, Amazon is investing in Virginia as part of our HQ2 initiative. And so Arlington, Virginia will be the second headquarters in the US. In addition to that, AWS has been in Virginia for now many years investing in both data center infrastructure and also other corporate facilities where we house AWS employees in other parts of Virginia, particularly out in what's known as the Dulles Technology Corridor. But our data centers are actually spread throughout three counties in Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County. So this is the max analysis, it wasn't anything to do with any kind of head questions, it's just Virginia impact. What did he announce? What did he say? Yeah, so there were a few things that we highlighted in this economic impact study. One is that over the last decade, if you can believe it, we've invested $35 billion in data centers that are located in Northern Virginia. In 2020 alone, the AWS investment in construction of these data centers was actually $1.3 billion just in 2020. And this has created over 13,500 jobs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. So it's a really great story of investment and job creation. And many people don't know, John, and this sort of came through in your question too about HQ2, but AWS itself has over 8,000 employees in Virginia today. And so we've had this very significant presence for a number of years now. And Virginia over the last 15 years has become really the cloud capital of the country, if not the world. And you see all this data center infrastructure that's going in there. John, what's your take on this? You've been very active in the county there. You've been a legend in the area in tech. You've seen this many, I don't know how many years you've been doing cyber, I think the longest running company doing cyber. My 31st year. 31st year, so you've been on the ground. What does this all mean to you? Well, you know, it goes way back to, it was roughly 2005 when I served on the Economic Development Commission in Loudoun County as the chairman. And at the time, we were the fastest growing county in America in Loudoun County, but our residential real property taxes were going up stratospherically because when you look at it, for every dollar of real property tax that came in to residential, we'd lose $2 because we had to fund schools and police and fire departments and so forth. And we realized for every dollar of commercial real property tax that came in, we made 97 cents in profit, but only 13% of the money that was coming into the county was coming in commercially. So a small group got together from within the county to try and figure out what were the assets that we had to offer to companies like Amazon.  And so basically the county made it appealing to companies like Amazon to come out to Loudoun County and other places in Northern Virginia. And the rest is history. If you look today where Loudoun County is, Loudoun County generates a couple hundred million dollar surplus every year. Its real property taxes have come down in real dollars. And the percentage of revenue that comes from commercials like 33, 34%. That's really largely driven by the data center ecosystem that my friend over here, Shannon, was talking about a second ago. So the formula basically is look at the assets, the resources available that may align with the kind of commercial entities that could house there, domicile there. That could benefit from it. So what about power? Because obviously data centers need power. Fiber, okay, fiber is great. The main power pipe. You can build power, but the main point is water for cooling. So I think we had an abundance of water which allowed us to build power sources and allowed companies like Amazon to build their own power sources. So I think it was really sort of a better, what do they say, better, lucky than good?  Nice area too. It is a nice area. And John, it's really interesting because the vision that John Wood and several of his colleagues had on that economic development board has truly come through. And it was reaffirmed in the numbers that we released this week. AWS paid $220 million in personal property taxes in 2020 alone for our data centers in those three counties, including Loudon, Fairfax. So Amazon's contribution, how much to the county? $220 million over three counties in Northern Virginia. So Loudon County, Prince William, and Fairfax in 2020 alone. And that actually makes up 20% of overall property tax revenues in these counties in 2020. So the vision that they had 15 years ago, 15, 16 years ago, has really come true today. And that's just reaffirmed in these numbers where we're releasing. I mean, these for the Amazon, it's all I ask you the question. I mean, there's a lot of like, just for misinformation going around, corporate reputation. This is clearly an example of the corporation contributing to the society. No doubt, if you think about it. Okay, that's some good numbers. Yeah. $220 million. $35 million capital investment.  Yeah, 8,800 jobs, AWS jobs in the Commonwealth alone. And then you look at the economic impact on each of those counties financially. It really benefits everybody at the end of the day. It's good infrastructure across the board. How do you replicate it? Not everyone's on Amazon though. So how do you take the formula? What's your take on best practice? How does this roll out? And obviously Amazon will continue to grow, but that, you know, there's one company. Is there a lesson here for the rest of us? I think, I think all the data center companies and the cloud companies out there see value in this region. That's why so much of the internet traffic comes through Northern Virginia. I mean, it's, I've heard 70%, I've heard much higher than that too. So I think everybody realizes this is a strategic asset at a national level. But I think the main point to bring out is that every state across America should be thinking about investments from companies like Amazon. There are really significant benefits that helps the entire community. So it helps build schools, police departments, fire departments, et cetera. 10 jobs, opportunities. Shannon, what's the vision though beyond data center? You get solar, sustainability? We do. We have actually a number of renewable energy projects, which I want to talk about, but just one other quick note on the data center industry. So I also serve on the data center coalition, which is a national organization of data center and cloud providers. And we look at states all over this country. We're very active in multiple states. And we work with governors and state governments as they put together different frameworks and policies to incent investment in their states. Virginia is doing it right. Virginia has historically been very forward-looking and very forward-thinking in how they're trying to attract these data center investments. They have the right tax incentives in place. And then back to your point about renewable energy, over the last several years, Virginia has also really made some statutory changes and other policy changes to drive forward renewable energy in Virginia. Six years ago this week, John, I was in Acomac County in Virginia, which is the Eastern Shore. It's a very rural area where we helped build our first solar farm, Amazon Solar Farm, in Virginia in 2015 is when we made this announcement with the governor. Six years ago this week, it was 88 megawatts, which basically at the time, quadrupled Virginia's solar output in one project. So since that first project, we at Amazon have gone from building that one facility, quadrupling at the time the solar output in Virginia to now we're, by the end of 2023, gonna be 1,430 megawatts of solar power in Virginia with 15 projects, which is the equivalent of enough power to actually enough electricity to power 225,000 households, which is the equivalent of Prince William County, Virginia. So just to give you the scale of what we're doing here in Virginia on renewable energy. So to me, I mean, this comes down to not to put my opinion out there because I never hold back on theCUBE, it's a posture