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 I’m not the first and for some considerable time I won’t be the last to lavish laudable laurels on the greatest Chinese cracker of them all.
The 2008 Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. Never has the world feasted on such a sumptuous banquet for the eyes and ears. In a smorgasbord of music, colour, art, creativity, song and dance the saga that is Chinese history was told.
British commentators abounded with historical similarities between the Chinese and European past. Who did what first, who did what when, and who did what how. These comparisons went on ad infinitum to the point of ad nauseam. Didn’t anyone tell these self sycophantic windbags that the Olympics are an international event?
The commentators’ expulsion of other peoples in their coverage and idée fixe of the European past; treated the public to one of the most specious history lessons in history. We were led to believe that Europe in the ancient and medieval periods was a close rival to China and a major beckon in world civilization.
European hubris always full vociferous bluster on historical matters needs to be reminded that despite the greatness of Greece, the resplendence of Rome and even the imagination of the Italian Renaissance. Until the mid-17th century Europe can accurately be described as the Dark Continent. It was only thought the vast capital and immense expendable labor that came though the Atlantic slave trade. That kickstarted and maintained Europe’s great technological leap forward.
The highlight of the commentary of self imposed historical blindness on the ceremony; came when in a fantastic fusion of dance, art and choreography performers in the guise of oarsmen re-enacted the famous sea voyages of Chinese Muslim Zheng He. In the early 14th century he commanded a vast armada ships, some with a crew of over 500 sailors. They sailed throughout the whole of Asia and the East African coast; some historians believe Zheng He reached America. The pundits prattled on his about his similarities to Christopher Columbus, omitting profoundly important points.
Columbus’ ships were like rafts compared to the Chinese, Columbus was a crusading zealot and Zheng He possibly reached America before Columbus. The fundamental difference between the two famous sailors was the raison d'être of their respective voyages. Columbus’ was to find new lands and new civilizations plunder and conquer them. Little wonder his legacy is of genocide and slavery. Zheng He’s mission was far more benevolent, his was to promote trade and establish diplomatic ties with foreign peoples.
The most famous voyage of Zheng He, which the commentators painstakingly failed to mention, was in 1417 and 1431 to the Swahili cities on Africa’s east coast. Zheng He found organized and opulent cities in Africa, who like the Chinese were skilled in all the arts of civilization, especially trade. The Chinese were not new customers to the Africans; in fact they were very old trading partners. Swahili ships traded in ports all over Asia. At a time when the wisest minds in Europe didn’t know that part of the world existed, or believed if a ship sailed there they would reach the world’s end and would fall off into oblivion.
 The stupendous ships of Zheng He that sailed to Africa, much like the Olympic opening ceremony did to us, was to impress on the Swahili that China was not just an ordinary culture lost the madding crowd of other nations. The Chinese were a powerful and grand nation which wants to embrace to world. In 2008 history repeated itself.
The modern world was awe struck by the magnificence of the Olympic opening ceremony; the medieval Swahili world was equally amazed by size and number of Zheng He’s fleet. The result was the Swahili city states strengthened there diplomatic, cultural and economic ties China. The ruler of one Swahili city even went to the extent of presetting the Emperor of China a giraffe as a gift, knowing that the Chinese believed these brought good luck.
This terrific story had a most tragic ending. The Ming dynasty of China after some time adopted a policy of isolationism. The strong ties with the Swahili cities faded. In the early 15th century Portuguese ships sailed to the Swahili cities. They were motivated by the zeitgeist of Europe at the time, religious fanaticism and greed. Not the higher virtues of discovery that is so often taught. By middle of the century the Portuguese, through a series of unprovoked wars and state sponsored piracy, the international terrorism of the day, brought the Swahili to cities there knees.
Personally I thought the first gold medal of 2008 Beijing Olympics should have gone to the British media. A gold medal for its Eurocentric propagandist coverage of the opening ceremony; for over representing Europe’s role in Chinese history and ignoring the important role that Africans and other peoples played in the epic that is the story of China. Ironic since the British media is always accusing the Chinese of propaganda.
Alfred Oshin |
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