There was a reddit AMA in 2011 where a guy went to China and got stem cell treatments for his paralysis[1] and could walk now. Nobody on Reddit believed him. They basically spent the whole AMA trying to tell him it didn't happen. Then America did it 2016 and everyone was like "The Future is here and we did it first!"[2]. No, the future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed, or maybe it's already happening somewhere in China.
We do tend to diminish achievements from Asia historically. They discovered America first (the whole notion of "discovering" first a place where there already are people is absurd), they got printing first, they mastered gunpowder first... and yet most westerners will name Columbus, Gutenberg, and Europe.
>We do tend to diminish achievements from Asia historically
Except Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. I think a healthy skepticism of China is warranted. Especially a People's Daily article. The newspaper that was a driving force during the Cultural Revolution.
For what it's worth, I'm in France and it's common knowledge here that China invented gunpowder. I don't think I've ever heard someone saying Europe did.
Apparently, back in the 19th century people credited Berthold Schwarz [0] with the inventiom of gunpowder. I remember reading Beyond Good and Evil and reading in the preface that "the Germans invented gunpowder" and being rather puzzled, but it turns out that that was considered a fact at the time.
Though I wouldn't be surprised if gunpowder was discovered independently in Europe, or at least partly so because nobody walked out of China with a recipe for it.
The whole notion of "discovering" first a place where there already are people is not absurd.
You discover that this continent exist from your point of view. There were people already living there but they were totally ignorant of where they were living, in fact most of them were in Stone or bronze's age.
"they got printing first, they mastered gunpowder first"
Nobody will tell you this ever(that they got printing first). They will tell you that printing in metal last hundreds of times more than printing in porcelain or wood, and making it possible was a significant contribution that changed the world. How much typography do you see done today in porcelain? I have seen wood printing in China as an an art form, but not as something serious.
Gunpower was mastered by Europe with the invention of gunpower without fumes of course, that is absolutely true. You should try yourself a weapon done with black gunpower to see the difference. It happened in Europe because of the scientific revolution that happened only in Europe because of the Gutenberg press among other things. Not just that but dynamite, TNT...
The reality is that Asia created achievements until XV century, but they remained stagnant for 4 or 5 centuries. This is not something that I say, it is something that any Chinese will tell you.
If you're basing the claim that they discovered America first on the book 1421 (which many people do) then you should know it's generally considered to be very poor quality historical research by most historians.
Reminds me of the story of a young boxer from my gym. He eventually became very popular and gotten a World Kickboxing champion title. HE was very humble and trained at our gym all the time. There was this guy that challenged him few times over the span of his title and every time he endup KO the champion. So it was funny watching him being an undisputed champion on the TV, yet knowing he got beaten to KO few times by someone who hasn't been boxing professionally or did not make a career out of his box..
1.https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/k1hts/i_am_a_28yr_old...
2.https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/2jvllq/a_cure_for_par...