issue. We count on that. It's a posture issue of how people approach business. I mean, it's the two schools of thought on the extreme. Screw business, government pays for everything, or business friendly. So this is a modern story about friendly business kind of collaborative posture. Yeah, it's putting money to very specific use, which has a very specific return. In this case, it's for everybody that lives in the Northern Virginia region. So that benefits everybody. And these policies have not just attracted companies like Amazon and data center builders and renewable energy investments. These policies are also leading to rapid growth in the cybersecurity industry in Virginia as well. John founded his company decades ago and you have all of these cybersecurity companies now located in Virginia. Many of them are partners like this. Yeah, I know John and Emma both have contributed heavily to a lot of the systems in place in America here. So congratulations on that. But I got to ask you guys, well, I got you over the last minute or two, cybersecurity has become the big issue. I mean, there's a lot of this policies is all over the place, but cyber is super critical right now. I mean, where's the red line, Shannon? Where's, you know, things are happening.  There's no militia. Where's the support for the commercial businesses? People are nervous. So you want to answer? Well, I'm happy to take the first shot. And then we'll leave John with the last word because he's the true cyber expert, but I had the privilege of hosting a panel this morning with the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, Jeniz Easterly. And the agency is relatively new and she laid out a number of initiatives that the DHS organization that she runs is working on with industry. And so they're leaning in, they're partnering with industry in a number of areas, including, you know, making sure that we have the right information sharing framework and tools in place. So the government and we in the industry can act on information that we get in real time, making sure that we're investing for the future in the workforce development and cyber skills, but also as we enter National Cyber Security Month, making sure that we're all doing our part in cybersecurity awareness and training. For example, one of the things that our Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy recently announced as he was participating in a White House summit that President Biden hosted in late August was that we were going to at Amazon make a tool that we've developed for information and security awareness for our employees, free, available to the public. And in addition to that, we announced that we were going to provide free strong authentication tokens for AWS customers as part of that announcement going into National Cyber Security Month. So what I like about what this administration is doing is they're reaching out, they're looking for ways to work with industry, bringing us together in these summits, but also looking for actionable things that we can do together to make a difference. Yeah, so my perspective, echoing on some of Shannon's points are really the following. The key in general is automation. And there are three components to automation that are important in today's environment. One is cyber hygiene and education is a piece of that. The second is around misattribution, meaning if the bad guy can't see you, you can't be hacked. And the third one is really more or less around what's called attribution, meaning I can figure out actually who the bad guy is, and then report that bad guy's actions to the appropriate law enforcement and military types, and then they take it from there. Unless he's not attributed either, so. Well, the basic point is we can't, as industry, hack back, it's illegal. But what we can do is provide the tools and methods necessary to our government counterparts. This is that point about information sharing, where they can take the actions necessary and try and find those bad guys. I just feel like we're not moving fast enough. Businesses should be able to hack back, in my opinion. I'm a hawk on this one item. So I believe that, because if people dropped on our shores with troops, the government wouldn't protect us. I wouldn't protect business. Your point is directly taken when Cyber Command was formed before that as an airline, sea, and space, physical domains, each of those physical domains have about $150 billion they spend per year. When Cyber Command was formed, it was spending less than JP Morgan Chase to defend the nation. So we do have a ways to go. I do agree with you that there needs to be more flexibility given to industry to help with the fight. In this case, Andy Jassy's offered a couple of tools, which are, I think, really good. Strong tokens, training. Those are all really good. We've been working with Amazon for a long time. Ever since, really ever since the CIA embraced the cloud, which was sort of the shot heard around the world for cloud computing, we do the security and compliance automation for that air gap region for Amazon, as well as other aspects of the system. The world needs more telos faster, keep cranking up that software because, tell me right now, people are getting hit. And people are getting scared. The colonial pipeline hack, that effect, everybody started going, wait a minute, I can't get gas. But again, in this area, and Jen Easterly said this this morning here at the summit, is that this truly has to be about industry working with government, making sure that we're working together. Government has a role, but so does the private sector. And I've been working cyber issues for a long time too. And kind of seeing where we are this year and this recent cyber summit that the president held, I really see just a tremendous commitment coming from the private sector to be an effective partner in securing the nation's cybersecurity. Well, this comes full circle to our original conversation around the Virginia data that you guys are looking at, the Loudoun County, Amazon contribution. The success formula is really commercial public sector. I mean, the government has to recognize that technology is now lingua franca for all things. Everything, society. Well, and one quick thing here that segues into the fact that Virginia is the cloud center of the nation, the president issued a cybersecurity executive order earlier this year that really emphasizes the migration of federal systems into cloud and the modernization that John has worked on. John heads a group called the Alliance for Digital Innovation, and they're very active in the IT modernization world and we're a member as well. The federal government is really emphasizing this migration to cloud, and that was reiterated in that cybersecurity executive order from the president. Well, we'll definitely get you guys back on the show. You want to say something real quick? Just all I'd say about the executive order is that I think one of the main reasons why the president thought it was important is that the legacy systems that are out there are mainly written on COBOL. There aren't a lot of kids graduating with degrees in COBOL. So, COBOL was designed in 1955, I think. So, I think it's very imperative that we move as many of these workloads as we can. I don't think they teach it anymore. They don't. So, from a security point of view, the amount of threats and vulnerabilities are through the roof. Awesome. Well, John, I want to get you on the show, our next cybersecurity event, maybe have you come and do a fireside chat and really kind of unpack all the awesome stuff that you're doing, but also the challenges that there are many. She had to keep up the good work on the policy. I still say we've got to remove that red line and identify new rules of engagement relative to what's on our sovereign virtual land. So, you know, own another ball game. Thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate it. Thank you, John. Appreciate it, man. Okay, CUBE coverage here at AWS Public Sector 7 in Washington. I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching.


