Ancient China’s Armada

August 8, 2010

When the Yongle Emperor died in 1424, China’s Hongxi Emperor stopped the voyages of China’s largest fleet. Source: BBC

A century later, about 1529, another Ming Emperor burned all records of the fleet. This decision to withdraw from the world may have resulted in China not being ready to confront the Western Imperial powers that would arrive in the 19th century starting the Opium Wars, which would devastate China.

The voyages of Chinese Admiral Zheng Hi’s armada were rediscovered in Fujian province in the 1930s. The story was etched in a pillar. By the final, seventh voyage, the fleet had covered over 50,000 kilometers or 30,000 miles and was comprised of three hundred ships and 28,000 men.

By comparison, Christopher Columbus set sale in 1492 with 3 small ships and 88 men. Erik the Red, a Viking explorer, also crossed the Atlantic in even smaller ships to build a settlement in Greenland around 1,000 AD. Some archeologists suggest that the Phoenicians may have reached the Americas before the Vikings and Columbus around 500 BC. Some even say as early as 1500 to 1200 BC.

Today, a joint Chinese-Kenyan expedition of archaeologists plans to find and excavate a ship from Zheng Hi’s fleet, which may have sunk during a storm near the Lamu islands. Source: Old Salt Blog

Many layers of myth surround China’s ancient mariner. According to Kenyan lore, some of his shipwrecked sailors survived and married local women.

DNA tests have reportedly shown evidence of Chinese ancestry and a young Kenyan woman, Mwamaka Shirafu, was given a scholarship to study Chinese medicine in China, where she now resides. Source: Archaeology Daily

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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China’s Holistic Historical Timeline

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Big Brother is Watching — Who?

July 13, 2010

There are more than 4 million security cameras in the UK—one for every fourteen people. Many have been installed by businesses but more than a million are cameras controlled by the government and/or police. Source: London Evening Standard

Recently, I read a piece from Voice of America about China Tightens Xinjiang Security, Targets Tibetan Environmentalist.

CIA Map of China

The lead paragraph says, “China has installed 40,000 security cameras throughout the capital of Xinjiang region days before the first anniversary of the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades.”

As usual, there is no mention that next-door a war is raging against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. There is no mention of Pakistan’s struggle with the same enemy that NATO and US forces are fighting.

In fact, if you look at a map of the region, you will see that Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, is close to Kyrgyztan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, all areas having trouble with Islamic fundamentalists but in China, the Muslims are a peaceful ethnic group according to the Western media. That’s interesting.

If Britain, a democracy, puts up more than 4 million security cameras to deal with crime and unrest in the UK, why can’t China do the same without being criticized? Did you know that local governments in the US are installing these cameras too? Source: MSNBC

Learn more about Minority China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Jewish Studies in China

July 11, 2010

The Chinese and Jews have a common bond—Sinophobia and Anti-Semitism.  Archaeological evidence suggests that Jews were in China as early as the 8th century having arrived from Persia along the Silk Road. In China, Jews found a home without Anti-Semitism, which suggests that Anti-Semitism only exists in Christian and Muslim dominated countries.

In Shanghai, there is the Jewish Refugees Museum located in the former Ohel Moishe Synagogue, which offers a history of refugees who were sheltered in the city during World War II.


There is also a graduate program at Nanjing University, the China/Judaic Studies Association, which furthers the study of Judaism in China at the Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies. The chair for this graduate program, Professor Xu Xin, is the leading Judaic Scholar in China.

Professor Xu said, “Not to understand the contribution of the Jews to world history is not to understand the world…not to understand another people is a failed opportunity to counteract hatred and bigotry.”

The Chinese government now recognizes Jews as an official Chinese ethnic group. Source: Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center

See Deep Family Roots

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Invented in China—Printing

July 9, 2010

Six hundred years after paper was invented, the Chinese invented printing and the first printed work was Buddhist scripture during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906). The most basic printing techniques are older. Engraving came later. The carving, printing technique originated during the Tang Dynasty

When we talk about paper and printing, it is to collect knowledge, preserve and share it.

Once there were paper books being printed to share Buddhist ideas, the religion spread through China into Korea and Japan. Over a thousand years printing techniques continued to improve until there were multi-colored printings.

Then during the Sung Dynasty, the printing board was invented, which used clay characters. One character was carved into a small block of clay. Then the clay was put in a kiln to heat into a solid block. This method was efficient for printing thousands of sheets. These blocks would be placed together to create sentences and paragraphs of Chinese characters.

Later, the characters were carved into wood. Over time, printing was developed into an art.  In fact, Ancient Chinese culture was preserved due to the invention of paper and these printing methods, which wouldn’t reach Europe until after 1300 AD, almost 800 years later.

Without the Chinese invention of printing, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism may not have spread to the extent that they have.

See With or Without Paper

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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How US Fanatics Lose Jobs to China

June 27, 2010

I read The dragon’s DNA in The Economist last night before sleep, and after waking up, I read a piece in the May Smithsonian about how one born-again man used a minority Christian fundamentalist movement to bring about Prohibition.  If the nation’s voters had been given a choice at the polls, Prohibition would have failed.

Because I read the two pieces close together, I made a connection. The Economist piece is  about a company in China, BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute) and is about China soon dominating DNA research. BGI is about to have more DNA-sequencing capacity than the United States possibly making China the leader in this field.

Meanwhile, in the US, research in genetics is hampered by minority groups similar to the one the Smithsonian talks about in The Man Who Turned Off The Taps. Wayne B. Wheeler, who’s responsible for bringing about prohibition touched every American life, and he did this by using political blackmail—something organized, born-again Christians and the Tea Bag people are doing today.

It is obvious that political minority dictatorships in the US send jobs to China. Instead of China, the US could be the leader in genetic research. Allowing minorities to use political blackmail to achieve political and religious agendas is wrong.  No wonder the Chinese have kicked religions out of China every few centuries and killed those who didn’t leave fast enough.

See Jobless in America and Angry at China

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Lloyd Lofthouse,
Award winning author of Hart’s concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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