"But we don’t still identify as “citizens of the Roman Empire,” and we certainly aren’t ruled by emperors who derive their authority from the gods of Mt. Olympus."
Interesting because many Americans do consider themselves as the spiritual successors of the Roman empire leading to things like having american "Senators" meeting in the "Senate". Also possibly why some of the commentators here seem so put off by the article.
> Interesting because many Americans do consider themselves as the spiritual successors of the Roman empire
I'm sorry, what? I'm not an American so this is the first time I'm hearing this. Can someone recommend some reading on this topic? Seems pretty interesting.
Instead of asking in the abstract which is easy to misunderstand, how about trying something concrete. Give them a piece of text and ask them if they really do not know what it says. And analyze their response further than just the surface level, of why they responded the way they did.
I think you and your chinese friends might be miscommunicating or misunderstanding what you are talking about. Part of the problem might be that the western conception of what a language is, is wildly different from something like chinese.
The situation is not really helped by western linguists trying to force shape chinese to fit their own notions and many chinese people just following along with whatever the west came up with due to the prevalence of western cultural standards.
Victor Mair does not indicate if the two who did ok were the ones from China and the rest not from or educated in China. Which would be kind of telling.
Zheng He's ships were larger. While the size of the Chinese ships is very debatable, there's no question that the three ships used by Columbus were smaller--indeed, the smaller caravels were more effective in large part because they were smaller, lighter ships.
The European navies very quickly in the Early Modern period became unassailable by any other naval power in the world. The most important innovation seems to be a reliable means of placing cannons on ships, including trading vessels, although the introduction of that lateen sail did greatly expand the sailing opportunities compared to square rigging (it allows you to attain decent speeds traveling into the wind, something you can't do on a junk).
That is actually another debate in itself. One origin story is that kungfu was taught to the chinese by Bodhidharma an indian who is also taken as the first patriarch of Zen. This claim is of course rubbished by many.
"But we don’t still identify as “citizens of the Roman Empire,” and we certainly aren’t ruled by emperors who derive their authority from the gods of Mt. Olympus."
Interesting because many Americans do consider themselves as the spiritual successors of the Roman empire leading to things like having american "Senators" meeting in the "Senate". Also possibly why some of the commentators here seem so put off by the article.