on the way on this edition of Titans all access Oilers Oilers Oilers The much anticipated moment is here when the Titans take the field against the Falcons. They'll be donning their Oilers throwbacks. We'll hear from some of the original Oilers about how meaningful this moment is for them. Plus we'll talk with the woman who made the uniforms happen. This is a special two part interview. That and so much more as an all new Titans all access starts now. But there he is. The Uly Bulldozer Derrick Henry got Chris Moore. Can he catch it? Honey Hooker is making the catch. Welcome to the Bette MGM Studio and another edition of Titans all access. I'm excited. It's homecoming weekend for the Tennessee Titans. That means over 300 former Oiler and Titans players and coaches will be here for a weekend of fun filled activities. And of course it's capped off by the Titans taking on the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at noon central time and the Titans will break out their Oiler throwbacks for the first time. Everybody's fired up about it including the Oilers throwbacks. We'll take some time with her a few weeks ago to talk about everything she went through to make the Oilers throwbacks happen. We discuss it in part one of this week's Nissan Insider. We know the Oilers uniforms have been a massive hit with everybody. So look, Amy Adam Strunk is wearing her. Nice. So well done for this interview. Thank you. Thank you. I thought if I'm going to talk about it you've been surprised at all by the response. I'd say yes and no. I mean, I go around town and I'm sure everybody sees me in this cap all the time and they're like, we have to talk about the uniforms. It's so it's really fun and it's from restaurants to the grocery store. Just just being about town and people are really pumped. Did you start working on this almost like you could wear a second helmet thus allowing for the Oiler helmet to be worn? It was all about the helmet because our Navy helmet would not have worked with this. It just wouldn't have been right. So as much as I wanted to start the process because it's a two year process with Nike once you get going I had to wait for the NFL to change the rule where we could have two helmets. There were six different incarnations of Oilers. You chose the final one which was the 1981 through 1998. The Tennessee Oilers wore the same thing. What was it about that look, this look that you thought would be the right ones to bring back this year? I went all the way back to the first years and honestly the Love You Blue I loved that uniform but the Love You Blue had the gray face mask and I really liked the red face mask so really that's kind of what drove that because the uniforms over the year way back they were way different but as it evolved this one kind of was a lot like the Love You Blue in previous. It was just an easy choice to go with the helmet I liked. The red face mask is so great because they can wear the red shoes and it looks unbelievable. It looks great and once we kind of went with that era the Love You Blue on the back you know that was just a nod to that era, to those guys. More with Titans owner Amy Adams-Strunk coming up later in this edition of Titans All Access as our Nissan Insider will have a part two but up next listen up with Duncan as former Oilers players talk about why the Oilers throwbacks mean so much to them. That's next on Titans All Access. This new stadium one of the most exciting parts of the new stadium is that Titans fans will be offered triple the number of experiences that they can currently get in Nissan Stadium. Titans president and CEO Burke Nyhill gets more specific. This new stadium is going to have 15, 16 different ways to engage with the game and if you're if you want that experience where you're in a suite or you're sitting in a lower bowl and you're just watching the game the whole time that's there for you but if you want to have a more social experience if you want to bring your family and be able to kind of let the kids get their wiggles out a little bit there's going to be more opportunities for you to do that within this new stadium too. One of the phrases we've rallied around a little bit is the light bulb wasn't invented by the continuous improvement of the candle and so if the current Nissan stadium is a really good candle we weren't just trying to make a better candle we're trying to start over and make a light bulb. For the latest news visit TitansNewStadium.com When the Oilers throwbacks were unveiled this summer it was important to get the reaction of not only the Titans players but also of the former Oilers themselves and their reaction was emotional. Find out for yourself. Listen up with Duncan from a special moment from earlier this year. What did it mean to wear a Oilers uniform? Earl Campbell is strong. Come on down! The legs of the future belong to Dan Pasterini. The number one SpokeBall League It was the first uniform that I wore in the National Football League and you know Bud Adams and the Oilers gave me my opportunity to come play in the NFL. The man once shunned by the NFL was now one of its biggest stars. And what a pass by Moore. I don't know other Jersen. I played ten years and never missed a game. People come up to me today in the supermarket where I live and they'll thank me for all those years and I in turn thank them for being such great fans. There's been this resurgence to bring back the Oilers into the family and Amy has been a big part of that. When they moved here we weren't really Tennesseans and then the Texans came in and they weren't really the Oilers so we were kind of caught in the middle and there was really no loyalty whatsoever but then Amy changed that. What she's been able to do is she's never played for another organization but the Oilers. They didn't really have anywhere to go to say that that was their alumni team that they could come back for an alumni weekend or have an identity with so her doing that for the guys that I played with still means more to me because I spent ten years of my career with this organization. It was a very special time and it's lasted a long time and it's going to last forever. I was born and used to know that the weekend is so great to see the Oilers throwback uniforms but also great to see all the Titans and Oilers who are here for homecoming. Means a lot to Titans owner Amy Adam Strunk and we'll discuss that when Titans All Access continues. It's time for the Decision of the Week presented by Hughes and Coleman. Signing free agent cornerback Sean Murphy Bunning has proven to be a wise decision for General Manager Sean Murphy Bunning has 29 tackles two force fumbles an interception and five passes defended so far in 2023 as he is becoming one of the leaders on the Titans defense. That's the Decision of the Week presented by Hughes and Coleman. The bet MGM studio is where we are this is Titans All Access and part two of our visit with Titans owner Amy Adam Strunk