If you think the West built the modern world, then think again. It turns out that China had a massive impact on what we call civilization, influencing everything from the media to what we drink.
The Umbrella
The umbrella is an accessory that’s essential for almost everyone who wants to keep dry and protect themselves from the sun while outdoors. But just because it’s handy in the West doesn’t mean we invented it here. Instead, it came from China. East Asians used umbrellas for hundreds of years before exporting them to the rest of the world to protect against the sun and the rain.
Chess
Chess’s history is complicated. But it turns out that it also originated from more primitive games played in China, the country that also invented mahjong and go.
Chess started as Xiangqi, which was a less complicated version played in East Asia for over two thousand years. India and the Persians later worked on it to create the chess we know and love today.
Chess is one of the most strategically advanced games in existence. But for China, it is actually just one among many.
Fans
Electric fans were a modern invention. But the ancient fans are 100% Chinese. People used to carry them in the country as cooling devices and fashion accessories.
You can still buy Chinese-style fans online. Many have beautiful decorations hailing from the ancient Ming and Qing dynasties.
It isn’t known when the Chinese started using fans. But the evidence suggests they were a part of court life for centuries.
Fireworks
Fireworks are another Chinese invention, made possible by the development of gunpowder around 1,000 AD. Chinese alchemists discovered mixing saltpeter with other elements could create explosions and had the foresight to envision using this explosive power for stunning displays.
Fireworks are now a part of U.S. culture and synonymous with independent day. However, they originally came from China and were imports until relatively recently.
Porcelain
Numerous civilizations developed pottery, including in Mesopotamia and India. However, it was the Chinese who upped the game and started producing porcelain in the Song and Tang dynasties. The material was smoother and more beautiful than most ceramics of the time and eventually became known as “China” in reference to the country from which it hailed.
Evidence suggests China may have been producing porcelain for more than 1,200 years. Before the modern era, it was an export to Europe and highly prized for its rarity, often only showing up in stately homes and the king’s court.
Tea
China began cultivating tea around 2700 BC, making it possibly the country’s oldest export. Eventually, it sold the idea to India which then began creating tea plants for the British Empire to enjoy around the world.
Most people associate tea with the British. But the reality is that it was always a Chinese product. People used to drink green tea and select the tenderest leaves to include in their beverages, creating an entire culture around it. Coffee for most of China’s history was unknown.
Printing And Paper
Before China, most of the world wrote on stone or wax tablets. These were either hard to make or hard to work.
Then, around 105 AD during the Han Dynasty, inventors in the country began making paper. The bureaucratic state wanted a better method for keeping records so it could retain control of its expanding empire. And paper sent by emissaries to an increasingly literate population was the obvious way to do it.
Eventually, knowledge of paper spread to the West along the Silk Road (running through Central Asia). Merchants began seeing the product on their routes and either bought it from the Chinese or tried to emulate it by spreading the knowledge to their home countries.
Furthermore, there is also evidence that the Chinese invented printing before the Gutenberg press. Scholars believe the country used movable type and woodblock printing to create copies of documents during the centuries of the early Middle Ages.
Compass
There’s also evidence that China developed the compass during the Han Dynasty, nearly 1,000 years before Western populations discovered it. However, because the Chinese weren’t a great seafaring nation, they didn’t use the technology to the fullest extent. Instead, Europeans, particularly the Vikings, Spanish, and British leveraged the technology to sail across the open oceans and ultimately circumnavigate the globe.
We’ve only scratched the surface of China’s cultural contributions in this post. But suffice to say, the nation of more than a billion people has had an outsized impact on global development.
Published by HOLR Magazine.