Chinese New Year Eve

Today is the Eve of Chinese (or Lunar) New Year. Had a half day of work, which wasn't actually work. It was a buffet breakfast at the Furama Riverfront organised by my department. Quite an enjoyable experience, although the food wasn't too good (but its free anyway so I'm not complaining...) After that, I went home and continued the spring cleaning in preparation for the new year. Luckily not much was left due to the careful "planning" of the cleaning schedule by my mom which actually started about a month ago...

Anyway, what caught my eye today is in some ways quite a fitting article for the coming Chinese New Year. Basically, its about how historians are discovering that China actually charted the world and discovered America (and even established a base there) long before the Christopher Columbus did. And the main reason why we weren't taught this in any history lesson is because of usual Western suppression and, oddly enough, Eastern denial.

So maybe at some period in history, the Chinese ruled the world! Haha. Well maybe not rule it but at least they explored most of it... Whatever it is, read the article if you are interested to know more:

Gavin Menzies's book, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World stirred a hornet’s nest among historians and academics. Now, further new evidence that Menzies says was recently uncovered is sure to ruffle even more feathers.

Menzies, 66, a former Royal Navy submarine commander, first made international headlines in March 2002, when a British newspaper published an outline of his thesis that China discovered the New World long before the Europeans. He credited much of the world-faring efforts of the Chinese to the veritable Admiral Zheng He (or Laksamana Cheng Ho, as he is popularly known in our local history books). When his book was published, it provoked a string of criticisms from not just Western historians but the Chinese, too.

In a telephone interview from London last week, Menzies revealed that a site was found on the Atlantic coast of North America earlier this month, which may be Zheng He’s naval base. The discoverer of the site, whom Menzies described as a “distinguished Canadian architect”, will inform the Canadian Government and then Unesco, and ask the latter to make it a World Heritage site. Public disclosure will then be made on May 16 at the Library of Congress.

Click here for the full article.

>>Edit: Watched the program on Discovery Channel today. Seems Mr Menzies speculated about many "facts" in his book and chose to leave out some points that would contradict his view. But its an interesting (and still possible) theory nonetheless and it definitely boosts my pride in being Chinese. Haha!