when I had a chance to sit down with her earlier this year I wanted to talk with her about why it's so important that all the alumni feel like they're a part of this organization including the Oilers alumni from years ago. Here's part two of our Nissan Insider with Amy Adam Strunk. So this is the 25th anniversary of the Tennessee Titans Ironically the Oilers uniforms come back out at the same time. Silver anniversary of the franchise the people who love the Titans are excited about that and yet they're embracing this part of the history as well. What does that mean to you? It means so much to me because you know as I've said before I grew up with the Oilers I was six years old when I went to my first game and I love these guys I love all the teams through the years the you know excitement they had and when we came to Tennessee it was we needed to you know get our own history going and I knew that was what was happening but I really felt like a lot of these players got left by the wayside and I wanted to embrace them and bring them back into the family that was very very important to me. You have clearly done that and now the former Oilers are embracing the Titans legacy. What do you think turned them around? I think you know the last couple of reunions they saw the fans as they were walking around the fans the Titan fans were high fiving them and really all of a sudden they saw hey we have a family here they are loving the history history is important we had some legendary players on those Oiler teams and I think our fans appreciate that you know Robert Brazil, Dan Pastorini Earl Campbell all those guys you know we can embrace that as much as Eddie and Steve and you know Derek Henry I mean they are all legendary. Yes 63 year history of the franchise the Oilers uniforms are back it's the 25th anniversary of the Titans so did you set out with all this in mind was this a master plan or has all of this burst just hit organically? You know what it just the timing worked out perfectly sometimes things just happen for a reason and this is just great timing well this is season 64 for the franchise season 68 will be in a new stadium so as we go into all of that we can count on an Oiler and a Titans and all of it presents correct?  Fun time thanks for taking the time. Oh you're welcome my pleasure love being here. After the break coach Dave McGinnis joins me to go beneath the surface powered by Microsoft talking about this weekend's opponent the Atlanta Falcons more Titans all access next back what's up everybody former Titan Keith Bullock here former Tennessee Titan Kevin Dyson be sure to watch taste of Tennessee the place the food the folks this is a taste of Tennessee this is absolutely delicious exclusively on LG channels and LG OLED TVs before Mike Frable was head coach of the Titans he played 14 years in the NFL as a New England Patriot where he spent the majority of his career three Super Bowls over the weekend he became the 34th player inducted into the organization's Hall of Fame and our cameras were on hand to capture the special moment hey guys this is coach brave just landed in Boston it's great to be back heading making a trip down to Foxboro so sure we'll pass a lot of familiar sites and we look forward to seeing everybody soon as they can bring back memories coming back from the airport going to the mall with the kids you know that's probably what I think about now have you driven a Rodney Ford lately that was my commercial have you driven a Rodney Ford lately if you haven't you should nice looking jersey Carter that's the point we got Rodney love you man that's it how are you buddy I know none of that was there none of that was there hi Mathew good to see you how are you thank you congratulations what this fraternity is and what this means to all of us special and we're all appreciative of our teammates and what all these guys did to help us win ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming 2023 Patriot Hall of Fame inductee Mike please join me in welcoming the 34th member of the Patriots Hall of Fame Mike I was in the last year of my deal when you're 33 years old and you're in the last year of your deal you try to get some more security and so it was like hey I would like to talk about a contract extension or maybe you know I could probably end up somewhere else be careful what you ask for because you end up somewhere else that's how that goes I'm very appreciative of this so thank you to the Patriot organization thank you to Mr. Kraft the Kraft family thank you Bill thank you to my teammates this is an unbelievable honor thank you hard parts over and you know this would be fun this would be great to be able to enjoy it with my family with mates and everybody we appreciate what I did here with the teammates that we had and the coaches just the success that we had I don't know if I've ever really reflected back on it I just kind of moved on and I figured whenever the time was right it just kind of seemed like the time's right Sight and Zoll access continues from the Bet MGM Studio Coach Dave McGinnis is here and when Coach Dave McGinnis grades the draft you take that very seriously in the 2023 draft one of his top three overall players now plays for the Falcons and that is running back Bijan Robinson why did you like him so much he's an exceptional athlete and of course the running back position we talk about how it's devalued now across the league but he has such exceptional skills in catching the football and then the way he's able to make people miss get vertical he's an exceptional talent at Texas and he's going to be an exceptional talent already is in the national football he's off to a great start let's go beneath the surface with Coach Mack powered by Microsoft we're going to go over and take a look at some Bijan Robinson here is Bijan Robinson right here he's dotting the I we call it dotting the I we're going to bring this man across in motion and they're going to put him back there in a full back position now what's going to happen with this play we talked about his instincts his instincts and also his quick twitch ability and Bijan Robinson turns it into with his exceptional athletic ability turns it into a huge game you ready Mike let's watch this here we go it's completely defense stop one man missed two man missed and now he's out running angles look at him out run the angles this is why this guy Arthur Smith took him for a reason first of all we know Arthur wants to run the football but this guy can make things happen when they're not there and that's what great players do everything's blocked stick his foot in the ground make somebody miss make somebody miss and now God giving speed out running the angles down here special special player all right now we're looking at first of all this is their throwback uniforms correct Mike these are really sweet not as good as the Oilers uniform well there's nothing like the Oilers uniform but again we'll give them their do on the throwback with the Falcons all right now what we're looking at here this is a two by two formation when you look circle your man again Mike number seven he's in what you would call a chow alignment a chow alignment cheated out wide which means when we get to the end zone you're going to be able to see how wide he's cheated out this linebacker right here Mike is responsible for him this is a man-to-man defense this linebacker is responsible for Bijan Robinson first of all if I were coaching Ron Rivera's linebacker which I'm not I coached Ron Rivera but I'm not coaching his linebackers he needs to move over he needs to move over to be able to cover this guy let's watch and see what happens here as they clear out the side and then he's up the sideline here they go motion across now you've got a tight split on the back side as you are talking about that linebacker wouldn't even close he wasn't even near enough to him this right here go ahead and circle your man again Mike you do not want him with that much grass ahead of it you don't want it and it's all because the linebacker misaligned on that chow cheated out wide alignment not surprised in the least that Arthur Smith would find creative ways to use it not surprised not surprised at all one more time you can see circle your man Mike this is a chow alignment it's cheated out wide see he is now in the guard tackle gap so this linebacker is covering him needs to move a little bit more that way knowing that they're going to come in with this guy right here John Smith that's John Smith John Smith is lined up right there so this guy is going to be a danger and Arthur Smith as you just said will try to get him the ball in a myriad of ways just for these two reasons that we've shown you on the big screen today easy throw for Desmond Ritter to there he is coach Mack well done Mike Keith you you excellent drawing circles on number seven thank you you're welcome good circle drawer welcome got to be good at something right I'm good at throwing to break which I'll do right now Titans all access continues after this welcome back to Titans all access time now for my seat geek keys to victory over the Falcons key number one is pretty obvious bottle up Bijan Bijan Robinson is a big fast talented back they can hand it to him they can pitch it to him they can throw it to him you've got to bottle him up and not allow him to make big plays he has an Adrian Peterson like quality to his game that should tell you you've got to bottle up Bijan key number two run the dang ball haven't pulled that out in about two years I think but the fact of the matter is that's part of the identity of the Tennessee Titans whether it's running with Derek Henry or running the ball with Tajie Spears or running some sort of reverse to someone else doesn't make any difference the bottom line is the Titans DNA says they run the football they need to run the dang ball against the Falcons and finally feed D hop in London against the Ravens one catch 20 yards does not get it done get number 10 going and hitting early and often in this game against the Atlanta Falcons will remind you that Titans radio is on the air with Titans countdown at 11 a.m. Central time this Sunday and kickoff is set for 1202 Central from Nissan Stadium the Oilers throwbacks on display as the Titans play the Falcons this weekend we can't wait to see it for our entire crew here at Titans all access I'm Mike Keith thanking you for joining us and we'll see you next time


You have to gain as much weight as you can today. The winner gains the most weight. That's the whole point of the challenge. This is gonna be crazy, guys. I'm gonna get that, you know that meal entrée where you get like three entrées? I'm gonna go in there and be like, yeah, I want one of everything. May the best eater win. All right, I'm gonna get two strawberry milkshakes.  You good? Yeah. You know what tastes anything weird? What'd you do? We were literally about to grab the scale to start this challenge video, but we walk into the bathroom and what do we see? What we see. What are you doing? Excuse me. Uh-uh, no, time out, come here. Yo, you know what he did wrong, guys. Literally, are you kidding me? Put a new roll on the freaking toilet paper roller, and he just did half of it. Half the roll, I'm not even kidding. That's half of the roll. It was this tall. What, come here. Look at me, do you see me? Look at what you did. He's eating the toilet paper.  No, no, uh-uh, we're not doing that today.  We used a whole bunch of toilet paper. What a great start to our morning. So what I meant to grab was this scale right here. I cannot believe our cat. We're gonna have to punish him. I'm just kidding. No, he's too cute. You can't punish this face. We were in the middle of filming at TikTok.  So I did, you know, at TikTok, where they, like, take the cat's hands and they make him throw the toilet paper away?  Little butthole, but guys, that is not why you clicked into the video today. The reason you clicked into the video is because we're gaining weight. Well, today's not a really good day because we have to do this challenge. I know. Even if it's just one pound, that's all I'm doing. I don't need, I don't know. One pound, babe, you have to gain as much weight as you can today. The winner gains the most weight. That's the whole point of the challenge. After this video, we're going to the gym. I'm on a two-day ministry. We're going to the gym after today. The last two challenges I won and Mariah lost, and I can gratefully say that Team Bill is actually coming in the lead right now. Yes, I did skip the gym today because I did not want to have any extra calories burned for this challenge. But before we say anything else, we have to weigh ourselves and see how much we weigh to start off the video. Let's see, Mariah. What do we weigh? Mariah's calculating the score right now. I wish we could weigh ourselves naked. Why? With your clothes. Just wear the same clothes as you wear when we weigh it again. What are we? 118 pounds. 118 flat. I'm just kidding. Okay, 118 pounds for Mariah. Mariah, put it up on the board. Come on. This is the start and this is the finish. The top is what you weigh right now. 118.0, that is it. All right, my turn, guys. All right, baby, let's see. Get your big old booty on the scale. Wait, wait, wait. Did you have your phone in your pocket? Nope. See? Yeah, I almost- You almost just added yourself points. I know, let's see it. 177.4, babe. Write it down, write it down on the board. I got it, look at it. Let's see here. This is proof, 177.4. There's no trickery. There's no extra things in our pockets from here on forward. I wish we could do it naked though because that's really the weight. But you just got to weigh yourself with the same clothes. Even if you gain a pound, you'll be at 119. I'll be at 178.4. Yeah, you're right. So either way, it doesn't matter. You just have to wear the same exact things. Even your necklace. Keep that necklace on when you go to the way to Shailin and Boba Spa. I know, I know. And your glasses. Make sure to not be cheating. Oh my God, see? These are weights. Usually, I'm not, I'm not what I said. Usually like 115, you know? And now, what the heck? I actually kind of screwed up, guys. So I purposely did not shave today just to add a little more weight onto my body. Even the minuscule weight counts but I should have shaved because it doesn't matter. Yeah. We're starting off right now. From here on forward, you have to gain the most weight. And if you do, you win this challenge. This is going to be crazy, guys. You guys already know. First step of getting ourselves a little bit more fat. You know? What? It's going to Panda Express. You want to start the video with Panda Express? I'm going to eat. I want to gain weight. Girl, I'm starting the video off right now. Are you kidding me?  Ice cream for breakfast? Can someone? You know what? Can someone tell me that? You can do it a more healthy way by drinking water. Oh my God, that is so smart. Why didn't I even think of that? I was just drinking a bottle of water, guys. No, just drink a lot of water. And you will gain weight.  But here's the catch. Mariah pees every half hour. So how are you even going to retain the weight if you're peeing it out right away? Yeah, you're right.  I don't pee as much. So I have a benefit with drinking water. Literally, I have a bladder the size of a freaking peanut. No, she's not even kidding.  Not yet. I just pee before I pee. She'll lose weight by the time this video ends. I probably will. I'm not kidding. I would probably lose this challenge. Dang it. I just have fast metabolism. So I don't know. Oh, right. Hey guys, if you did not notice, I'm actually in really comfy clothing because I need it. If anything gets stretched out, guys, I don't want to be stuck up in some jeans because- Same, I'm not wearing any jeans. We getting thick today. We are getting thick. I mean, at least I am. I mean, I'm already thick. You're gonna get definitely thick. Ow, why are you smacking my- Hang on, everyone. Why are you carrying a little squishy?  Why, really? What did I do? You're hungry? Well, good because you're gonna be eating a lot today. Why is this up? Babe, can you please flip that to smiling? Please, I don't want to stare at a grouch all day. I already have to stare at you all day.  All right, babe, we're here. We just arrived at Panda Express guys and you already know today I can't get the regular meal. Usually I get a bowl of chow mein and orange chicken. I wanna bulk up today. I'm gonna get crab rangoon. You're gonna bulk up here? Oh, we're, I'm booking up. I'm sorry. You know you got the whole day to gain weight. I don't know if you want to spoil it all on one appetite. Oh, I'm spoiling, I'm going hard. All right. Every single meal that I ate today, I'm going hard. I don't care, I'm gonna get that, you know that meal entree where you can get like three entrees aside? I'm gonna get a drink, oh my, just wait. Like, I'm not going with the regular stuff today. Mala squad. I'm gonna go in there and be like, yeah, I want one of everything. I want you guys to comment down below who you guys think's gonna win the challenge. Honestly, I'm a little worried just because I do a fast metabolism, so I do, I don't know how it's gonna work, but. Okay. By the end of the day, I'm usually more bloated. I do bloated.  She eats stuff in it. Literally, it's like a funnel. It goes straight to her butt. It's just, it's out in a second. Okay, okay, okay. So you're gonna have to be squeezing them cheeks today. You're gonna have to be squeezing them cheeks today. A little update, guys. A little update. Of course she is happy now. We finally made her happy, but Mariah. Okay, this is my meal. Usually I get something like this. How is that gonna compete with this? We can already see who's gonna be taking the lead in this. Okay, you got crab ragoon. Wow. You think? That's way more thick. That compares to my plate. It's like your little, whatever this shrimp is. It adds that. I asked the girl in there. I'm like, all right, I usually get a bowl, but I need something bigger. I need to fill me up. And she's like, you gotta get a plate. A plate is another entree. And I think this is gonna be the deal breaker, babe. I don't know. All right, yeah. Okay, yeah. Get started because you're gonna need the help. I already downed a half bottle of water. I'm chilling right now. My stomach's not even feeling full. Not even feeling close to full, babe.  Cheers.  That's her nerves coming out. Cheers. Galak, you made the best feeder with. What? No, I said make the best eater win. Oh, make the best eater win. Get it. What? I need all the food I can give in. Why? What are you trying to do? Okay, the less food that you have, the more food that goes in my stomach. I'm about to win this whole thing. You know what? Narrow squat. This is like Team Mariah's better team. It's not cheating. Because we don't cheat. It's not cheating. You're cheating by eating my food. This is my food. That's not part of the order.  Okay, technically I bought this. So you're eating my food. So hand it over. We didn't buy it. We bought it. Guys, Mariah's already, wait, wait, wait, wait. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm not a bearish man. Where is she going? All the bathrooms. You're going to the bathroom already? Look it. I'm telling you guys, that just proves. I have a better chance. She's already going to the bathroom. We're not even, what? A half hour into this challenge today and she's letting it loose. All her gains are going away right now in the toilet. Finished with my last bite of my food, Mariah. I'm surprised. She actually- I'm not bowing down. I'm winning this challenge. You know what? I lost the last challenge. We're in the bathroom for 24 hours. I'm winning this one. She never finishes her bowl. Yes, I do. I'm very hungry. It's very rare. Very rare. But I'm super hungry. I mean all that. I'll finish it. Give me a high five with that. Oh my, hey, hey. Oh, you are so lucky. We've been trying to teach him not to get on the counter. That's why we have this. He's been so good. I was gonna weigh myself. I feel heavier.  I cannot have that happening. We have to go though because we have to go take snap to get his nails trimmed. Do you wanna know what? What? On the way. We're gonna be stopping. What? Okay, calm down, Mariah. Okay, I kinda outweighed you so you have a little catch and up to do but I'm kind of in the mood for some McDonald's. Maybe some chicken nuggets. McDonald's. Maybe a smoothie. I have never eaten McDonald's. I eat healthy, babe, but today is not a day to care about health. Today is a day to care about this coming out and the dad bod. I'm gonna be rocking it by the end of the day today, you know what I'm saying? I've been going to the gym trying to get the gains today.  It's worth it. Wish me luck. Margot's gone. We're about to send our cat away. He's getting his nails trimmed and so is Taco. Look at that. Taco's over there. They're looking at each other. They're so excited. Taco. Hi! And then Snap's right in here, as you can see. They're so excited. They're literally staring at each other right now. It's so funny. Ry, the lady just took Snap. Look it. She's going with him. Look it. Snap doesn't even know if he's gonna come back. He's like, where am I going? He doesn't even remember us right now.  I know. Baby, where are you taking us? Overwise? Hey, you know what? Actually, you're smart. We have to bulk ourselves up. No, I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna milkshake. No, I'm gonna milkshake. I'm getting one. I'm not worried for you. You can work for your mom. I'm gonna get a strawberry milkshake. Oh, I'm gonna get one, too. All right.  All right, I'm gonna get two strawberry milkshakes. What's ours? One regular and then one large. Yeah, that'll be it. Are you serious, babe? I ordered a large myself. You get a regular. Guys, mark my word. That is cheating. Are you the one driving? That is cheating. No, you're not. Yeah, it is. That's cheating. Marvel Squad, that's not fair.  Mark my words right there. That's cheating. If he gains more weight than me, that is why. That's using my driving to my advantage. Ah, yes, please. 100% just cheating, cheating, cheating. Marvel Squad. Look how good this looks. Did they give this good? What are these called? They're strawberry shakes. All the things on top. They're like, you know them. You like them. I forget what they're called, but we have them. They're strawberry somethings. Oh, look at you. You're not gonna drink all that. Oh, I thought that was a straw. Oh my God. I'm about to munch up on this. Usually you don't eat this before dinner, but since we're trying to bulk up. Are you kidding me? I eat this breakfast, lunch, and dinner, especially today. Today's the day. I'm so glad. I shouldn't be eating, drinking this because it's just being a lactose diet. But, hey, you're trying to gain weight, babe. I don't think you're the one waiting here. I'm just gonna say that. Marvel Squad is more leaning on my side now. You're just a cheer. I'm not a cheer. Why did you say I'm a cheer?  I only got a regular. So? So exciting. It's tactics. I'm using my mind to my advantage. Why don't you start thinking of creative things? Baby. What? What are we doing right now? You're walking way too fast, babe.  I don't know. You should be thinking of what you're doing.  We stopped at Mariano's, guys, and we actually got some meats because, oh, and some chips, because we gotta fill up and we have to make dinner. Not a small dinner. It has to be a big dinner today. It's not that we got a good dinner coming up. I just want our favorite dinners. And then we're gonna weigh in, and we're gonna see who. Who won? I don't know. I'm actually nervous because I've actually not been drinking a lot of water. Mariah's been drinking water every second of the day. So honestly, I've been eating more, but you low key have been drinking more, so it might be an even match. I don't know. What happened to me tie? Oh, God. I don't know. I don't know. It's gonna be tricky. All right, guys. So we got burgers to make right now, and they're not gonna just be any burgers.   She's literally been trying to cut out lactose because it makes your stomach upset, and it makes you have to go to the bathroom more than usual, so what? Why do you think that two potatoes are gonna be enough for us to have fries? Well, those are the only two potatoes that we have left. Yeah, wait, we use them in our other dinner. I know. It's fine.  We'll eat something else, babe. I thought we got a whole big bag full. We got a bunch, but we got five. And we used three in our other dinner. It's all right. We got burgers, we're gonna make potatoes, and not only that, I have been snacking up a storm. Mariah's like, why are you opening up your food already and eating it? I'm like, babe. No, no, because those are for the plane ride for tomorrow. I don't care, babe. The whole point of this video is to gain weight. Have you gained weight yet? Probably? You think so? I hope so. I'm about to after this, I'm gonna chug a bunch of water and eat. That's gonna be final, guys. Let's get cooking. Let's get starting, and I am ready and waiting for this weighing to come through. Oh, I can't wait. So, our squad, leave it up to me to make the best french fries, potatoes out there. When Mariah thinks that she's a better cook than me. Right. When Bill thinks he's a better cook than me. When Mariah thinks she's better looking than me. When Bill thinks that he's good at cutting, but he's really not. When Mariah thinks that she has a bigger butt than me. Yeah, right?  Because I think you're pretty small. Get up right now. All right, Mama Squad. Don't let your boy down. You already know. Comment down below who has the cake in the relationship. You can't really see it. I need to go against a white wall. Look at that. Do you see that? Woo! Are you kidding me? Mariah's doing some tricks.  I don't do this much. So, come on. Give me an A for effort at least, right? Look at her face.  Oh my gosh, guys. The food turned out great. Time to smack down because, what? Can you realize, Bill put this together and he put it upside down. Oh, I did mine too. I thought that was the top one. Oops, well, you know. You live and learn. Mariah helped me a little bit with this cooking, but I'm gonna let you eat it first. You good? Yeah. You know if there's anything weird? What'd you do? Nothing. What'd you do? You know if there's anything weird? No. I'm just wondering. Okay, so to win this challenge, I'm gonna put some laxers in there. Just to make you poop.   I'm kidding. No, I didn't. Guys, literally, we've been doing this challenge all day long. Let me just tell you before I eat right now. Look it, it is nighttime outside. Like literally from dawn to dusk. Are you sure that's pinkie? Yeah, people eat their burgers raw almost. They call it like bloody, I forget what, I don't know. It's like basically raw. They eat it red. I know, but this is kind of a little, you know, not medium, it's a little bit like before medium, but it's still good, right? Time to chow down. I'm about to try to gain the most weight within the next 10 minutes before we weigh ourselves. And we're gonna weigh ourselves. It's 6.43. We're gonna weigh ourselves at seven o'clock and see. So we have 17 minutes, okay? Let's go. Let's go, baby. We gotta get started. All right guys, so it is already seven o'clock, but I told Mariah, I'm gonna give us one minute to finish stuffing our stomachs before we do anything else. So we're gonna set a timer and after the minute ends, you literally cannot eat or drink anything else.  We just turned on our Lexa, so let's give it a second to turn on. I mean, I'm like nervous, guys. I'm nervous, too. Do you think you weigh a lot? That burger filled me up, I don't know. The burger did fill me up. You drank a lot more than me today, so we'll see. We'll see. All right, Alexa, set a one minute timer. This is it. One minute, starting now. One minute, guys, we have one minute. Guys, oh my gosh, this is it. Hold on. I don't know what else to do. Try to eat anything. Jello, give me some chips. I'm just sitting up for me when it's a stick. I'm heavier. I'm heavier. Way heavier.  Come on. Hurry up. I can't swallow that much, okay? That's it. It took you a minute and a half of your oranges, babe. Listen, my stomach can't hold no more. No more liquids. Alexa, stop. Nothing, I've eaten all day, John. All right, well, this is it, guys. This is it. This is it. The moment of truth. The moment of truth. You can go first. Stop on the scale. Let's see what you weigh. Drum roll. 119.8? 119.8, so I only gained a pound. You gained two pounds. I gained two pounds. You gained two pounds all day today. That's actually not that much.  She almost gained two pounds, guys. This is actually crazy. Like, I'm scared, let's see. I think I did it, though. My stomach is so bloated, babe. Oh my gosh. All right. Ready? Oh! What? 118.8, there's no way you gained that much. I gained six pounds today. Babe, there's no way you gained six pounds, I only gained two. What do you mean? Babe, did you actually cheat? No. I gained six pounds, you saw it. Did you cheat? No, I did not. What did you do? I did it. What did you put in your pants? Nothing, there's little, check. Nothing. There's nothing. Watering, turn around. I won. Turn around. I won, babe. Turn around. Automatic win for me, you just cheated. No, it's not. Turn around, I still don't know what to call it, you just did. No. Turn around. There's a cheater and that is not cool that you cheat the game. Look at it, look at the score. He put two. I did it. I did it. Babe, where? You literally just vertically win. That was bogus as heck. What? Look who won the challenge, Marvel Squad. Right here, write it down, babe. Write it down, show them. Show them. Write it down, baby. Show them that you just lost the challenge. What? Wait. Hey, how do you feel, baby? You just lost the challenge. I lost anyways. Why? I knew that you drank a lot of water. I had to make up for that. My stomach is bloated right now, guys. Like, it's huge. I cannot eat anything else after that burger. Well, the fact that I only gained a pound and I didn't even go to the bathroom. Woo! Team Mariah, yeah. I did not go to the bathroom at all. Team Mariah, yeah.  I did not think that this was gonna happen. Whatever, whatever. One for one, babe. Wow, look at you. I'm just kidding, that was actually good. I am surprised. This girl, this little girl. I'm surprised I gained two pounds. And you went to the bathroom today. Well, I actually low key weighed myself to see what I did when I got home. And I was, I was like, like, I was still 117.8.  Oh, so we went to your house? Because we dropped off our cats at her house today? Yeah, and I loved. Like, Pete. And I wasn't even like. Oh my God. That wasn't even. I didn't even look all day. I literally thought I gained, like, a lot. How was that, how did I lose that a six pound difference with two water bottles? And the water bottle equal a pound? No, that was crazy. Whatever, babe, you know, you're the winner. And I gotta, I gotta take it like the man that I am. I love you. And at least, you know, we get to chill now and hopefully have a bowel movement pretty soon. Because I am feeling really full. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this challenge video. The next videos that are coming out are gonna be with another YouTube couple that we are super excited about. Who do you think their names are? I think you guys will love these videos that we have planned on so far. Oh, it's gonna be awesome. And we have a video with them on our vlog channel. We're gonna do it with them too. So stay tuned for that. That was super fun. Subscribe to Marble Vlogs. Guys, get us to 30K. We're already at 20K. That's crazy. And our second video already hit 20,000 views. You guys are literally insane. Let's get the new video to 30,000 views. That'd be insane, guys. I know, the video's already up. I think 30,000. Is it? Yeah, I would say what you guys say is probably gonna be higher than that. Oh my gosh, guys.  Thank you so much. Make sure to subscribe to this channel. Oh, if you're posting a video. Give this video a thumbs up and we're also gonna give a notification shout-out for those who are staying tuned, watching these videos all the way through and having your notifications on. Today's notification shout-out goes to Victoria and Lighting at Paterson. So shout-out to you. Thank you so much for being a part of our channel. We love you. And we will see you guys in the next video. But until then, please love you guys.


Dear friends and colleagues, good afternoon. My name is Professor Amanda Howe and I am the immediate past president of Wonka World and the current president of the Royal College of General Practitioners. We're dedicated to increasing the number of our international members and links and supporting all family doctors, great standards for global health care for the benefit of everyone. Hello, I'm Steve Moll, honorary treasurer of the Royal College of GPs and chair of the hosting organizing committee for the 27th Wonka Europe Conference in London in 2022. The Wonka Europe Conference gives us all a chance to meet, discuss and implement positive change. Hello, my name is Dr Valerie Vaughn-Digg and I am the chief operating officer of the Royal College of General Practitioners. We invite you all to join us here in June 2022 in London, where history meets modern, ancient seeds of learning and state-of-the-art technology sit side by side, where education, health care, culture and diversity are all our core. Hi, my name is Michael Moll Holland. I'm the vice chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners for professional development and standards and I'm the chair of the scientific committee for the 27th Wonka Europe Conference in London next year. By welcoming you and hundreds of incredible family doctors and health care professionals from around the world to our amazing city, we'd really like to show that London is open to the very best of scientific research, talent and creativity. We're working hard with colleagues from across Europe to put together an inspiring scientific program onto the theme, innovating family medicine together for a sustainable future. So we really hope you will join us in 2022. UKGPs are really keen to show you our world and share our experiences and learn from yours. Our membership at the Royal College of General Practitioners are dynamic, diverse, fun and they're really energetic and we want to show you that we're great hosts. London as a venue is lively, attractive, full of culture, creativity and excitement. And we learn better together, which is why we want to ask you to join us next year. So see you in London next year.